Ambush and Pursuit

Normally, this escort mission was certainly not something Touma could handle alone; no matter how strong he was, he couldn't split himself into eight pieces.

However, given the current situation in Sunny City, it was impossible for Jiraiya to assign him men, and even if Jiraiya dared to, Touma wouldn't dare use them.

There was no guarantee that spies wouldn't hear the news, change their appearances, and infiltrate the group; Touma had neither the time nor the energy to slowly vet their identities.

Therefore, he requested that Jiraiya temporarily pull three Genin squads, use the Transformation Technique to disguise themselves as the four of them, and leave Sunny City from three different directions to distract those lurking in the shadows.

As for himself, he took the three youngsters and left Sunny City under the cover of night that very evening; by the time those in the shadows realized something was wrong, they would already be near the capital.

Initially, Touma felt everything was foolproof, even taking the three youngsters to enjoy the capital of the Land of Fire for three days, only joining a merchant caravan under the "Heavenly Fire Cult" to head toward Konoha on the fourth day.

But things took a turn; their caravan was actually ambushed by a group of rogue ninjas from Zhe Hidden Village who had infiltrated the Land of Fire from the direction of the Land of Woods.

The strength of this group of rogue ninjas was not particularly high, generally averaging between Genin and Chunin levels, with the leader at most approaching the level of a Special Jonin.

However, their abilities, derived from Zhe Hidden Village, were incredibly troublesome. A mere seven ninjas could exert the offensive power of a thousand-man army, primarily due to the "Earth Style: Ultimate Creation Technique - Dead Soil" developed by Zhe Hidden Village.

This technique originated from the "Dead Soul Technique," a secret art used by a ninja from the Land of Woods during the Warring States period to drive the corpses of fallen soldiers back to their homeland. However, after the Land of Woods responded to the call of the Five Great Nations to establish Zhe Hidden Village, they lacked sufficient ninjutsu reserves and could only develop it based on the "Dead Soul Technique."

That was how "Dead Soil" came to be; it strengthened the control intensity of the original "Dead Soul Technique" and increased the upper limit of the number of souls controlled, becoming a highly aggressive Earth Style ninjutsu.

"Dead Soil" no longer required corpses; as long as one possessed the ashes of the deceased, they could manifest the physical bodies of the dead through Earth Style chakra, capable of reaching nearly sixty percent of the physical combat strength the deceased had in life.

Of course, the flaws of this forbidden technique were also significant: the manifested corpses could only perform physical attacks, were unable to use ninjutsu, and were fragile and vulnerable when facing Lightning Style.

After figuring out the nature of his opponents, Touma, who had been hiding within the caravan, had no choice but to reveal his presence.

"Thunder Motion Fist" combined with the "Hidden Thunder Sword" allowed him to charge into the army of the dead as if entering an empty land. His figure became blurred under the acceleration of electric arcs, making it impossible for those rogue ninjas from Zhe Hidden Village to track his movements.

However, facing an ever-increasing army of the dead, no matter how fast Touma was, his killing efficiency could not continue to rise. After all, the opponent had superior numbers and enough ashes to use as casting materials; in a pure war of attrition, Touma was truly no match.

Therefore, he had no choice but to use his ultimate move.

He summoned two Chakra Pills from the seal on his wrist and swallowed them, immediately using a Shadow Clone to hold the line while his main body retreated rapidly to weave hand signs, unleashing the A-rank ninjutsu he had developed from "Thunder Motion Fist": "Lightning Style: Thunder Shock"!

"Lightning Style: Thunder Shock" was the result of Touma's research into the quantification of Lightning Style chakra. This ninjutsu could create a powerful thunderstorm with himself as the center, radiating a voltage exceeding one million volts and a current of no less than one hundred amperes.

He had experimented with it once in the Forest of Death; under the thunderstorm, all flora and fauna within a one-kilometer radius were directly carbonized, and even the ore on the ground underwent vitrification due to the high temperatures generated by the storm.

Using it against enemies for the first time, it naturally coincided with the principle of elemental restraint, and the results were astonishingly good.

Under the thunderstorm of "Thunder Shock," not only were the entire army of the dead wiped out in an instant, but even the "Dead Soil" technique formulas that those Zhe Hidden Village rogue ninjas had buried in the ground could no longer be activated with Earth Style chakra.

Clearly, this patch of ground had been completely saturated with Touma's high-concentration Lightning Style chakra; no matter how profound the Earth Style ninjutsu, it would be unable to function for some time.

Just as those Zhe Hidden Village rogue ninjas were plunged into shock, unable to extricate themselves from the thunderstorm, Touma's "Destructo Disc" arrived, albeit slightly late. Seven large heads wearing Hannya masks fell to the ground in succession, only to be snatched up one by one by a ninja hawk diving down from high altitude.

This really wasn't Touma being overly cautious; Zhe Hidden Village truly possessed a secret technique for reattaching severed heads called "Severed Head Reattachment," which also belonged to the "Earth Style: Ultimate Creation Technique" series.

Of course, this reattachment secret art didn't fully save a person, but it briefly extended the body's vitality, enough for them to find a medical ninja for rescue. This was also why the Zhe Hidden Village of the Land of Woods was known as the "Undying Hidden Village."

To prevent this batch of ninjas from using this trick, Touma had summoned the ninja hawk before condensing the "Destructo Disc" in his hands, preparing to snatch their heads first.

However, by the time Touma had sealed the seven rogue ninja heads, he found he could no longer sense the Shadow Clone responsible for protecting the three youngsters from the Land of Rain in the caravan a kilometer away.

Even if he wanted to dispel the Shadow Clone, he couldn't. There were only two explanations for this phenomenon: either the Shadow Clone had been suppressed by a sealing technique, or it was too far away from him.

The first explanation was almost impossible; that Shadow Clone had been created after he had taken a Chakra Pill in advance, possessing nearly eighty percent of his main body's chakra. To suppress his chakra level with a sealing technique without causing the Shadow Clone to explode, the sealer's strength would have to be formidable.

And a sealer of such strength would be a renowned figure in the ninja world, most of whom had some connection to the Land of Fire and would not attack a Land of Fire merchant caravan.

Therefore, only the second explanation remained, and the fact that his Shadow Clone could move beyond his maximum summoning range within a dozen minutes could only mean that his Shadow Clone, along with everyone in the caravan, had been summoned away.

Sure enough, when Touma went to investigate, apart from the chaotic footprints and carriage tracks on the ground, even the dung left by the cattle and horses startled by the rogue ninjas had vanished. Such indiscriminate summoning could only be the "Cooperative Summoning Technique" of a large summoning beast.

Fortunately, Touma always liked to keep an ace up his sleeve; he had left a "Twin Xiao-Destroying Bug" on each of the three youngsters from the start.

The so-called "Twin Xiao-Destroying Bug" referred to two "Xiao-Destroying Bugs" born from a single egg. They could innately sense the position of their twin brother through "Twin Telepathy." Not only were they unaffected by magnetic fields, but they were also immune to pheromones, which was why they were often used by the Aburame clan as a backup tracking method.

However, naturally born "Twin Xiao-Destroying Bugs" were too few in number. It was only during the process of Touma and Shibi researching the reproduction of "Sage Destruction Bugs" that they accidentally discovered a hormone that could stimulate insect eggs to divide and then fuse, which finally allowed them to increase production.

Touma hurriedly released one of them, then transformed into a Kestrel and followed behind the "Twin Xiao-Destroying Bug" as it flew.

Fortunately, after deepening his nature transformation of Yang Release chakra, he could maintain animal transformations for longer periods, and the amount of chakra consumed had also decreased significantly, enough for him to persist until he reached his destination in one go.

However, what made Touma feel that something was wrong was that the direction the "Twin Xiao-Destroying Bug" was tracking was not toward the Land of Woods, but toward the Land of Swamps, a place with very little presence in the ninja world!