August 24, before dawn—
Orochimaru, who had been resting, suddenly opened his eyes. Jiraiya, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, immediately sensed it and opened his eyes as well. Seeing Orochimaru nod at him, Jiraiya woke Akaseki and the others, who had been meditating with their eyes closed to adjust their condition.
"Hanzō has made his move. Over a thousand samurai are trapped in the poison mist," Orochimaru said.
Meanwhile, the Rain Ninja in the valley also began leaving the valley and moving toward the battlefield fifty li away.
Clearly, they had their own means of communication and now knew roughly where their companions were fighting!
Orochimaru's team did not act immediately. Instead, they waited beside the valley entrance until—
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
When roughly half the Rain Ninja had passed through the valley entrance passage—
"Akaseki," Orochimaru called.
Akaseki immediately nodded slightly. At the same time—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions suddenly erupted at the valley entrance!
That was right, Akaseki's Air Burst Technique—
Over the course of the night, Akaseki had continuously created clones and recovered, taking advantage of the fact that his original body could restore chakra after using Mirror Clone. He had produced six Mirror Clones with half their chakra remaining!
In terms of recovery speed, if Akaseki went all out, he could actually make even more.
However, in actual combat, because Mirror Clones could not recover chakra on their own, Akaseki also had to sustain the chakra consumption required to maintain their existence. As such, six Mirror Clones in optimal condition were roughly his current limit.
Unless Akaseki kept the "three-piece set" active at all times, the upkeep cost of six clones alone would offset his normal chakra recovery rate.
Previously, there had always been three clones at a time, rotating