Tracking and Trap

"Damn, they still caught up to us! But Red Beard, you sure are persistent. We're practically at Konoha Camp already—do you really dare chase us this far?!"

"So what if it's near Konoha Camp? Even if the entire Konoha Camp mobilized, they still wouldn't be able to save you!"

Jinchuriki Roshi made that fierce boast, and Uchiha Feiyu could not help twitching his lips.

Had this guy's brain been assimilated by that Four-Tailed Gorilla too? Did he really think Jinchuriki were invincible?

"Such big talk... I really am being underestimated!"

A cold voice sounded beside them. Then, venomous snakes of every size shot forward like arrows. Amid miserable screams, nearly half the ninjas who had followed Roshi were bitten in an instant, their bodies turning blue-purple as they fell lifelessly to the ground.

"Orochimaru! Why are you here?!"

"Damn it, it's a trap!"

"Konoha Ninja! There are so many Konoha Ninja!"

The Iwagakure Ninja squad descended into panic. The earth trembled, and more than a dozen Konoha Ninja suddenly emerged from the ground, charging straight at them.

Those ninjas had been hiding underground from the very beginning, which was why they had escaped the Iwagakure Ninja squad's notice. Ironically, this had always been one of the Iwagakure Ninja's favorite tactics, yet Konoha had now beaten them at their own game.

"Damn it, we've been played!"

Roshi casually crushed two venomous snakes that lunged at him. A layer of Lava Release Magma formed over his body, scorching every snake that came at him to death.

Still, as he looked at his poisoned comrades, his heart tightened. Because ninjas possessed Chakra, they had far greater resistance to poison than ordinary people. Most deadly poisons lost much of their effectiveness against them.

Yet these snakes were far more venomous and faster than ordinary snakes. They had clearly been carefully bred by Orochimaru.

In truth, after obtaining the breeding method for the Silver Scale Serpent, Orochimaru had already begun cultivating the King of Poisons. The snakes before them were merely byproducts of that process, but they were still vastly stronger than ordinary summoned venomous snakes.

Amid a series of swishing sounds, the battlefield was split into several sections. The remaining five or six Iwagakure Ninja were forced apart as well.

Nearly every Iwagakure Ninja had to face the combined assault of two or three Konoha Ninja. With the two sides being roughly equal in individual strength, the Iwagakure Ninja quickly began to falter.

"Lava Release: Lava Bomb!"

A massive ball of molten lava hurtled toward Uchiha Feiyu. The blade in his hand flashed, cleaving the lava ball apart, but the enormous fireball burst into a rain of lava that splattered in every direction, throwing the entire battlefield into chaos.

A Tailed Beast Cloak radiating scorching Chakra enveloped Roshi's entire body. A tail formed from Chakra even extended from behind him. That terrifying Chakra presence made Uchiha Feiyu's heart skip a beat.

Such terrifying Chakra. And this is only one tail... It seems I underestimated the Tailed Beasts. The Chakra of these monsters is more than ten times greater than that of a Kage-level ninja!

Fortunately, Uchiha Feiyu was not the main force against Roshi this time. Without another word, Orochimaru pressed both hands against the ground. After a huge cloud of smoke erupted, a purple serpent seventy or eighty meters long appeared on the battlefield.

"Orochimaru, don't forget my sacrifice!"

The enormous Manda spoke greedily the moment he appeared, making the veins on Orochimaru's forehead bulge as he stood atop Manda's head.

"After this battle, you can eat as many Iwagakure Ninja as you want. Just don't choke yourself to death!"

ROAR!!

With a furious roar, Roshi finally stopped suppressing the Chakra within him after seeing Orochimaru summon such a gigantic creature. Terrifying Chakra continued to expand, taking the form of a massive gorilla.

"Damn you, Orochimaru! No wonder you summoned me... You actually want me to fight a Tailed Beast!!"

"Stop whining! Get ready to attack!"

Although Manda grumbled incessantly, he did not hesitate in the slightest. He charged directly at Four-Tails Son Goku, his pillar-like tail sweeping out and knocking the newly awakened Four-Tails flat onto the ground.

As Ryūchi Cave's signature summoned beast, Manda was cruel, arrogant, and exceptionally difficult to tame. His only redeeming quality was that he dared to take on tough opponents.

With a thunderous boom, the clash between the two monsters unleashed enormous shockwaves. The many ninjas, who had already been scattered and fighting separately, immediately began fleeing beyond the attack range of the two colossal beasts.

A battle between a gigantic Summoning Technique creature like Manda and a Tailed Beast was not something ordinary ninjas could interfere with. Even a casual collision between the two beasts could severely injure an ordinary ninja with its aftershock.

Seeing Orochimaru draw away the Tailed Beast Jinchuriki's attention, Uchiha Feiyu finally breathed a small sigh of relief. Honestly, with a fighting style that almost completely copied Hatake Sakumo's, he truly had no idea where to begin against a Tailed Beast.

Then Uchiha Feiyu swept his gaze over the other ninjas, who had been completely scattered by the battle between the two monsters, and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

"You Iwagakure bastards, didn't you enjoy chasing me? Why aren't you chasing me now?"

"Since you're not chasing me anymore, it's my turn to chase you!"

The moment he finished speaking, Uchiha Feiyu turned into a streak of lightning and charged toward the other Iwagakure Ninja who were still fighting.

The Konoha Ninja handpicked by Orochimaru were elite forces with at least the strength of Special Jonin. Their strength was no weaker than the Iwagakure Ninja's, while their numbers were more than double their opponents'. The Iwagakure Ninja naturally could not withstand them and were merely struggling to hold on.

But once Uchiha Feiyu shamelessly rushed into the battlefield, the Iwagakure Ninja's barely maintained defense completely collapsed. Faced with the unstoppable White Fang Sword Style—and with Uchiha Feiyu launching direct sneak attacks from behind—the already disadvantaged Iwagakure Ninja were naturally cut down one by one.

A few short minutes later, Uchiha Feiyu pulled his short blade from the back of the last Iwagakure Ninja, then took his soul away.

During this scouting trip to the Iwagakure camp, Uchiha Feiyu had only killed slightly more ninjas than last time, fewer than thirty in total. But their quality was far higher—at least half of them had been Special Jonin-level or above.

"What do we do next? I can't really interfere in a Tailed Beast battle! If you have any techniques for dealing with Tailed Beasts, hurry up and use them!"

Looking at Manda being violently beaten by the gorilla in the distance, Uchiha Feiyu glanced around at his companions and spoke.

When he had secretly reported intelligence to Orochimaru through the snakes of Ryūchi Cave, he had clearly told Orochimaru that there was a Jinchuriki on the other side. He truly did not believe Orochimaru had made no preparations at all.