Chapter 16: Escape

Hina was holding the cat close to her chest as she was jumping from one tree to another. The wind was blowing her hair as she was moving at the fastest speed as she could.

"Faster...Faster.." She muttered forcing herself past her limits.

While moving, Hina couldn't help but let her tears flow down her cheeks. She wanted to help, but Kasai told her to request backup.

"You two, better stay alive!"

She could already feel herself getting tired of moving, but still strived and bear the weariness she was feeling.

While she was moving past the trees, Hina saw her sensei going her way. She stopped and dropped to her knees on Branch and yelled, "Sensei!"

This time, tears flowed nonstop through her eyes and started clouding her vision. Her voice echoed through her surrounding as she was crying hard that she was finding it hard to breathe.

"Hina, what happened!?" Kazama Gin sensei asked calmly as he went by her side.

Hina gathered her strength and breathed in deeply while forcing herself to stop crying, and said, "We encountered foreign shinobis, Aoki and Kasai speculated that they are both at least at the level of chunin. They both stayed to give me time to retreat and request back up. Please save them sensei!"

Shocked by the news, Gin couldn't help stay put anymore, "Immediately head back to the village and request for backups," he ordered. "I will go on ahead and I'll make sure they'll come back safely."

He didn't wait for her reply and started moving towards the direction where she came from. Clenching his fists, Gin spoke, "To think someone was able to pass through Konoha's security."

.........................

Aoki took a deep breath as he utilized his Chakra and coated his hands again with it, he gathered enough strength and sliced it down to the rock spear punctured on his gut.

"I messed up big time," he spoke as blood flowed out of his mouth. "Mom, I'm.... sorry I couldn't make it back," he struggles to speak.

He pushed the tip of the rock out of his body and felt himself cough a lot of blood as he fell on his knees.

"My....my.....I thought you were strong enough to block every spear." The man poked fun at how miserable Aoki looked with a hole in his abdomen. "Guess I did overestimate your capabilities."

The unknown shinobi chuckled as he gripped tight his kunai and took a step towards Aoki leisurely. The eyes of the man were burning with murderous intentions.

By the time he was 10 meters away from Aoki, a Kunai flew towards him and hit his shoulder. The man in civilian didn't pay attention to the new arrival, which was Kasai, and continued Io walk towards Aoki.

He had already sensed the kunai before it even reached him, but what he didn't expect is that attached to the kunai was a paper bomb. When he realized that something was wrong with the kunai, it was already too late, and got caught with the explosion.

BOOM!!!

The man staggered backward tumbling down to the ground so hard that a dent was left on the ground as he rolled.

Kasai who just arrived jumped to the ground and started weaving hand seals, "Fire Release: Twin Fire snakes technique!"

As he successfully weaved the seals, two flames materialized on his palm and took the shape of snakes, and started wriggling towards the man.

The enemy was still groaning from the explosion when suddenly two snakes appeared by his side and wrapped around him. "Aghhh!" He yelled as he felt himself getting constricted by the two snakes while a burning sensation seeped through his jutsu. He glared at Kasai and tried to get himself free but he couldn't.

Kasai didn't stop with just that jutsu but also started weaving another hand seals as he continued running towards the man wrapped by fire snakes.

Kasai halts right in front of the man and released the jutsu. "Fire Release: Dragon's Flare Technique!" The Jutsu was aimed at the face of the enemy.

When the man who was struggling to break free from the snakes, saw Kasai's move, he couldn't help but show a terrified expression before that jutsu devoured his face in flames.

After releasing the jutsu, Kasai went to the side of Aoki, who was knocked out. He carried him on his back and started retreating e entrance of the woods. Seeing Aoki's situation, he could not help but feel the need to rush his escape.

Blood continued to flow out of his wound, and his skin complexion is pale. He knew that Aoki's condition needs immediate attention. He wanted to do it himself but right now, not getting out of the location is not a good decision.

While he was attacking the enemy who injured Aoki, he felt the shadow clone he created was destroyed. He could not spare a minute to check if the enemy was already dead. He doesn't want the other one to come back and find them.

While moving Kasai bit his lower lip and muttered to himself, "We ventured out too deep into the woods! We should've gone back to sensei after not finding the cat a hundred meters away from the entrance."

'What was their purpose for coming here!?' He thought.

Kasai knew that Konoha is a huge village and that there's a lot of strong shinobi in here like Sarutobi Hiruzen, Senju Tsunade, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Minato, Hatake Sakumo, and others.

'How could they possibly enter the land of fire without being detected?'

While deep in his thoughts, Kasai felt Aoki move slightly. He gave him a side glance and sees his eyes opened slightly. "K-Kasai.." Aoki mumbled before he started puking blood again.

"Save your energy!" Kasai ordered still moving at his fastest speed. "We're almost there," he added.

"The e-enemies?" Aoki asked.

"One shouldn't be able to move for a while, and the other is probably chasing after us," Kasai replied, feeling troubled with the sudden thought of that guy pursuing them. He could tell that he won't be a match against him, especially now that he only had less than 30% of chakra reserves.

"Someone's c-coming in front," Aoki suddenly mumbled, gazing to a distance in front of them with his byakugan. Aoki's warning made Kasai feel wary and halt on his movements landing on a tree branch. He settled down unmoving, with Aoki on his back.

He waited for Aoki's signal if he should keep moving forward or deviate to a different path, while he hopes it was the backup that Hina had requested for them.

Aoki observed the chakra of the incoming person. Although Aoki was in a dire situation, he could still the byakugan for a minute. When he found out that it was their Gin Sensei, Aoki relaxed a little and deactivated his byakugan. "It's Sensei,"

When Kasai heard Aoki's words, he heaved a sigh as he gently placed him to lean on the tree. Confused by Kasai's actions, He asked, "W-what are you... doing?"

"Relax, Sensei is coming, I could now help you with your wounds," Kasai replied and smiled at him. He bit the tip of his thumb and weaved the hand seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

PUFF!

A small smoke appeared suddenly. When the smoke cleared out a 2-meter white dragon was revealed. It was flapping its wings as it glanced at Kasai.

"Kasai, took you so long to bring me out, huh?" It muttered.

"I know, Kiyoshi. I'm sorry." Kasai replied with a flustered expression. He indeed forgot about Kiyoshi and the other eggs and had not found the time to visit them. "Listen, I need your help. Please heal Aoki," he continued with a serious expression.

"Alright," Kiyoshi replied, turning its gaze towards Aoki, who was leaning his back on the tree. Aoki was watching the two with a surprised expression, he didn't know that Aoki could do this.

While still in a state of surprise, Aoki watched the dragon as its front leg glowed brightly and pressing it on his wound.

"This is a critical wound. I could not heal it completely with my current strength, but I'll be able to seal the wound temporarily," Kiyoshi informed Kasai.

"That's... already enough. As long as he won't bleed anymore," Kasai replied, feeling himself losing strength. He's almost running out of chakra, which was currently at 9% at most.

By the time Gin sensei arrived on their spot, He sees the dragon flapping its wings near Aoki. He could tell that it was trying to heal him.

"Sensei," Aoki both greeted.

"Where're the attackers?" He asked while giving the dragon a side glance, curious about it.

"One was probably down already, while the other should be chasing after us," Kasai replied.

"Is this your summoning?" Gin asked. He was aware that this summoning is unique and he had never seen one like that before. He was not also aware that he could summon something like that.

Aoki nodded his head, not knowing what to say anymore. He had wanted to keep this secret for as long as he could, but now It was seen by his sensei.

"Good job the two of you," Gin sensei praised. He smiled, knowing that his team was able to survive against two chunin and that they might have secret abilities up their sleeves that he'd be proud of to boast to his other friends handling a team. "Rest up for now, and leave the rest to me. I'll be guarding until your summoning was done healing Aoki," he added as he patted Kasai's head.

"Yes, Sensei," Kasai replied with a huge smile.