Chapter 75
To think it was actually three students from Iruka's class who were tangling with and holding back this white monster?
"What the hell is that thing?!" one of the chūnin teachers wearing sunglasses exclaimed in shock.
"Forget what it is—save the students first!"
Iruka instantly recognized the three figures dodging and weaving under the monster's claws.
His heart leapt straight into his throat.
They were way too reckless—directly fighting something this terrifying.
Iruka charged forward without a second thought.
Seizing the moment when the students had created some distance from the monster,
he flung a kunai toward the Ōmba.
Normally, an attack of this level couldn't penetrate its defense at all.
But attached to the tail end of this kunai was a special explosive tag.
BOOM!
Iruka timed it perfectly. The kunai was swatted aside by the Ōmba, but the explosive tag detonated in mid-air.
Flames and smoke instantly engulfed the upper half of its body.
Yet when the dust cleared, the monster had merely shaken itself once.
A large patch of its fur had been scorched black, but its vitality remained completely intact.
An attack of this degree, against a thick-skinned Ōmba, was probably equivalent to a human getting punched once.
Painful, yes—but not a serious injury. Calling it light damage would even be generous.
And because of the pain, the Ōmba became even more frenzied.
The attack successfully drew its aggro.
It whipped around violently and slapped a massive paw toward the Iruka who had just ambushed it.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
The sunglasses-wearing chūnin quickly formed seals and expelled a violent gale from his mouth, attempting to damage the Ōmba.
But he soon realized that his wind technique—strong enough to snap large trees—only managed to stall the Ōmba's movements for half a second.
"This monster's physical durability is ridiculous—ordinary ninjutsu is useless against it!"
By the time the Ōmba broke through the wind barrier, Iruka had already dodged.
The other chubby chūnin drew a kunai and actively clashed with the Ōmba's enormous claw.
The collision between claw and metal actually produced the clear ring of steel striking steel.
A tremendous force traveled up his arm. The chubby teacher was sent flying backward.
He spun in mid-air, controlled his posture, planted his feet on the ground, and slid back more than ten meters before barely stabilizing.
"This strength…" He gritted his teeth, his arm trembling uncontrollably.
The sheer physical power was simply unbelievable—even a taijutsu specialist might not be able to clash head-on with it.
"It's actually more troublesome than the large beasts in the Forest of Death?"
The shinobi world was no stranger to giant creatures.
Monsters five or six meters tall and twenty meters long were not uncommon.
And any teacher at the academy was at minimum chūnin level.
They had all spent plenty of time in places like Training Ground 44—the Forest of Death.
But the large creatures there were just oversized beasts and wild animals. They posed a threat to ninja, but not an overwhelming one.
Compared to this Ōmba—whose size was only above average, yet whose physical qualities far exceeded common sense—it wasn't even on the same level.
Even with the addition of several chūnin teachers, the situation didn't improve. For a moment, they were just as helpless against this monster.
Just as the Ōmba's attention was drawn to the teachers,
an orange figure stepped onto a fallen tree trunk and leaped extremely nimbly high into the air.
It was Naruto.
This time he wasn't aiming for the Ōmba's knee.
Taking advantage of the moment when the monster's aggro had been pulled toward the teachers, he agilely landed on the Ōmba's broad back.
One hand gripped the thick white fur tightly.
The other hand rose and delivered a palm strike straight to the back of the Ōmba's head.
The instant Naruto's hand made contact with the Ōmba's back, the raging giant's movements inexplicably slowed.
But Naruto's strike didn't slow down.
He used skillful force rather than pure brute strength.
Employing Taiji Bagua palm techniques combined with the Gentle Fist power-generation methods he had learned over the years, he aimed to shake the Ōmba's brain.
Thud!
A muffled impact rang out.
The originally frenzied Ōmba suddenly slowed down inexplicably.
Its massive body swayed like someone drunk.
A trace of confusion actually flashed through those blood-red eyes.
Its nose twitched twice, as though sniffing something.
"Ombu…?"
It had an effect—but not much.
The dazed feeling quickly vanished. The Ōmba's body returned to normal.
What replaced it was even fiercer rage.
It thrashed wildly, its claws sweeping backward toward its own back.
Naruto was forced to release his grip and backflip away.
Iruka watched Naruto dancing on the edge of danger under the monster's claws and felt his heart burn with anxiety.
Naruto himself didn't feel that way at all.
Though he had expended quite a bit of stamina, he had also figured out the Ōmba's attack patterns.
But Iruka felt they couldn't afford to drag this out any longer!
He shouted toward Naruto, who had just jumped down from the monster's back: "Naruto! Take Sasuke and Hinata and get out of here first! Leave this to the teachers!"
Immediately after, he made a snap decision. He pulled a special red signal flare from his vest and yanked it hard.
Shwooo—BANG!
A piercing screech tore through the sky.
A dazzling red firework exploded overhead in the training ground, releasing bright red smoke that slowly dispersed in mid-air.
The signal to immediately terminate the exercise—indicating an uncontrollable situation had arisen.
They needed to end everything on hand right now and evacuate the training ground first.
At this point, the students inside the training ground could basically understand that the exercise had been canceled.
The purpose of this was so that he and the other two teachers could join forces to perform a barrier ninjutsu:
[One Thread Lamp Formation]
Doing so would mean no teachers left to supervise the exercise for the time being.
And given the current situation inside the training ground, it really wasn't safe for the students to stay.
One Thread Lamp Formation was a barrier ninjutsu specifically designed to bind a target and seal its movements.
It was considered one of the basic sealing techniques in training.
The learning difficulty wasn't high, but when three teachers cast it together, it should be sufficient to restrain this monster's actions.
After that, they could simply wait for reinforcements from the village.
Once a group of Konoha ninja arrived, surrounding and beating down this monster would be child's play, right?
"Ombu—!!!"
Perhaps it was the feeling of something landing on its back and then disappearing again.
Or perhaps it was stimulated by the sharp sound of the signal flare.
The Ōmba suddenly threw its head back and let out a roar even more shrill than before.
In that roar—besides rage—there seemed to be a trace of… anxiety?
It no longer paid attention to the people around it. Instead, it frantically sniffed the air with its nose.
As though searching for something extremely important.
"Hm?"
Xuanming—who had been watching from the sidelines—raised an eyebrow slightly, a strange light flashing in his eyes.
His perception of emotions was inherently sensitive.
The Ōmba had always been pure savagery, not the more vicious kind of evil.
But right now, a clearer emotional fluctuation had emerged from it.
"Naruto, the moment you jumped onto its back earlier, its aura actually weakened for an instant."
"I suspect it isn't attacking people out of pure rage—it came here looking for something."
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