Chapter 229 Mission and Choice

Faced with Kakashi's attacks becoming more fierce and cunning each time, the Iwa Ninja who was launching a sneak attack felt quite exhausted, but the strange thing was that he still refused to use his full strength and even chose to escape at the last moment.

The thin Iwagakure ninja with a popcorn hairstyle landed steadily on a protruding rock in the river. Kakashi was very surprised and couldn't understand what the enemy was doing, so he looked back, but saw a scene that made him bloodshot.

Meanwhile, Harano Rin was casually held in the arms of a burly Iwagakure ninja, and Uchiha Obito was supporting the injured Yamashiro Hoshi in the river. His team seemed to have lost its combat effectiveness in a very short time!

The popcorn-haired Iwagakure smirked. He was very satisfied with his attack plan, and surprisingly, the enemy also cooperated. "Young Konoha brat, didn't anyone tell you not to act rashly before you carried out the mission? I haven't seen a guy who disrupted the formation without permission for a long time. He is really an arrogant genius."

Kakashi almost bit his teeth off, but now that Hara Norin was in the hands of the enemy, it was useless even if he was extremely unhappy. He didn't even dare to refute out loud, for fear that the angry enemy would do something irreparable.

The popcorn-haired Iwagakure made a seal, which was the seal of the instant body technique. Kakashi's heart skipped a beat and he shouted hurriedly: "Wait!"

"Bye, little devils!"

"Oh!"

Two clouds of smoke exploded, and when they dissipated, the Iwagakure disappeared without a trace, and Kakashi's heart sank to the bottom.

The noisy river returned to silence, and the sound of splashing water and the sparse shaking of bamboo leaves reached the ears. The three of them had lost their former elegance and stood there with gloomy faces, completely unaware of what to do next.

After a long time, Kakashi bit his tongue and forced himself to calm down. He put away his dagger and came to Yamashiro Hoshi to check his injuries. He found that he had only suffered some minor skin injuries and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Uchiha Obito had tears in his eyes and an expression of indelible guilt on his face. He asked, "Kakashi, what should we do next?"

Kakashi looked at Uchiha Obito with a heavy face and said indifferently: "Continue the mission!"

Uchiha Obito was stunned and said hurriedly: "But Lin is still in the hands of the enemy. We should rescue her first, and then blow up the Kannabi Bridge!"

"This is not the place to talk. Let's leave quickly. Xing's injuries also need treatment." Kakashi said unmoved.

Uchiha Obito swallowed thousands of words, helped Yamashiro Xing across the river, and found a secluded corner for Yamashiro Xing to heal his wounds.

Kakashi stared at the map intently, seemingly not noticing Uchiha Obito's fiery eyes, which made the latter extremely angry. He said hastily, "We should set out immediately to rescue Lin. The enemy hasn't gone far yet, and we will definitely be able to catch up with them."

"What if there are more than two enemies? What if this is just a trap set by the enemy?" Kakashi said as he put away the map.

"This..." Uchiha Obito was speechless, but then he said loudly: "Even so, I will go to save Lin!"

"Calm down Obito, arguing won't solve any problems, and a ninja must always remain calm during a mission. Come, sit down so we can talk."

"I won't sit!"

"Okay, speak softly. This is enemy-occupied territory and enemies may attack at any time," Kakashi warned.

"Lin can't be saved. Don't argue with me yet. Just listen to me. We have been exposed now. The enemy knows our intention without any guessing. The most important thing now is to blow up the Kannabi Bridge before the enemy tightens their defense line!"

"Once we successfully blow up the Kannabi Bridge, the war will be over and the enemy will have no need to kill Rin. They can just use her to exchange for prisoners." Kakashi lied to himself.

In fact, exchanging prisoners has always been a rare practice. Ninja wars are extremely cruel. Any captive will be tortured immediately and then killed without mercy. No ninja will keep a time bomb around, even if the bomb has no gunpowder, it is still dangerous.

Uchiha Obito scoffed at Kakashi's words: "Do you believe what you said? Don't treat me like a fool!"

Kakashi's face darkened. He knew very well that he was being lied to, but he had no choice. It would be foolish to interrupt the mission to rescue Hara Norin now. Not only would it be very likely that the person could not be rescued, but the mission to blow up the Kannabi Bridge would also fail.

He kept repeating the same truism, as if trying to convince himself: "Our infiltration route has not been exposed yet. The wisest thing to do right now is to continue the mission. You should understand Obito. Rin... may have died in the line of duty!"

"I don't care about that. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, we can't abandon our companions. I can blow up that bridge at any time, but Lin must come back alive!"

"You're talking nonsense!" Kakashi was also angry, his voice became fierce: "You are a Chunin of Konoha, you should put the interests of the village first! If possible, I will of course give priority to saving my companions, no one wants to die with their companions who they live with day and night! But this is the bloody reality, every second we delay here, more ninjas in the village will die! Wake up, Uchiha Obito, open your eyes and see clearly, this is a battlefield!"

"The village has entrusted us with a heavy responsibility, and Lord Yeshan has placed his trust in us. He is asking us to complete the mission and blow up the Kannabi Bridge, not to test whether we have a sense of unity! The mission must continue without stopping until we are all killed in battle!"

Uchiha Obito's eyes burned with anger. He grabbed Kakashi by the collar, looked him in the eye and said loudly, "You have ten thousand reasons not to save Lin, but I have only one, and that is she is our companion! We can't give up on her, even if the mission will fail!"

"Get lost!" Kakashi was furious and pushed Uchiha Obito away, continuing to try to persuade him: "It is true that Lin is our companion, but who among the Konoha ninjas fighting on the front line right now is not our companion? Lin's life is a life, aren't theirs? Ninjas must abide by the rules, and those who don't are trash! No matter from which angle, blowing up the Kannabi Bridge is the priority!"

"Lin saved your life, have you forgotten?"

"I dare not forget it for a moment, but I am a ninja of Konoha, and the interests of the village are above everything else! No matter what, we must blow up the bridge immediately, otherwise the lives sacrificed by countless ancestors in the village will be meaningless." Kakashi was terribly calm. He spoke the truth and reasoned. More than two years of front-line experience made him mature a lot, and he was no longer the passionate boy. He had seen a lot of dead people, and there were only a few classmates left in the class, but he believed that as long as the death of a ninja was valuable, it would not be in vain.

"Haha, Kakashi, I misjudged you before. You don't care about the lives of your companions at all. You only care about the results of the mission. You can give up anything to complete the so-called mission. A guy like you is not worthy of being a Jonin."

Kakashi shook his head, his mood relaxed a lot, and he said calmly: "Whether he is worthy of the title of Jonin or not is not up to you, and even I don't have the final say. There is no point in arguing here."

"There is one thing I need to remind you, Lord Uchiha Obito, the Chunin of Konoha. I am the captain of the team. The document for this mission clearly states that I am in charge of the command. Do you understand what this means?"

Uchiha Obito had a gloomy face and stared at Kakashi without saying a word.

"Since you don't want to say it, let me emphasize it again. There is only one leader on the battlefield, and there can only be one voice in the team at any time. Do you understand?"

"Follow orders and prepare. We will set off in a quarter of an hour to continue our mission!"

After saying that, Kakashi turned around and was about to leave, but he heard another word from Uchiha Obito.

"I have always believed that Konoha White Fang is the real hero, even though many people secretly slander him. It takes great courage for a ninja to abandon his mission and choose to save his companions when necessary. Obviously, you don't have the courage to make such a decision. I don't blame you, but please don't stop me. I will go to rescue Lin, and we will part ways from now on."

A crack seemed to have appeared. It was invisible and intangible, but so clear. At this moment, Kakashi suddenly remembered what Master Yeshan said a few years ago: Don't let the sadness of the times become your personal sadness. At that time, he was very naive and thought it was impossible. However, after the incident happened, he suddenly realized that he might have really become a stranger. I don't know since when, Kakashi has been strict with himself according to the standards of a ninja. He eats and sleeps on time, practices step by step every day, and never wants to communicate with others. After a long time, looking back, it seems that there is no real companion around him anymore.

But if he really gave up the mission to save his companions, then was the father he denied in his heart right? However, the ninja school and the Konoha regulations clearly stated that completing the mission should be the top priority. No one has raised any objections over the years. Could it be that the regulations are wrong?

In fact, they are all right. What is wrong is this cruel world. Every ninja is thrown into the furnace. They are required to abandon all personal emotions and become ruthless machines. Little do they know that this is the most ridiculous thing. People have three emotions and six desires, so how can they become cold machines?

The same thing that happened to Hatake Sakumo happened to Kakashi several years later. The boy turned his back, clenched his teeth, and clenched his hands in a corner where no one could see. But even so, his eyes were still wet.

Uchiha Obito could say without any burden that he would abandon the mission to save his companions, because he had not experienced tragedy in his childhood. Kakashi was different from him, he was a ninja who had truly experienced pain, and witnessed the miserable death of his omnipotent father. He would not let the tragedy happen again, even though he was extremely painful and tangled in his heart.

"Obito, I don't know what you really think. Although you and I are close, we have experienced different things after all. You have your persistence, and I have my choice. I leave Lin in your hands. I hope everything goes well."

Kakashi said this almost in tears. He really wanted to go and rescue his companions directly, but the importance of the mission was too great, so great that he didn't dare to have any improper thoughts.

The bamboo forest swayed carefree in the wind, but the ninja in the beautiful scenery felt so helpless, forming a strong contrast.

Kakashi's team was divided into two groups. Uchiha Obito was responsible for rescuing the captured Hara No Rin, and the remaining two were responsible for completing the mission.

It is worth mentioning that we cannot judge who is right or wrong, and we are not qualified to blame anyone. Perhaps the mistake is that they became ninjas and they had no choice.

Someone once said that there is no history in the world, because what happened in the past will definitely happen again, even if it seems absurd.

......

The Iwagakure ninja who captured Harano Rin were eager to know the route and personnel distribution of the Konoha side, so just as Uchiha Obito expected, they did not go far, but returned to a stronghold to interrogate them.

It seemed that the Iwagakure ninjas left traces on purpose, or it seemed that they were fearless, but in any case, Uchiha Obito easily found their hiding place.

Even though he said it was very powerful, he was still very nervous when facing two jonin enemies. Uchiha Obito kept cheering himself up in his heart. In order to stay awake, he made a very low-level mistake, which was to slap his face hard, causing the enemy to notice the danger.

The two Iwagakure ninjas who were interrogating the suspects raised their heads and looked outside at the same time. The popcorn-haired Iwagakure ninja smiled coldly and said, "These are tough kids. You go and deal with them. I'll stay and continue to use illusions to force a confession."

"Well, I'll leave this place to you. I'll take care of the brats outside. It's been a while since I've met a young Konoha ninja."

"Be careful, don't die. They are not weaklings, especially that white-haired kid. His strength is no less than that of an ordinary jonin."

"Don't worry, I have my own way to hold them back." The burly Rock Ninja smiled lightly, made a seal with his hands and disappeared mysteriously.

Uchiha Obito took out a kunai, tried hard to suppress the fear in his heart, and was about to step into the cave, unaware that danger was already close at hand.

"Shh!"

A chill suddenly exploded, and Uchiha Obito felt his body stiffen instantly. Before he could react, another beam of snow-white light came towards him.

Blood gushed out, and a blurry figure stumbled back. Kakashi pressed himself against the tree trunk nimbly, wielded his knife nimbly, and said in a deep voice: "Hey, are you okay?"

"Kaka...Kakashi? Why are you here?" Uchiha Obito looked at his companion in front of him in amazement, not knowing what was going on.

"We can't let a crybaby act alone, so I came." Kakashi said calmly, as if he was not the one who was struggling just now.

Taking advantage of the enemy's injury, Yamashiro Star shot arrows down from the tree, looking like he was about to rush into the cave.

The invisible Iwa Ninja naturally refused. He ignored his injuries and rushed over instantly, stabbing hard with the kunai in his hand. Yamashiro Hoshi had anticipated this and drew his ninja sword to block. The two fought in mid-air for several rounds, and were finally separated by Kakashi.