Chapter 51: First Blood
Medical Ninjas need to carry around a large number of medical devices, so they move around slower than combat Ninjas. Although Ryo and Jiraya left Konoha together, Ryo ended up falling behind a few days later.“Captain, we have just left the safe zone. We are no longer that far from the battlefield.” Said a ninja of the medical squad.
“Ming, use your Byakugan to investigate what’s in front of us. If there is no enemy in range, we’ll advance. Be careful.”Said Ryo to Ming Hyuga.
He nodded and opened his Byukugan and observed their surroundings, Ryo was also cautious about the surroundings and examining them himself.
“Captain, No enemies found within 1 Km ahead.”
“Ming, we’ll do this every Km. We don’t want to accidentally fall in an ambush!” Ryo knew that the Medical Unit was particularly important to the Ninjas on the battlefield of the Wind country, so he was really careful.
The unit continued to move forwards. Every Km, Ming would explore the surroundings to confirm safety. After going 5 kilometers in, he found Sand Ninjas waiting for them in an ambush.
“Captain, I found Sand Ninjas in front of us, 27 of them!”
“Stop! Maan, go ahead, and try to find out their team composition.” Ryo made everybody stop and sent Maan Uchiha ahead.
Ryo knew well that Maan was a strong Ninja. After all, they’ve fought each other before. Over the course of the few past days, they both have been chatting and Ryo learned that he opened the 3 dotted Sharingan.
Realizing this, Ryo felt both envious and helpless. After all, his Sharingan didn’t make any progress over the past two years.
Soon Maan was back. “Captain, in the front, there is a sensor ninja, there are 5 Jonins on that team, and the leader is an elite Jonin for sure. The rest should be Chunin level.”
Ryo made an assessment of power gap between the two teams. Five of the enemies are Jonins, the leader is an elite one. Counting the Medical Ninjas who can use Ninja Scalpels, the teams are close to equal in combat level.
“One Ino-Shika-Cho team stays behind with 7 fighting ninjas to protect the medical team. The medical team members who can use Ninja Scalpels will come with me to ambush Sand Ninja.” Ryo assigned everyone with the tasks fitting their skills.
In fact, Ryo could have chosen to try to avoid this ambush and continue to advance. However, he knew that if they were caught by that team, they would suffer great losses due to the presence of weaker members on his team. As a captain, he had the responsibility to protect his men.
And his decision was relying on the presence of the Byakugan on his team that can grasp the enemies’ movements and allow him to attack when appropriate.
Seven members of the medical team knew how to use the Chakra Scalpel. Along with 23 fighting Ninjas who came with Ryo, they took hidden spots to ambush the enemy with the help of Ming. Ryo alone was in front of everyone.
Soon after Ryo and the others made their ambush, the Sand Ninjas appeared. They obviously also knew that there were Ninjas that were coming their way. Ryo hid his presence using the technique he obtained from the Sand Spy at the Women’s Hot Spring Hotel.
This was the 1st time that Ryo used this secret ability of his family, which allows him to learn Ninjutsu just by reading minds.
Because of this, the Sand’s Sensor Ninja didn’t find him. After the Sand Ninja went beyond him, he condensed a Ninja Scalpel, and entered the Ice elementization mode, then activated his Lightning Chakra mode.
With the Ice-Lighting Chakra mode, he blinked and appeared behind the Sand’s Sensor Ninja, slitting his throat.
The Sand Ninja who were protecting their Sensor companion were fast to attack Ryo; Shurikens were thrown at him from every direction.
The Sand Ninja were quick to retreat when realizing that their Shurikens did absolutely nothing to Ryo.
Once again, he disappeared instantly with His lightning Chakra mode.
From the moment Ryo went in on them, until he disappeared again, only 5 seconds have passed.
Most of the Sand Ninja didn’t even have time to respond to his attack, and the few who attacked him weren’t even able to do any damage to him. This way Ryo scored 1st blood in the 3rd world war.
Ryo’s epic performance did not just make the Sand Ninja panic; it also stunned his teammates who were observing him.
In particular, Maan Uchiha, who had the Sharingan activated, couldn’t actually fully capture Ryo’s movements despite the fact that his Sharingan was 3 dotted. This exceeded his all his expectations.
“Don’t panic! Take Tanaka’s corpse and move on. The enemy has killed our Sensor Ninja because he didn’t want us to move forward. There must be something ahead of us.”
The Sand Jonin leading the team was absolutely right. Ryo used the spectacular Lightning Chakra Mode to Kill that Ninja for two reasons: On one hand, this protected his companions from being located, and on the other, he wanted to shake the hearts of the Sand Ninja who were coming in so they would just retreat.
But they continued to advance, until they stepped into the ambush of the medical squad.
The 1st to make a move was Uchiha man, turning one of the enemy’s Chunins into coal by using his clan’s signature Fireball Technique. Ming was not to be outdone, using his gentle fist technique to kill another one.
Other’s also rushed in, as the Sand Ninja who had no eyes went right into the trap made by Ryo and his mates.
Nine of the Sand’s Chunins were taken out in a flash, and Ryo cut off the arm of one of the Jonins.
“Konoha scum!” The leader of the enemies felt so humiliated by this that he rushed towards Ryo directly.
Ryo went straight to his Ice mode, while his arm was condensing a Ninja Scalpel. In his Ice mode, his speed isn’t on par with that of the elite Jonin who led the enemy team. He took several hits from him.
“Abominable, [Futon: Great Slashing Tornado].” Ryo felt really grateful that Orochimaru demonstrated this technique to him. The moment the attack went his way, he activated his lightning Chakra Mode and it was easy for him to avoid being hit.
“Now it’s my turn!” Now that he forced Ryo into the Ice-lightning Chakra mode, the Jonin was no longer a match for him at all. All he saw was a flash before his head was cut off by Ryo’s Chakra Scalpel.
After killing their leader, Ryo went on and annihilated the whole enemy team along with his squad.
The medical team had 3 severely injured members, along with 5 minor injuries. But in return, they totally wiped out their opponents. This ambush was, by all means, a huge success.
With the exception of Maan Uchiha, everyone on the team thought that Ryo was just a Medical Ninja who exceeds them in medical skill. Now that they saw him fight, they learned that he was a powerful one as well.
In Naruto’s world, the strong are worshiped, and all the members of the team who entered the battle with completely convinced with Ryo being their leader.
Ryo feared that night would fall on them, so he ordered everyone to hurry up and burry the Sand Ninjas and the medical team continued approaching Konoha’s Camp.