“What a powerful Shinobi Will.” As expected of a Sunagakure Jonin, the Shinobi Will he unleashed had reached the point where it could actually affect his teammates.
That sudden roar was almost equivalent to a minor Genjutsu.
Unlike Konoha’s Will of Fire, whose core philosophy was that where leaves flutter, fire flares, emphasizing sacrifice and inheritance— The Will of Wind meant: “Hear me roar.” Its core philosophy was based on the law of desert survival, emphasizing the explosive unleashing of one’s potential in desperate situations, transforming into a sandstorm to protect the oasis and the clan.
Though both were wills to protect, it differed from the core protective philosophy of the Stone Village’s Will of Stone.
The Will of Stone sought strength inwardly, while the Will of Wind did the exact opposite, explosively seeking it from without.
The inward search of the Will of Stone manifested as a massive boost to defense.
The outward search of the Will of Wind, on the other hand, manifested as a tempestuous, sandstorm-like offensive power.
Thus, once faced with a desperate situation, Sand ninjas could often unleash extremely powerful combat strength, especially the elite Sand ninjas who had already awakened the Will of Wind.
However, because these Sand ninjas had been struck by poison-coated Senbon and were already poisoned, the explosive effect of the Will of Wind was heavily discounted.
Furthermore, after his opening gambit of tactics, he had basically beaten these Sand ninjas half to death.
If he really were a Konoha Jonin as they believed, they would stand absolutely no chance of winning; even escaping would be a major question.
No matter how strong the Will of Wind was, it was futile under the absolute, crushing power of a Konoha Jonin.
After all, these Sand ninjas had indeed been crippled by him.
Originally, there was a two-thirds standard elite squad of Sand ninjas.
It consisted of one Sunagakure Jonin leading two ordinary Chunin teammates, and one Special Jonin puppet master leading two other Chunin puppet masters—six people in total, forming two pursuit squads.
Now, under his opening gambit, one Chunin teammate had been bisected on the spot by a Fuma Shuriken.
Subsequently, a Sasuke-style wire-and-shuriken trap had severed the legs of a puppet master Chunin, who was then turned into a pincushion by poison-coated Senbon.
As a result, their numbers had immediately dropped by two, leaving only four.
But that wasn’t the most important part.
After all, those who died were only Chunin.
The most critical issue was that except for the Special Jonin puppet master, the other three were all afflicted by the poison-coated Senbon, and their Chakra was draining rapidly.
Meanwhile, their strongest fighter, the Jonin captain, had the fingers of his left hand sliced by the steel wires.
Unable to form hand seals, his combat effectiveness was severely reduced.
The only one who still posed a major threat was the Special Jonin puppet master.
But at the very beginning, his puppet had been shattered by the slash of the Fuma Shuriken, instantly robbing him of the advantages of a puppet master’s combat system.
Even so, he was a Special Jonin of Sunagakure, not one of those cheap knockoffs from the Stone Village.
Even without a puppet, he was bound to be significantly stronger than an ordinary Chunin.
“Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!” Sure enough, the Special Jonin puppet master formed hand seals, his fingers blurring at a speed of nearly four seals per second, quickly unleashing a C-rank Wind Style: Great Breakthrough.
He spat a massive blast of rapid gale-force winds from his mouth.
It swept across the open space, blowing away and clearing the battlefield of all gunpowder smoke.
Clearly, these Sand ninjas had been terrified by the continuous ambushes.
Their first instinct was not to reposition, but to clear the battlefield and open up their field of vision to prevent another ambush.
At the same time, they grouped together, forming an advantageous tactical formation to coordinate their defense.
“I must not have checked the horoscope today.
My luck is a bit rotten.” Judging by his hand-seal speed and the might shown by this Wind Style: Great Breakthrough, there was no doubt about it: on top of being a puppet master, this Special Jonin was also extremely proficient in Wind Style.
Consequently, Sasuke Umino suddenly realized that although the Sand ninjas had been reduced to a remnant force after his opening gambit, in the short term—after using their Chakra to suppress the biological protease venom—their combat strength was actually stronger than his own side’s.
The Sand ninjas only had four men left: one Jonin with severed fingers, one Special Jonin who had lost his puppet but excelled in Wind Style, one bald Earth Style Chunin who had consumed most of his Chakra, and one Chunin controlling a semi-damaged puppet.
His own side had seven people.
Aside from the cat-masked Chunin who seemed to have been poisoned and was on the verge of collapsing, everyone else maintained relatively intact combat strength.
This meant they had exactly three Chunin and three Genin.
On paper, they had the numerical advantage and were in better condition.
But their opponents were the elite of the elite, and they were prepared to fight to the death.
No matter how one looked at it, in a head-on clash, his side did not hold the upper hand.
Their only advantage was probably that the Sand ninjas still lacked accurate battlefield intelligence and assumed he was a Konoha Jonin who specialized in trap-and-tool manipulation.
Sasuke Umino’s lips curled into a self-deprecating arc as his fingers subconsciously brushed against the Ration Pill in his ninja tool pouch.
What Konoha Jonin?
He was nothing more than a high-grade Konoha cannon fodder.
If not for setting up an ambush in advance, aided by Tekudo’s Money Style Secret Technique, and utilizing a Byakugan-like sonar Radar Jutsu to control the field, he would have fled long ago.
How would he dare stay here to seek his own death?
Fortunately, he only needed to stall for a bit longer.
The Konoha mobile patrol unit’s reinforcements should be arriving soon.
“Charge!” “No matter what, we must retrieve the intel!” The Sand ninjas’ fighting spirit was incredibly resilient.
They immediately maintained their tactical formation, staying on guard against further trap-and-tool ambushes while rapidly and frantically shifting their attack toward the monkey-faced Konoha Chunin.
“Even at this point, they’re still thinking about their mission intel.
Truly tenacious.” Sasuke Umino shook his head, a cold, sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.
Since they refused to retreat, he would give them a little extra seasoning.
Sasuke Umino snatched the largest sealing scroll from Tekudo’s waist.
With a tone full of instigation and provocation, he shouted, “Tekudo, the time for your revenge has come!” Looking at the shattered pieces of his beloved large and small bladed “wives,” Tekudo was instantly triggered.
His eyes turned bloodshot, and blue veins bulged on his forehead: “Ah!
My beloved Fuma Shuriken wife!
My paper-thin darling!
My…” With every word Tekudo spat out, his rage meter soared to a new level, and the Chakra inside his body surged relentlessly.
Clearly, Tekudo blamed all the faults on these Sand ninjas, completely forgetting that he was the primary culprit.
“Damned Sand ninjas, go to hell!” With an angry roar, Tekudo grabbed the other end of the sealing scroll and yanked it hard, releasing the seal.
“Manipulated Tools: Tenblade Ranman!” With a colossal boom, tens of thousands of ninja tools erupted from the sealing scroll, condensing in midair into a metal tide that blotted out the sky.
Poison-coated Senbon buzzed like a swarm of locusts, tearing through the air.
A massive deluge of hexagonal Shuriken, caltrops, Kunai, chain-sickles, spiked clubs, and various other bladed tools rained down across the entire battlefield like falling meteors.
There were even numerous iron spheres and steel hammers among the heavy weaponry, smashing directly toward the Sand ninjas’ formation.
“Earth Style: Earth Wall!” The bald Chunin was finally prepared this time.
Keeping a constant watch for ambushes, he timely cast a B-rank defensive Ninjutsu: Earth Style: Earth Wall.
This bald Chunin’s timing was impeccable, perfectly shielding his two puppet master comrades.
Meanwhile, the Sunagakure Jonin leading the charge advanced through the storm of ten thousand blades.
He danced on the edge of a knife, dodging one sharp weapon after another.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
The long sword in his hand moved like a flowing river, easily parrying every single incoming poison-coated Senbon.
As expected of a Sunagakure Jonin, his strength was formidable.
Facing such a sky-blocking deluge of ninja tools, he was still able to handle it with ease.
Clearly, in addition to his immense strength, this Sunagakure Jonin possessed rich tactical experience.
This was obvious from the fact that he did not immediately retreat behind the Earth Wall.
Staying outside on his own, besides showing absolute confidence in his own strength, was also to prevent the entire squad from being wiped out in one fell swoop.
At the same time, he could step outside the immediate clash to control the rhythm of the battle, helping his teammates perceive intelligence on the battlefield.