Hard Vortex Water Blade

"Hmph!" Sarutobi Kagejiro snorted coldly through his nose.

Clearly, he had misunderstood Gekko Yoru's good intentions, believing that Gekko Yoru and the evil Uchiha had come to snatch Mission Merit Points.

Sarutobi Kagejiro grumbled inwardly without showing it, putting on a righteous expression as he said, "Do I look like the kind of person who would abandon my teammates and retreat alone? In my opinion, we should wipe out the remaining enemies together. They've been poisoned, so they won't last much longer."

Hearing Sarutobi Kagejiro's proposal, Hyuga Asuka nearly choked on his anger. He even felt as though this brute was taking a veiled jab at him.

They were both poisoned, yet the toxins in his body had seemingly spread to his heart. His Byakugan vision flickered on and off, on the verge of collapse. He was practically at his limit already, while the Hidden Sand shinobi could still circulate chakra to suppress the poison.

Sarutobi Kagejiro, you brute. Earlier, you kept talking about how the mission came first, abandoning your Captain to hold off the enemy alone. Yet now, you were fixated on this petty profit, disregarding the safety of the intelligence. You were completely different from the man who had made those solemn vows before.

Kagejiro, it seemed you were as unreliable as ever.

When the Hidden Sand shinobi heard that the Konoha Ninja were planning to transfer the intelligence, they were frantic with worry. Yet for the moment, they had no time to spare for anything else. Their immediate priority was surviving the deadly attack before them.

"Interrupt his hand seals! We absolutely cannot let him unleash the S-Rank Water Release: Hard Vortex Water Blade!"

The Hedgehog-Haired Jonin's eyes nearly split apart as he pointed his sword at Umino Sasuke, who was frantically forming hand seals. In his view, after forming such an absurdly long sequence of seals, Umino Sasuke had surely amassed an enormous amount of chakra and was preparing a Water Release Secret Technique capable of destroying heaven and earth.

Moreover, that Konoha Ninja in the monkey face mask was from the Sarutobi Clan and was certainly extremely familiar with Konoha ninjutsu. Judging by that foolishly confident look on his face, the information he had revealed in their conversation could not have been intentional. It had to be the S-Rank Water Release: Hard Vortex Water Blade.

After receiving the intelligence provided by their Jonin Captain, the bald chunin and the two Puppet Masters stopped hiding behind their defenses. They immediately climbed atop the Earth Flow Wall.

Without pausing for even a moment, they each used their own methods, striving to interrupt the [Uchiha Jonin]'s technique.

"Wind Release: Grinding Gale!"

The Special Jonin Puppet Master reacted the fastest. His ten fingers danced, forming four seals in a second, so fast that afterimages appeared. He immediately unleashed a B-Rank Wind Release, intending to interrupt the Water Release Secret Technique Umino Sasuke was about to unleash.

A storm vortex compressed to its absolute limit suddenly took shape, condensing into a vortex-shaped sphere of high-pressure wind.

The surface of the high-pressure wind sphere was covered in swirling air patterns. The instant it detached, it triggered an explosive crack of atmospheric pressure, sucking away the surrounding air and creating a brief vacuum zone.

Clearly, among the many powerful B-Rank Wind Release techniques, this one was at least among the best.

The other Hidden Sand shinobi continuously flung their arms, throwing kunai and shuriken one after another. Their pale blue glimmers concealed deadly intent; no doubt quite a bit of Wind-Style Chakra had been infused into them.

The Hedgehog-Haired Jonin planted his longsword into the ground and hurled a large number of kunai and shuriken with his right hand. Two kunai hidden among them even had two Explosive Tags tied to them.

As expected of a Sand Hidden Jonin. Unlike those impoverished bottom-tier Hidden Sand shinobi, he had actually been issued strategic supplies like Explosive Tags. Though there were only two of them, given Sunagakure's poverty and shortage of materials, this already counted as a Jonin-exclusive privilege.

Compared to two Explosive Tags, the B-Rank Wind Release: Grinding Gale was obviously far more powerful. If not for the missing fingers on his left hand preventing him from forming seals, he would have gone all out and unleashed an A-Rank Ninjutsu to tear that hateful [Uchiha Jonin] to pieces.

"Earth Release: Earth Mausoleum Dumpling!"

Faced with such a dire situation, the bald chunin squeezed out the last trace of chakra in his body and finally completed an extremely powerful offensive Earth Release: Earth Mausoleum Dumpling.

With a thunderous boom, the ground within a ten-meter radius ahead collapsed. Amid the deafening crash of splitting earth and stone, a Giant Rock Sphere the size of a house was forcibly gouged out of the ground.

Dirt rained down in streams, while dark yellow patterns of light flowed across the Giant Rock Sphere's surface. This was the manifested result of Earth Release chakra undergoing both shape and nature transformation.

Cold sweat seeped from the bald chunin's forehead, and his expression grew increasingly savage. "Taste what it feels like to be crushed!"

The Giant Rock Sphere hurtled toward Umino Sasuke, who was rapidly forming seals, carrying a hurricane-like howl.

In midair.

Howls rang out one after another.

Countless kunai, shuriken, Explosive Tags, and the B-Rank Wind Release's high-pressure wind sphere blotted out the sky as they descended upon Umino Sasuke.

The Giant Rock Sphere in the air came smashing down with the force of a collapsing mountain.

"Kagejiro, is this really the S-Rank Water Release: Hard Vortex Water Blade?"

Gekko Yoru's eyes held a trace of confusion, his heart filled with questions. Wasn't the number of hand seals for this Water Release Secret Technique a little too excessive? He had already formed over a hundred seals, hadn't he?

"This—"

Sarutobi Kagejiro was instantly rendered speechless. His throat bobbed as he did not know how to answer.

Sarutobi Kagejiro had wanted to offer some explanation, but Gekko Yoru no longer cared about the matter. He gave the distant [Uchiha Jonin] a tactical warning instead. "Watch out for the attacks!"

Gekko Yoru wore a worried expression. Although he trusted the strength of this [Uchiha Jonin], he was still somewhat concerned. After all, the Uchiha Jonin was still forming seals and had not yet completed his ninjutsu, while the power of this wave of group attacks was already no weaker than an A-Rank Ninjutsu.

How could Gekko Yoru not worry when comparing the two?

"It's over!"

Seeing this scene, Hyuga Asuka could practically foresee a sight of nothing but pulverized flesh and bone. This fake [Uchiha] had even less chakra than he did. How could he possibly withstand a group attack comparable to an A-Rank Ninjutsu?

Even at his peak, using the absolute defense of Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven, he would not have had much confidence. Much less this fake [Uchiha].

As for that little chubby fellow beside him, one look showed that he was just cannon fodder of a genin. His combat strength could be ignored entirely.

The presence of such genin cannon fodder was instead a burden, increasing the burden on this fake [Uchiha] when evading attacks.

Faced with an attack comparable to an A-Rank Ninjutsu, if this fake [Uchiha] did not want to be blasted into powder, his only option was to stop forming seals and evade at top speed. And he could not even think about taking that chubby genin along with him.

"Hmph! Evil Uchiha!"

Sarutobi Kagejiro gave a cold snort, his heart filled with schadenfreude. There was not the slightest hint of concern on his face. Instead, he hoped these Hidden Sand shinobi would increase the intensity of their attacks, consuming even more chakra and weapon supplies.

Clearly, in his eyes, this evil Uchiha was not a comrade who fought alongside him, but a political enemy of the Sarutobi Faction—a competitor who had come to steal his Mission Merit Points.

This evil Uchiha ought to be a pawn, a tool for draining the combat strength of these Hidden Sand shinobi.

Once these Hidden Sand shinobi had exhausted themselves and succumbed to the poison, wouldn't all those Mission Merit Points belong to him?

"Hall, I'm counting on you!"

Despite facing such a dire situation, Umino Sasuke's expression did not change. As always, he continued forming seals.

"No problem, Captain!"

Tejudo looked solemn as he removed the last Sealing Scroll from his waist. He then grabbed the opening of the scroll and violently flung it into the air ahead.

"Double Iron Prison Gate!"

A thunderous boom erupted!

Amid the smoke and dust bursting from the Sealing Scroll, two iron gates carved with Rashomon Demons rose with a crash.

The smaller iron gate at the front was roughly ten meters tall, five meters wide, and astonishingly one meter thick. Rather than an iron gate, it was more like an impregnable wall of metal.

And the iron gate behind it was a full size larger than the one in front.