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The first wave of surviving soldiers from Konoha consisted of eleven survivors, plus one reinforcement.
As the second wave of Sand Ninja troops surged forward like a dark tide, dozens of meters away, the twelve men unleashed all the remaining Shuriken in their pockets, doing everything they could to hinder the Sand Ninjas' approach.
"Shadow Clone Technique"
He swiftly sheathed the short sword back into its scabbard on his back. Despite the high-speed vibrations and arcs of lightning, the blade remained as bright as silver, unstained by a single drop of blood.
With his hands free, he didn't rush to throw Shuriken, but instead Hand Seals to summon one Shadow Clone after another. In just a few seconds, the Shadow Clone charged out with their swords, facing the Sand Ninja head-on.
"Hey kid, wasting Chakra like that will only get you killed faster..."
A Konoha ninja turned around and shouted a reprimand, but when he saw Katsuki, who was neither red-faced nor out of breath, the rest of his words stuck in his throat, leaving him unable to advance or retreat.
He was covered in wounds before, but now, apart from a few major cuts, all the minor injuries have disappeared, and he can create so many Shadow Clone without showing any signs of fatigue... That's insane!
"Don't just stand there! Shadow Clone won't last long, be careful!"
Katsuki roared in a low voice, his hands forming the Ren Seal, trying to create as many Shadow Clone as possible to compensate for their numerical disadvantage.
At this moment, he especially wanted to learn the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, but unfortunately, this was Ninjutsu recorded in the Scroll of Seals, Sakumo had never learned, and now he had nowhere to learn it even if he wanted to.
It's not that Sakumo wasn't qualified to learn this Ninjutsu, it's just that the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique is useless for 99% of people, and Sakumo was one of those 99%. The Shadow Clone Technique was enough for him, and there was no need to learn something as suicidal as the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
The Shadow Clone were repeatedly destroyed. Compared to the original body, the Shadow Clone were ultimately less powerful and had very low resistance to attacks. However, they successfully delayed the Sand Shinobi's advance, and the second wave of Konoha troops caught up and joined up with the remnants of the vanguard.
"Haha, Katsuki, well done!"
Nawaki's face flushed red, his eyes filled with excitement and exhilaration. Katsuki's actions greatly boosted morale, especially among the rookies who were going to the battlefield for the first time. They charged forward with roars of excitement, their desire to devour the Sand Ninja alive reaching its peak.
The Otome's face was no longer cold as usual; her eyes sparkled with spirit, and her fierce fighting spirit was on full display.
"Go, Nawaki! Use your fists to break through the Sand Village's defenses!!!"
Katsuki reached out and grabbed Nawaki's shoulder, using all her strength to throw Nawaki like a shot put. At a low angle, he flew past almost grazing the heads of the crowd, heading straight for the Sand Ninja's camp.
"Holy crap, that scared the hell out of me!"
"You bastard, are you looking for death?"
Many people were startled by the Nawaki that suddenly flew overhead and started cursing without thinking.
"Ooooh ooooh!!!"
The wind whistled in his ears, icy raindrops lashed his face, and the air was thick with the stench of smoke and blood. Nawaki's initial tension had vanished without a trace; he simply roared to bolster his aura, his Chakra gathering and condensing in his right fist...
"Take it down! Take it down for me!"
"Is he underestimating the reputation of our Sunagakure? Damn it!!"
The Sand Ninja weren't blind; they could clearly see a man as big as Nawaki. The Sand Ninja at the front roared, the Genin threw the Shuriken, Chunin Hand Seals and released Ninjutsu, all trying their best to bring down this idiot who dared to rush down from the sky.
Leaping into the air on the battlefield is tantamount to suicide; it will only make you a target for enemy fire.
However, there was a fire burning in Nawaki's eyes. He curled up as much as possible to reduce the area of force, while a light grayish-white color appeared on his exposed body, giving him a rock-like hardness.
The Shuriken his shoulder and back with clanging sounds, but failed to break through Nawaki's Hardening Technique!
Nawaki, who inherited the bloodlines of Senju and Uzumaki Bloodline, is a genius. This was a fact that Katsuki had confirmed after sparring with Nawaki a few times. Not only was his bloodline powerful, but his talent was also no less than that of others. His Earth Release had reached a high level, even surpassing Katsuki's by several points.
"Wind Release: Thousand Faces Wind".
"Wind Release: Wind Bullet"
The Chunin Sunagakure completed their Hand Seals and launched an attack on the incoming Nawaki.
However, neither the tiny wind blades nor the compressed Wind Bullet could stop Nawaki's leap through the air. His granite-hard fist tore apart the dense array of wind blades and extinguished the highly concentrated compressed Wind Bullet head-on. In the eyes of the Sand Ninja, it continued to approach and magnify...
"Boom!!!!!!"
In that instant, the earth shook, and everyone felt a slight, brief tremor beneath their feet.
The deafening roar spread outwards like ripples. The Sand Ninjas dodged quickly, and Nawaki's fist didn't hit anyone, but instead slammed solidly into the ground... However, he had initially aimed at the spot where he was now landing.
Huge, spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the ground, and flying debris ricocheted into the Sand Ninja crowd like bullets. Although it failed to cause effective casualties, it did manage to throw the Sand Ninja into brief chaos, causing their initially tight formation to break apart and revealing weaknesses that should not have been exposed.
"Hey!"
"Kill!!"
With a roar, the Konoha ninjas charged out like wolves and tigers, maintaining their squad formation. Each squad was like a sharp, boning knife, ruthlessly piercing into the Sand Ninja's territory, tearing open huge wounds.
"Nawaki, well done!"
Katsuki jumped over the crack in the ground and rushed to Nawaki's side, excitedly pumping her fist.
The tactic was a spur-of-the-moment decision; he hadn't discussed it with Nawaki beforehand. He simply thought of taking advantage of the fact that Konoha and Sunagakure weren't completely entangled and mixed up, to maximize the use of Nawaki's power—his Hardening Technique and monstrous strength.
Nawaki quickly grasped his meaning. The current results were even better than Katsuki had anticipated. The second wave of Sunagakure forces had lost the initiative, and in the chaos, Konoha had gained the upper hand and successfully consolidated their advantage.
The second wave of Sand Ninja troops found themselves in grave danger.
"Puff!"
A gleaming blade sliced through the rain, severing the head of a Sand Ninja. The headless corpse continued running towards Katsuki and Nawaki for a few steps before stepping into a mud pit and collapsing to the ground with a thud.
"You guys are so long-winded."
Otome glanced at the two of them, flicked the blood off her Wakizashi, and pounced like a leopard, her movements agile and full of powerful beauty.