Chapter 317: The Battle Begins
Swish!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Samui and her team collapsed to the ground, their chakra drained to the point of utter exhaustion.
"This... what kind of ninja is this?" Karui's eyes were wide with shock. She tried to force her body to stand and continue fighting, but she found she had no strength left.
"It's over. The girls in the village have lost their favorite man... and the girls in Konoha will never get to see me. Maybe I shouldn't have come. I'll be killed by this villain, buried in the yellow earth, and by the time the village finds me, I'll be nothing but bleached bones... then the Raikage-sama will wail before my corpse..."
Omoi lay on the ground, muttering incessantly, his expression growing more tragic by the second.
"What time do you think it is?! Shut up already!" Karui snapped in annoyance.
"Ninja? I am not such a low-class being. I'll take your chakra for now, but first, I'll send you to the yellow springs." Urashiki smiled, tucking their stolen chakra into the basket behind his back. He raised his fishing rod to finish the three of them.
BOOM!
The three closed their eyes, waiting for the end, only to hear a deafening roar. It was followed by a shockwave of air that sent them tumbling across the ground.
Ugh!
They forced their eyes open despite the pain. The white-clad man with the Byakugan was gone. In his place was a massive trench that stretched as far as the eye could see, both forward and backward. They dragged their remaining strength to the edge of the trench and looked down. It was a straight line carved into the earth, seemingly by a colossal burst of Wind Style.
"What is this?" Karui gasped. What kind of attack could do this?
"It's as if someone fired a chakra cannon," Samui added, her broader knowledge allowing for a more specific description.
"Who saved us? Was it the Raikage-sama? That would be great... the girls in the village can see me again..." Omoi's eyes were watery with relief. "If that's the case, should I accept their—"
"Shut up, Omoi!"
Samui scanned the surroundings and then looked at the length of the trench. It was immense. "Let's go. We can't keep up with a battle of that level. I don't know who that ninja was... or if that white-clad guy was even a ninja at all."
Samui recalled the white-clad man's words, her expression darkening. Then, the three of them, trembling with exhaustion, hurried toward Konoha. They weren't just going to report; they still had their original mission. But they didn't dare get too close to the battle—the power involved was on a completely different level from their own.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
As they left, a long scar remained on the landscape. High in the sky, a hawk soared, watching the trench continue to extend. Trees were being mown down like grass, and the displaced air was causing atmospheric disturbances. The far end of this "tunnel" was leading toward the sea near the Land of Frost.
"Yah-ha!"
Tonbo Tobitake's body was jet black. He was currently pinning Otsutsuki Urashiki with one foot, hurtling through the air at such speed that the compressed air caused a series of sonic booms.
Urashiki used his fishing rod to block the foot, but the sheer physical force still slammed into him, causing his body to contort under the impact.
"What?!" Urashiki stared at the pitch-black Tonbo in shock. This level of Taijutsu... he could feel his internal organs shifting and deforming. He snapped his Byakugan open to get a clear look at his opponent. "Tonbo Tobitake of Konoha... It's you again."
Tonbo was genuinely surprised. "Oh? You know me?"
Tonbo released his foot, and Urashiki skipped across the ocean surface like a stone, creating massive explosions of water. Tonbo stood on the water as the black hue on his skin slowly receded. It seems I run into this guy in the future. Did I let him come back here?
Even with his current sensory range, Urashiki shouldn't have been able to infiltrate Konoha unnoticed. As long as he was within range, Tonbo would have sensed him instantly.
Zip!
A fishing line shot out toward him at high speed. Tonbo tilted his head slightly, narrowly avoiding the hook.
"Future Sasuke mentioned that this line can't hit solid objects, but it can hook chakra. That's a nice tool; I think I'll take it."
Tonbo's hands began to weave signs. Facing an Otsutsuki, he would likely have to go all out. The opponent had both the Byakugan and the Rinnegan, after all.
Bang! Bang!
While the main body of Tonbo Tobitake was confronting Otsutsuki Urashiki, battle had broken out within Konoha.
Whoosh! Swish!
"What an 'opportune' time..." Tonbo's shadow clone focused its sensory perception on the invading Pain. He arrived at the Barrier Team's headquarters. Since most of his chakra remained with his main body to deal with the Otsutsuki, this clone didn't have much left.
Before this, he had already used Flying Raijin to evacuate his family members who weren't ninjas. As for Tianyu and Maki, their strength was sufficient to be tempered in this war.
Boom!
"Fire Style: Burning Ash Accumulation!" Asuma exhaled a cloud of gunpowder-laced ash, enveloping a massive centipede. A spark ignited, followed by an explosion.
Bang!
"So this is Pain's ability," Asuma muttered, looking at the centipede which had suffered only minor injuries. Seeing that Kurenai had already been evacuated, he felt a surge of energy. It was time to show what he could do.
"Moegi, Udon! Go evacuate the villagers. I'm going to take these guys out!" Konohamaru commanded his teammates. He turned his gaze toward the enemy fighting Ebisu-sensei.
"Okay! Good luck, Konohamaru!" Moegi and Udon trusted his strength implicitly.
Whoosh!
Konohamaru appeared above the Hell Path via Body Flicker. "Ebisu-sensei, get back!"
He pulled shuriken from his pouch and hurled them at the Hell Path, his hands weaving signs with blurring speed.
Hum!
The shuriken were surrounded by spinning wind blades, multiplying from one into a massive storm of blades.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Ebisu scrambled back, eyes wide at the laser-like barrage of shuriken. Where they hit the ground, they left massive craters. The enemy was forced to use black receivers to block, his body being pushed back by the sheer momentum.
"The power of those shuriken..."
"Hey, Wataru. This time Morning-sensei isn't here; this guy is all ours."
Tianyu, Maki, and Wataru stood in the air. They had just saved a ninja from the Human Path and now surrounded it in a triangular formation. Their blades were drawn. They had sensed just now that this opponent could rip out a person's soul with a single touch. Baiyun Morning had already gone to support another area.
"Listen with your ears, strike with your heart."
Wataru coated his blade in chakra, staring intently at the enemy. The man looked like a living corpse.
"This is a puppet. We likely have to destroy it completely to stop it. Everyone, be careful."
They knew from the intel that the man who killed Lord Jiraiya was a puppet master hiding his true body behind these shells.
"We're sensory ninjas, right? Shouldn't we be looking for the main body?"
Clang!
Maki's hand took on a hardened, black hue as she used her blade to parry the enemy's strike. "Our mission right now is to destroy this puppet!"
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