"There are enemies, yes. Quite a few of them."
Kiyohara said calmly.
The Iwagakure were, without question, the most extreme practitioners of the "mass-production warfare" style.
They didn't rely on finesse—they simply overwhelmed with numbers.
The most famous example was the battle where they sent ten thousand shinobi to fight the Third Raikage.
Kiyohara could hardly imagine such a scene: an entire valley packed with shinobi, a sea of bodies rushing through mountains and forests, all chasing after the Third Raikage. Could that many people even fit?
"There are enemies here."
Kakashi confirmed, supporting Kiyohara's words.
As they spoke, they deliberately lowered their voices and kept their backs turned toward the Iwa shinobi, so their lip movements and conversation wouldn't be noticed.
"It seems that this time, Kiyohara and Kakashi were the first to detect them. The others caught on a bit slower."
Minato nodded with approval.
Conveniently, Kakashi's team and Kiyohara's team each had someone capable of scouting.
That made both sides balanced in terms of reconnaissance.
"My path won't overlap with yours much longer. From this point on, you'll need to handle problems on your own."
Minato said.
He was deliberately training these two squads.
With him here, even if something went wrong, his Flying Thunder God Technique would let him intervene instantly.
"Yes."
Kakashi responded quietly.
He tried to discreetly approach the area where the enemy was hiding—but the moment he moved, shuriken whistled out of the distant underbrush.
Whizz, whizz, whizz!
Clang, clang, clang!
Kakashi swiftly drew his short blade and struck down all three shuriken in clean motions.
"They've already spotted us!"
Kakashi clicked his tongue, annoyed he had missed the chance for a surprise takedown.
Now it seemed that they had no choice but to go in head-on now.
"Heheh—my turn!"
Obito quickly formed hand seals and shouted:
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Whoosh—
A tiny, pitiful fireball puffed out of his mouth.
"Cough, cough…" Obito had fumbled the technique in his nervousness.
"The Konoha shinobi have discovered us. We'll have to fight to the death!"
The middle-aged Iwa jonin's brows furrowed deeply.
He had noticed Minato leading the group. He originally planned to stay hidden, wait for Minato to leave, and then ambush the stragglers.
But he saw the group whispering among themselves.
With over thirty years of battlefield experience, he immediately understood:
They had been discovered.
So, he launched a preemptive strike—yet failed to catch a single one off guard.
"Captain!"
A younger Iwa shinobi hurled two more shuriken.
Just as Kakashi was about to slice them down the same way, Kiyohara suddenly moved.
Kiyohara formed three hand seals in rapid succession—Dog → Horse → Bird—taking about a second and a half to complete.
Then he quickly pulled out two gleaming shuriken from his tool pouch and infused them with concentrated Wind Release chakra.
Whizz, whizz!
The shuriken, carried by wind-charged chakra, flew faster and sliced more cleanly than ordinary ones.
Thanks to the missing-nin Kiyohara's talent merging with him, Kiyohara's mastery of Wind Release had grown immensely. This was something he could never have done before.
Clang, clang!
Kiyohara's wind-empowered shuriken easily struck the younger Iwa shinobi's shuriken out of the air.
Then—
BOOM!
Two fiery explosions erupted, blasting up leaves and flattening the grass with the force of the shockwave.
At such close range, the young Iwa shinobi was instantly blown apart—blood and flesh shredded, smoke rising from his charred remains.
"What just happened?"
Genma didn't catch the details.
Kakashi was also confused—until the next second, realization hit him.
Explosive tags.
The enemy had stuck explosive tags onto the shuriken handles.
If he had struck them with his blade, they would have exploded right in front of him.
Thinking of this, Kakashi couldn't help glancing at Kiyohara.
Without him, Kakashi would have suffered badly.
'Thanks, future me.'
Kiyohara thought to himself.
In reality, he hadn't noticed.
But floating next to him was the missing-nin Kiyohara—visible only to him.
The missing-nin Kiyohara had warned him in advance, allowing him to react.
"Nicely done."
Minato nodded with satisfaction.
He had almost intervened himself, but Kiyohara reacted even faster.
In the shinobi world, everything came down to hand-seal speed.
The faster your hands, the faster your jutsu.
"Daiko!"
The middle-aged Iwa shinobi shouted the young man's name.
But Daiko's brains had already been blasted out—beyond saving.
Kiyohara, kunai in hand, rushed forward to finish the job.
The explosion had not only killed one target—
The remaining three Iwa shinobi were injured to various degrees.
Taking down a wounded chunin?
That was basically free money.
More importantly, whoever defeated an enemy had the right to loot their belongings.
Kiyohara thought of his mountain of debt—
and swung his kunai even harder.
Sorry, my enemies.
Please turn into my beautiful, shining silver coins!
Clang!
The middle-aged Iwa shinobi drew his blade and parried Kiyohara's kunai. Sparks flew as steel met steel.
His veteran skill should have allowed him to deflect the kunai, but his arm had been injured by the blast, limiting his strength.
Kiyohara pressed his advantage relentlessly.
Kakashi, seeing this, also charged toward another enemy, engaging one-on-one.
"Shinobi Art: Thousand-Needle Rain!"
Genma puffed up his cheeks and spat a spray of senbon needles into the air.
Then he formed hand seals—
and the needles multiplied into countless afterimages,
all stabbing toward the last Iwa shinobi.
Rin and Kurenai stayed back like before, watching the battlefield attentively and ready to provide support.
Obito clutched his throat.
To use the Great Fireball, he had to gather Fire chakra in his throat—
and his earlier mistake left his throat burning.
He felt as if a mouth ulcer had grown inside his windpipe.
"Damn it… the two explosive tags were too powerful…"
the middle-aged Iwa shinobi thought bitterly.
"I've trained in kenjutsu for twenty years—how could I lose to someone like you!?"
He roared and charged for a final, desperate strike.
Shhk—
Kiyohara's kunai plunged into his abdomen, twisting sharply to shred the internal organs.
Thud.
The middle-aged Iwa shinobi collapsed, unwilling and defeated.
"What, did you think being middle-aged makes you invincible?"
Kiyohara shook his head.
Aside from the first one who was blown to pieces, the one he had just fought was the most severely injured.
Sometimes, getting angry only meant… well, getting angry.
Just like when facing a hard math problem—being mad still wouldn't help you solve it.
At that moment, Kakashi also finished off his own opponent, sparing one Iwa shinobi alive for interrogation.
"Well done, all of you."
Minato praised.
Aside from Obito being too nervous, everyone had performed excellently.
"Kiyohara, don't rush to loot so quickly."
Minato said helplessly as he watched Kiyohara eagerly rummaging through the fallen shinobi's belongings.
"Understood."
Kiyohara slowed down a little.
But searching was still necessary. After all, ninja equipment had to be purchased out of pocket.
(End of Chapter)