White Secret Technique: Chikamatsu Five Puppets ×2
Chiyo and Ebizo, the brother-and-sister pair, each controlled five puppets. Their hearts were connected, and their coordination was flawless.
With the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets controlled separately, their manipulation was far more refined than Chiyo controlling all ten alone. Their strength had not diminished—instead, it had increased.
Under their control, ten different puppets dressed in white charged at Orochimaru like living people, each moving in a different manner.
"Damn it." Orochimaru's expression turned cold. Despite his numerous techniques, he actually lacked the ability to break through tough defenses. Against an opponent like puppets, who were impervious to persuasion or attack, he was at his most helpless.
"I'll help you!" Jiraiya leaped into the battle. The two best friends, Orochimaru and Jiraiya, faced off against the brother-and-sister pair, Chiyo and Ebizo.
On the other side, Hyuga Ao stood guard in front of Tsunade.
Since Tsunade had transformed into a spring, Konoha's ability to wage a war of attrition had risen sharply. With the Current Nara Clan Head directing the battle from the center through a mental link with Katsuyu, their advantage was even greater.
Thus, the Sand Ninja were bound to find the battle increasingly difficult. Everything depended on whether they could break through Konoha's center in one decisive push.
The Sand Ninja concentrated their superior forces to crush Konoha's center, but Konoha had also deployed mobile units on both wings to surround and harass them. The longer the Sand Ninja were held up in the center, the tighter the encirclement would become.
Hyuga Ao stood ready on the central battlefield.
The shaft of the Sand Ninja's Arrow Formation was being pulled apart by Konoha's troops on both wings, but the arrowhead had yet to disperse, and its momentum remained. Konoha had sustained healing, so they needed to avoid fighting in a single burst. It would be best to keep pulling at the formation while they fought.
However, the terrain was restrictive. Konoha had no depth with which to pull back, leaving them no choice but to meet the Sand Ninja head-on.
Therefore, the very front of the battlefield was filled with ninjas who excelled at defense or had powerful survival abilities. Relying on Tsunade's healing, they stacked the thickest armor and endured the fiercest attacks.
Hyuga Ao was among them.
Hyuga Ao activated her Wind Cloak and weaved through the rain of ninja tools. Her precise predictions, combined with the Wind Cloak's ability to deflect small weapons, made her seem to dance through the storm. Though the rain was dense, not a single leaf could touch her.
The others were nowhere near as relaxed as Hyuga Ao. Since their firepower could not match the Sand Ninja's, they were suppressed so thoroughly that they did not dare show their heads. They could only occasionally cast defensive techniques before taking cover behind the camp buildings.
Fortunately, the difficult period did not last long. The arrowhead of the Sand Ninja's formation had already crashed into them.
Hyuga Ao knocked away an incoming shuriken, slapped aside a Kunai thrust by a Sand Ninja, and tapped his wrist with her finger. Before she could capitalize on the opening, she tilted her body and dodged a puppet's sickle sweeping in from the left.
The soil beneath her feet softened. Sensing that something was wrong, Hyuga Ao immediately leaped backward, only to see that the place where she had stood had already turned into quicksand.
The moment she steadied herself, another Sand Ninja charged in front of her. Hyuga Ao was forced backward continuously by the momentum of the Sand Ninja's assault.
Fortunately, Hyuga Ao excelled at defense. Amid the tide of Sand Ninja, her bare palms moved as though sealing every angle. Her Byakugan, with its nearly 360-degree vision, let her predict attacks before they came. From time to time, Rotation came to her rescue, while the Wind Cloak aided her movement.
Just like that, Hyuga Ao stood like a reef, firmly planted amid the surging tide of Sand Ninja.
After a long while, Hyuga Ao sensed that the unending stream of Sand Ninja had finally developed a gap. The most difficult wave of attacks had passed.
Coming back to her senses, Hyuga Ao found that there were already only a few Sand Ninja around her.
Hyuga Ao surveyed the battlefield and discovered that the Sand Ninja had pushed her to the rear half of the camp. Within the range of her Byakugan, the area in front of the barrier where Tsunade was located had become a chaotic slaughterhouse. Everyone had gone there.
Hyuga Ao immediately moved to protect Athena, but the moment she took a step, someone blocked her path.
The newcomer was in his thirties. He wore a white headscarf, purple greasepaint on his face, and a Sunagakure Jonin vest. From his sturdy arms and the calluses on his hands, it was clear that he was most likely a swordsman of considerable skill.
"Brat, with your strength, you're probably an important figure from the Hyuga Main Family. You're impressive indeed, surviving the assault of so many Sand Ninja without a scratch. But after enduring that attack, how much chakra do you have left?"
As he spoke, he gave a sinister chuckle. "Today, I'll be the one to pick up the scraps. I've heard that the Byakugan can see through everything. I wonder if you can see today's outcome."
After saying that, the Sand Ninja Jonin swiftly drew his sword and immediately unleashed an Iai Slash.
The Sand Ninja Jonin's Iai Slash was incredibly fast. Combined with the sword he had forged using half a lifetime of savings, which contained chakra metal, and enhanced by Wind Release chakra, its speed could even reach one-third the speed of sound.
The Sand Ninja Jonin confidently swung his focused strike, but he felt no impact of a successful hit. He leaped backward and sheathed his sword, staring solemnly at Hyuga Ao. He knew that he might have kicked an iron plate this time.
"Too fast!" Hyuga Ao was surprised. If she had not seen him gathering chakra in advance with her Byakugan, that strike would have been difficult to avoid. She gave a light laugh and said,
"You said the Byakugan can see through everything. How did you not think that it could see your chakra flow?"
"So that's how it is." The Sand Ninja Jonin suddenly understood. Since his sneak attack had failed, he could only force his way through.
He drew his sword and slashed again. Hyuga Ao tilted her head to evade it, then pointed at the acupuncture points in his arm.
But the Sand Ninja Jonin had held something in reserve this time. He reversed his grip and stabbed at Hyuga Ao while turning around.
Hyuga Ao lowered her body and struck his lower abdomen with her palm. The Sand Ninja had no choice but to change his move again.
The blade chopped downward. Hyuga Ao withdrew her hand and gathered power before swinging her left hand out and smashing the back of the sword. A strange vibrating force traveled upward from the blade's spine.
The Sand Ninja Jonin felt his palm go numb, and the longsword fell to the ground.
"Damn it!" The Sand Ninja Jonin gritted his teeth and retreated. His palm was still numb, and he could faintly feel a strange force moving through it.
The Sand Ninja Jonin retreated, but Hyuga Ao did not. She quickly advanced, preparing to pursue him.
At that moment, a fully equipped Sand Ninja squad arrived from behind Hyuga Ao.
The Sand Ninja squad swiftly launched an attack on Hyuga Ao, while the Sand Ninja Jonin left because the condition of his palm was becoming increasingly abnormal.
Hyuga Ao dodged the hidden weapons flying toward her in rapid succession. She turned and delivered a powerful palm strike that shattered a puppet. With her Wind Cloak fully unleashed, she used several Body Flickers to take the opportunity to kill an isolated Sand Ninja Puppeteer.
The Sand Ninja surrounding Hyuga Ao were so frustrated they nearly spat blood.
Rather than say they had surrounded Hyuga Ao, it was more accurate to say that Hyuga Ao had firmly held them back.
The Hyuga ninja before them looked young, but her hand-to-hand skills were not weak in the slightest.
Their ninjutsu could not hit her, sneak attacks were useless, and poison needles and hidden weapons were even more hopeless. A swirling wind surrounded her, preventing any lightweight ninja tools from approaching.
When they sent puppets into close combat, she either severed their chakra threads or put in a little force and shattered them with a single palm. They could not run past her, and if they were even slightly careless, she would use the Body Flicker to pick one of them off.
The worst part was that their group consisted of eight people—four Puppeteers and four ordinary ninjas—and none of them excelled at close combat. Their only Jonin skilled in Taijutsu had already fled.
But while they did not move, Hyuga Ao was about to.
A gust of wind happened to blow from behind. Hyuga Ao moved with it, accelerating with the wind's force. Two slender Moon Blades condensed in her hands as she charged into the crowd.
The Sand Ninja were astonished. They had been fretting over how to catch her, and she had actually dared to charge at them on her own!
The Puppeteers leaped backward to widen the distance. Four puppets made of Ironwood waved sixteen arms, spraying poison needles from their mouths as they surrounded Hyuga Ao. At the same time, the other ninjas formed hand seals.
"Earth Style: Quicksand Trap!" "Earth Style: Earth Mausoleum Dumpling!" "Wind Style: Net!" ×2
Hyuga Ao brought her hands together. Two Wind Blades merged into a single enormous Moon Blade, and she spun and slashed.
Wood splinters flew as all four puppets were cleaved apart, their severed limbs scattered across the ground.
But puppets were things that could still be used even after being damaged. The mechanisms that remained functional among the severed limbs activated one after another, while the broken arms wielded various ninja tools and stabbed toward Hyuga Ao.
Hyuga Ao ignored the puppet wreckage. Without their mechanical transmissions, the puppets could not break through her Wind Cloak with the Puppeteers' threads alone.
She leaped into the air to avoid the quicksand trap beneath her feet. Holding her blade, she split the enormous Earth Mausoleum Dumpling down the middle. Then Hyuga Ao kicked both halves of the broken stone toward the fully formed Wind Net, temporarily delaying its encirclement.
Two Air Palms destabilized the structure of the Wind Net. Finally, the Wind Cloak accelerated her as she condensed a Wind Blade and used wind to cut wind, bursting out through the net.
The Sand Ninja were horrified, but after exhausting all their techniques, they no longer had time to widen the distance from Hyuga Ao.
Hyuga Ao casually slapped aside the few shurikens that came at her, advancing as though no one stood in her way.
Two palms broke through their defenses, one palm struck the chest, and after repeating the sequence eight times, Hyuga Ao easily eliminated the Sand Ninja before her.
Hyuga Ao had temporarily dealt with the enemies in front of her. Feeling the overwhelming presence coming from Athena Tsunade's direction, she could not help complaining,
"Am I one of the Five Bronze Saints or one of the Twelve Gold Saints?"
Hyuga Ao observed the area with her Byakugan once more and discovered that she could now be considered to be at the edge of the battlefield. She used the Yin Seal to replenish her chakra, then picked up the sword dropped by the Sand Ninja Jonin.
She set out once more, heading toward the barrier where Tsunade was located.
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