Stone Village Earth Rat

"Amegakure? Impossible, he must have used Transformation Technique." Koshi saw that the attacker in front of him was wearing Rain Village Headband and a gas mask, and immediately realized that this person was hiding his true identity.

"You mere Amegakure Ninja, how dare you attack our Konoha base!" Having escaped a bit, he began to mock and insult Shuichi. This was an opportunity to wipe out the Konoha Squad in one fell swoop, and it would be best to deal with this lone wolf first.

Water Release: Water Wave!

Although Shuichi chose the wrong target for his first sneak attack, he was completely unaffected. He quickly Hand Seals and spat out a large amount of water towards Koshi. This technique was quite effective in the narrow cave.

"Earth Release: Rock Pillar Stone!"

A rock several meters wide arched up in front of Koshi, and the waves crashing against it were diverted to both sides, but the rock remained unmoved.

Just as he stood up, Shuichi had already rushed to the side of the rock, slashing horizontally with his short sword. Hearing the sound of the wind, Koshi immediately ducked and crouched down, but before his hair could fall down in time, half of it was cut off by Shuichi.

"That was close!" The Konoha Ninja opposite him was stronger than him, and he, who mainly focused on reconnaissance, was having an extremely difficult time fighting. But in order to kill the enemy in one blow, he had no choice but to lure him with his life.

Koshi pushed his agility to the limit, leaping with all his might to land on the cave wall. Shuichi was equally fast, chasing after him before he could even regain his footing.

"Itto-ryu·Iai!"

Driven by his survival instinct, Koshi disregarded everything else and unleashed his full chakra to leap to the side. A streak of silver light flashed through the air, passing his arm and the stone wall behind him.

"Boom..."

Shuichi's slash sliced through the wall like tofu, but unfortunately, his opponent dodged it.

Blood gushed from Koshi's left upper arm. He clutched the wound and fell to the ground. Although he curled up in mid-air, he still rolled several times due to inertia upon landing. This was the consequence of forcibly using the high-difficulty Body Flicker Technique.

As he knelt and rose, Shuichi charged at him again with his sword. Just as he was about to be killed, his teammates' support finally arrived.

Earth Release Earth Splitting Palm!

Halfway through his run, the ground Shuichi his feet suddenly cracked, and caught off guard, he lost control and fell downwards.

"Phew... Brother Pan, you finally made it!"

A figure emerged from the ground not far away; it was a tall man with a resolute face.

Without a word, he quickly Hand Seals, then slammed his hand on the ground again, shouting, "Earth Release: Earth Spear Hell!"

As chakra was injected into the ground, countless small clods of earth rose up on the surface and sides of the pit, and then all of them exploded out with sharp spears several meters long. The dense array of earthen spears filled the entire pit, and it was easy to imagine that any creature that fell into it would surely die.

"Amazing, I've witnessed Brother Pan's Earth Release: Death Combo once again," Koshi thought excitedly. "He's taken the Earth Spear technique and further enhanced its Shape Transformation to create his own unique Ninjutsu, combining it with Earth Splitting Palm to catch the enemy off guard. He truly deserves to be called the village's unparalleled Earth Release master."

"Koshi, you should retreat first." Pan's voice was deep and powerful. "The enemy definitely still has men; leave that to me and Hoga."

A hundred meters away, Shuichi's Shadow Clone asked, "How was it? This time it should be the real body, right?"

Hyuga Akiha was initially startled when she saw her captain being ambushed, but she quickly realized that Shuichi was hiding behind the rock that Koshi had released. She breathed a sigh of relief and thought in amazement, "The captain's Ninjutsu is still so fast. He managed to change positions even while I was watching with my Byakugan."

"Definitely. The opponent still has a lot of chakra left; it must be their true form."

"That's good, the underground rats have finally jumped out."

The Shadow Clone was immediately dispelled, and the main body of Shuichi, hidden in a corner of the cave, immediately received the information. "I've been bitten by a snake once, and I'm afraid of ropes for ten years now. Even if I'm 90% sure, I'll play it safe."

In Shuichi's Flash vision, he saw the Iwaki sneakily touching the soles of his feet during the battle.

It's obvious that these two Jonin are the enemy's main fighting force; this Sensory Ninja wouldn't have survived this long if he hadn't held back.

"This is just right so far. We might even be able to capture this person alive and obtain information. Now we can make our move."

"Ox-Rabbit-Monkey." Having completed the Hand Seals, Shuichi used Body Flicker Technique to dash out of the rocks and rush towards Iwa. As he ran, a large amount of chakra gathered in his right hand. "Chidori!"

Although he hasn't learned any new Ninjutsu recently, his application of existing Ninjutsu has become even more perfect.

This time, he used his abnormal control to briefly divide the chakra in his body's meridians into two parts, upper and lower. He gathered the Lightning Element Nature Transformation in his right hand with the chakra in his upper body's meridians and used this moment to release Continuous Body Flicker Techniques.

In short, it means using your chakra to release another Ninjutsu after completing the hand seals, taking advantage of a moment when your chakra isn't focused.

On the way to the rock, the body, stimulated by the Lightning Element, accelerates again. Releasing Chidori in this way greatly reduces the consumption of chakra and gives the enemy less time to react. The rhythm can also be changed midway to catch the enemy off guard.

"What?" Even with his back turned, Pan sensed something was wrong earlier than Koshi, but when he turned around, the enemy was already charging towards him, and their speed suddenly increased as they got closer.

"Not good..." Having almost instinctively used his Earth Release, he spat out a large rock to block in front of him, hoping to gain a chance to catch his breath.

"Die!" Shuichi raised his right hand and thrust it straight at his opponent. "I'll name it, Chidori: Second Stage!"

The terrifying Lightning Release Chakra tore the Earth Release defense to shreds. "Pfft!" Chidori then pierced Iwa's heart, spraying a large amount of blood onto Koshi's face.

"Brother Pan!"

As he roared, Hyuga Akiha and Aburame Shihei quickly arrived, and without saying a word, they were about to come and deal with him.

"Gentle Fist!" Thud thud thud...

Koshi, being Jonin, was no weakling. Seeing that enemy reinforcements had arrived, he quickly retreated and dodged, but he was still hit in many pressure points by Gentle Fist Style.

"The Hyuga Clan! You really are Konoha Ninja."

"So you're the rats from Iwagakure. No wonder, only your village would do something like robbing refugees. It seems all the people of the Land of Earth are rats." Aburame Shihei, who was following behind, felt he had to do something to make his presence known and immediately spoke up in retort.

After killing the Iwagakure Jonin, Shuichi immediately drew his right hand, ready to capture the Sensory Ninja alive.

"Rumble, rumble..."

At this moment, the entire cave shook violently, and a large amount of rubble fell from the ceiling, creating a scene resembling the collapse of the heavens and the splitting of the earth.

"Hahaha, let's die together!"

Knowing he couldn't escape, Koshi turned and rushed forward, trying to hold off the three Konoha members present.

"Leave it to me. It's best to leave this person alive." Shuichi calmly gave the order, "Earth Release: Earth Style: Earth Prison Dome of the Prison."

Before their vision went dark, a barrage of attacks from Kikaichū and Gentle Fist landed directly on Koshi. Then, a spherical protective shell rose up around them, shielding them in the center, while various rocks pelted down on top, causing constant vibrations.

Shuichi continuously channeled chakra into the stone wall to strengthen its defenses, and after a long while, the collapse of the cave finally stopped.

"What happened? Was it the work of the third member of Iwagakure?"

"That's right!" Hyuga Akiha said urgently, "That person is running in the 10 o'clock direction."

"Not only that, but it seems he did something before he left. Before the cave collapsed, a large group of Rogue Ninja on the other side all died, and judging from the condition of their bodies, it looked like they had been blown apart by something."

Shuichi quickly understood many things. "Iwagakure's Explosion Corps? Explosion Release? I see. I was wondering how they sensed the Shadow Clone's anomaly. It seems they must have stuffed Explosive Clay or something similar into the bodies of these Rogue Ninja. As long as they're close, they can sense whether there's clay inside."

"Now that they see the situation is bad, they run away, leaving no survivors. That's ruthless."

"Keep an eye on this Iwagakure, I'm going after the last one," Shuichi told his teammates, then immediately activated Earth Release and left. "I'll be back within fifteen minutes."