"Our people are here!"
The twenty-odd Iwagakure Ninja still on the scene nearly wept with joy.
Just moments ago, there had been over a hundred of them. In such a short time, they'd been slaughtered until only this many remained.
Now things were looking up!
Reinforcements were arriving from every direction. Let's see how these damn little Konoha brats planned to escape!
"Qingye, what should we do?!"
Hyuga Himon was drenched in sweat, hoping Qingye could come up with a plan.
The reinforcements from the Land of Fire were less than five hundred meters away. As for the other three directions, never mind them—they'd be here in just a few breaths!
Qingye looked around, then at Hyuga Himon's sweat-soaked face. Suddenly, he smiled. "Himon, are you feeling hot right now?"
"?!"
Hyuga Himon was nearly dumbstruck.
What did whether he was hot have to do with anything?
Even if he weren't hot, he'd still be sweating from fear!
They were surrounded on all sides behind enemy lines by at least several hundred enemy ninja, while their own side had only four people. He'd never experienced such a desperate situation!
Qingye smiled but didn't explain.
Surrounded on all sides, his mind had instead settled into a strange, ethereal calm.
This situation had surely been orchestrated by Uchiha Madara. Maybe he was venting his anger? Or perhaps he had some other purpose.
But none of that mattered.
What should he do?
Try using Susanoo and truly go on a one-man rampage?
He'd only awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan two days ago, and he still wasn't sure whether he could control Susanoo, or how many stages he could reach.
Qingye turned and looked at the great river beneath the broken bridge.
The river was called the Niranjana River. It originated in the Land of Iron, flowed through the Land of the Waterfall, and entered the Land of Grass. By the time it reached Kannabi Bridge, it had widened to two hundred meters.
It was still the season when summer's heat lingered, and the extensive use of Fire Style just now had caused the air in the area to heat up rapidly.
In other words, Hyuga Himon's unbearable heat wasn't entirely psychological.
"Fall back!"
After only a few seconds of thought, Qingye finally spoke. Yūhi Kurenai and the other two were nearly frantic. "Fall back to that earthen wall. You three, hold off the reinforcements across the river."
The Earth Style: Earth Prison the Iwagakure Ninja had created earlier had a section beside the riverbank that hadn't been destroyed.
The wall stood over ten meters high, making it an ideal defensive position.
Thump!
Qingye pulled a scroll from his ninja pouch and unfurled it. Inside were ten full stacks of Explosive Tags!
He handed them out to Yūhi Kurenai and the other two, then instructed them:
"Make a few openings in the wall. If any reinforcements from across the river try to cross, throw Explosive Tags into the water and blow them up!"
The river was too wide for the people on the opposite bank to jump across.
As for making a bridge with Earth Style Ninjutsu, one that long couldn't provide enough support. Any bridge they made would collapse as soon as it was formed.
Using the Earth Prison wall to block the ninja tools thrown from across the river, then using Explosive Tags to stop reinforcements coming across the water, would take care of the threat behind them for now.
It would also give him time to create the conditions he needed!
"What about you, Qingye?"
Yūhi Kurenai pressed him.
That was what the three of them were supposed to do, but what about the Iwagakure reinforcements on the other three sides?
"Heh..."
Qingye chuckled softly.
He took a deep breath. The pattern in his left Sharingan shifted, and his ocular technique activated with a sharp, searing ache.
Susanoo, twofold enhancement!
Amplified by the Mangekyō's power, Qingye's physical strength and ninjutsu were now both doubled.
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
With a poof, he made two Shadow Clones, each racing off in a different direction along the river.
Qingye himself faced the Iwagakure reinforcements that had already reached him.
"Fire Style—"
Feeling the surge of power brought by the ocular technique, Qingye found that even the searing ache of using the Mangekyō no longer seemed worth mentioning. This power was simply intoxicating. "Great Fire Destruction!"
An ocean of flames swept forward like a raging flood!
"Stop! Stop them! Get a defense up!"
The Iwagakure Ninja at the front panicked. The surging flames rapidly closed in, their terrifying heat searing his face.
The Iwagakure Ninja charging forward acted together, raising a dozen layers of earthen walls. The raging sea of fire was blocked, splitting like flowing water and pouring off to either side.
The Iwagakure Ninja barely managed to stop the attack, but the woods on both sides were caught in the flames and swallowed in an instant!
Countless giant trees burned. The moisture inside them evaporated rapidly, and the scorching steam, combined with the fierce torrents of fire, sent the temperature soaring.
Whoosh!
Qingye dashed forward, leaping onto the top of the layered earthen walls. Looking down, he called out:
"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"
Dozens of small fireballs shot one after another from Qingye's mouth.
At first, they were only the size of fists, but they rapidly swelled to three or four meters across as they flew. Dozens of enormous fireballs blotted out the sky!
The terrifying sight of a meteor shower nearly broke the Iwagakure Ninja's nerve!
Who was this guy?!
"Don't panic! Everyone, form the hand seals together!"
The Iwagakure squad leaders did their best to calm their comrades as they formed hand seals. A large number of hemispherical Earth Flow Walls rose, sheltering the Iwagakure Ninja beneath them.
A meteor shower of fire rained down on the earth!
The Iwagakure Ninja under the hemispherical earthen domes were tense, feeling the walls above them shake from the bombardment and grow hotter by the moment!
They could only defend passively, with their lives in someone else's hands. The helplessness left them all uneasy.
The feeling of being on the brink of life and death seemed to last an entire lifetime. They didn't know how long it took before the bombardment above finally began to fade.
When the Iwagakure Ninja emerged from their defenses, the surrounding landscape had completely changed.
This area of the Land of Grass had once been covered in dense forest. Now, the surroundings were an ocean of fire!
It wasn't just here. The woods both upstream and downstream were burning too. Forests spanning several kilometers were ablaze, and the fire was still spreading rapidly, setting half the sky aglow!
Rumble!
A continuous series of explosions sounded up ahead!
A wall over ten meters high stood at the river's edge, blocking the view of the opposite bank.
Beyond it stood three Konoha ninja who looked to be in their teens. They kept throwing Explosive Tags, more than a dozen at a time.
The Explosive Tags fluttered down into the river. The blasts and flames repeatedly drove back the reinforcements trying to cross.
By then, the entire river was shrouded in steam from the explosions, like a thick fog had rolled in.
After unleashing a flurry of fierce attacks, Qingye suddenly stopped. With a few leaps, he retreated to the edge of the earthen wall by the riverbank.
He jumped lightly onto it and surveyed the sea of fire stretching across several kilometers.
The Iwagakure Ninja on the other side didn't know whether to advance or retreat. They glanced at one another, staring at Qingye's far-too-young face, and not a single one dared to be the first to charge.
Just as one of Iwagakure's elite jonin tried to rally everyone's courage,
Qingye, standing atop the wall over ten meters high, suddenly laughed.
The exhilaration of wantonly unleashing his power had built up inside him. The tension that had weighed on his heart ever since he'd crossed over, the sense of danger that had haunted him ever since he was assigned to the Iwagakure battlefield—all of it vanished!
Gazing up at the vast rain cloud formed by the steam gathering in the sky, Qingye rested one hand against his forehead and threw his head back in laughter.
"Ha ha, hahahahahahaha..."
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