"I heard your jutsu had an enormous range, Pingsan. Why don't you go say hello to those Rock Ninja up ahead?" Minato Namikaze said with a broad, auntie-like smile from atop the mountain, then patted Pingsan on the head.
Pingsan slapped away the hand of that scheming bastard. Touch my head again, you son of a bitch, and I'll tell Kushina you've got a secret stash of money.
With red-rimmed eyes, Pingsan said, "Be careful, everyone. This is my first time using it, so I might mess up and hit one of our own!"
Then Pingsan clenched his jaw, rapidly formed hand seals, and shouted, "Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
With a deafening rumble, a three-meter-high wave appeared in an instant, its overwhelming force like a mountain crashing down.
Pingsan didn't think it was enough. Sweat pouring down his face, he continued forming hand seals with one hand.
Uchiha Yue saw the fine sweat on Pingsan's forehead and the veins standing out there, and couldn't help feeling worried for him.
Pingsan's hands trembled as he shouted, "Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"
Above the original three-meter wave, another curtain of water poured down from the sky, like the heavens collapsing and the Milky Way spilling over.
In a moment, the mountaintop Nara Shikaku had chosen became a vast ocean.
The wave, over twenty meters wide and five or six meters high, rolled down the slope with unstoppable force.
Pingsan shouted, "Everyone, move out!"
With that, the group raced downhill atop the surging wave.
Kakashi, Obito, and Rin stood dumbfounded on the sheet of ice Pingsan had formed. Obito's lips quivered as he pointed at Pingsan, who was controlling the water, and said, "Th-this can't be real! This scale... Are you a monster?!"
Kakashi's eye twitched, while Rin's gaze flickered and her face turned deathly pale.
A patrol squad heard the noise from the mountain and looked up. One Rock Ninja dropped to his knees with a thud, and the Kunai in his hand hit the ground with a clear clink.
The Rock Ninja stared blankly, trembling all over, as the massive wave descended from the sky. He opened his mouth, but before he could get a word out, the wave crushed him into pulp!
Farther down, a group of Rock Ninja hurriedly began forming hand seals, throwing out every kind of defensive jutsu they could think of.
One Rock Ninja was so terrified that he lost his composure and unleashed a powerful Lightning Release jutsu.
The thirty-odd Rock Ninja on the outer perimeter were swallowed up in an instant. The wave was like a speeding train, slamming into more than thirty eggs at a hundred and eighty miles per hour and crushing them in a flash.
Only a few elite ninja sensed the danger, each using their own tricks to evade the wave before attacking the people atop its crest.
Pingsan rode the water as it crushed through the crowd, then shouted, "Minato!"
Minato replied, "Got it!"
In an instant, Minato vanished from where he stood. In a flurry of flashes, he stabbed the attacking ninja to death in midair.
The outer defenses fell in the blink of an eye. The group, faces pale, rode the surging waves onward.
Nara Shikaku formed hand seals and used his shadow to steady everyone, while Yamanaka Inoichi linked up with Hyuga Go and Pingsan to confirm their direction.
The others shut their eyes, crouching low and bracing themselves against the jolting as Shikaku held them steady.
By the time they reached halfway down the mountain, the water had become a churning mudslide. The once lush, tree-covered mountainside had been carved open in an instant, leaving a straight path.
Pingsan and the others were now less than five kilometers from Danzo's group, but they still had to push farther.
More and more trees and rocks churned through the mudslide, gradually slipping beyond Pingsan's control.
Pingsan gritted his teeth and completely let go of his control over the direction, rapidly forming hand seals.
Everyone felt the ice beneath them, which had been only slightly bumpy, turn into a tiny boat that was almost impossible to stand on, tossing in the raging storm.
With a bang, three of Pingsan's clones appeared. In an instant, the clones were swept into the mudslide. A blossom of blood welled up, then vanished.
Pingsan sensed that his Chakra was nearly overflowing, gritted his teeth, and continued forming hand seals.
Pingsan looked around at everyone, gritted his teeth, and shouted, "Hold on tight! Water Release: Water Pot Technique!"
With a roar, a massive amount of water poured into the already raging mudslide. Its speed slowed for a moment, then it surged forward even faster. The high-speed wind left dense cuts across everyone's faces and bodies.
Pingsan quickly gauged their speed. They were going at least two hundred miles per hour.
They suddenly reached a flat stretch. Choza's foot slipped, and he nearly fell, but Shikaku reacted quickly and pulled him back with a shadow.
Even so, there were two splashes. The two ANBU assigned to protect Pingsan fell off the ice and vanished in the blink of an eye!
Pingsan crouched down, his hair digging into the ice to keep him steady, then formed hand seals again and shouted, "Get ready, everyone. We're about to run into the main force.
"Ice Release: Ice Prison Technique!"
Crack, crack, crack—the ice spread upward, freezing everyone together into a single mass. The block of ice beneath them immediately began to slow, while the mudslide underneath continued rushing forward at full speed.
A group of Rock Ninja stood ahead, about seventy or eighty of them.
Seeing the mudslide bearing down on them, the lead ninja shouted in a trembling voice, "Everyone, combined ninja art: Earth Flow Wall!"
In an instant, a series of Earth Flow Walls of varying heights rose with a rumble, stacking into a wall like a mountain. Pingsan shouted, "Everyone, get ready to throw!"
With a thunderous crash, the mudslide slammed into the walls.
Everyone felt the ice beneath them jolt to a halt. Their insides lurched, and several Root Ninja near the front vomited blood, their internal organs injured by the impact.
"Throw!"
After Pingsan's hoarse shout, he threw Minato's Flying Thunder God Kunai!
A shower of Flying Thunder God Kunai shot up into the sky, darkening it overhead.
Minato gritted his teeth and yelled, "Get the hell up!"
With a flash, the entire block of ice vanished. When it reappeared, it was directly above the Rock Ninja. Blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, Pingsan shouted, "Shikaku, you'd better not have gotten your calculations wrong! Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
Standing on the rapidly descending block of ice, Pingsan unleashed a torrent of water below. With a roar, the ice crashed into the water, sending up a splash more than two meters high.
The group plunged straight to the bottom of the water and disappeared in an instant.
The Rock Ninja were hit from the front by the mudslide and from above by the deluge. They immediately lost their heads.
They scattered in every direction, but even if they could dodge the hundred-meter-wide wave crashing down from above, they couldn't escape the mudslide thundering down from the mountain, stretching over several kilometers.
With a deafening crash, the mudslide slammed into the giant wave, and the group was hurled straight out of the water.
Shikaku wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and shouted, "Quick! Use Wind Release to slow us down! We're about to leave the water's range!"
Those who could still move unleashed a chaotic barrage of Wind Release jutsu straight ahead. Finally, with a roar, the block of ice crashed into the water again.
The ice cracked in a wide swath, nearly shattering into pieces.
The Rock Ninja's Earth Flow Walls and their bodies had impeded the flood, slowing it considerably.
It had dropped from its original speed of two or three hundred miles per hour to around a hundred and seventy or eighty.
With his face blackened, Pingsan turned around and slapped Obito, shouting, "I told you all to use Wind Release! Why the hell did you use a Great Fireball?!"
Obito rubbed his reddened cheek and shouted, "We were moving so fast, all I heard was 'use it quickly'!"
Pingsan grabbed Obito by the collar and wiped his blackened face on it. "Shikaku, if you ever make me do this again, Choza's your grandson!"
Shikaku had been terrified too. He'd nearly fallen to his death. He yelled, "Next time we do this, we'll make Choza go hook up with a guy!"
Choza lay on the ice, his face blue with cold, looking completely bewildered. "What does this have to do with me?!"
Before you continue