“Hmph!” A cold snort burst from Kagejiro Sarutobi’s nose.
He had clearly misunderstood Yoru Gekko’s good intentions, believing that Yoru and the evil Uchiha were both there to steal credit for the mission.
Although Kagejiro Sarutobi was grumbling inwardly, he didn’t show it on his face.
Striking a self-righteous pose, he said, “Do I look like someone who would abandon his teammates and retreat alone?
If you ask me, we should wipe out the remaining enemies together.
They’ve been heavily poisoned and won’t hold out much longer.” When Asuka Hyuga heard Kagejiro’s proposal, he nearly choked with rage.
He even felt as if this reckless fool was subtly mocking him.
Both sides were poisoned, but the toxins in Asuka’s body had already spread to his heart meridian.
His Byakugan vision was flickering on and off, on the verge of collapsing, and he was nearly at his absolute limit.
Meanwhile, the Sand ninja were still able to channel their chakra to suppress the poison.
*Kagejiro Sarutobi, you reckless fool,* Asuka thought.
*A moment ago, you were shouting about how the mission comes first, abandoning your captain to hold off the enemies alone.
Now, you turn around and obsess over this petty credit, completely disregarding the safety of the intelligence.
You’re a completely different person from when you made those solemn vows.* *Kagejiro, it seems you’re as unreliable as ever.* Hearing the Konoha ninja plot to transfer the intelligence, the Sand ninja were anxious, but for the moment, they had no time to worry about anything else.
Their top priority was to withstand the deadly assault before them.
“Quick, interrupt his hand signs!
We absolutely cannot let him cast that S-rank Water Style: Hard Whirlpool Water Blade!” The spiky-haired Sand Jonin’s eyes nearly split from rage as he pointed a finger at Sasuke Umino, who was weaving signs like a madman.
In his eyes, performing such an incredibly long sequence of hand signs meant Sasuke was definitely gathering a massive amount of chakra, preparing a world-destroying, ultimate Water Style jutsu.
Furthermore, the monkey-masked Konoha ninja belonged to the Sarutobi Clan and was bound to be extremely familiar with Konoha’s ninjutsu.
Judging by the fool’s smug, overconfident expression, the intelligence he had leaked in their conversation was likely accidental.
It had to be the S-rank Water Style: Hard Whirlpool Water Blade.
Having received this information from their Jonin captain, the bald Chunin and the two puppeteers stopped hiding defensively.
They immediately leaped onto the Earth Wall, climbing to the top.
Without a moment’s delay, they unleashed their respective techniques, desperate to interrupt the [Uchiha Jonin’s] casting process.
“Wind Style: Pressure Damage!” The Special Jonin puppeteer reacted the fastest.
His fingers flew, weaving four signs a second so rapidly they left afterimages.
He instantly unleashed a B-rank Wind Style jutsu to disrupt the ultimate Water Style technique Sasuke Umino was about to unleash.
A storm vortex compressed to its limit abruptly took shape, condensing into a swirling, high-pressure sphere of wind.
The surface of the high-pressure sphere was densely packed with swirling wind patterns.
The moment it shot forward, it caused a sonic boom, sucking in the surrounding air and creating a brief vacuum zone.
Clearly, even among the many powerful B-rank Wind Style techniques, this jutsu was a cut above the rest.
The remaining Sand ninja threw their hands forward repeatedly, hurling kunai and shuriken one after another.
A faint, deadly blue-white light gleamed on them, indicating they were infused with a significant amount of Wind-attribute chakra.
The spiky-haired Jonin thrust his long sword into the ground and hurled a flurry of kunai and shuriken with his right hand.
Hidden among them were two kunai with Explosive Tags tied to them.
As expected of a Sunagakure Jonin.
Unlike the impoverished, low-ranking Sand ninja, he actually possessed strategic supplies like Explosive Tags.
Though he only had two, given Sunagakure’s barren environment and severe resource shortage, this was already a luxury reserved exclusively for Jonin.
Compared to the two Explosive Tags, the B-rank Wind Style: Pressure Damage was clearly far more powerful.
Had the spiky-haired Jonin not lost the fingers on his left hand, rendering him unable to perform hand signs, he would have definitely gone all out to unleash an A-rank Wind Style jutsu to tear this loathsome [Uchiha Jonin] to shreds.
“Earth Style: Earth Mausoleum Dumpling!” Facing this dire crisis, the bald Chunin squeezed out the last drops of chakra from his body, finally completing the hand signs for an incredibly powerful offensive Earth Style: Earth Mausoleum Dumpling.
With a resounding boom, the ground in a ten-meter radius ahead collapsed.
Amidst the deafening roar of shattering earth and stone, a massive boulder the size of a house was violently ripped out of the ground.
Soil showered down as dark yellow patterns of light flowed across the giant stone sphere.
This was the physical manifestation of both shape and nature transformation of Earth-attribute chakra.
The bald Chunin’s temples dripped with cold sweat, his face twisting into a hideous grin.
“Taste the sensation of being crushed!” The massive stone sphere hurtled toward Sasuke Umino, who was still rapidly weaving signs, accompanied by a howling sound like a hurricane.
In mid-air, screams of whistling wind filled the air.
A barrage of kunai, shuriken, Explosive Tags, and the high-pressure sphere of the B-rank Wind Style swept over the sky, blotting out the sun as they descended upon Sasuke Umino.
The massive stone sphere in mid-air crashed down with the force of a collapsing mountain.
“Kagejiro, is that really the S-rank Water Style: Hard Whirlpool Water Blade?” A trace of bewilderment showed in Yoru Gekko’s eyes, his mind full of doubt.
Wasn’t the number of hand signs required for this ultimate Water Style technique a bit too absurdly long?
He had already woven over a hundred signs, hadn’t he?
“This…” Kagejiro Sarutobi found himself momentarily tongue-tied.
His throat bobbed, but he didn’t know how to answer.
Kagejiro wanted to make up an excuse, but Yoru had already stopped paying attention to him.
He called out to the distant [Uchiha Jonin] to warn him: “Watch out for the attacks!” Yoru looked deeply worried.
Although he believed in this [Uchiha Jonin’s] strength, he couldn’t help but feel anxious.
After all, the Uchiha Jonin was still weaving hand signs; his ninjutsu was not yet complete.
Furthermore, the combined force of this coordinated attack was already comparable to an A-rank ninjutsu.
Under the circumstances, how could Yoru not worry?
“It’s over!” Seeing this, Asuka Hyuga could almost envision a scene where not even bones would remain.
This fake [Uchiha’s] chakra reserve was even smaller than his own.
How could he possibly withstand a coordinated attack comparable to an A-rank ninjutsu?
Even in his prime, Asuka wouldn’t have been entirely confident holding it off with his absolute defense, Rotation.
How could this fake [Uchiha] manage?
As for the chubby kid next to him, he looked like a Genin cannon fodder whose combat strength could be completely ignored.
The presence of such a Genin cannon fodder was actually a liability, making it harder for the fake [Uchiha] to dodge the incoming attacks.
Faced with an onslaught on par with an A-rank ninjutsu, if this fake [Uchiha] didn’t want to be blown to pieces, his only choice was to halt his hand signs and dodge at high speed.
And he definitely couldn’t afford to take that chubby Genin along.
“Hmph!
Evil Uchiha!” Kagejiro Sarutobi snorted, filled with schadenfreude.
Showing no concern whatsoever, he secretly hoped the Sand ninja would intensify their attacks even further to exhaust more of their chakra and weapons.
Clearly, in his mind, this evil Uchiha was not an ally to fight alongside, but a political rival of the Sarutobi Clan—a competitor who had come to snatch his mission credit.
This evil Uchiha was supposed to be a pawn, a tool to exhaust the Sand ninja’s fighting capacity.
Once the Sand ninja had exhausted themselves and succumbed to the poison, wouldn’t all the mission credit belong to him?
“Tekudo, it’s up to you!” Facing such a dire crisis, Sasuke Umino’s expression didn’t change at all.
As always, he calmly continued weaving his hand signs.
“No problem, Captain!” Tekudo had a solemn expression.
He unclasped the final sealing scroll from his waist, grabbed its opening, and threw it forcefully into the air ahead of them.
“Double Iron Prison Gates!” With a deafening boom!
Amidst the smoke from the exploding sealing scroll, two massive iron gates carved with the faces of Rashomon demons crashed heavily into the ground.
The smaller gate in front was roughly ten meters high, five meters wide, and a staggering one meter thick.
Rather than an iron gate, it was more like an impregnable wall of bronze and steel.
Furthermore, the second gate behind it was a whole size larger than the first.