Naruto: Chronicles of a Fire Ninja-Chapter 354 - 350: Diversion

"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 but still ready to take risks because of the reward promised to those who would bring his head. While three ninja attacked Kaida, two of them stayed back.

The shadow clone didn't miss that detail. With the last bits of its chakra remaining, it knew it couldn't handle all five of them, but since all of them were injured, it would be best to take out the healer of the group to reduce their chances to attack his friends.

Just as three of them were about to reach him, he disappeared from his position, appearing behind the two at the back. Both of his hands were covered in a mass amount of condensed wind chakra, which was so dense that even non-sensor ninja could feel it from afar.

"Wind Release: Beast Tearing Gale Palm!"

Sharp claws formed on his hands, which had an unnatural amount of Yang chakra as well, making the structure more solid as well as more deadly.

The clone tried to punch a hole through the chest of both ninjas, but due to the huge amount of chakra he had used, two of them had been alerted of the attack, resulting in them dodging at the last moment, evading the fatal strike.

One of them got their arm cut off in such a gruesome manner that no medical ninja could join that back, whereas the second one had their lungs punctured from the side.

The one with punctured lungs quickly used a Mystic Palm Jutsu to patch his injuries because even though he was able to save his heart and evade immediate death, he was still very close to dying.

But this also gave away the information the clone needed most—the identity of the healer. He quickly lunged toward the healer who was busy healing himself. By then, every member of that five-person team had understood Kaida's plan, so they rushed to save the healer, which only widened the smirk present on the clone's face.

The only ninja with one arm left could see that, and he had an ominous feeling about it. He soon found out why—the clone was covered in many explosion tags, which he ignited at the perfect moment.

All four of them jumped back to save themselves, while Kaida's clone used the last bit of its chakra to cut open the neck of the medical ninja.

BOOM

The head of that medical ninja saw a red flame illuminating the desert sand for a second before it was engulfed in that same fire.

The remaining ninja also sustained burns of various degrees, with the one-armed ninja in critical condition. But the worst thing was there were no traces of the person who did all this to them.

It would have been acceptable if he would have died doing all that.

"It was a shadow clone... trying to buy time so those three could run away. Go after them; I will handle myself," the ninja with only one arm, who was also their leader, said after analyzing the situation.

Three of the Iwa ninja nodded their heads. Even though it was true that their leader was the most injured, they were not unharmed either—they had also suffered many burns.

With the thirst for revenge, they rushed toward the direction the three Konoha ninja had run. Even though they were injured as well, every ninja who reached above Chunin rank at least knew basic medical jutsu and first aid to keep them alive in difficult situations.

...

Kaida was on his routine scout duty with his chunin squad. Being near the sea, the outpost was also responsible for keeping watch over any illegal activities through the sea, especially enemy invasion which was very easy from the sea, particularly at night.

But just as they went back to report their end of shift, Kaida froze. He stopped in his tracks and without any word to his teammates ran toward the commander's office.

The commander of this outpost was Tomohiro Sarutobi, one of the elite jonin of the Sarutobi clan. He was sitting in his office reviewing the reports of the day when—

Knock Knock

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"Who is it?"

"Sir, it is me, Kaida Uchiha!" Kaida shouted.

"Come in."

Kaida entered and without any formalities started speaking:

"The northern outpost bordering Sunagakure is attacked by enemy forces. Our ninja there have been outnumbered heavily, so they blew the base and scattered and are now being hunted down. The expected number of enemies is more than 80, most of them chunin rank or higher. My friends are running toward this direction and are being followed by enemy jonin-level ninjas. I am going to rescue them. I found all this from the memories I got from my shadow clone. That's it, sir." After saying this Kaida turned ready to run toward the base

"Soldier, I have not given you permission to leave!" Tomohiro shouted.

"I was not here for permission either, sir. I was just here so that you could perform the best for our ninja who are being hunted. As for me, I am going to save my friends and can't waste my time here. You can do anything you want to me after I come back," Kaida said and disappeared from his place.

"Young blood," Tomohiro just shook his head but then jumped from his seat as well.

"Code red! Squads 4, 5, and 6, march toward the northern border! Enemies have attacked that outpost—try to save any ninja in our range but don't put your life in danger. Also, call for a meeting and send messengers toward Konoha!" With orders flying through his mouth, he was going to every command room possible. The full outpost went into action in few minutes, with 12 ninjas running towards the northern border, maintaining a large parameter search for any survivors or enemy ninjas.

...

"I knew it, I knew it, I f**king knew it! I shouldn't have let them go away. Run, run, run, dammit!" Kaida was shouting. Black markings could be seen on his body as he was literally burning through chakra to run at a speed far exceeding any of his previous records, but even that felt slow for him. A speed of 800 km per hour, which was inhuman even by ninja standards, felt slow to him.

With no thought of saving chakra, he kept running toward the northern base, using Wind Instantaneous Movement Jutsu and Body Flicker in between to dodge any obstacles in the way.

His mind kept repeating the words of the toad sage.

"I will not lose them, dammit!" he shouted and increased his speed more. Now even the bones in his legs started to break because of the amount of pressure they were feeling. Even a layer of skin was peeling off because he was only focusing his chakra on his arms and legs, so other parts were not protected by it.

But the pain from having so many things happening to his body was not even being registered in his brain, or even if it was, he was ignoring that pain. His bones and skin and any other injuries he was sustaining were being healed at a speed visible to the naked eye thanks to the seal on his forehead, thanks to which he could continue to run at this inhuman speed.

But his mind kept questioning him: 'Will I make it in time?'