"Wait! What are you talking about? What smell? What do you mean someone's dead?"
Was this kid an idiot?
Byakuya glanced back at Kakashi, then pointed impatiently at the enemies lying on the ground.
"There's no smell of powder. If a flare had really been fired here, there's no way there wouldn't be a trace of it. Is your nose just for decoration?"
"Ungh..."
In the original story, you were supposed to have a nose like a hound. So what, is it just some random triangle stuck on your face right now?
Byakuya pointed up at the sky where the flare had gone off and continued,
"If anyone from the squad saw that flare, they might've done exactly what we did and followed it. The enemy was hiding here, waiting to ambush whoever came. There's a good chance someone's already dead."
"Ah..."
Kakashi finally seemed to grasp it, his eyes widening in surprise.
This was the kind of thing even a passing dog could figure out, and he still did not get it. For the current Kakashi, maybe it was still a little too advanced.
Byakuya could already tell life in the ANBU was going to be very eventful from here on out. He turned and bolted in a new direction.
"Where are you going?"
"Listen closely. There's fighting."
I can't hear a thing.
Other than the wind rustling through the leaves, Kakashi heard nothing at all and stared at Byakuya's back in confusion.
Of course, a few years ago, Byakuya had been exactly the same.
Still, the Third Hokage had once told him something, and now seemed like the perfect time to borrow it.
"You don't listen to sound with just your ears."
Not that nonsense about listening with your heart, obviously.
You just hear it when you focus.
That was what Byakuya thought as he sprinted toward the sounds of battle.
Hopefully Kakashi would understand at least some of that.
If the squad members were still alive, then of course he had to save them. If his whole unit got wiped out here, he would not even have the face to show the Hokage.
---
Was the path I chose in the end actually the wrong one?
The captain was too young, and the entire squad was a mess.
Ryūhei, the oldest member of the team, had the image of dying on his first mission flash through his mind even as he barely managed to deflect the enemy's incoming kunai.
"Fall back!"
"Damn it! There are enemies behind us too!"
Six in total?
Ryūhei swept a quick glance around, then pressed back-to-back with the ANBU behind him.
When he first saw the flare rise into the sky, all he had wanted was to check what had happened nearby. He had never imagined it was a trap.
He had already been badly wounded by enemies who concealed themselves while hidden from sight. At this point, just standing on his own two feet took everything he had.
"What do we do... What do we do now?"
The trembling voice of his teammate came from behind him.
Half of the man's mask had shattered, exposing a face full of fear.
Ryūhei did not have any answers either. All he could do was wave his weapon uselessly at the enemies closing in.
Just as he was starting to wonder if he should give up, a scream rang out from nowhere.
"Gah!"
One of the enemies at the rear suddenly sprayed blood from his mouth and collapsed.
Ryūhei's eyes widened as he turned toward the sound.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bomb."
The calm voice came with a huge dragon of flame that tore through the enemies on one side and swallowed them whole.
Byakuya clung sideways to a tree trunk, flashed through hand seals, then kicked off hard and leapt with his sword drawn.
"Earth Style: Great Mud River."
So fast!!!
The thought flashed through Ryūhei's mind as the ground beneath the enemies suddenly turned to mud, swallowing their feet and locking their ankles in place. His eyes chased Byakuya's movements desperately.
Byakuya raced along the tree trunks and cut into them at high speed. The enemies all raised weapons to block, but his sword passed straight through them and split their bodies open in a single stroke.
"Damn it! It's the Invisible Sword! Use ninjutsu, now... gah!"
"In... Invisible Sword?"
Hearing the enemy shout it, Ryūhei repeated the words under his breath. Looking at that blade, a sword that passed through weapons and cut straight through flesh, he finally understood the name.
It clearly had a physical form.
And yet it moved as though it were not there at all.
After cutting down five enemies, Byakuya turned toward the last one, who was just beginning a Water Style jutsu, and severed both of his hands with a single stroke, interrupting the jutsu before it could form.
"You're coming with us."
With that, Byakuya flipped the blade and slammed the flat of it hard into the enemy's head.
The man, still screaming from having both arms cut off, rolled his eyes back and collapsed stiffly to the ground.
That was everyone.
Byakuya quickly swept his gaze over the area and confirmed the three remaining squad members, still frozen where they stood.
So only these three were alive for sure?
Still, there was a little luck here. The other two had fallen behind earlier because they were slower. If fortune held, they might still be on their way over and still safe.
"Report."
"Y-yes... We... we finished scouting the designated area and were heading back to the standby point, just like you ordered. Then we saw the flare and came to check, and that's when the enemy ambushed us..."
"Tch. What a bunch of idiots."
It was obviously a trap, and none of them saw it.
Byakuya clicked his tongue in disgust, picked up the unconscious enemy off the ground, and dropped him in front of Ryūhei.
"Take him. Follow me."
How was this squad supposed to survive the deadly ANBU missions ahead if this was the level they were working with?
Thinking that, Byakuya turned and started walking.
Ryūhei stood there dumbly for several long seconds before lowering his eyes to the unconscious enemy at his feet, arms severed and body limp.
"Ah, I'll carry him. You're hurt, aren't you?"
"...No... Captain told me to take him."
Ryūhei waved off the teammate who approached and hauled the unconscious enemy onto his shoulder.
Byakuya's movements just now...
They had been so fast his eyes could barely keep up.
Ryūhei had already known the man had to be strong, but he had never imagined he was that strong.
To survive in the ANBU at that age, in a place that dangerous, there really was only one explanation.
Pure ability.
If he had actually gone through with openly challenging him earlier, without understanding the gap between them, the one lying there with both arms cut off probably would not have been the enemy.
It would have been him.
Thinking of that figure who vanished almost as fast as a blink, Ryūhei started walking.