"Kill!"
A dozen or so Rock Ninja hurled kunai and unfurled scrolls. In the blink of an eye, a dense wave of kunai came whistling toward them, many of them carrying Explosive Tags.
At the same time, lightning flashed behind them. A sizable number of Cloud Ninja, armed with all kinds of weapons, darted past the Rock Ninja like bolts of lightning and charged toward the Sand Ninja and Konoha Ninja ahead!
"Just what I wanted! I'll take these!"
Qi couldn't get involved in a battle between Jonin, but a large-scale melee among Chunin was exactly what he'd been hoping for. Seeing the wave of kunai sweep toward him, he laughed wildly, charged past the Sand Ninja in front, and rushed to meet it.
"Ice Release: Flowing Ice Barrier!"
"Gurgle..."
Bubbles began to rise from underground, growing louder and louder until their sound became a roar like a waterfall. One wave after another, huge splashes of water burst from the earth and, almost instantly, turned into layers of ice crystals. Like flowing water, they covered all the space in front of the Sand Ninja!
When it came to defense, Ice Release was probably even stronger than Wood Release!
And Qi was no longer the rookie he'd been back then, when Konoha Jonin Shiro Aoki had forced him to focus entirely on defense with a single Shadow Clone Technique, nearly overwhelming him.
The Rock Ninja stared in stunned silence as their wave of kunai met a steady barrage of "clink, clank" sounds. The flowing ice walls that kept surging up blocked every last one.
What made their eyes nearly pop out of their heads was that even the kunai bound with Explosive Tags couldn't damage the ice wall at all. The explosions roared again and again, kicking up nothing but ice shards and having no effect whatsoever...
That was the advantage of a Kekkei Genkai technique. Sure, they were difficult to master, but once you got them to work, their power was no joke. Ordinary ninja had a hard time dealing with them...
The Three Great Dojutsu were prime examples. Even the seemingly unimpressive Byakugan became terrifying once it reached a high level. Even advanced genjutsu cast by the Uchiha Clan with their Sharingan could only end in failure against it.
The ice wall had stopped the Rock Ninja's kunai, but it couldn't stop the Cloud Ninja's charge. The Cloud Ninja had almost no defensive techniques; their fighting style was all about relentless attacks. In the blink of an eye, many of them had vaulted over the ice wall and were bearing down on Qi below.
That was because Qi wasn't skilled enough yet. Unlike the basic Ice Crystal Wall, the Flowing Ice Barrier could shift flexibly like water. If Qi had enough control, these Cloud Ninja—at most elite Chunin—would be torn apart by the swirling ice before they could get near him.
The Yuki Clan might not belong to Kirigakure, but the ninja of the Land of Water all shared the same style: one technique more vicious than the next. They never passed up a chance to kill, and all that talk of fighting fair was utter bullshit.
If Earth Release weren't such a hard counter to Water Release, Qi had plenty of tricks he'd learned from Kirigakure that he could use against Rock Ninja of his own strength.
The scroll belonging to that Anbu captain had been filled with all sorts of Kirigakure killing techniques that made Qi's blood run cold. Konoha had the strongest Anbu in the entire Shinobi World, but when it came to cruelty and underhandedness, they couldn't hold a candle to those freaks from Kirigakure...
"...Ninja!"
Qi looked up at the charging Cloud Ninja. Knowing he couldn't take them head-on, he immediately retreated, slipping into the Sand Ninja's ranks in the blink of an eye.
He couldn't take them on, but that didn't mean the Sand Ninja couldn't...
Sand Ninja were generally at a disadvantage when they clashed with Konoha Ninja or Rock Ninja, but against Cloud Ninja, they had the upper hand!
The Sand Ninja had been itching for a fight. Seeing the Cloud Ninja charging after Qi, they couldn't hold back. With a shout, they surged forward, grabbed their weapons, and raced toward the Cloud Ninja.
The Sand Ninja had never had the chance to exploit an elemental advantage before. This time, they'd hit the jackpot. They were going to enjoy themselves.
The Sand Ninja and Cloud Ninja were two groups from villages so far apart that they'd rarely had a chance to face off. Now, thanks to this group of elite Chunin who specialized in their villages' signature nature transformations, they were finally getting a rare chance to "spar."
Screams rang out almost as soon as the two sides made contact. Both the Cloud Ninja and the Sand Ninja went all out, throwing their weapons and techniques at each other!
In an instant, the two groups crashed together. Then came flying flesh, severed limbs, and rolling heads!
Taijutsu was an essential part of being a ninja. Most of the time, ninja fought hand to hand. Who had enough chakra to keep using ninjutsu nonstop? Taijutsu's foundational role was unshakable. Even those who looked down on taijutsu specialists couldn't afford to neglect their training—unless they wanted to die.
That was especially true for the Rock Ninja and Cloud Ninja. Because of the properties of Earth Release and Lightning Release, the ninja from those two villages leaned heavily toward taijutsu. Otherwise, the White Fang wouldn't have gone around stabbing people with a short sword on his back.
Wind Release, meanwhile, was said to require the fewest hand seals of the five basic nature transformations. Combined with its exceptional cutting power, it was also deadly at close range, putting it somewhere between the extreme styles of Earth Release and Lightning Release.
So when the Cloud Ninja and Sand Ninja clashed, the fighting was brutal. Their very first collision left six bodies on the ground. Thanks to their elemental disadvantage, the Cloud Ninja took the worst of it: only two of the six unlucky souls were Sand Ninja, while four were Cloud Ninja.
The Sand Ninja killed by Cloud Ninja looked as if they'd been blasted by artillery. Their bodies were torn open in several places, and they'd died before they could even draw another breath!
But the Cloud Ninja killed by Sand Ninja had it even worse. At least the Sand Ninja still had something resembling an intact corpse. The dead Cloud Ninja had almost all been disemboweled, their organs spilling out, their bodies chopped and sliced to pieces and scattered across the ground...
The worst was a Cloud Ninja who'd exchanged ninjutsu with a Sand Ninja. His opponent had only been blown away and suffered a few broken bones, but the Cloud Ninja had been ground into a lump of mincemeat by Wind Release. Even his parents probably wouldn't have recognized whether the mess was their child.
The Sand Ninja's advantage over the Cloud Ninja was already obvious...
"Haha! This is great! Kakashi, let's go kill Rock Ninja!"
Watching the Cloud Ninja and Sand Ninja locked in combat, Qi was thrilled. The Cloud Ninja outnumbered the Sand Ninja, but their elemental disadvantage alone would keep the two groups busy for quite a while.
Beside him, Kakashi gripped his short sword and glared at the Rock Ninja. Clearly, he agreed with Qi. He wasn't keen on fighting the Cloud Ninja either; that would be exhausting.
"Kill those Konoha Ninja!"
The Rock Ninja seemed to have the same idea. Not wanting to "steal their allies' opponents," they chose the four Konoha Ninja—Qi, Kakashi, Obito, and Rin—as their targets.
Before Qi and the others could make a move, the Rock Ninja were already charging at them with savage grins. Sunlight glinted off their teeth, making them shine almost as brightly as the weapons in their hands...
"Show us more skin! We like that!"
After a strange shout, Qi grinned wickedly and began forming Hand Seals with one hand. Kekkei Genkai abilities sure were convenient—so convenient...
"Hidden Mist Technique!"
The white mist appeared on the battlefield once more. It wasn't wide-ranging, but it was enough to envelop all the Rock Ninja. It even affected the Cloud Ninja and Sand Ninja, who were fighting nearby, and nearly caught a few of the elite Jonin, including Minato, off guard—though it posed no real threat to them.
"What kind of damned technique is this?!"
A Rock Ninja angrily swung his weapon. The area around them had suddenly turned white, which was deeply unsettling for people who spent all day dealing with rocks.
"Is it a Water Release technique? Everyone, use Earth Release together and take them out!"
"Good idea. Too bad you won't get the chance!"
A short sword wreathed in Wind Style Chakra suddenly emerged from the mist and, with a whoosh, sliced through his neck. Clearly, not every Iwagakure Chunin was an elite Chunin, and even fewer had experience with Kirigakure's fighting style like the Rock Ninja Qi had encountered before!
In an instant, Qi moved with his blade, launching an assault on the Rock Ninja amid their screams. He went straight for the hands of any Rock Ninja trying to form Hand Seals, chopping them off with a single slash! Against those who tried to group together, he used Ice Release to gather huge masses of ice crystals and attack from underground!
The sounds the Rock Ninja made also gave Kakashi perfect clues to their locations. His silver-flashing short sword followed their gasps and cries of pain, steadily claiming the lives of the wounded Rock Ninja...
Qi and Kakashi's teamwork was perfect in that moment, seamless!