Aha, looks like I got a little carried away.
After taking down more than a dozen people, Qiuyang could already feel the chakra inside him rapidly dwindling.
So he stopped launching attacks and instead held his short sword in a reverse grip, raising it in front of him as he faced off against the three jonin left on the field.
The two giant summoned beasts were still trading punches and tail swipes over there, but things had fallen into an unnaturally eerie silence here.
The jonin from Sunagakure and Otogakure had been intimidated by Qiuyang's Flying Thunder God just now and didn't dare make the first move;
Qiuyang had no choice. He reckoned that taking down those three old hands would use up the last of his chakra, and even then, there was no guarantee he'd succeed.
The odds of success were less than thirty percent.
And if he did that, his danger level would multiply several times over when he went to find Snake Auntie later.
So he decided to keep facing them down and save his chakra for his meeting with Snake Auntie.
He remembered... The battle at the Chunin Ninja Exams would soon end with the Third Hokage dead and Snake Auntie's arms sealed.
The Konoha Crush had only just begun. If they held out for a few more minutes, the Sand and Sound Ninja would retreat.
As the seconds ticked by, even the Konoha jonin lying on the ground began to realize something was off.
He endured the pain and struggled to lift his head, looking toward the four people facing off in the field.
Qiuyang noticed the wounded jonin watching the scene out of the corner of his eye and couldn't help feeling both amused and exasperated—
Seriously, you're already injured this badly. Why not just lie there and wait for help? Why do you have to watch like some curious kid?
The man lying on the ground had broken the stillness with his movement, and the three people facing Qiuyang suddenly came to their senses:
They were the ones on the attack. Clearly, dragging things out was far worse for them.
The Sand Ninja who had fired the Wind Release Air Cannon first lost his patience. Keeping his eyes fixed on Qiuyang, he suggested to his companions:
"Hey, that kid seems to be running low on chakra. I don't know why he stopped using Flying Thunder God, but if we surround him from the left, right, and front, we can—"
Before he could finish laying out the plan, a series of sharp, hurried whistles suddenly rang out all around them.
Whee-whee-whee...
The three jonin's expressions changed at once when they heard the signal, while Qiuyang, who knew the story, felt his spirits lift.
Both sides knew it wasn't a Konoha reinforcements signal. It was the signal to retreat.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."
The Sand Ninja were incredibly disciplined. As soon as the whistle sounded, the jonin who had been speaking released a gust of Wind Release that kicked up a cloud of sand to obstruct the Sharingan's vision.
The three of them kept facing Qiuyang as they slowly backed away. Once they'd retreated far enough, they turned and sprinted off.
They were far more skilled at running away than Takisui, that bandit. Qiuyang had already guessed that the three jonin were old hands who had fought in wars.
They had plenty of battlefield experience. No wonder he hadn't been able to find an opening while fighting them.
Only after the three men disappeared from sight did Qiuyang let out a breath of relief. His eyes slowly returned to black.
Whew... Now, next up—
"Q-Qiuyang-sama, go after those three! You can't let them get away!"
The curious kid who'd been enduring the pain just to watch suddenly blurted out those words, nearly making Qiuyang jump out of his skin.
After hearing him, Qiuyang wondered if he should go over and knock the guy out first—
No wonder you're a jonin and still ended up with a guard post. You don't read the situation at all!
Do you really think those three old hands are easy to take down?
Didn't you see how many times I fought them just now? They already know the range of my teleportation.
And now you want me to chase them, when I'm low on chakra? And you expect me not to let them get away?
Huh? Answer me.
Can I do that?
(Flailing his arms) Ah! Yes, yes, yes.
"Yes" my ass.
Qiuyang did his best to rein in the wild force inside him, took a deep breath, then went over and found a rescue flare in the jonin's vest. He fired it into the sky.
Then he spoke gently to him. "I'll go after them right away. Someone will come to rescue you soon, all right?"
"Uh, o-okay..."
Was it his imagination? The curious kid felt as if there'd been a glint in Qiuyang-sama's eyes just now, as though he wanted to devour him whole.
Before he could get a better look, Qiuyang had already stood up and turned away.
Qiuyang lamented how hard it was to be a hero as he pretended to chase after the three enemies in the direction they had fled.
But less than a minute into the pursuit, he stopped. After making sure no one was around, he took out a sealing scroll and formed Hand Seals to undo it.
"Poof!"
The Ten-Direction Teleportation Flags that his left-eye Mangekyo, God-Meeting Machine, had produced for the first time appeared in front of him.
Qiuyang took four flags and placed them around himself. His left eye shifted into a Three-Tomoe Sharingan, then, spinning furiously, changed once more into a Yin-Yang Bagua Mangekyo.
When else would he use this eye's power, if not now?
That's right. Over the past few months, the damaged Mangekyo's ocular power had finally recovered a little. He could now use it to perform specific spatial transfers.
For example, he could travel to a place near the border between Otogakure and the Land of Fire, which he had recorded with his left-eye Mangekyo before returning to Konoha.
After observing the area for some time, Qiuyang had decided it was somewhere Orochimaru was likely to pass through.
God-Meeting Machine—
The flags gave off a flash of light, then vanished along with Qiuyang. Only his muttered words lingered in the air:
"Orochimaru, I hope your escape route doesn't differ from my prediction. I'll recover my chakra at that spot and wait for you to show up. Heh!"
—
The border of the Land of Fire
"Lord Orochimaru, just hang on a little longer. We're about to get out of the Land of Fire."
Using the trees for cover, the Sound Four sped through the vast primeval forest.
Tayuya led the way, while Sakon and Jirobo supported and protected Orochimaru. Kidomaru was responsible for laying traps behind them to stop the Konoha pursuers.
With their secret hideout getting closer, the four couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Lord Orochimaru had been silent and grim ever since his battle with the Third Hokage ended.
They wouldn't ask, and didn't dare to.
They could only judge from Lord Orochimaru's hanging hands that he had clearly suffered some kind of setback in the fight.
Still, in this Konoha Crush, Lord Orochimaru had managed to kill even the Third Hokage. No wonder he was the leader of Otogakure—after killing the Kazekage, he had gone on to kill the Hokage.
None of the four showed it, but in truth, they admired Orochimaru to the utmost.
Their admiration came from reverence for the strong and pride in serving under him.
At last, the four escorted Orochimaru across the border. They only had to go a little farther to reach the hideout, where they could find someone to treat Lord Orochimaru.
But Orochimaru, who had been silent until then, suddenly spoke. "Stop. We have a visitor. Cough..."
Snake Auntie's snake-like, vertical pupils locked onto a dense thicket ahead.
An enemy?
The Sound Four shuddered and instantly shifted formation, placing their master Orochimaru in the middle to protect him.
Before you continue