Chapter 31: A bombastic Supply Run

"All seems right. Thank you very much, Kyoko-san," thanked their team captain, Kurenai, the elderly female shopkeeper who had prepared their current delivery of food supplies for their outpost.

They were currently in a small, homely village located in the northern part of the Fire Country, which produced fresh food for the different outposts in the area. While they could survive on soldier pills in emergencies or when access to actual food was limited, it was known that a long-term diet of soldier pills was unhealthy.

Tekku and his two team members were currently storing crates of food in their storage scrolls, getting everything ready for transport, while Kurenai finished up the paperwork.

"Is that all, Kurenai-taicho?" asked Hana as they stored the last crate.

"Yes, the next weapon delivery isn't due until next week. So all we have to do is deliver half of this batch to the 105th outpost at the border with the Land of Grass, and then we can return to the base for today," nodded Kurenai, informing them of their next mission.

Even the direct route towards the outpost through the forest, jumping from tree to tree, took them nearly an hour as they had to stop multiple times for Tekku to sense the surrounding area with his Earth Style: Throbbing Pulse of the World. Patrolling the inland was also part of their job.

As the rundown stone tower that acted as the 105th outpost of the Land of Fire came into view, they were relieved to have arrived. This tower was smaller than theirs and covered around 10 miles of the border, making it one of the smaller outposts in the north, usually inhabited by at most two teams.

This time it seemed that one team was partially absent, as Tekku could only sense five chakra signatures inside. Perhaps one of them was ill and couldn't join them on their mission. He signaled this to the rest of the team using the standard Konoha language.

Following the standard protocol, Kurenai, as the leader, flared her chakra to signal the team inside the tower of their arrival. This could be sensed by almost all ninja; no sensor was needed for that. Tekku could feel the inhabitants positioning themselves in defensive positions, as was protocol until they confirmed whether they were friend or foe.

Now, Haruto stepped forward and knocked on the door in a specific pattern, signaling that they were from Konoha and on a supply run with fresh supplies for them. One of the chakra signatures inside approached the door.

Suddenly, events unfolded rapidly, and Tekku realized that something was horribly wrong. The fifth chakra signature, which hadn't moved at all since they arrived, died. Before he could warn his teammates, the chakra signature began to fluctuate, signifying the molding of two chakra natures.

"GET BACK!" He could only shout in the last moment before his voice was drowned out. With a thunderous blast, the door shook violently as it ripped apart from the massive force blasting against it. Wooden Splinters flew through the air like shrapnel, a swirling vortex of destruction tearing through. Haruto, who stood directly in front of it, got hit head-on. The powerful explosion tore through the young Genin mercilessly. Flesh and bone were rent asunder, a horrifying spectacle of devastation. His limbs flew through the air in a massive cloud of blood, as the red drops splattered against their clothes. His Katana lande a few meters behind them, it's hilt charred by the heat of the explosion.

Tekku just had enough time to jump out of the blast's direct range, while Kurenai had enough reaction speed to pull Hana with her. The three remaining members of Team 10 created distance from the tower as Tekku didn't wait to counterattack. He quickly pulled out a kunai with multiple tags bound to it and threw it towards the entrance, where a charred crater with black body parts and blood lay. He didn't think it would do any damage to the enemy, but it gave them enough time to regroup at a distance as their opponents had to escape through another exit or create a new one, with the resulting cloud of poisonous smoke directly blocking their forward path.

Landing beside Kurenai and Hana, who looked shocked as she had just witnessed a teammate's gory death, the young girl clearly wasn't in a proper state of mind to fight. Kurenai recognized this and knew that Hana wouldn't be any help in a fight, so she decided to send them for reinforcements. This would most likely mean her death, but at least the two genin had a chance to escape.

Instead, Tekku shook his head, as he had already analyzed the situation in his head. His best chance of survival was to ensure that Kurenai would win. He felt that one of the opponents was definitely a jonin, while another was close, probably a tokubetsu jonin with such chakra reserves. No village would send genin on such an attack mission, so the last two opponents were at least chunin.

"Hana, go. Get to the outpost as fast as possible. You are our best hope to survive. I will help Kurenai-san keep the opponents occupied," he modified Kurenai's order while looking seriously at their chunin leader.

"But—" Hana tried to stammer out, not happy with that decision as she didn't want to leave her comrades behind.

"GO! They are coming," he said in a voice that allowed no protest. Still shocked, the girl nodded and turned around, running toward the outpost with her three ninken.

"You should go with her," Kurenai tried to make him leave, but he shook his head.

"Hana won't be able to fight. I am not strong enough to fight that jonin on their team. With four opponents, one of them a jonin, you would lose quickly. Genjutsu is weak against a group of opponents," he explained quickly, feeling the chakra signature approaching from below ground and signaling that to Kurenai. "You take on the jonin on the right. I will take the three chunin-level signatures," he said, not allowing any response as he threw an explosive tag at the ground, forcing the three opponents who were using the Earth Style: Hiding like a mole technique, out of the ground before running towards the left side.

Of course, he didn't mention that one of them was a tokubetsu jonin, or Kurenai would have protested more and chosen to fight both opponents in some self-sacrificial notion. Tekku had already analyzed the situation, and his best chance for survival was to keep the three weaker opponents occupied while Kurenai took on the Iwa jonin in a one-on-one situation with her genjutsu. Fleeing with Hana would only prolong their lives as they weren't fast enough to escape from a jonin. Him fighting only two or one opponent would mean Kurenai would lose, as they could easily break her genjutsu. No, this was the only constellation where they could survive. He had to keep all three opponents that were following him occupied long enough for reinforcement to arrive. Having created enough Distance to the Enemy Jonin and Kurenai, he pulled something out of his Weapon Pouch and threw it on the Ground.

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