Chapter 59

As soon as they were within a kilometer of their intended destination, Five and Six went in search of them, while the others hid in different places, within a hundred meters, and waited for news.

Half an hour later, Kenshin telepathically heard the voice of Five, who returned to the designated spot.

"Father, not far from here, I found two fallen trees and shurikens stuck in some of the trees."

Five reported to him, standing fifty meters away from Kenshin, who had specifically ordered everyone not to gather together, in case of possible surveillance.

"All right. Fifth and Sixth, head northwest to the end of the forest, and check out all the terrain up to the mountains. Move separately, and keep a long distance. You have two hours"

Kenshin called over the general comm so that the other sons could hear him as well.

He was sick of the idea that he might have sent Five and Six to their deaths, and was going to cancel the operation if the two didn't return. But he knew how much worse it would be if their entire squad was wiped out in a single attack. He also realized how much he needed a strong kunoichi from the Nara clan, and he made his choice.

For about an hour, everyone sat in ambush and waited for news, along the way mentally discussing possible options for events, first of all extremely unpleasant options involving the death of the Fifth and Sixth. All Kenshin's sons were instructed to avoid being captured if possible, in order to avoid reading memoirs from someone in the Yamanaka clan.

As the bad thoughts filled Kenshin's mind completely, he heard Six's voice.

"Father, Five and I have checked the entire area, and even deployed your formation. The stone turned green, so there should be no strangers within a five-kilometer radius. Only seven people, just like we expected."

The Sixth One reported back, being in a rather good mood from the fact that everything had turned out so well.

Kenshin breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the Sixth's report. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The nasty, gnawing feeling receded a little. In the past hour, he had already cursed this "system" for not giving him combat abilities, and he was even more angry at himself for being forced to sit in ambush and "shake for his life". Every time he wanted to jump up and rush to the place where his sons might be being killed, multiple images of two beautiful women and many sons popped up in his mind. He didn't know how his wives and sons would react if he died suddenly, but his gut told him that nothing good would happen to them.

Twenty minutes later, the whole group separately approached the necessary mountains, making a detour. Kenshin was in touch with Ichiro, and he didn't slow him down much. The exosuit gave many useful properties. First of all-improved physical characteristics. The speed of running increased three times, and the height of jumping increased five times. This was the limit for Kenshin, because his legs simply didn't want to move faster, and he couldn't control jumping higher, and the fall promised him bruises or fractures.

He never learned to jump from tree to tree, and preferred to just run on the ground. In the future, he planned to improve the exosuit, making it at least a little bit combat-ready, but these were plans for the distant future. At the moment, he was hiding under a rock, and he unfolded the formation still sewn together from several rabbit skins, performing another scan of the area.

After making sure that everything was in order, Kenshin calmed down and went to the location of the Third and Fourth, who reported that they had found the right cave, in which there was an artificially caused collapse.

As soon as he reached the rubble, he began to examine it more closely, looking for a possible gap through which the bird with the message could fly out. Speeding up his perception, he thoughtfully examined every roughness between the stones, noting all the details, and after half a minute, he found a small crack, the layer of sand on which was disturbed by a supposedly protruding hand from inside.

As he got closer, he checked that the defense formation was working properly, and shouted:

"Nara Kasumi, are you there? I live nearby, and your bird accidentally flew to me."

He explained in as friendly a tone as possible.

In the darkness of the cave, the girl opened her eyes with difficulty, and tried to take a defensive position, but the kunai clenched in her hand during sleep slipped from her weakened hand, and fell with a clatter on the stone floor of the cave.

The black-haired kunoichi hid for a bit, but after repeating the question, she suddenly said:

"Yes, I'm here. Can you pull me out, or report me to the Nara Clan?"

"Don't worry, we'll definitely get you out. Are you all right?" Are you not injured?"

Kenshin inquired thoughtfully.

"I have chakra depletion, slight dehydration, and a wound on one arm."

Kasumi said, not knowing why she was suddenly spilling all this information to the first person she met. In her mind, she cursed herself for being talkative, imagining the consequences of being talkative if this guy on the other side of the rubble turned out to be an enemy. But somehow, she didn't believe that he was an enemy at all. Her gut told her that he meant her no harm.

Kenshin warned the girl to move away from the edge of the cave, and began to work with his sons to clear the rubble. There were so many stones that after an hour they could only make out small boulders.

Unfortunately, the entrance to the cave was blocked by huge boulders that had fallen so badly, weighing at least several tons. Even at full combat strength, the girl didn't have the ability to move or destroy them.

For another half an hour, Kenshin thought up an engineering solution for how to hook a rock with a rope and pull it out comfortably.

Finally, at five o'clock in the evening, they all took hold of a rope tied around a large boulder and pulled it to the side. Kenshin took a direct part in this, and squeezed the exosuit's strength to the maximum.

The boulder trembled, but began to give in to the pressure of the group of strong guys. Kenshin prayed that the rope would hold, but it didn't. Half a minute later, the boulder fell with a crash outside the cave, and the rest of the stones lost their support, piled on top of each other, and some of them fell inside.

As soon as the rumbling stopped, the haggard kunoichi sitting at the far end of the cave finally caught sight of him. An incredibly beautiful young man who steps out of the light and into the dark to save a fragile, dying girl.