Aftermath

I had finally got out of the forest, arriving at the edge of the battlefield. Still, I kept guard up, crouching past anything that could hide me. It was no use being seen as I was alone, and there were still a couple of hours before I reached my destination.

After that battle, I repeatedly reviewed it and I was truly lucky to kill all three of them. They were too distracted by the chakra signature, not knowing the trap they fell into. There was also me, who had supposedly ran away, so in their heads, my only goal was to escape.

I couldn't do the same thing last time since they had a plan if they were caught by us. Although, this time, in their heads: a kid making a plan against them three wasn't possible. So, I took advantage of this and pulled it off with surprisingly, perfection.

Suddenly, I sensed a shinobi to my right side, moving like me through another path. In case he was about to try anything, I kept my guard up. If he wasn't, there was no need to go after him.

I sighed with relief. He flickered forward, not paying any heed to me. It was times like these where you did not know who was an enemy.

Up ahead, I saw a group of people standing together. From the looks of things, they were mercenaries. It wasn't strange for them to be here since I fought a lot of them on the battlefield. Except, they were paid to fight rather than wanted, so if I was about to kill them, they would run away without hesitation.

I had gotten through the empty barren lands and had started meeting groups of people. They were either fighting each other or scouts, seeing the situation of the battlefield. Whether it was an enemy or ally getting pushed back, I just carried on.

Despite my intention to not engage, a kunai was thrown at me. I easily dodged, stepping back where I saw the person. I had only half my reserves left; I had to be careful of how to use it.

Still, I didn't engage and stood there, waiting for his first move. His stance was low, and a kunai ready to strike was in his hand. Seeing his resolve to kill me as an enemy leaf shinobi… I had no choice but to kill him.

Using purely taijutsu, I rushed at him. We traded blows until I was gaining advantage which was quite quick. Surprisingly, he was weak and it seemed taijutsu wasn't his strong point. So before he threw any jutsu, I strengthened my hand using chakra and grabbed his neck.

As he was about to stab me with his kunai, I turned it back against him. His own momentum was put on him, stabbing himself right in the stomach. I didn't think anymore, throwing his body straight to the ground and running forward.

The more I ran; the more I saw blood being spilled and having to spill blood myself to get through. My mind was kept on my reserves, not using any jutsu or activating the sharingan.

Most people in this environment didn't think straight. It was adrenaline that cursed through them, wanting to tear their enemy to shreds. Since there were mostly genin and fresh chunins fighting, it was normal.

Just like before, enemies kept coming at me from all sides. I kept my guard up, watching over my back at all times. There were mostly one or two but sometimes upto four came at me. Except, it was a battlefield so backup would always help me.

Finally, I had crossed the battlefield after an hour and arrived near a post. There were camps set up a few miles from there which was my next location. I had gotten quite tired from constant fighting and the trio from before, so I had decided to rest somewhere. Also, it was a good time to restock on my weapons too since I used them all back then.

Arriving at the post, a few people were standing in a firm posture. They wore konoha headbands with the normal flak jackets. As I walked toward them, their body language changed, sensing the subtle change in movement.

Even though I wore a konoha headband, it didn't matter. The enemy could use transformation techniques or whatnot, so there was a special method.

"Halt," one of them in front of me said. "First, the code?"

I never replied. Instead, I formed a certain hand seal to which they parted ways and let me through.

I never stopped for a moment, and ran through the forest, heading straight to the camp. This was a place I could keep my guard slightly down and without worry go to my location.

After half an hour, I caught a glimpse of tents setup and a gathering of people. Finally, I had arrived at my place of rest.

Originally, my teammates were supposed to come with me here for the same reason. I've been travelling since the morning to evening time so I was bound to get mentally and physically tired. So a whole day was going to be spent travelling, and at night I was staying there.

First, I needed to restock on my tools and then think of a new plan for my journey ahead. Now that I had no one with me, it was going to be a lot harder to avoid danger.

"What do you need?"

The merchant in front of me politely asked.

I simply replied, listing all the shuriken, kunai and material for traps.

Then, I went to an unassigned and first aided myself up; I had a lot of built up injuries. Next I started planning the destination for the next and last post.

The distance between here and the last destination was going to take around a couple of hours.