Free Web NovelChapter 257: Disobeying The Orders
Everyone froze in place, able only to watch helplessly as that young yet pine-straight figure steadily walked step by step into the increasingly dense darkness ahead.
His outline gradually blurred, then disappeared completely into darkness.
Shinku Yuhi’s outstretched hand remained frozen midair, his fingers slightly curled, yet unable to grasp anything.
All he could feel was the coldness of the night wind passing through his fingers.
’Heh... the method may have been old-fashioned... But it really... Worked well.’
With his back turned to everyone, at the instant Shinichi completely disappeared into the darkness, the corner of his mouth curled slightly upward, where no one could see.
Now then, it was time for his performance.
After Shinichi left, silence once more returned to the clearing.
Only the heavy breathing, which had yet to calm, and the squad members standing there, blankly in confusion, remained.
Ten minutes later...
Boom!!!
Deep within the distant forest, a series of enormous explosions suddenly erupted!
Firelight tore through the night curtain. Even across such a great distance, the faint trembling of the ground could still be felt. freewёbnoνel.com
Immediately afterward, a clear yet highly penetrating youthful voice rode upon the aftershocks of the explosions and rang throughout the entire forest like a declaration: "Konoha’s Shinichi Higashino is here!"
That single shout was like a spark thrown into boiling oil.
In an instant, the vast forest that had previously seemed to contain only the sound of the wind suddenly came alive!
All the hidden killing intent exploded forth at once!
From every direction, treetops shook, branches and leaves roared, and shadows that had lain in ambush for a long time burst forward like wolves smelling blood.
No longer bothering to conceal themselves, they erupted at maximum speed toward the direction from which the voice had come!
For a time, footsteps, rushing wind, and the sounds of hand seals intertwined in the darkness into an airtight net.
More than ten minutes later.
The sounds of explosions and battle cries gradually moved farther away, shifting deeper into the forest.
"The surrounding Kumogakure reconnaissance squads and pursuit main forces... Have all been lured away by the captain."
Shibi Aburame withdrew his kikaichu insects, his voice low as he looked toward Shinku Yuhi, who had been standing there silently the entire time like a stone statue.
Shinku Yuhi closed his eyes, his chest heaving violently once. Then, after taking an extremely slow, heavy deep breath, he reopened his eyes and said in a deep voice: "We’re retreating."
After speaking, he turned around first and stepped toward the southwest, in the opposite direction of the explosion.
The team members followed silently, their footsteps as heavy as if filled with lead.
However, after walking for only a few minutes, at the rear of the group, more than a dozen figures stopped almost simultaneously. They neither exchanged glances nor spoke, yet, with perfect tacit understanding, they turned around at the same time and sprinted madly back the way they had come!
"Stop! What are you trying to do?!" Shinku Yuhi flashed in front of them in an instant and shouted sternly, "Do you plan to waste the chance Shinichi used his..."
"I’m going to support the captain!" A young Chunin interrupted him, his voice hoarse as he spoke. "I can’t just watch him die there alone! He’s only eleven years old! He’s even younger than my little brother! In the future, he’ll definitely become Hokage and lead the village toward an even more glorious and better era! How can he die in a place like this?!"
"Are you planning to disobey orders?!" Shinku Yuhi stared directly at him, his gaze sharp as blades.
"Yes! Vice Captain Shinku, I am disobeying orders right now!" The young Chunin met his gaze without the slightest retreat. "There’s no need to carry out this kind of order at all!"
"That’s right!"
"Count me in!"
"And me!"
"I’m going too!"
The suppressed emotions exploded instantly. More and more team members stopped walking, voices rising one after another, the situation on the verge of spiraling out of control.
Shinku Yuhi suddenly stopped, turned around, his face dark as iron, and his blade-like gaze slowly swept across each face.
He did not immediately scold them. Instead, he once again took a deep, extremely slow breath.
"Good."
He looked around at everyone. His voice was no longer emotional, but instead, it carried a strange calmness.
"Then tell me, how many of you still want to disobey this retreat order? Or rather, how many want to turn back and support our captain?"
The instant his words fell...
Swish!
Everyone present raised their hands almost simultaneously. No hesitation, no delay. More than three hundred hands rose neatly into the night, like a suddenly sprouting forest.
Shinku Yuhi looked at that sea of raised hands in silence for a while, then suddenly laughed. The laughter echoed through the darkness, carrying relief, resolve, and something indescribable.
"Good!"
He suddenly turned to face the direction they had come from, his voice rising abruptly.
"Shinichi Battalion, all members! Hear my command!"
"Yes!!!"
"Objective changed! Everyone, turn around!" Shinku Yuhi fiercely swung his arm toward the direction they had come from and loudly declared: "Full-speed reinforcement! Support our captain!"
"Yes!!!"
Amid the thunderous response, more than three hundred battered yet bright-eyed Konoha ninja erupted with speed and momentum far beyond what they had displayed during the retreat.
Like a bursting flood, they violently turned around and charged without hesitation toward the captain they had just abandoned, toward the dead end where survival was almost certainly impossible!
’Kurenai... Forgive your father.’
While dashing forward, this thought flashed through Shinku Yuhi’s mind. Then his figure completely merged into the flood marching toward death.
Shinichi did not know that the rear guard drama he had painstakingly designed, intending to bear everything alone in exchange for his subordinates’ survival, had, shortly after beginning, encountered the entire cast disregarding the script and walking off stage.
If he knew, perhaps amid his cold calculations, somewhere deep in his heart, he would let out a complicated sigh: Are the hearts of the people with me? Is the great momentum also with me?
...
At this moment, he was like the most precise hunter and the most dazzling bait, rapidly weaving through the dense forest, luring wave after wave of Village Hidden in the Cloud pursuers farther and farther from the direction his subordinates were retreating toward.
A moment later, he stood on a horizontal tree branch, his gaze passing through the gaps in the leaves and landing on a five-man Kumogakure squad searching below, just as he was about to move...
Whoosh!
An incomparably sharp, almost silent vacuum wind blade suddenly shot out from the shadows at the side without warning, so fast it surpassed the limits of eyesight!
A flash of cold light passed.
The five Kumogakure ninja did not even have time to react before thin bloodlines simultaneously appeared across their necks. Then their heads rolled off, and their bodies collapsed soundlessly.
Oh?
Shinichi raised an eyebrow. He withdrew the hand that had moved to draw his sword, countless glass-like lights flashing in the depths of his eyes.
From the darkness, a figure slowly stepped out.
Brown hair, neatly combed flat hair, a thin figure stretched long under the moonlight. He did not walk quickly, but every step was steady, so steady that there was not the slightest sway.
Danzo Shimura!
’Why is he here? Could he be here to kill me? Probably not, right?’
Shinichi found it strange, not understanding why this man would appear here, but he still jumped down from the branch.
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