After a few minutes of rapid running, I could sense two monstrous sources that were twice my size each, with the biju's power intricately woven into their own chakra. Not suppressing, as normal jinchuriki usually do when using the power of a tailed beast, but specifically supporting their own powers, which made the brothers even more dangerous than I had expected.
Then, at the very edge of sensitivity, the escort squad that was moving a little farther away appeared, and I was able to assess their strength for myself - Hyuga was very accurate in her assessment. When we were close enough for the seals to make a course correction for a collision with the last of them, a wave of memories came to me, and I could barely keep from cursing.
- Orochimaru-san, Hyuga has seen that the first support unit is being followed by another one at a distance of five kilometers, consisting of forty jonins and two hundred chunin! - I informed my partner.
Seventy jonins and over two hundred and fifty chunins! Faced with such a number even without two S-ranks nearby, I would prefer to retreat and properly prepare for battle, using all the tricks possible so that we don't just get butchered, surrounded on all sides!
- Shit! - The plan is the same, concentrate on one brother and if we don't have time to seriously wound him before the second squad arrives, retreat.
- Copy that!
In a wide arc around the pseudo-jinchuriki, who were rushing forward like tanks - unfortunately, they would run into the post before we could return with the corresponding result for a dozen fighters, because I couldn't even send clones to help them at the moment without fear of detection - we rushed straight to the group of kumovians, who were moving on the ground, unlike us.
Thanks to our speed and relatively silent movement, we were only spotted the moment Orochimaru was surrounded by the huge puffs of smoke that accompanied the appearance of massive snakes that would swallow a human without any problems, and I landed from a tree near the group, finishing folding a dozen and a half hand seals.
All the while lurking in my shadow, three shadow clones moved forward, encompassing the enemies in a semi-circle.
- Hiden: Kage no Chimeiteki na Mori (Secret Technique: Deadly Forest of Shadows)!
At breakneck speed, three thick paths of shadows snaked away from me, heading straight for the clones that had taken strategic positions.
The clones had time to realize that they were being attacked and even prepared for defense and some began to fold seals, but in the next moment, it was useless - the surrounding space literally exploded with hundreds of shadow lances and needles that spread further and further from the three sources, piercing the ninja who had not had time to react and everything in their path.
A natural forest of deadly shadows over a large area, from which it was impossible to escape unscathed unless you used spatial techniques.
My first mass Hijutsu S class, where the clones acted as repeaters, coordinators, and amplifiers, making the costs of Hiden: Kage no Chimeiteki on Mori much less significant when compared to all elemental combinations of similar scale. And the more such nodes there are, the more significant the coverage area.
Of course, the jonins weren't idiots either, and many of them were able to dodge the deadly blows with only serious wounds, but the goal had already been achieved, and in the next moment the huge array of shadows disappeared without a trace, and I turned around and, ignoring the screams and groans of pain that sounded behind me, rushed after Kingin Kyodai, trailing Orochimaru by only a few meters. His snakes and my clones would deal with the survivors, albeit in different ways.
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