The bearded ninja nearest Tōka used the Body Flicker Technique to evade the slug's acid. Its corrosiveness was more terrifying than any poison.
Even a tiny bit on the skin would leave a huge hole.
Puff, puff, puff!!
A cloud of white smoke rose. Seeing that they had been discovered by the slug, the four immediately released their Transformation Technique.
Their Konoha ninja attire instantly changed into Sunagakure Shinobi uniforms, and three of them were Puppet Masters.
"One Jonin and three Chunin?" Tōka's heart sank. It was the standard composition of an elite four-man squad.
The tiny slug's combat strength was nowhere near enough to handle these four, and its earlier movements had already drawn their attention.
"That's a slug, right? Salt can kill it!" The Sunagakure Jonin said coldly.
"Teacher, where are we supposed to get salt?" the long-browed kid asked blankly.
"Didn't I give each of you a bottle of Salt Poison a few days ago?" The Sunagakure Jonin glared at the long-browed kid and roared.
"Oh!!" The three Chunin immediately pulled out bottles. They were indeed the Salt Poison the Sunagakure Jonin had mentioned.
**Splash!~~
The three removed the caps at once and hurled the bottles directly at Tōka. The Salt Poison within instantly spilled out.
The slug hurriedly burrowed into Tōka's clothes.
The Salt Poison landed directly on Tōka's body and seeped in through his wounds.
A searing agony he would never forget nearly made Tōka jump up and curse. The feeling of salt getting into a wound was beyond description.
Tōka's little face turned deathly pale, cold sweat covered his forehead, and even his teeth chattered.
They used up all the Salt Poison at once? The Sunagakure Jonin stared blankly at the three empty bottles.
"You three idiots!" the Sunagakure Jonin roared in fury. Getting stuck with three students like this was the greatest tragedy of his life.
"Uh... Teacher, didn't you say to use salt?" the long-browed kid asked instinctively.
The Sunagakure Jonin's temple twitched, veins bulging as he suppressed the rage in his heart.
The three Chunin hurriedly backed away...
"Tōka, you've been poisoned," the slug said, poking out its tiny head.
"I know!" A dark look crossed Tōka's face. Would I have been poisoned if it weren't for you? And Salt Poison at that. The feeling of salt in a wound...
Just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.
After recovering a little, the burning pain in his wounds still made Tōka's voice tremble unnaturally.
"His abilities are dangerous. To be safe, you two attack with puppets!" The Sunagakure Jonin deliberately intended to train two of his students.
"Yes, Teacher!" The long-browed kid and the chubby boy immediately moved their fingers, controlling two crows as they charged toward Tōka.
Black Secret Technique: Poison Needle!
Black Secret Technique: Six Rib Blades!
The two shouted in unison. One crow opened its mouth and fired a continuous barrage of dense green poison needles across a small area.
The other ejected three curved blades from each side of its front, six in total. Arranged like ribs, they spun as they slashed toward Tōka.
Tōka gritted his teeth and prepared to force his body to move, but the slug stopped him.
"Your ribs haven't fully healed. You can't move recklessly!"
Feeling the lingering pain in his chest, Tōka knew this was a critical time for his ribs to heal. He immediately gave up on forcing himself to move.
Meanwhile, the two crows' attacks drew nearer. If he could not dodge them, then he would make them miss!
Tōka's eyes turned cold as a plan formed in his mind.
"Slug, focus on healing me. I'll hold them off!"
The moment Tōka spoke, he drew disdainful looks from all four of them.
In the eyes of the Sunagakure squad, Tōka was already meat on the chopping block, left only to be butchered.
"With you half-dead like this?"
"You'll hold us off?"
"Heh...!"
The three Chunin mocked him, their faces full of certainty.
Suddenly!
The Sunagakure Shinobi's laughter came to an abrupt halt, like ducks whose necks had been grabbed.
Tōka, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly blurred. Like an ink painting, his body twisted and vanished from where he lay.
Both crows' attacks missed completely. Poison needles covered the ground in a dense row, while the other crow's curved blades hacked into a tree trunk.
"Everyone, be careful. It's genjutsu!" the Sunagakure Jonin shouted gravely.
The other three immediately closed ranks. All four formed hand seals, and the chakra within their bodies abruptly stalled before erupting violently.
"Release!"
The scene shifted, and the forest blurred. It did not seem to have changed much.
Yet Tōka's figure appeared before them.
He lay pale-faced in his original position, three poison needles embedded in his arm. Clearly, he had not completely evaded the puppets' earlier attack.
The genjutsu had been released!
"Teacher, he's poisoned!"
"Teacher, give him the killing blow!"
"Brat, die!" Killing intent flashed in the Sunagakure Jonin's eyes. With a twitch of his fingers, a humanoid puppet rushed toward Tōka.
The greenish blade stabbed into Tōka's chest with a wet squelch. Blood corroded by poison turned black.
Black blood seeped from the wound with a sizzling sound.
"We finally got him!" Seeing Tōka roll his eyes and lose all signs of life, the Sunagakure Jonin let out a long breath and recalled the puppet with a flick of his hand.
Before he could celebrate, a cry of alarm suddenly rang out beside him.
"No, Teacher, look!"
"He disappeared again!"
"What?!" The Sunagakure Jonin looked up in shock and anger.
Tōka, pierced through by the blade, was not dead. Instead, a faint curve rested on his lips, as though he were mocking him.
Under everyone's stunned gaze, Tōka's body rippled like water...
Then vanished once again!!
"The genjutsu wasn't released?" The Sunagakure Jonin's expression changed drastically. A mere brat's genjutsu had actually trapped him!
No, it was a second genjutsu!
Refusing to believe it, the Sunagakure Jonin clapped his hands together.
He forcibly froze the chakra in his body for an instant, then unleashed it in a violent burst, striking at the chaotic chakra controlled by his opponent's spiritual energy.
"Release!" the Sunagakure Jonin roared furiously.
Sure enough!
Tōka's figure gradually emerged, still lying in the same spot, unable to move.
A savage expression appeared on the Sunagakure Jonin's face. His ten fingers twitched repeatedly, and the humanoid puppet began spinning madly.
Puppet Technique: Poison Blade Barrage!
Puff, puff, puff!!
The poisoned blades in the rapidly spinning puppet's hands became a blur, slashing down in a frenzied barrage too numerous to count.
In an instant, Tōka was chopped into a pile of mangled flesh.
"Is he dead?!" The Sunagakure Jonin narrowed his eyes, his nerves taut as he stared fixedly at that spot.
What happened next made all four hearts skip a beat.
A breeze swept through, and the mangled corpse twisted before scattering in the wind!
"How is that possible?!" The Sunagakure Jonin clenched his teeth, disbelief filling his eyes.
"Teacher..."
The three Chunin shuddered in fear. Such a strange sight made them want to retreat.
Was this really just a seven-year-old brat?
That genjutsu alone, which had even made their teacher suffer, was enough to utterly crush all three of them!
In the forest, with the slug's help, Tōka leaned half-reclined against a large tree stump, his hands still held in a hand seal.
His little face was deathly pale, and cold sweat covered his forehead.
Genjutsu: Mirror Within a Mirror!
He had finally completed it! As though all his strength had been drained away, Tōka let his hands fall limply.
Mirror Within a Mirror was a genjutsu containing two layers of illusion and one layer of reality.
When an enemy was uncertain whether they had broken the genjutsu and formed hand seals to release it again, they would enter the next layer of illusion.
In other words, the first time the Sunagakure elite squad formed hand seals, they had indeed released the genjutsu, and the humanoid puppet's poisoned blade had truly struck Tōka.
However, that had only been the first of the two illusionary layers.
Enduring the pain of being stabbed, the injured Tōka activated the second layer of Mirror Within a Mirror.
When the four members of the Sunagakure elite squad formed hand seals again to release the genjutsu, they had actually entered the true illusion of Mirror Within a Mirror.
At that point, the Sunagakure Shinobi could no longer tell whether they were in an illusion or reality.
"The essence of Genjutsu: Mirror Within a Mirror is that once the technique succeeds, the enemy is trapped in an endless cycle of illusion, reality, and illusion."
"If they cannot ensure they are in the real world and kill the caster, then they can never escape!"
Tōka muttered to himself. Coming up with this genjutsu had been purely coincidental.
He classified it as a B-rank genjutsu because it was not perfect. Its flaw lay in that layer of reality.
If he could create an endless loop with all three layers being illusions...
Then it would at least be an S-rank genjutsu!
"Tōka, you're amazing! You actually know such a powerful genjutsu!" the slug praised him sincerely.
"Slug, can you detoxify poison?" Tōka felt a dizzying wave of vertigo wash over him. The poison in his body must have taken effect.
"Tōka, leave it to me!" the slug replied.
Another two minutes passed, and the sound of rushing wind cutting through the air came from nearby.
Tōka, who had been resting with his eyes closed, immediately pricked up his ears. Then he abruptly opened his eyes, his sharp gaze fixing on the direction the sound had come from.
"Tōka, don't worry. They were sent by Lady Tsunade," the slug's voice sounded at just the right moment.
Sure enough, four black figures descended from the air, all wearing Konoha forehead protectors and flak jackets.
"Sunagakure Shinobi?"
"They've been caught in genjutsu?"
The four ninja were also an elite squad of one Jonin and three Chunin. They immediately saw through the Sunagakure squad's condition.
Their faces were expressionless, their eyes dull, and their bodies completely motionless. They were clearly trapped in genjutsu.
And there was no one else nearby...
The four shifted their gazes to Tōka, who was half-reclined against the tree stump. This brat's genjutsu was actually so powerful that even a Sunagakure Jonin could not break free?
After a brief exchange of glances, the four attacked at once.
Puff, puff, puff!!
Each flashed behind a Sunagakure Shinobi. Blades rose and fell, cutting through their carotid arteries as blood sprayed out like fountains.
The Sunagakure squad was instantly wiped out, and their bodies were quickly dealt with.
A short while later, after the smell of blood nearby had been buried.
"How are you?" The Konoha Jonin stood five steps away from Tōka without approaching and asked.
"I won't die." Tōka replied with a dark expression. This time, the Sunagakure Shinobi had truly enraged him!
The Konoha Jonin nodded slightly, unconcerned by Tōka's tone. He raised a hand and made a signal, and everyone immediately dispersed, hiding in corners around Tōka.
The main battlefield between Konoha and the Sunagakure Shinobi was still on Kikyo Mountain, where the Sunagakure forces were stationed. The battle had already reached its fiercest stage.
Shouts of battle, screams, and explosions rang out without end.
Corpses piled up like mountains, and blood gathered into rivers.
Konoha had caught them off guard and used elite troops to assault the Sunagakure camp, gaining an absolute advantage.
Though the Sunagakure Shinobi had greater numbers, their casualties continued to rise.
More than seventy percent of the corpses on the ground belonged to Sunagakure Shinobi. Only around twenty percent belonged to Konoha, while the remaining ten percent were so mangled, with severed limbs scattered everywhere, that they could not be identified at all.
"This can't continue! We need to find a way to turn the tide!" Ebizo said gravely.
"Though Genin are cannon fodder on the battlefield and plentiful in number, they still can't withstand Konoha slaughtering them like this!" Chiyo frowned as well. The Genin who survived the battlefield would become the foundation of Sunagakure in the future.
She did not oppose survival of the fittest, using blood and death to eliminate the weak.
But this time, the casualties were truly too great, and Konoha's entire army consisted of elite troops at Chunin rank and above.
"Do you have any ideas?" Rasa's face was as dark as a pot. Every time a ninja fell, his eyelid twitched. By now, he had gone numb.
"Let's move! The outcome of a battle still depends on the outcome between the strongest fighters." Chiyo's eyes turned cold, her withered hands already gripping two puppet scrolls.
A gust of wind swept across Kikyo Mountain, carrying away the brief silence.
"Then let's move!" Rasa said coldly, his lips pressed together.
A powerful fighting spirit erupted. Gold dust rose, lifting his entire body as he flew into the sky...
As the Kazekage of Sunagakure, Rasa's movements had always been watched by Konoha.
"Lady Tsunade, Rasa and Chiyo have moved." Shikaku Nara said, his eyes filled with gravity.
"There's no need to worry about them. Jiraiya and Orochimaru have been prepared for this long ago!" Tsunade watched the battle. Konoha had already suppressed the Sunagakure Shinobi on every front.
As long as Jiraiya and Orochimaru defeated Rasa and Chiyo, the battle would be over!
In the woods at the edge of the battlefield, Tōka sat cross-legged beneath a tree, chakra gathering in his hands and covering his chest.
The slug detoxified him while he repaired his internal injuries himself.
Because he was far from the main battlefield, the occasional wandering Sunagakure Shinobi in the forest had been dealt with by the Konoha elite squad. Tōka's injuries had mostly healed.
He had passed through the weakest period without incident.
Once the slug finished detoxifying him, he would be able to move freely again.
"I didn't want to do this, but if I don't make the Sunagakure Shinobi truly feel pain, they'll only become more troublesome later!" The coldness in Tōka's eyes was bottomless.
The other power that had always lain dormant within his body began to stir along with Tōka's anger.
Before you continue