(Team Riku, Haru, Riyomi vs. Members of the Sound Four) The forest thickened, branches clawing at the air like fingers as the three young ninja slowed their pace. Kaelen had rushed ahead, a blur disappearing into the green, and the silence that followed felt heavier than any enemy.
Riku inhaled sharply.
"Guys… you feel that chakra?"
Haru nodded once. His usual calm eyes tightened.
"It's close. Too close."
A deep voice rumbled from behind a tree trunk.
"Well, well. Looks like the Leaf sends children now."
A figure stepped out—tall, bulky, with two horns curling from his forehead. Jirōbō. Earth-user, chakra-drain specialist. The worst kind of opponent for a squad without Kaelen.
Riyomi felt her breath hitch, but she steadied herself.
"We can't let him slow us down. Sasuke is getting farther every second."
Jirōbō smirked. "Oh, you're not going anywhere."
Riku vs. Jirōbō
Riku stepped forward first, tightening the grip on his kunai.
"I'll take him."
"Riku–!" Riyomi started, but he didn't look back.
Kaelen… I'll prove I can fight too.
Jirōbō slammed a palm into the earth.
"Hérētsu—Earth Release: Earth Prison Dome!"
The ground rose around them like a monstrous jaw. Riku rolled beneath the collapsing stone just in time, landing in the center with Jirōbō.
Without Kaelen.
Without backup.
Riku grinned despite the danger.
"Guess it's just you and me."
"You'll regret those words, brat."
Riku's speed exploded—wind-infused footwork Kaelen had helped him practice weeks ago. He darted around Jirōbō, striking pressure points and dodging huge fists that shattered the soil.
Jirōbō roared, activating Curse Mark: Level 1, muscles swelling.
Riku skidded back, panting.
He's faster… no, stronger. Too strong.
But he didn't freeze.
He didn't back away.
He charged.
Wind chakra coated his kunai like a whispering edge.
He leaped—and slashed across Jirōbō's arm. A clean cut.
Jirōbō stared in disbelief.
"You brat—!"
Riku smirked. "You're not the only one who got stronger."
---
Haru & Riyomi vs. Kidōmaru
While Riku fought inside the dome, Haru and Riyomi sprinted through the forest—until a gold thread snapped between them like a trap.
Riyomi gasped. "Spider silk?"
A mocking laugh echoed above them.
Kidōmaru sat in the branches, six arms folded casually, his bow already forming.
"You kids picked the wrong shortcut."
Haru immediately stepped between Riyomi and the danger.
"You take long range. I'll push close."
"Got it!"
Kidōmaru fired. Golden threads rained down like sharp wire. Haru weaved through the barrage, deflecting what he could. Riyomi inhaled, hands trembling—then she formed seals.
"Lightning Release: Spark Lance!"
A thin bolt shot upward, forcing Kidōmaru to leap aside—
—but the bolt expanded midair, crackling like a whip. Haru's eyes widened.
"Riyomi…! That was perfect!"
She flushed, but kept her focus.
"Then don't waste it!"
Haru blurred forward, striking with precision. Kidōmaru countered with a hardened spider shield, but Haru's technique—taught by Kaelen—began carving cracks into it.
Kidōmaru hissed.
"Annoying pests!"
He fired a hardened arrow straight at Riyomi.
Haru saw it too late.
"RIYOMI!"
But she didn't freeze.
Lightning surged around her legs, and she vanished from the arrow's path, reappearing behind Kidōmaru in a burst of sparks.
Her palm pressed against his back.
"Lightning Release: Static Pulse!"
Kidōmaru convulsed as electricity shot through him, falling from the tree and crashing into the dirt.
Haru sprinted to her side.
"That was risky!"
She smiled weakly.
"I trusted you to cover me."
He smiled back.
---
Back to Riku
Inside the earth dome, Riku was on his knees, gasping. Jirōbō's chakra-drain technique had weakened his movements. His vision blurred.
Jirōbō stomped toward him.
"Leaf weakling. Give up."
Riku spat mud and forced himself up.
"No… not when Kaelen is trusting us… not when Sasuke is slipping further away…"
Wind chakra flickered around him.
I won't be dead weight.
He drew every scrap of chakra he had left.
"Wind Release… Gale Cutter!"
He spun, releasing a violent blade of wind that tore through the dome's inner wall and slammed into Jirōbō, blasting him backward and breaking the technique entirely.
Fresh air rushed in. Riku collapsed—
—but he was smiling.
Haru and Riyomi appeared beside him moments later.
"Riku!" Riyomi knelt at his side.
He managed a grin.
"Still standing… mostly."
Haru hoisted him up.
"Kaelen's going to lose it when he hears you fought a cursed-mark monster alone."
Riku snorted.
"He'll complain that he missed the fight."
Riyomi looked ahead, eyes sharpening.
"Then let's not make him handle the next enemy alone."
The three of them sprinted deeper into the forest—
determined, battered, but unbroken.
They weren't Kaelen's weak friends anymore. This was their battle of death .
---