Sora looked at the closed eyes of Fox.
At this moment, if he followed the cold calculation and killed Fox, his heart would find no peace, only a deeper shadow would cover it, planting seeds of doubt and regret.
And following the choice of his heart, sparing Fox, the road ahead might be unknown, but at least at this moment, his thoughts were clear and unblocked.
'In that case, then I will not kill.'
Having figured this out, Sora felt his heart suddenly clear, as if some invisible shackle that had always been there was broken, his thoughts becoming extremely clear and unblocked.
He took a deep breath and took a step toward Fox's direction.
He would gamble.
He would gamble on Fox's character, gamble on the bond forged fighting side by side these three years, gamble on his own judgment of people.
Even if he lost the gamble in the end... then he would deal with soldiers with arms, and water with earth.
Possessing strength at the Kage level, he had already preliminarily gained the confidence to face turmoil and challenges.
...
Hearing footsteps, Fox slowly opened his eyes.
When he saw that Sora had returned to human form and was walking towards him, deep astonishment and disbelief flashed once more in those tired eyes.
Sora stopped before him, crouched down, looked into his eyes, and spoke calmly,
"Captain, you were right, hiding is to protect oneself."
"But now I think, perhaps... I don't have to always hide in the shadows either."
His voice was very calm, yet carrying an unprecedented firmness.
"You..."
Fox opened his mouth, momentarily not knowing what to say.
Looking at Sora's clear yet extremely firm black eyes, it was as if he saw some kind of dazzling light.
Fox stared blankly at Sora crouching before him, finally letting out a long sigh.
"You've made a very foolish... but also a very remarkable decision."
"Judging by Anbu standards, this is stupid, but by human standards... thank you, Sora."
Then Fox's gaze became extremely serious, and he said in a deep voice,
"I swear in the name of my late captain, Hatake Sakumo, that everything I witnessed today, concerning your power, will be buried with me into the grave, and will never be revealed to a second person, including the Hokage-sama."
This was an extremely solemn promise.
Sora looked into Fox's eyes and nodded. Since he chose to believe, he would not be suspicious again.
"Deal with the wounds first."
Sora was brief and to the point, no longer dwelling on the topic.
He first quickly examined the wounds on Fox's severed arm and leg, simply bandaged them with hemostatic powder and bandages, temporarily stopping the bleeding, but subsequent treatment would have to wait until they returned to Konoha.
Then, he immediately went to the unconscious Grey Wolf and Night Owl, carefully examining them.
Different from that Suna-nin youth, Grey Wolf's and Night Owl's vital signs were faint but stable, clearly truly unconscious and seriously injured.
Grey Wolf had a terrifying penetrating wound on his chest, not far from the heart, his breathing intermittent, and it was unknown whether he could last until Konoha.
Night Owl's condition was slightly better, mainly chakra exhaustion and internal organ trauma.
Sora took out the soldier pills and water he carried, carefully fed a little to the two of them, and used basic medical ninjutsu to stabilize their injuries.
After doing all this, Sora stood up, his gaze sweeping over the chaotic battlefield.
Toroi had already been vaporized by the dragon breath, but the corpses of Raiga, Ganko, and that female Kumo-nin Yumiko still lay not far away.
There were also traces left by the Suna-nin youth whom Sora had casually silenced.
"We need to clean it up thoroughly," Fox reminded weakly, leaning against a rock.
"Mm," Sora responded.
He walked over to the corpses of Raiga, Ganko, and Yumiko, without the slightest hesitation, opened his mouth again.
Whoosh!
Three small-scale dragon breath flames spewed out, instantly covering the three corpses.
The sizzling sound of burning rang out, and in just a moment, only three human-shaped charred marks and some scattered ashes remained there, blown away by the wind and completely dispersed, once again achieving the feat of reducing bones to ashes.
Towards enemies, Sora would not show the slightest mercy, especially towards corpses that might leak information.
Finally, he similarly dealt with the traces left by the Suna-nin youth.
Then, he stored his own remaining items like weights into a scroll. After doing all this, the traces at the scene were minimized. Unless there was an extremely professional tracking master examining inch by inch, it would be very difficult to reconstruct the complete truth.
As for those glassified craters, no one in their wildest dreams would attribute them to Sora; they would only be considered as some powerful ninjutsu by certain strong individuals.
Sora returned to Fox's side and said,
"We need to leave this place quickly. The commotion was too big; it might attract others."
Fox nodded.
Sora took a deep breath, carried the heaviest Grey Wolf on his back, secured him with bandages, then tucked the still unconscious Night Owl under one arm, while carefully supporting the one-armed Fox with his other hand.
Although the three together weighed nearly four hundred pounds, it was no problem for Sora.
"Hold on tight."
Sora shouted low, exerted strength in his feet, wind elements quietly encircled him to lighten the load, and his figure swiftly dashed towards the direction of the Land of Rivers.
Once they crossed the Land of Rivers, they could enter the border of the Land of Fire, and then it would be relatively safe.
...
Approximately half a day after Sora's group left.
From behind a sand dune extremely far from the battlefield, the air slightly twisted, and a palm-sized, pitch-black, beetle-like small creature silently emerged from the sand.
Its small eyes flashed with a faint red light, "looked" towards the direction Sora's group had left, then vibrated its nearly transparent wings and flew at an extremely fast speed towards the direction of the Land of Lightning.
This was a miniature communication insect that Yumiko had summoned with her last trace of chakra when she sensed Sora's terrifying power erupting instantly and knew she was doomed, burying it deep in the sand.
It had little intelligence, only instinctively recording the last seen images and returning to its nest.
And the last image it recorded was a figure of a youth wearing a Green Snake mask, erupting with green steam, and that ghostly-fast fatal strike.
As for the shocking scene of the Azure Dragon appearing later, it did not see it.
This small insect became a negligible oversight point in this fierce battle.
...
Sora, carrying three injured individuals, although his speed was not comparable to his peak condition, still far exceeded that of ordinary ninjas.
Midway, Night Owl groaned and was the first to wake from unconsciousness.
She opened her eyes in confusion, finding herself being carried under Sora's arm moving at high speed, Captain Fox was being supported, his face pale as paper, his left arm severed at the shoulder, and Grey Wolf, whose condition was unknown, was on Sora's back.
"Cap...Captain? Green Snake? What... happened?"
Night Owl's voice was weak and bewildered, her last memory still stuck at the moment she was heavily injured by Raiga's kick.
Fox and Sora exchanged a glance and told Night Owl the story they had already agreed upon.
The general idea was that later a group of Suna-nin came to rescue the Suna-nin youth, and while the Kumo-nin group wanted to wipe out Sora's team, the Suna-nin youth was clearly more important intelligence.
So the two sides fought, and in the end, Fox escaped with the others at the cost of an arm.
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