The Battle Ends

"Did we win?" Even after Steel Bone had completely fallen and gone silent, Uchiha Homura still wore an incredulous expression.

"I used all my Chakra to strike his crown with Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm, and he still lasted this long before dying. I have to admit, the enemy was truly terrifyingly strong." Soji was equally moved, but he had complete confidence in that final palm strike!

"I never expected a bloodline-limit ninja to be this powerful. We paid such a huge price just to kill him completely." Minato Namikaze said with lingering fear as he pounded his fractured arms.

"Look at it another way. We defeated such a powerful ninja, so shouldn't we be even happier?" Soji put on a delighted expression.

"That's true."

"Hahaha!"

Soon, the hearty laughter of Soji and the other two echoed through the valley.

In truth, the plan Soji had devised at the end was to trade injury for injury—even life for life!

First, he had Uchiha Homura and Minato Namikaze use their own injuries as the price to restrain Steel Bone's nimble hands.

Then Soji pretended to attack Steel Bone's eyes. Naturally, it would have been best if it succeeded, but even if it failed, there were still follow-up plans.

At that point, Steel Bone actually had a choice.

Although both his hands were restrained and he could not break free for the moment.

His feet could still move!

He could have completely dodged the Kunai Soji thrust toward his eyes.

If Steel Bone had chosen to dodge, the rest of the plan would have fallen apart.

The injuries Uchiha Homura and Minato Namikaze had suffered would have been for nothing.

If he chose not to dodge, then faced with the Kunai coming from directly above and in front of him, he could only respond with his foot.

And getting one of Steel Bone's feet off the ground was the main purpose of Soji's plan!

With both hands restrained and one foot off the ground, if someone attacked Steel Bone's vital areas at that moment, could he still dodge?

Obviously not!

That was also why Soji had not directly used Eight Trigrams: Vacuum Palm to attack Steel Bone's crown when he could not use his hands.

Otherwise, Steel Bone would definitely have chosen to dodge directly instead of kicking at Soji.

But this created another problem: Soji had to take that kick head-on in order to get one of Steel Bone's feet off the ground and make him lower his guard.

To be honest, after taking Steel Bone's full-force kick, Minato and Uchiha Homura definitely would not have been able to hold on, much less counterattack.

But Soji was different. He came from the Hyuga Clan!

The Hyuga Clan was best at deflecting force!

Therefore, that kick had not been enough to leave Soji unable to counterattack!

Of course, all sorts of flaws could have appeared during the plan.

For example, Uchiha Homura and Minato Namikaze might not have been able to restrain Steel Bone's hands for so long.

Or Steel Bone's kick might have been even stronger, leaving Soji unable to counterattack, and so on.

Any of those possibilities could have caused the plan to fail!

And if the plan failed, Soji would suffer the worst consequences.

Because what awaited him next would likely be Steel Bone's relentless barrage of attacks.

So for Soji, this was a gamble with his life!

Most importantly, the mutual trust between Soji and the other two had been the key factor in the plan's success.

Think about it. If Uchiha Homura had not endured further injuries, and Minato Namikaze had not risked losing both arms to create an opportunity for Soji, they could never have killed Steel Bone.

Likewise, if Soji had not trusted the two of them, he would definitely have held back at the end, unable to achieve a one-hit kill!

The laughter of Soji and the others quickly drew the attention of someone they had been ignoring all along!

The leader of the Rogue Ninjas—Lihuo!

That was right. While Soji and the other two were fighting Steel Bone, Lihuo had been hiding off to the side and watching.

Lihuo had originally thought that with Steel Bone's immense strength, dealing with a few brats would take only minutes.

He had never expected the battle to drag on and on, only for Steel Bone to be killed by Soji and the other two in the end!

Steel Bone himself had never considered relying on Lihuo's strength.

After all, he believed that a Jonin from a minor shinobi village was not worth mentioning at all.

So he had not counted Lihuo as combat power.

He had already stepped in himself. Why would he need someone like this getting in his way?

Seeing that Steel Bone had no intention of having him join the fight, Lihuo had been happy to take it easy.

He did not want to get caught in the crossfire and injured for no reason, so he had kept watching from the side.

Although Lihuo had once been a Jonin from the Land of Grass, it was widely accepted in the shinobi world that ninjas from minor shinobi villages were naturally a level weaker than those from the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

In other words, if Lihuo had been placed in one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, he would at most have been as strong as a Chunin.

Let alone Steel Bone, even Soji and the other two had not paid much attention to Lihuo.

Yet unexpectedly, this fellow now jumped out.

Clap! Clap!

"Oh my, oh my. I never expected you to actually take down that big brute, Steel Bone. Hehe, as expected of ninjas from a major shinobi village." Lihuo clapped as he walked out from his hiding place and stopped before the three of them.

Lihuo's way of addressing Steel Bone had long changed from calling him "sir" at every turn.

Now that Steel Bone was dead, he called him a big brute and even addressed him by name!

Watching this person they had not regarded as a threat suddenly step forward, all three of them stared at him with faintly amused expressions.

Lihuo did not notice their looks at all.

He walked straight over to Steel Bone's corpse and kicked the man's head with his foot.

"Tsk, tsk. I'm actually very grateful to you three little brats. Really. If you hadn't helped me kill Steel Bone, I might never have escaped his control. I would have had to accept that bastard's rule like a slave!" Lihuo rambled on to himself. Halfway through, he seemed to remember something, lifted his leg, and began viciously kicking Steel Bone's corpse.

After kicking for a while, as though he had finally vented enough, Lihuo turned back toward Soji and the other two.

"Now then, it's time for you three little brats. Should I kill you directly and take your Byakugan and Sharingan, or keep you alive and demand ransom from Konoha? What a difficult choice." As he spoke, Lihuo theatrically tapped his forehead and looked at the three of them with a troubled expression.

Of course, the ones Lihuo was mainly looking at were Hyuga Soji and Uchiha Homura.

If he dug out the Byakugan and Sharingan from their eye sockets and sold them, he would definitely make a huge sum of money.

But there was one problem. If he did that, Lihuo would absolutely be hunted by Konoha.

Other shinobi villages might even issue bounty orders against him to curry favor with Konoha.

Then he might have the money but not the life to spend it!

"What if we don't want either option?" Uchiha Homura's voice rang out while Lihuo was still thinking.

"Hm? Don't tell me you think that, in your current state as three wounded invalids, you still have the strength to resist me?" Lihuo glanced disdainfully at Soji and the other two, who were sitting on the ground.

"We really can't fight back right now, but someone else can." Soji grinned wickedly and gave Lihuo a pitying look.

Suddenly, Lihuo felt a force strike him from behind. His entire body flew out and slammed into the mountain wall nearby.

Enduring the burning pain in his back, Lihuo struggled to support himself against the wall and stand up.

"Who was that? You actually ambushed me!"

Lihuo was utterly depressed!

At first, that brat from the Uchiha Clan had ambushed him and dragged him straight into a genjutsu.

After finally breaking free of the genjutsu, Steel Bone, who had been controlling him all along, had ended up mutually injuring himself and the three brats on the other side.

He had come out to show off, only to get ambushed again and smashed into a wall.

Right now, Lihuo only wanted to find the person who had ambushed him and torture them properly to vent his anger!

And the person who had appeared and ambushed Lihuo was Kushina Uzumaki, who had been stationed outside the valley from the start.

After receiving the signal Minato had sent for support, Kushina Uzumaki immediately rushed into the valley.

But by the time she arrived, Steel Bone had already been dealt with.

Kushina Uzumaki had just been about to come over when unlucky Lihuo suddenly jumped out and spewed a whole string of threats.

At that moment, Soji and the other two had already noticed Kushina Uzumaki's arrival.

So even though all three were seriously injured and sprawled on the ground, they were not panicked in the slightest.

He was merely a Rogue Ninja from the Land of Grass.

With Kushina Uzumaki's strength, which was close to that of a Special Jonin, dealing with him could not have been easier!

Besides, to be safe, Kushina Uzumaki had directly ambushed him with a kick first.

That kick was nowhere near as terrifying as Steel Bone's, but it was more than enough to make someone as frail as Lihuo suffer.

At the very least, his blood and energy would be churning violently.

"Hey, hey, hey. You three suffered such serious injuries to defeat your opponent, and all you left for me was someone this weak?" Kushina Uzumaki was quite dissatisfied, and that dissatisfaction was directly apparent in her tone.

"We couldn't do anything about it. The guy we dealt with was too strong, and he didn't give us time to wait for you to come support us, Kushina. We could only fight for our lives." Minato Namikaze said helplessly.

At the same time, he tried to soothe Kushina Uzumaki, who was still angry.

After hearing Minato's explanation, Kushina Uzumaki did not press the issue any further.

Instead, she fixed a dangerous gaze on Lihuo, who had just climbed to his feet.

Lihuo had been furious at first.

But suddenly, he felt an even greater fury bearing down on him, and he instantly shuddered.

Then he trembled as he raised his head and looked toward the source of that anger.

As far as the eye could see, every strand of Kushina Uzumaki's fiery red hair stood straight on end.

So she was the one who had ambushed him just now.

A beautiful, delicate little girl.

But why was this little girl looking at him with such a dangerous gaze?

Lihuo was terrified. What should I do now? Waiting online, urgent!

Then a series of sounds rang out, like "Thud! Thud! Thud!" "Bang!" "Agh!"

And then there was no more then. Kushina Uzumaki simply dusted off her hands and walked over to Soji and the other two looking thoroughly refreshed.

Lihuo was in grave danger!

Gulp.

That was the sound of Uchiha Homura swallowing.

"Too—too violent. As expected of the academy's famous 'Crimson Chili Pepper.'" Uchiha Homura muttered under his breath.

"Homura, what did you say? Could you say that a little louder?" Kushina Uzumaki leaned closer to Uchiha Homura and asked with a harmless smile.

"N-Nothing. I didn't say anything. Kushina, you must have heard wrong." Uchiha Homura desperately shook his head, his survival instincts in full force.

"Hmph. If you weren't seriously injured, you'd already be keeping that guy company." Kushina Uzumaki stated this fact as casually as if discussing the weather.

Uchiha Homura turned to look at Lihuo. He was now lying on the ground, twitching all over, his face beaten so swollen that it resembled a pig's head. Even his own mother probably would not recognize him.

Uchiha Homura could not help feeling fortunate that he was currently an injured patient.

For the first time, he felt that being seriously injured was truly lucky. He had escaped a beating from the Crimson Chili Pepper!

Of course, Uchiha Homura only thought those words to himself.

He would not actually be foolish enough to say them aloud.

Otherwise, he really would be testing death by seeking death!

"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you that our squad has four members. Also, in the future, remember to show more respect for the dead." Regardless of whether Lihuo could still hear him, Soji spoke in his direction.

"You should have told me earlier that your squad had four members!" That was Lihuo's first reaction upon hearing Soji's words.

But in his current state, he could not say it aloud. His face was so swollen that his mouth could no longer even be seen.

Lihuo desperately wanted to say, If I'd known your squad had four members, I would've fucking run away the instant Steel Bone died!

Sure enough, showing off came at a price. Lihuo silently swallowed his tears.

Unfortunately, none of it could be redone.

The more Lihuo thought about it, the angrier he became. The angrier he became, the more he thought about it. In the end, he simply closed his eyes and fainted.

Though his eyes had already been too swollen to open anyway.

Thus, the battle that had lasted from around nine in the morning until after two in the afternoon finally came to an end, having lasted more than five hours.