Chapter 54: Mission Accomplished and Bad News

Creak~ The door was pushed open. Seimei and his group of four walked out of the room, passed through the charred corridor, and came to both sides of the entrance to room 107. Then, Yamanaka Ichiryo made a hand signal. Seimei and the others nodded. Then, each of them took out a kunai, carefully wrapped it with an explosive tag, and under Yamanaka Ichiryo's "3, 2, 1" hand signal, threw them into room 107 simultaneously. "Watch out!" Immediately, a slightly anxious warning from the Iwa ninja came from inside the room. However, this couldn't stop the explosive tags from detonating. Boom~ boom~ boom~ Violent explosions rang out. Immediately afterward, crimson flames surged out from the entrance of room 107, making Seimei and the others' cheeks feel hot. Not only that, but the walls on both sides of the room also shook three times under the tremendous explosion. In such a confined space, the damage caused by the explosive tags was far greater than detonating them in an open area. 'I wonder how the Iwa ninja inside are doing?' Thinking this in his heart, Seimei took the lead, and the moment the flames disappeared, he rushed into the room with his short blade in hand. In the smoke, several shuriken shot towards him rapidly. Seimei calmly waved his short blade continuously, and with a series of clanging sounds, the incoming shuriken were all knocked down by him. At this time, his three teammates also rushed in. "Two o'clock direction!" Yamanaka Ichiryo immediately reported the enemy's position. The other two didn't hesitate at all and immediately crossed Yamanaka Ichiryo, rushing towards the front right at high speed. There, an Iwa Chunin was half exposed from the ground, preparing to launch a second wave of sneak attacks. Seeing the opponent's appearance, Seimei knew that they must have used the entrance to the underground warehouse to avoid the explosive tags' attack. Otherwise, in such a small room, being directly hit by several explosive tags, the opponent would either die or be severely injured. Just like the Iwa Genin who had fallen in front of him, although he had avoided the direct damage of the explosive tags, he couldn't avoid internal injuries from the blast wave. He wouldn't be able to launch a counterattack like he was doing now. Shaking his head slightly, Seimei stopped thinking and focused his attention back on the opponent. At this time, the Iwa Chunin had already crawled out of the entrance to the underground warehouse and was fighting with the two Konoha Chunin who had rushed up. In addition, two Iwa Genin also rushed out of the tunnel after him and engaged in combat with Yamanaka Ichiryo who had arrived later. Seeing this, Seimei took out six shuriken, held them between his fingers, and stared at the Iwa ninja. The next moment, he threw the six shuriken, some fast, some slow, and two even collided in mid-air, changing their flight paths. Then came the muffled groans of three Iwa ninja. Out of the six shuriken, only two missed, and the remaining four all hit the Iwa ninja. Although they didn't hit any vital points, it was enough for his three companions to seize the opportunity and end the battle. A few breaths later, accompanied by a few short screams, all three Iwa ninja fell to the ground, lifeless. After confirming that all the enemies had been eliminated, Seimei and the others didn't waste any time and immediately entered the Iwa ninja's supply warehouse through the tunnel entrance. They saw that it was an underground space of about 200 square meters, obviously excavated using Earth Release ninjutsu. Rows of shelves were placed in the open space, filled with supplies, including food, ninja tools, medicine, explosive tags, and various other necessities for ninja. Especially the explosive tags, which saved them a lot of trouble. Seimei and the others discussed and took out all the explosive tags, placing them in various corners of the warehouse. After doing all this, the four carefully retreated from the underground space. Yamanaka Ichiryo took several safety measures at the tunnel entrance. After making sure there would be no problems, he said, "Alright, the mechanism will be triggered in three minutes. We can leave." Hearing this, the others looked at each other and then quickly ran outside. To be honest, standing on such a large "powder keg," no one would feel at ease, even if they had personally placed those explosive tags. If it exploded, not to mention they were standing right on top of it, even if they were a bit further away, they might still be affected. So, it was better to leave early. Next, they had only one goal, which was to do their best to rush back to the town stronghold. As for the signal of mission completion... Please! With that large "powder keg," who needed any signal? ... Tick~ tock~ Time passed by. Three minutes later. A huge explosion came from the center of the village. Crimson flames shone through the cracks in the ground into the sky, illuminating the entire village. Not only that, but the ground within two or three kilometers of the village experienced strong tremors. On the outskirts, the Konoha ninja in four directions saw this commotion and immediately understood that someone had completed the mission. So, they started to fight and retreat. But the Iwa ninja seemed to be enraged and stubbornly pursued them, which made the retreat plan very difficult. The two sides chased and fled, constantly engaging in life-and-death battles. In the end, the number of casualties on both sides during this stage even exceeded that of the initial chaotic battle. Seimei and the others were inevitably caught up in it. Even with Yamanaka Ichiryo's advance perception, they still encountered enemies several times, and even one of their teammates who carried out the mission together died. When they finally returned to the town stronghold in the latter half of the night, Seimei realized that the losses from this mission far exceeded his expectations - the number of people present at the stronghold was nearly half less than when they set off. With a heavy heart, Seimei returned to his team's station, and the first thing he saw was Mizutani Shizuko with red eyes. Somehow, Seimei's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly had a bad feeling. Sure enough, next, he heard bad news. "Seimei, Ryosuke, Ryosuke and sensei... They all died...呜呜呜~" As she spoke, Mizutani Shizuko burst into tears. Hearing this, Seimei also froze on the spot, and memories of their past interactions quickly flashed through his mind. Although he hadn't spent a long time with Ryosuke, and often declined his invitations to train alone, Ryosuke's optimistic and positive personality had still left some marks on his heart. Now, suddenly hearing the news of his death, Seimei felt a sense of unreality. And sensei Kogawa... Although he hadn't taught him much in ninjutsu, he had allowed him to accumulate rich combat experience and had always helped him whenever he could with his requests. It could be said that these two were among the few people he cared about in this world. "Inhale... Exhale..." Taking a deep breath and then slowly exhaling, trying his best to calm down, Seimei looked at Mizutani Shizuko and asked, "How did sensei and the others die?"