"Whether you can stop it-we'll find out." Helian flung up both hands, and dozens of blue-glowing needles cut off every avenue of escape for Chisen.
"Lightning Release: Earth Flow!"
Kakashi pressed one hand to the ground. Lightning spread rapidly through the damp soil. The electromagnetic field knocked the needles off course in midair, sending them into a nearby pit.
"Go!" Kakashi barked.
Without the slightest hesitation, Chisen sprang upward, kicked off a tree trunk, and darted diagonally backward.
Helian was about to pursue him when a ring of shadows suddenly erupted beneath his feet.
"Shadow Stitching Technique!"
Black shadow spikes shot out of the mud. Helian twisted in midair, narrowly avoiding them. By the time he landed and looked again, the Konoha ninja had vanished into the thick fog.
He looked back toward Osmanthus Village. By now, the entire village was packed with Allied Forces troops. Ninja from the Land of Earth were knocking down the walls of charred houses and beginning to build temporary defenses. The Land of Lightning's flag flew high beside the half-burned osmanthus tree.
"We took it, but the cost..." Helian looked at the bodies littering the ground and the emptied supply crates, his expression chillingly dark.
At a temporary outpost three kilometers inside the Land of Fire border.
Dawn had begun to break. The campfires were still burning, and members of Chisen's squad sat in small groups on the ground, busy sorting through the spoils of the battle.
"Oof, these are heavy."
Shikamaru dropped the two large packs from his back onto the grass with a clatter of metal. He opened one. It was filled to the brim with refined steel wire and bundles of kunai.
"These kunai are really well balanced." Kiba picked one up and spun it around his fingertip, clicking his tongue