When the jonin was following the trails, he suddenly sensed that someone was hiding near the path. Apparently, Kaida's clone was also planning on using the same trick as him, but the problem was his enemy was not some inexperienced chunin but a jonin.

As soon as he sensed that someone was hiding, he used earth bullet jutsu in that direction. Though Kaida's clone was easily able to dodge that using body flicker jutsu and then used fireball jutsu he had prepared on the jonin, which he also dodged using body flicker jutsu.

'Fireball is not fast enough to hit him, and fire breath jutsu is going to take time for preparation. I don't think I can use that either. Well, let's use the second one,' the clone thought and used wind blade jutsu at the jonin.

The jonin was able to sense the danger of the jutsu even though he didn't know which jutsu Kaida used, since he only made two hand signs. But since his instincts were telling him that he was in danger, he used earth style mud wall jutsu to make a dome around him. Then he kept on using the same jutsu to make the dome thicker when he saw many slash marks appear on the walls of the dome.

'This boy is dangerous. No wonder Danzo sama sent us all just for him, but even if he is powerful, he doesn't have much experience. Let's see how you are going to deal with this,' the ninja thought.

And he took out a bottle of poison and then spread it on the ground while making another layer on the dome, which was formed from the soil and poison that was spread on the soil. Then he started sensing where Kaida was, but Kaida's clone maintained a safe distance from the dome. Sensing this, the jonin made a small opening on the dome to create a false opening and lure 'Kaida' near the dome.

Unluckily, the clone threw a kunai with many explosion tags attached to it into the dome through that opening.

'Fuck,' the jonin didn't have much time to use any movement jutsu. He just used iron skin jutsu in hope that he could reduce the amount of damage.

boom boom

Hearing the sound of the explosion, Kaida's clone became a little relaxed, but unfortunately, the jonin was not dead. Even though bones in his legs were broken, he kept on sensing Kaida's position. After sensing that he was within his attack range, he used Earth spike jutsu on the dome wall and launched them at Kaida's clone.

Even though the clone was able to see the incoming attack clearly, he couldn't dodge them all since the number of projectiles exceeded a hundred. Though he skillfully defended against many of the spikes using his sword, at last, one of the spikes was able to penetrate his defense and made a cut on his leg. Due to the cut and poison in it, the clone got dispersed swiftly, and Kaida got the memory of the clone back.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

As soon as that jonin saw that the opponent he was fighting was just a Shadow clone, all the plans of killing or capturing Kaida got expelled from his mind.

'I was not a match for his clones at my full strength. Now that I have a broken leg and half-depleted chakra reserves, there is no way I will be able to match him. I need to run,' he thought. Then he started using movement jutsu to run toward one of the secret bases of Root.

He had no plan of regrouping or helping his subordinates, as he knew that would be futile. Even he, a jonin, had to run after confronting just a clone. What were the chances that some chunin would be able to hold on to their lives till he went to their location... 0%?

So he simply chose the best option and ran towards the nearest root base.

...

"I will take the lead from here," Shisui said while checking for the path that the jonin took while running away.

Normally, any other ninja would have problems finding that path since root specialized in such tasks, but with the help of the mangekyo sharingan's observational power, Shisui found the path within seconds.

"Should I check my other clone? Maybe he will need my help?" Kaida asked.

"Good idea, I will follow this person. You go for those three," Shisui said, as from what he could guess, those three should also be at chunin level and should not be able to harm Kaida. Only this guy who ran away should have had any worthy strength.

So there was no harm in sending Kaida to capture those three as well.

Kaida was just about to leave in that direction when he got the memories of his next clone as well.

"Brother, I don't think I have to go there now," Kaida said.

"Why?" Shisui asked, thinking that maybe those three ninja may have also been successful in fleeing.

"My clone had already killed them," Kaida said.

Though Shisui wanted to hear the full details about this, for now, his priority was to catch the jonin who was fleeing.

"Then just follow me," Shisui said, and then used body flicker jutsu to go towards the direction accurately tracing the same path the jonin had taken. Kaida also followed Shisui closely.

...

(10 minutes before)

Just like the other clone and Kaida, this clone was also hiding on the path, waiting to ambush the root ninjas.

Just as he saw the root ninja coming toward his direction, he also used fireball jutsu to turn their eyes toward him.

And just like Kaida, he also tried to cast a genjutsu on those three ninja.

But the only difference in his case and what happened to Kaida was that the clone didn't have the sharingan.

When Kaida tried to cast multiple genjutsu at the same time, he used the sharingan for that. Since the clone didn't have that, the chance of successful casting got reduced from 100% to 60%.

Due to which, even though two chunin were successfully put under genjutsu, one of the three was able to resist the genjutsu. As soon as Kaida's clone felt that his casting had failed, it took out its sword, ready to slash.

Seeing that, the chunin jumped back, ready to defend itself. The clone took advantage of that and used body flicker jutsu to appear in front of the other two ninja.

With a clean slash, two heads fell on the ground. Since the clone had also used chakra flow of fire nature, the wound was burned, and not a single drop of blood fell either from the head or the body.

When the remaining chunin saw that, he dispersed his chakra, suspecting whether he was actually in some genjutsu. But when the situation remained the same even after dispersing his chakra, he became ready to stall for time.

He didn't even think that he would be able to win. His only chance for survival was if he could stall for enough time until their leader could come to their rescue…