Using the Mangekyo Again

Aha, looks like I might have overplayed my hand.

After taking down over a dozen people, Qiuyang could already feel the chakra within his body plummeting.

He stopped taking the initiative to attack, instead gripping his short sword in a reverse hold to guard his front, settling into a standoff with the three remaining Jonin on the field.

Over there, the two massive summoning beasts were still trading blows—a fist here, a tail swipe there—but here, an eerily strange silence had fallen.

The three Jonin from Sunagakure and Otogakure had been rattled by Qiuyang's recent use of the Flying Thunder God and didn't dare make the first move;

Qiuyang had no choice; he estimated that to finish off these three old foxes, he would have to exhaust at least the last of his chakra, and even then, success wasn't guaranteed.

The odds of success were less than thirty percent.

Furthermore, if he did that, his danger level would increase exponentially when he went to find Snake Auntie later.

So, he simply maintained the standoff, saving his chakra for his upcoming meeting with Snake Auntie.

He remembered... the battle at the Chunin Exams venue would soon end with the Third Hokage being killed and Snake Auntie's hands being sealed.

This Konoha Crush had already been underway for a while; if he could just hold out for a few more minutes, the Sunagakure and Otogakure ninjas would retreat.

As time ticked away, even the Konoha Jonin lying on the ground began to sense that something was off.

Enduring his pain, he forced himself to lift his head and look at the four people locked in a standoff in the arena.

Qiuyang caught the movement of this nosy Jonin out of the corner of his eye and couldn't help but feel both annoyed and amused—

I mean, you're already hurt this badly, wouldn't it be better to just lie there and wait for rescue? Why do you have to act like a curious baby and watch the drama?

Because the person on the ground had broken the previous stillness, the three people facing off against Qiuyang suddenly realized:

They were the ones on the offensive, and dragging this out was clearly to their disadvantage.

The Sunagakure ninja who had fired the Wind Release air cannon earlier was the first to lose his patience. Keeping his eyes locked on Qiuyang, he suggested to his companions:

"Hey, that brat seems to be low on chakra. Although I don't know why he isn't using the Flying Thunder God anymore, if we surround him from the left, right, and front, it should be just right..."

Before he could finish his deployment, a sharp, urgent whistle suddenly rang out through the surroundings.

Beep, beep, beep...

The expressions of the three Jonin changed abruptly upon hearing it, while Qiuyang, who was familiar with the plot, felt his spirit jolt.

Both sides knew this wasn't Konoha reinforcements arriving, but rather the signal for retreat.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough."

The Sunagakure ninja's execution was impeccable; the moment the whistle blew, the Jonin who had been speaking used Wind Release to kick up a cloud of dust, obscuring the Sharingan's line of sight.

Then, the three of them continued to face Qiuyang while slowly backing away, only turning to sprint once they had reached a certain distance.

Their escape skills were far more professional than those of Takisui, that mountain bandit; Qiuyang had already guessed that these three Jonin were definitely veterans who had participated in wars.

Their battlefield experience was incredibly rich, which was no wonder he couldn't find any openings while fighting them.

Only after the three figures disappeared from his sight did Qiuyang let out a sigh of relief, his pupils slowly returning to black.

Phew... so, what's next is...

"Qi... Lord Qiuyang, hurry and chase those three! You absolutely cannot let them get away."

The curious baby over there, who had been willing to endure pain just to watch the drama, suddenly blurted this out, nearly making Qiuyang jump.

His first thought after hearing this was to consider whether he should just go over and knock the guy out—

No wonder you, a dignified Jonin, only ended up with a gatekeeper position, big brother; you really don't read the situation at all!

Do you think those three old foxes are easy to take down?

Don't you see the rounds I just fought with them? They already know the range of my teleportation.

You want me to chase them now, while I'm low on chakra? And you want me to make sure they don't get away?

Hmm? Answer me.

Can I?

(Waving arms and dancing) Ah! Yes, yes, you can.

Yes, your grandfather can.

Qiuyang tried his best to control the primal force within him, took a deep breath, and walked over to retrieve a rescue signal flare from the Jonin's chest, firing it into the sky.

Then, he said gently that he would go chase them immediately and that someone would come to rescue them soon, okay?

"Uh, okay... okay..."

Was it his imagination? The curious baby felt that the light flashing in Lord Qiuyang's eyes just now looked like he wanted to swallow him whole.

Before he could look closer, Qiuyang had already stood up and turned away.

Qiuyang lamented how difficult it was to be a hero while pretending to chase in the direction the three enemies had fled.

But he stopped after less than a minute of pursuit. After observing that no one was around, he pulled out a sealing scroll and performed the hand seals to undo it.

"Poof."

The Ten-Direction Teleportation Flags, taken out for the first time by his left Mangekyo "God-Meeting Machine," appeared before him.

Qiuyang took four small flags from his stash and arranged them around him. His left eye suddenly shifted into a Three-Tomoe Sharingan, spinning wildly before transforming into a Yin-Yang Bagua Mangekyo.

If not now, when else would he use the power of these eyes?

That was right; over these past few months, the ocular power of Qiuyang's damaged Mangekyo had finally recovered enough for him to utilize it for specific spatial displacement.

For instance, before returning to Konoha, he had specifically used his left-eye Mangekyo to record a location on the border between Otogakure and the Land of Fire.

It was a spot Qiuyang had scouted for some time, concluding it was a place Orochimaru would likely pass through.

Imperial God Machine—

After the formation flags emitted a burst of light, he vanished along with them, leaving only his soft murmur in the air:

"Orochimaru, I hope your escape route doesn't deviate from my predictions. I'll be there ahead of time, recovering my chakra and waiting for your arrival. Hehe!"

Border of the Land of Fire

"Lord Orochimaru, please hold on a little longer. We are about to escape the Land of Fire."

Using the trees for cover, the Sound Four moved at high speed through the vast, primeval forest.

Tayuya cleared the path ahead, Sakon and Jirobo supported and protected Orochimaru, while Kidomaru was responsible for setting traps behind them to stall the pursuers from Konoha.

Seeing they were getting closer to their secret base, the four of them couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Ever since the battle with the Third Hokage ended, Orochimaru had kept a gloomy face and remained silent.

They wouldn't ask, nor did they dare to.

They could only judge by Orochimaru's drooping hands that he had clearly suffered some kind of setback during the fight.

However, for Orochimaru to have killed the Third Hokage during this Konoha Crush, he was truly worthy of being the shadow of Otogakure—to have killed the Kazekage and then the Hokage in succession.

The four showed nothing on their faces, but in their hearts, they worshipped Orochimaru to the extreme.

This worship stemmed from their reverence for the strong and the honor they felt in being his subordinates.

Finally, the four escorted Orochimaru across the border line. They only needed to travel a bit further to reach the base, where they could find someone to treat Lord Orochimaru.

However, Orochimaru, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly spoke up: "Stop. We have a guest. Cough..."

Snake Auntie's vertical pupils, resembling those of a venomous snake, locked onto a dense thicket of bushes ahead.

Enemy attack?

The Sound Four stiffened, instantly shifting their formation to protect their master, Orochimaru, in the center of the group.