Sunny Day Poison Battle

The credit for this extra mission was not small; not only did they find the vulnerabilities in the border's underground water veins, but they also dug up quite a bit of intelligence from the minds of the Rain ninjas.

According to the intelligence extracted by Teacher Shinku using the "Evil Fall Technique," the Rain ninjas had already dispatched a full 20 Chunin teams to infiltrate the Land of Fire for the purpose of assassinating high-value targets.

Although there were no specific infiltration routes in their minds, the rough distribution map of the underground water veins preserved in their memories indicated that they were basically distributed along the border line near Sunny City.

Sunny City was much like Kikyo City; both were important cities on the border of the Land of Fire, serving as customs checkpoints in peacetime and as forward bridgeheads during wartime. The acting commander currently stationed there was none other than Jiraiya, another disciple of Sarutobi Hiruzen who called himself the "Toad Sage."

Don't let his usual slacker demeanor fool you; Orochimaru's evaluation of him was that he was a "quite reliable partner." To earn such praise from Orochimaru, it couldn't just be based on their friendship; it was only possible if he truly acknowledged Jiraiya.

Since this intelligence was now known, besides the mandatory report to the Hokage Office, a copy needed to be sent to Jiraiya as well.

It just so happened that Sunny City had recently received a batch of Water Release ninjas, who would be fully capable of completely sealing the vulnerabilities in the underground water veins before the Rain ninja assassination squads could fully infiltrate.

However, this intelligence had to be delivered by Touma personally, as the only ninja hawk he had contracted was still on its way to Kairan Village.

Coincidentally, Uncle Umino still had a mission to Sunny City, so the two could travel together.

On the way to Sunny City, Touma asked many questions about summoning beasts. After all, besides being a top-tier Water Release ninja, Umino Sadami was also a summoning master highly skilled in the use of summoning creatures.

Although she couldn't directly teach Touma the "Partial Summoning Technique" she had developed herself, she still introduced her understanding of summoning arts and roughly outlined the logic behind developing the "Partial Summoning Technique."

In Umino Sadami's view, summoning was not merely a technique for using ninja chakra to call forth a beast; it was a medium through which one could continuously cultivate rapport with a summoning beast until they could share chakra and combat experience!

Because during the summoning process, it was not just the summoner choosing the beast, but also the beast responding to the summoner; the higher the compatibility between the two, the lower the chakra consumption during the summoning.

Take Umino Sadami summoning Senkawa-maru, for example; even summoning the entirety of Senkawa-maru's fifty-meter-long body likely consumed less than one-tenth of her chakra.

Conversely, other ninjas just beginning to learn summoning might consume nearly a quarter of their chakra just to summon a ninja dog or a ninja hawk.

Hearing this made Touma's face flush with embarrassment. It was true that when he had summoned his ninja hawk earlier, it had consumed nearly a quarter of his chakra, and he had even thought he was doing quite well!

Haruno Kizashi, who had also learned the summoning technique, had to expend nearly one-third of his chakra to summon his small ninja dog named "Dekai."

It now seemed that it wasn't just the proficiency of the summoning technique that affected consumption; the compatibility between the summoner and the summoning beast was also a major factor.

Just as Touma was still absorbing this perspective, Uncle Umino threw out an even more shocking idea: in his view, once the compatibility between a summoner and a beast reached a certain level, they could borrow chakra just like a Jinchuriki!

He even demonstrated to Touma how he borrowed Senkawa-maru's chakra to perform Water Release ninjutsu.

However, in Uncle Umino's view, his own compatibility with Senkawa-maru had not yet reached the point of a qualitative change; the chakra he currently borrowed could not be transmitted through the summoning channel with 100% efficiency, resulting in too much loss.

That was why he had settled for the next best thing and developed the "Partial Summoning Technique," simply allowing parts of Senkawa-maru's body to unleash ninjutsu, which were then transmitted through the summoning channel.

In fact, if Uncle Umino were familiar with Jiraiya, they would certainly have common ground; after all, the summoning arts taught to Jiraiya by the holy land of Mount Myoboku were extremely similar to Umino Sadami's approach.

For instance, the Mount Myoboku summoning technique could summon parts of the Rock Lodging Great Toad's body, and could also utilize the special geographical environment of the holy land to store clones that practiced Sage chakra and summon them over for use.

It was just a pity that Umino Sadami's luck might have been a bit lacking; she hadn't been chosen by the three great holy lands when she first used the summoning technique to become a ninja representative of the holy land in the human world.

Just as the two arrived near Sunny City, they suddenly heard a continuous series of explosions erupting from within the city.

Following closely behind were shouts and cries of battle rising one after another.

Clearly, a battle was already underway inside Sunny City.

Therefore, the two did not hesitate to vault over the towering city walls into the city, rather than taking a detour to the main gate to enter through normal procedures.

What met their eyes was chaos; there was not a single place where ninja battles were not breaking out. Even the City Lord's mansion, which had been converted into a forward command post during wartime, had lost the protection of its barrier and been breached.

However, looking closely, Touma noticed that among the ninjas fighting in the city, not a single one wore a Konoha headband; instead, he saw many headband patterns he had never seen before.

Fortunately, Uncle Umino, who was experienced, quickly identified which ninja villages these headbands belonged to.

There were those from Kagerou Village in the Land of Rivers, Chougan Village in the Land of Mountains, the Frost Village in the Land of Frost, and the Snow Village in the Land of Snow. Uncle Umino even saw the headbands of ninjas from Kannabi Village in the Land of Islands, which had absolutely nothing to do with this!

If nothing else, these ninjas from small, obscure villages must have been lured by something promised by Hanzo of the Land of Rain.

However, perhaps because they hadn't found any Konoha ninjas in the city, they had started fighting among themselves first.

Just as Touma was preparing to summon the White Snake to see if Orochimaru had any means of finding Jiraiya, the two noticed a faint fluctuation emanating from the city wall they were standing on.

Uncle Umino might not have reacted immediately to where this fluctuation came from, but for Touma, it was all too familiar. Because he had experienced similar fluctuations when he encountered Hozuki Mitsuki during his graduation exam, it was the chakra fluctuation generated when a Barrier Pillar was charging.

Touma did not hesitate, quickly entering the attribute-state of "Sky Storm Air Dance." His lower body transformed into a powerful whirlwind, scooping up Uncle Umino and flying toward the outside of the city.

Fortunately, his reaction was fast enough; the Barrier Pillar inside the city wall suddenly activated, rapidly unfolding a dense green barrier. Immediately afterward, thick, yellow-green poisonous gas appeared within the barrier.

The ninjas in the city, who were in the heat of battle, did not notice the appearance of the poisonous gas at all. Their intense activity caused them to breathe rapidly, and even if they realized something had been inhaled into their lungs, it was too late for regrets.

By the time the yellow-green poisonous gas had completely dissipated within the barrier, there was not a single living creature left standing in all of Sunny City; even the ninja beasts brought by these ninjas had not been spared.

It was only then that Touma noticed from mid-air that there was a rustling movement on the ground outside the city. Following that, a large number of Konoha ninjas emerged from underground, each wearing anti-poison breathing masks, and charged into the city one after another!