Chapter 8
The moment the explosions happened, Kazuo quickly turned and looked in the direction of the entrance of the camp.
There he could see flames engulfing tents and sounds of blades clashing against one another.
Every few seconds, one would be able to see lightning flashes from the cloud ninjas' jutsu.
Kazuo didn't rush to help and neither did he go directly to the edge of the camp, he knew that those were the most dangerous places.
'It's likely that the entire camp is surrounded by enemy ninjas, there really is nowhere to hide' Kazuo thought before taking out a kunai from his bag and entering a combat stance, he didn't move from his spot at all.
He was in the training grounds and quite a few ninjas were around him who quickly followed his actions and took their weapons out or simply assumed taijutsu stances.
'It's always better to have meat shields' Kazuo thought as a smile erupted on his face however it kept constantly twitching as he swore profanities at the situation he was in.
It didn't take long at all for the first enemy ninjas to appear.
It was a group of roughly twenty ninjas who had come from the southern edge of the camp.
With Kazuo included they had seventeen ninjas, giving the enemy a numerical advantage.
Taking a deep breath, Kazui calmed his emotions as he stared at the enemy in the eyes.
There was a moment of silence for but a second before chaos ensued.
"Raagghhh" A hidden leaf ninja shouted at the top of his lungs before he charged at the enemy.
Soon both groups charged at each other, the leaf kunai clashing with the cloud's blades but a moment later.
Kazuo had remained at the back however even he found his opponent soon enough.
It was a kid of around twelve years of age, just like him.
He had dark skin and dreaded white hair with a cloud headband tied to his shoulder and a short sword in his hand.
The kid charged at Kazuo immediately, swinging his short sword toward his neck.
Using the kunai, Kazuo quickly intercepted the strike only to find himself losing in a battle of power.
'Right, im in the body of a shitty kid' Kazuo thought before he took out another kunai from his bag alongside an explosion tag.
Crumpling up the tag, he hid it in his hand whilst clenching the kunai.
Now with a weapon in both hands, Kazuo started swinging at the ninja however his experience with bladed weapons clearly was higher than Kazuo's as he deflected each strike with his short sword before giving Kazuo a nasty slice on his abdomen.
Taking a few jumps backward, Kazuo looked at his wound with the edges of his eyesight before turning to give a glare to the ninja once more.
"Is that a kitchen knife? Do you cloud ninja not have enough money to even buy real swords?" Kazuo said with a grin as he faced the kid, trying to make him lose his cool.
And in the next instant, the expression the kid showed quickly changed to one of rage.
"You tree fucker" The kid screamed almost before rushing toward Kazuo once more.
While Kazuo had looked as if he was angry on the outside, his thoughts were completely calm, knowing that this wasn't truly a life-or-death situation for him had made it possible for him to control his emotions much more easily.
'He's inexperienced, losing your cool against your enemy so easily.' Kazuo thought as he tried his hardest to deflect the kid's strikes however he still ended up with cuts all over his body merely a few seconds into the clash.
"Is that all you have? I thought you cloud shinobi were great at swords, I guess it was just a lie after all" Kazuo said once more, angering the young shinobi even further.
"I'll kill you," The kid said as veins sprouted on his forehead, his swings growing even stronger and faster however he had already started to lose his form.
'If he struck with this much power and speed while maintaining his sword forms then I would have already been killed, I need to use both kunai to block his strikes now' Kazuo thought and though the situation seemed grim for him, he didn't feel despair, instead it was elation that he felt.
Finally, after a few more strikes, the cloud ninja managed to bring Kazuo down onto the ground.
Just as he was about to strike him, the cloud shinobi showed a large smile on his face as if what he was doing was true retribution.
At that moment he saw something unexpected, the ninja under him, Kazuo had a wide smile on his face.
"I knew you would save me, captain"
His words caused the kid's eyes to shrink back as he quickly jumped away in a hurry, turning to look backward only to find nothing, there was no enemy ninja.
His anger clouded him even further as he turned his head around only to see Kazuo already up on his feet and close to him, running directly at him.
The ninja quickly pulled his short sword in front of him as he stopped the kunai that Kazuo was swinging toward him in a vertical swing.
*Klang*
What he didn't take into account for however was that Kazuo had used only one hand instead of two for the swing, his other hand was empty however and so he hadn't put much mind to it, only to see Kazuo throw something in his face.
When Kazuo had crumpled up the explosion tag, he had done so that the inscribed seals were on the inside and the adhesive was on the outside, thus when he threw it at the enemy ninja's head, it managed to get caught in his hair.
Quickly Kazuo fell backwards before making the rat hand seal.
"Kai, Bitch!"
At his shout, the explosion tag lit up before quickly exploding causing a shower of blood and brain matter to cover the ground.
The headless body of the kid fell down to the ground with a thump.
Looking at the body, the only thought in Kazuos mind was...
'Crumpling exploding ninja paper lessens its explosive power considerably.'
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