Naruto: Chronicles of a Fire Ninja-Chapter 353 - 349: Blast

Stopping the emotional banter, Kaida's clone then focused on other important matters at hand. He quickly took out a map and pointed to two locations.

"I am currently here. As soon as my memory reaches me, I will rush straight toward you guys with help. The distance between our outposts is 157 kilometers. Even at my fastest speed, I can only reach here in 12 minutes. Till then, you guys will have to fend for yourselves," the clone said to both of them, getting a tense look from Ryota, but Yomi interrupted.

"No, don't do this! You will put yourself at risk as well. We will come to your outpost as soon as we can. Just prepare a counter-attack there," she said.

"The fastest you guys could reach there would be in almost an hour. Neither of you will be safe to defend yourself in between if you went any faster than that, and the attackers will most likely have Jonin-level ninja... Yomi, I am not being unreasonable. I will bring help, and that is the only way for US to survive," the clone said, joining his forehead with Yomi's.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine," he said. Ryota was watching all this from the side.

While they were having these talks, the barrier flickered ominously as more explosions rocked its foundations. Shinji's voice cut through the chaos: "Prepare for synchronized attack!" and every ninja in the facility came toward the gate. Luckily, Ryota and Yomi were in the same group along with one more chunin. They shared their plan with that chunin as well, who agreed grimly.

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The defenders moved into position, determination replacing fear on their faces. They were Konoha shinobi—if they were going down, they'd go down fighting.

"Remember," Shinji continued, "once we breach their lines, scatter immediately. Don't engage unless absolutely necessary. The priority is reaching Konoha or any nearby outpost with warning of this attack." He headed toward the barrier room after giving all of his orders.

"Go and join your squads."

"But sir, we have to stay here to activate the last protocol," the ninja who was sitting there with a grim expression said.

"This is an order. Go and join your squads. I will handle things here," Shinji said.

Every sensor ninja present understood what Shinji meant. The ninja who were going to stay there would have no chance of escaping—they were going to die for sure, and they had already mentally prepared themselves for that role. But then suddenly their commander came and said he was going to take their role. The emotions they were feeling were so complex that they couldn't even tell what they were feeling. One of the present ninja finally sorted his thoughts and said:

"Commander, your life is much more valuable for Konoha than mine. I will gladly give it for my village."

"What do you think, soldier? Are all of your lives combined here less valuable than mine? No, there is no such thing. Every life is equally valuable. I am not here as some patriot; I am here as a commander who is prioritizing the lives of seven ninja over one. Now go, we don't have much time," Shinji said.

"Thank you very much, sir!" All of them bowed with their foreheads almost touching the ground, and then they ran toward the surface where all of their forces and enemy forces were waiting.

Shinji took out a cigarette from his pants and lit it with a lighter. "I should have just slept in my house." Long black shadows entangled all of the controls of the outpost barrier, ready for the final moment.

...

Outside the barrier, the attacking forces pressed closer. The seal master continued systematically destroying the array's anchor points, while the five strike teams moved systematically to destroy the barrier as fast as they could.

Suddenly, the seal master's eyes went wide, and he shouted, "All of you retreat! It is going to blast!" Because of how little chakra was remaining in the seal, the seal master had become careless and had asked the ninja to go near the barrier to destroy it faster.

But suddenly, the amount of chakra increased, and the functioning of the barrier changed. Now it was not going to defend the base from enemy attack but defend it from a big blast. Then the area near them started to glow bright red. All of the Kumo and Iwa ninja ran as fast as they could, but it was already too late.

The blast happened before they could reach a safe distance, with an explosion rivaling hundreds of explosion tags, blowing away all of the enemy ninja. Without wasting a second, all of the Konoha Shinobi ran in different directions. If any enemy ninja was oriented enough to attack them, they were targeted with many jutsu or kunai, already prepared in advance.

While everyone was fighting for their life, Kaida's clone was only repeating a single thing in his mind. 'Just need to last long enough,' he thought. 'Just need to get them clear.'

While everyone was fighting left and right, Yomi, Ryota, and the other ninja were running toward the direction indicated by the clone. The clone didn't use a single jutsu this whole time, saving his chakra for dire situations, while all three of them along with Kiba deflected all of the attacks that came their way.

Sadly, they had the worst luck possible—on their path were five Tenketsu jonin, now almost regaining their clarity.

"Run while evading them. I will handle the rest. Also, make sure to survive till I come, otherwise I am going to kill you," Kaida's clone said to Ryota and Yomi.

"Don't worry," Ryota said. Woof woof

With three of them running toward a different direction the next second, before those five Tenketsu jonin could follow them, a searing hot stream of fire was launched toward them. Out of 20 percent of chakra the clone had, it had used half of it using supercharged fire stream jutsu mixed with Yang chakra.

None of those five could take that attack lightly because it had more than enough power to kill them, so they either jumped or used movement jutsu to get away as fast as they could.

But even the few seconds they wasted gave them nasty burns on their skin, which focused their attention on the immediate threat in their vicinity—a teenage boy whose appearance they knew very clearly.

"Kill him for sure; he can't run away," their leader said, and all three of them lunged toward Kaida, wary of any sudden attack.