LRAB Chapter 487 An Unexpected Flash Flood, Naruto's Ninja Way
Chapter 487 An Unexpected Flash Flood, Naruto's Ninja Way
Chapter 487 An Unexpected Flash Flood, Naruto's Ninja Way
The rain keeps falling.
The sky darkened imperceptibly, changing from a gray, leaden color to a thick, dark black.
Nothing could be seen outside the pavilion; only the sound of raindrops hitting the tiles grew louder and more urgent.
The distant mountain shadows were completely swallowed by the night. Occasionally, a flash of lightning would cleave through the clouds, briefly illuminating the entire Nagano mountain range. The mountain ridges would appear for a moment in the pale light, only to be quickly swallowed back by darkness.
Ya squatted in a corner of the pavilion and discovered an inconspicuous shed.
The shed was very simple, with a few thick wooden stakes supporting a thatched shed. There seemed to be some chopped firewood piled up underneath, neatly stacked, and covered with a layer of dry thatch to prevent moisture.
Ya's eyes lit up, he patted Akamaru's head, and the two of them carried back a few pieces of dry firewood.
"There's firewood right here! We can make a fire to dry our clothes!" Ya threw the firewood in the center of the pavilion, squatted down, and started looking for a flint and steel.
"Wait, Kiba!" Tenten was helping Yakumo wring out the water from her skirt when she looked up and saw Kiba already piling up firewood. She hesitated and looked around. "This firewood—could it have been cut down by some villager nearby and stored here for their own use? If we take it without asking, won't we be causing them trouble? What if they come back and find their firewood gone—"
She was taught from a young age not to take other people's things without permission, especially items that were clearly left unattended.
Upon hearing this, Neji glanced at the pile of firewood, then at the amount of firewood remaining under the shed.
"The firewood in this shed doesn't belong to any private family."
Neji squatted down, took the flint from Ya's hand, and lit a handful of dry straw at the bottom of the woodpile. The flames shot up and illuminated the tired faces in the pavilion.
"This must have been stored here by villagers who travel to and from this mountainous area, or by grassroots workers responsible for maintaining the roads, in case of emergency."
Neji continued to explain to everyone, "In many remote mountainous areas of the Land of Stars, there are similar supply points along the main roads. They usually contain some dry firewood, a small amount of emergency herbs, and even simple tools."
"The purpose is to provide basic assistance to travelers, hunters, and merchants who encounter severe weather, need to spend the night in the wild, or, like us, are suddenly caught in heavy rain."
"This is a well-established mutual aid tradition in the mountains. We can just use it directly. Once the rain stops, we'll cut down some new, dry timber to replenish it and keep the storage point intact."
His explanation left everyone in Konoha looking on with a mixture of realization and surprise.
Such spontaneous, orderly, humane, and visionary details of mutual assistance were unimaginable in their previous experiences.
In the Land of Fire, nobles only think about how to collect taxes and set up checkpoints. Commoners may help each other, but considering the needs of strangers in this way is almost a pipe dream.
"I see." Ino tossed her wet ponytail over her shoulder, leaned closer to the fire, and brought her hands close to the flickering flames. The heat made the skin on her fingertips itch slightly.
"This kind of mutual help seems to exist in Konoha as well."
Choji also moved off the stone bench, squeezed to the fireside, and opened the front of his soaked coat to dry it over the fire.
Moisture rose from the fabric, carrying the faint earthy smell unique to mountain rain.
He tilted his head and asked, "Does every village in the mountains have one of these sheds?"
"Almost." Neji poked the fire with a thin piece of firewood, letting in oxygen from underneath, and the flames leaped higher.
"Does everyone help each other this much?" Naruto asked curiously as he helped add new firewood to the fire to make it burn brightly again.
The warm firelight illuminated his still-childish face, and his azure eyes were filled with curiosity about this "different" thing.
Neji looked at the campfire, the flames dancing in his pure white eyes.
"This isn't entirely spontaneous," he said slowly. "The Star Kingdom's rule, or rather, its governance, extends to the most basic villages. Even in the most remote mountain villages, there are trained grassroots cadres, either elected by the villagers or dispatched by higher authorities, stationed there. Their work is not just about collecting taxes and managing affairs, but more importantly, helping villagers solve problems, spreading knowledge, organizing and building communities, and truly bringing the country's policies and services to everyone."
Neji casually drew a line on the stone slab next to the fire with the thin piece of firewood in his hand.
"For example, this Nagano mountain range used to belong to the land of bears. It was a truly deep mountain forest, with many villages hidden in the valleys. There wasn't even a road that a horse-drawn carriage could travel on."
"For mountain people to leave the mountains, it takes several days to cross mountains and valleys, which is very arduous. It is also difficult to transport the medicinal herbs, game, and other mountain products out to exchange for money, making life difficult."
"However, in recent years, thanks to the 'nationwide road access' policy of the Land of Stars, and the mobilization and organization of local grassroots cadres, relying on national funds, the mobilization of a large number of ninjas, and the collective labor of the villagers, road access has been basically achieved in every village."
Neji's narration made the listeners involuntarily imagine the bustling scene of road construction.
This was the first time Naruto and the other Konoha 16 had ever heard of involving ninjas in large-scale infrastructure construction.
"Thanks to the fact that the Land of Stars has trained a large number of lower and middle-ranking ninjas over the years, they have played a very important role in the country's infrastructure construction. Although many mountain roads are still treacherous, at least horse-drawn carriages and oxcarts can barely pass through."
"The villagers in the mountains can relatively easily transport the precious medicinal herbs they collect, the furs and meat they hunt, and even some unique stone materials to larger towns outside the mountains to sell in exchange for the food, salt, cloth, ironware and other necessities they need."
"The improvement in living conditions is something you can really feel. This pavilion, this firewood shed, and the gravel path under our feet, which is wet from the rain but still flat and solid, are all part of this change."
Sakura hugged her knees, resting her chin on them, and looked at the line Neji had drawn on the stone slab.
Tenten pulled Yakumo's hand close to the fire to warm it; Yakumo's fingertips were icy cold, but Tenten's palms were warm.
The fire was burning brightly.
Naruto, Shikamaru, and the others only vaguely understood what they were hearing; many of the concepts were still unfamiliar to them.
But they at least understood one thing: the Star Kingdom seemed to be putting a lot of effort into improving the lives of the most impoverished, remote, and perhaps completely forgotten civilians in other countries.
This was in stark contrast to what they had seen in the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers, where nobles ignored the disaster victims and even brandished their knives.
Shikamaru leaned back against the stone pillar of the pavilion, looking through the flickering flames at Neji's face, which was only a year or two older than his own.
While in Konoha, he had also heard his father, Shikaku, mention the Land of Stars at home.
Its economic data, the speed of its military expansion, and its talent-drawing effect on neighboring small countries are all factors to consider.
When my father spoke of these things, he used the rational analysis characteristic of the Nara clan, speaking calmly and with rigorous logic.
But at this moment, as he sat in this small pavilion deep in the mountains, listening to the rain, he heard a Hyuga boy recounting things that were the most unfamiliar to him in the vocabulary he had heard in Konoha.
It wasn't the power of ninjutsu, the level of the mission, or the glory of the ninja clan.
How to build roads, how to divide firewood, how to make water flow.
How can people live better lives?
These things were never taught to them in the Land of Fire, nor were they ever told to them in Konoha.
The rain did not subside.
The firewood crackled in the fire, and sparks occasionally splashed onto the stone floor, only to be quickly extinguished by the mist drifting in from outside the pavilion.
Suddenly, Akamaru's ears perked up, as he lay beside Ya's leg.
It raised its head, its nose twitching rapidly towards the mountains outside the pavilion, and let out a low growl, which then turned into a series of short barks.
"Akamaru?" Kiba immediately sat up, grabbed Akamaru's head, and listened intently in the direction of its barking.
His hearing was far more sensitive than that of ordinary humans, and he caught a sound approaching, even though it was masked by the sound of rain.
The sound was deep, distant, and rapidly growing louder.
Ya's expression changed instantly.
"Oh no! Akamaru says there's been a massive flood in the mountains!!"
"What?!" Naruto jumped to his feet.
No sooner had he finished speaking than a deep, rumbling sound surged from the depths of the mountains.
It drew closer and closer, growing heavier and heavier, as if thousands of boulders were being pushed off a cliff at the same time, or as if a giant beast was turning over deep in the earth.
The stone slabs beneath the pavilion began to tremble slightly.
Although the night was deep and the rain was pouring down, they could still see, in the occasional flashes of lightning, that the small river that had been meandering not far in front of the pavilion had changed color in just a few breaths.
The river water changed from a murky yellowish-brown to a muddy grayish-black, and the water level rose rapidly, overflowing the riverbank and submerging the bushes and a few crooked trees on the shore.
Immediately afterwards, the first wave of flash floods rushed out from the mouth of the canyon upstream.
The water, carrying silt, uprooted shrubs, and boulders washed down from the hillside, crashed onto the riverbed downstream, creating a deafening roar.
"That is—a flash flood—" Ino covered her mouth, her face turning pale.
Everyone from Konoha stood up from the fire.
They weren't unfamiliar with water; the Namga River floods every summer.
But they had never seen a flood of this scale!
The force of the water flow was so great that even the stone slabs at the bottom of the river were loosened, and the boulders on the bank were pushed forward and rolled by the water. The sound of the stones colliding with each other was like someone beating a giant drum at the bottom of the river.
Sasuke's Sharingan has been awakened.
His three-tomoe pupils scanned the direction of the flood through the rain curtain, and then his gaze settled on a certain section of the water.
He saw the tiles.
Not just a few pieces, but entire swathes of broken tiles and snapped beams were swept away by the flood and tumbled down the river. The tiles collided with each other in the water, making a crisp, fragmented cracking sound.
Next was a door panel.
"The flash flood carried building debris," Sasuke said in a low voice.
"A village upstream was washed away."
"Everyone be careful, don't go near the water!" Neji warned in a deep voice, his eyes warily fixed on the roaring torrent in the distance.
Suddenly, Tiantian pointed to the center of the floodwaters, her voice shrill and distorted: "Someone's been swept away! Someone's been caught in the flood!!"
Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing.
Amidst the raging torrent, a single point of light flickered on and off in the turbid waves.
That wasn't starlight; it was a person.
A young man clung tightly to a broken piece of wood, a flashlight hanging from his chest. The light from the flashlight flickered under the impact of the flood, each flicker seeming as if it might go out completely at any moment.
"There really is someone!" Sakura exclaimed as she saw it too.
"We have to find a way to save him!" Naruto blurted out, his blood boiling instantly.
He instinctively began to form hand seals, preparing to risk his life to rescue the person from the water using the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
However, someone was faster than him.
Naruto felt a gust of wind sweep past him, and his white shadow stretched into a straight line in the rain.
Kimimaro's bare feet landed on a slippery boulder at the edge of the flood, his knees slightly bent to steady himself.
He gripped the back of his neck with his right hand, his five fingers hooking around the most prominent vertebra, and pulled it outward.
He slowly pulled his entire spine out of his back, the joints connected by fine tendons that gleamed with a pale, cold light in the lightning of the rain.
He held the spine in his hand, flicked his wrist, and the bone chain flew out like a living thing, passing through the dense rain and splashing water, and precisely caught the young man's shoulders as he hugged the wooden plank.
Kimimaro tightened the bone chain, exerted force from his waist, and pulled the bone chain, along with the wooden plank and the young man, away from the pull of the flood.
When the young man was pulled out of the water, he was already unconscious. His fingers were still tightly gripping the wooden board, his knuckles were as hard as stone, and his fingernails were filled with wood chips and mud.
Kimimaro put the bone chain back into his hand and carried the young man back to the pavilion in a few breaths.
"Wow, that's amazing!" Xiao Li was stunned, his eyes burning with renewed fighting spirit.
"Quick! Check on him!" Tenten and Sakura had already spread out the emergency medical rolls they carried with them on the ground.
Sakura tilted the young man's head to one side, inserted her fingers into his mouth to clear away the mud and obstructions, and with her other hand, helped Tenten unbutton his shirt to begin CPR.
These are some of the most basic emergency knowledge taught at the ninja academy.
After pressing a dozen times, the young man's chest suddenly jolted, and a mouthful of murky muddy water gushed from his mouth, splashing onto Xiaoying's knees.
"Cough cough cough—!"
He coughed violently, each cough bringing muddy water gushing from the corners of his mouth and nose, his entire chest spasming.
The young man finally opened his eyes.
His pupils dilated for a moment, then suddenly focused, and he saw the faces surrounding him.
It wasn't mud from a flash flood, nor was it a collapsed roof beam.
They were a group of unfamiliar teenagers.
His self-illumination moved from Tenten's face to Sakura's face, and then to Neji's Star Ninja headband, making him look as if he had been burned.
As if seeing a savior, the young man's eyes instantly blazed with a fierce will to survive and anxiety. He struggled to stand up, but stumbled due to exhaustion. Ignoring the pain, he suddenly reached out and grabbed Neji's arm, who was closest to him. His voice trembled and became hoarse with excitement and weakness: "Ninja-sama!"
His voice was hoarse, and every word he uttered sounded like muddy water churning in his throat.
"The village! The village is in danger! Please! Please save Kamimatsu Village!!"
His emotions collapsed in a very short time.
When he said the words "Uematsu Village", his voice went completely hoarse, and only his lips moved silently. The water in his eyes mixed with the rain, making it impossible to distinguish which was tears and which was rain.
Neji raised his right hand and placed it firmly on the young man's soaked shoulder.
His hands were small, but the force he applied to the other person was so strong that it slightly weakened the trembling convulsions that had been emanating from the other person.
"Calm down first," Neji said calmly.
"Take a deep breath, speak slowly, what happened?"
Ino handed over a bamboo tube containing some clean water.
The young man took the bamboo tube, his hands still trembling. He drank two mouthfuls and coughed violently for a while before he could barely catch his breath.
On the other side, Kimimaro had already turned his head and said to Toneri, "Try using the communicator to contact the Nagano Castle police force and disaster emergency management department. Report the situation here."
The servant nodded without saying anything more.
He walked to a relatively quiet corner of the pavilion and took out a palm-sized, simply designed communication device from his pocket.
This is a portable chakra communicator developed based on the "Tsukuyomi Seal". Relying on the omnipresent chakra in the ninja world, it can achieve real-time communication over ultra-long distances.
Toneri quickly tapped the device a few times, then brought it close to his ear and began trying to contact the nearest castle, Nagano.
The rescued young man, comforted by Neji and soothed by Shimizu, calmed down a bit and began to recount his story in fits and starts: "My name is Koyama Futa, and I'm from Kamimatsu Village. I've been hunting, gathering mountain products and herbs with my father since I was a child. I know every gully and fork in the road in this Nagano mountain range like the back of my hand. A few years ago, I joined the mountain patrol militia and was responsible for patrolling the forests and providing disaster warnings in the area around Kamimatsu Village."
"When the rain first started today, I knew something was wrong. The rain was so heavy, and the Nagano River in the mountains was rising rapidly. My partner, Evan, and I were patrolling upstream to check for any dangers—but then, just as we reached a bend, a torrent of water mixed with mud and rocks suddenly rushed down from upstream! It swept us both in! Evan—"
"I couldn't catch him—" Fengtai's voice was broken, and he had to stop to catch his breath every few sentences.
"The village! Shangsong Village is less than five miles from where we were swept away! With such a huge flood, the village must be submerged! My wife, my two-year-old child, and my parents—they're all in the village! I haven't... I haven't told anyone to evacuate yet—"
"Waaah————"
Finally, the man who had been clinging desperately to driftwood to survive in the floodwaters broke down, clutching his head and sobbing, tears mingling with the mud on his face.
The cries were filled with despair and self-blame, leaving the young people of Konoha present with a heavy feeling in their hearts.
Natural disasters are merciless.
A village that may have dozens or even hundreds of people is currently threatened by flash floods, and his relatives and homes may be struggling to survive in the floodwaters.
This sense of powerlessness and urgency had a tremendous impact on Naruto and his friends, who came from Konoha and were used to ninja battles but rarely faced such large-scale natural disasters.
Naruto squatted down in front of Fuuta, listening to the hoarse, almost wailing voice of this complete stranger, his fists clenching tighter and tighter on his knees.
He remembered his teacher Iruka, his grandfather from the third generation, and the teachings of his older brother Menma.
A surge of passion and a sense of responsibility welled up inside me.
He took a sudden step forward, his voice unusually loud and firm: "Don't worry, uncle!! We'll go to the village to help right away!!"
"Naruto, well done! I support you!" Lee gave Naruto a thumbs up: "How can the meaning of youth be about standing by and watching someone die!"
Sasuke leaned against a pavilion pillar and glanced at Naruto and Rock Lee out of the corner of his Sharingan.
He neither voiced his support nor his opposition; he simply exhaled through his nose and then moved the hilt of his ninja sword at his lower back half an inch to a more convenient position.
"Just as I thought—" Shikamaru slapped his forehead, wiping his hand from his eyebrows to his chin, getting his hand wet, and let out a long sigh.
"Hey, Naruto! Lee!" Shikamaru said with a headache, trying to use reason to restrain his two always impulsive companions.
"It's nighttime, and the flash floods are still raging down outside. This isn't the time to be a hero! We may be ninjas, but there's only so much we can do in the face of a natural disaster of this scale. Our first priority is to ensure our own safety!"
"Shikamaru is right." Kiba squatted by the fire, his hand resting on Akamaru's wet back.
Akamaru let out a low growl as it faced the direction of the flash flood, its tail stiff.
"We don't even know where the village is, and with this water level, a single wave could knock an ordinary ninja off their feet."
Shino's voice drifted out from the shadows: "Even if we could reach the village, without professional rescue equipment, it would be difficult to evacuate a large number of villagers at once using only ninjutsu and taijutsu. Being able to protect yourself and being able to save others are two different things."
Ino, Tenten, Sakura, and the others also looked worried and hesitant.
They are not lacking in courage, but as Shikamaru said, the current environment is too harsh.
They are ninjas, not gods. Conducting a large-scale search and rescue operation in the deep mountains with extremely low visibility, complex terrain, and raging floods is extremely risky. If they fail to save people, they may also lose their own lives.
Moreover, most of them are only genin (lower-ranking ninja) with limited experience.
Shikamaru's gaze involuntarily fell upon Hyuga Neji, who had been appearing calm and composed, Toneri, who was communicating with others, and Kimimaro, who had remained silent.
He thought to himself: Even the Star Kingdom, faced with such a sudden large-scale natural disaster, would probably only be able to wait until dawn and the rain to subside before mobilizing more manpower and carrying professional equipment for rescue, right? Taking action now would be too unwise.
However, what Shikamaru said after his attendant returned proved Shikamaru's prediction wrong.
Sheren put away his communication equipment and turned around.
A few raindrops, not blown away by the wind, still clung to his white hair, and his white eyes appeared exceptionally calm in the firelight.
"We have contacted Jonin Hyuga Natsu. The disaster emergency management department of Kuma County has activated the Level 1 disaster emergency response plan. In response to this major flash flood, the police forces and ninja units of the three neighboring cities of Nagano Castle, Matsuyama Castle, and Asama Castle have been ordered to deploy."
"The closest starting point to Kamimatsu Village is Nagano Castle, but the police force and ninjas in Nagano Castle are severely understaffed due to the resettlement of disaster victims and the maintenance of quarantine. Only one advance team can be dispatched in a short period of time."
"Jonin Hyuga requests our assistance in the rescue. The main rescue force will arrive in an hour."
Kimimaro retracted the cleaned spine back into his body, making a slight clicking sound as the joints went in; after listening to it many times, it even sounded somewhat like the natural sound of joints moving.
"Of course." He nodded and asked, "The one leading the rescue team should be Jonin Taiichi, right? After all, I heard he's been in the police department for several years and has excellent emergency rescue capabilities."
He then looked at Neji and began assigning tasks: "Neji, you take Naruto and the others first—"
"Hey, hey, hey!" Kimimaro was interrupted by a loud, dissatisfied voice before he could finish speaking.
Kimimaro turned his head and saw Naruto step between Kimimaro and Neji, hands on his hips, head tilted back, glaring at Kimimaro with an expression that said, "You underestimate me."
His two blue eyes stared at Kimimaro, flames flickering at the corners of his eyes.
"You, covered in thorns, are supposed to be a Jonin, you don't expect us to desert, do you! Failing to help those in need and just watching the flood sweep them away—that's not the ninja way of Naruto Uzumaki!"
Sasuke leaned against a pavilion pillar, quietly watching Naruto's performance, and uttered two words: "Idiot."
Although he said that, he did move his feet.
He left the pillar he was leaning against, silently walked to Naruto's side and stood there, showing his attitude through his actions.
Kimimaro just mentioned that the leader of the rescue team might be Uchiha Taichi, which aroused a subtle interest in Sasuke.
Shikamaru looked at Naruto and Sasuke, then at the dark, rainy night outside the pavilion and the faint sound of the roaring floodwaters. He sighed resignedly, his shoulders slumping: "Seriously—this is such a pain."
"However, since things have come to this point—well, let's count us in too. We can't just stand by and do nothing."
Kiba and Akamaru exchanged a glance. Kiba grinned, revealing his sharp teeth: "Hmph, it's just a flash flood! My nose and Akamaru's ears are just as good at finding people as the Byakugan!"
Choji stuffed the bag of potato chips deeper into his ninja tool bag and strode after him.
Ino and Sakura exchanged a glance, Sakura nodded, and the two walked into the group together.
Shino didn't speak, but simply stood up from the shadows and walked to where the firelight could reach.
Tenten and Yakumo exchanged a glance, then Tenten rolled up the first aid roll and tied it around her waist, while Yakumo helped her stand up with her shoulders.
Xiao Li was filled with fervor. Despite his injuries, he clenched his fists and shouted, "This is youth! Saving others in disaster! Burn with passion!"
Neji looked at the Konoha boys and girls who had just been apprehensive, but now, driven by their camaraderie and a simple sense of responsibility, they had quickly rallied together and volunteered to participate in this dangerous and unfamiliar rescue. A slight smile appeared on his lips.
"These guys—"
Perhaps unlike the corrupt high-ranking officials of Konoha, deep down, they still possess certain pure qualities that belong to the ninja.
Just then, a few blurry lights appeared in the rain outside the pavilion.
The light was getting closer and brighter, coming from the direction of Nagano Castle.
Before long, several figures wearing black raincoats and moving nimbly broke through the rain and landed lightly on the open ground outside the pavilion.
The leader was none other than Uchiha Taichi.
Six Star Ninjas spread out in a fan shape behind him, each carrying a bulging rescue backpack with a reel and first-aid kit hanging on the side, and a powerful searchlight hanging around their neck or on their hand.
Taiyi walked into the pavilion, took off his hood, and the stand-up collar of his dark blue tribal robe was blackened by the rain, but the flame fan tribal emblem embroidered on his arm was still clearly visible in the firelight.
His gaze swept around the pavilion, lingered briefly on Sasuke, then moved away. He didn't offer any further expression or words, only nodding slightly to Neji and Kimimaro.
"I have a general understanding of the situation," Taiichi said briefly.
"Kamimatsu Village is located in the upper reaches of the Nagano River, where the valley is the narrowest. The flood peak will first hit this area when it passes through. We are the vanguard; the main disaster relief force will not arrive for at least another hour."
Taiichi walked up to Koyama Futa, squatted down, took out a soldier's ration pill from his pouch and handed it to him, palm up, his tone calm but concerned: "Your name is Koyama Futa? You're a militiaman from Kamimatsu Village, right?"
"I am Taichi Uchiha, the captain of the Special Operations Division of the police force. How are you feeling now? Can you still walk?"
We need a guide familiar with the terrain around Shangsong Village, especially the safe routes given the current flooding. Time is of the essence; every minute is a matter of life and death.
Looking at the young but sharp-eyed and composed ninja captain in front of him, and then at the soldier's ration pills handed to him, Koyama Futa heard the words "advance rescue team" and the hope that had been extinguished in his eyes was instantly rekindled, bursting out with amazing light!
He almost trembled as he took the soldier's ration pill, immediately stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it haphazardly a few times, and swallowed it.
A warm current instantly rose from my stomach, flowing to my limbs and bones, dispelling some of the cold and weakness.
He struggled, using his hands to support himself on the ground, and stood up unsteadily. Although his legs were still a little weak, his eyes had become incredibly determined and urgent.
"Yes! I can walk! Captain Taiyi! I know this mountain very well! I know two paths, they're steep, but they're on higher ground and probably haven't been flooded yet. They should be able to get around to the hillside behind the village!"
Koyama Fuuta's voice trembled with excitement.
"Thank goodness! Thank goodness! There are ninjas! The village! Everyone in the village—we're saved! We're saved!" he said, tears streaming down his face again.
Koyama Kaede hastily wiped his face, then turned and pointed in a direction outside the pavilion: "Over there! There's a path that herb gatherers take up that hillside!"
Taiyi stood up and gestured to the team members behind him. The team members immediately checked their equipment, adjusted the angle of the searchlights, and entered a state of combat readiness.
Taiichi glanced at Kimimaro, Neji, and Toneri, then swept his gaze over the group of Konoha kids who were standing ready for battle. Without saying much, he simply uttered three words: "Let's go."
After saying that, he took the lead and stepped into the surging rain outside the pavilion.
Koyama Fuuta immediately followed and pointed out the direction for him.
The other Star Ninja members filed out.
Kimimaro, Neji, and Toneri followed without hesitation.
Naruto took a deep breath, pulled down his soaked headband, and shouted to his companions behind him, "Everyone! Follow me! We're going to rescue them!"
"oh--!
'
He was met with the enthusiastic roars of his companions.
Young figures, one after another, resolutely plunged into the dark, cold, yet life-saving stormy night ahead.
A bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the figures of everyone in the rain.