Hidden Combat Power

On the battlefield, the Konoha ninja felt a wave of despair upon discovering a troop appearing behind them. "Our retreat is cut off! We're going to die here!" Meanwhile, the Hidden Sand ninja were ecstatic, their offensive momentum surging. "Keep it up! Hunt down the Konoha ninja!"

At this moment, the final straw that would break the camel's back arrived.

Nearly a thousand men reached the top of the sand dune behind the Konoha forces, looking down at the battlefield below where the Konoha ninja had already prepared themselves for death. These reinforcements charged toward the Konoha troops, their forehead protectors reflecting the sun with a dazzling glare.

After the flash of light subsided, everyone finally made out the symbol on those protectors. It was... the Konoha emblem!

Hyuga Nichigetsu, Shikaku Nara, Choza Akimichi, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shibi Aburame, and Hyuga Mizuki charged at the very front of the formation. Nichigetsu's small stature was quite conspicuous among the group, and a smug smile played on his face. "Heh! We finally made it!"

Chiyo, Ebizo, and Kalo were instantly petrified. "What, what is going on? Where is our flanking unit? Where on earth did they go?!"

As it turned out, once Nichigetsu and the others realized a sandstorm was approaching, they had immediately assembled a 420-man reconnaissance squad and consolidated the 500-man battalion that had been preparing to intercept the enemy.

After waiting out the fiercest part of the storm, Nichigetsu used his Byakugan to determine that it was about to pass. Shikaku then led these 920 men in a preemptive strike, utilizing the reconnaissance squad's powerful sensory capabilities to swiftly and decisively annihilate the 1,000-man Hidden Sand flanking force while they were still taking cover from the wind and sand.

Following this, the group marched without rest to the front lines, becoming the most crucial weight to tip the scales of the battle.

When Nichigetsu had originally planned to form the reconnaissance squad, he was effectively creating a second reserve force. Should any unforeseen changes occur on the battlefield, the squad could rapidly assemble to join the fray and ultimately decide the outcome of the entire war.

Tsunade and Sakumo immediately broke into joyful smiles, while the expressions of Ebizo, Chiyo, and Kalo turned grim.

"It's reinforcements! Our reinforcements have arrived!" The morale of the Konoha ninja instantly returned, and they began to calm down from their panic. The Hidden Sand, however, felt that something was wrong. Where were their own reinforcements? Where had they gone?

Nichigetsu looked at the battlefield before him and said with a serious expression, "Then, let us win this fight!"

"Charge! Seize victory!" Nearly a thousand men surged directly into the battlefield. The scattered Konoha ninja immediately joined them, following Nichigetsu and his group as they lunged fiercely at the Hidden Sand.

Choza gritted his teeth and swallowed a green, round pill. "I've taken the [Secret Medicine: Green Spinach Pill], time to put in some real effort! [Super Multi-Size Technique]!" Choza's already stout frame instantly expanded several times over, transforming into an eight-meter-tall mini-giant.

He leaped high into the air and slammed down into a dense cluster of Hidden Sand ninja. "Boom!" Sand and dust flew as several enemies were sent flying by the shockwave.

"[Super Palm Push]!" Choza raised his palms, each as large as a small carriage, and slammed them hard into the ground.

"Bang!" The earth shook and the ground cracked. Over a dozen enemies were sent flying; some fell into the fissures created by the impact, while others were flattened instantly.

Choza swept his massive hands, and a gust of wind sent several Hidden Sand ninja screaming through the air like flies.

Shikaku followed closely, landing in the shadow of the giant Choza. He scanned the surroundings and declared, "Eleven enemies in total! [Shadow Possession Technique]!" Dozens of shadows shot toward the enemies in every direction, pinning them all in place.

"[Shadow Strangle Technique]!" The shadows gripping the enemies instantly materialized into hands, reaching toward their opponents' necks to strangle them.

"Damn it! Stop them!" More Hidden Sand ninja rushed over to provide support.

"You won't be able to stop them! [Ninja Art: Mind Chaos Performance Technique]!" Inoichi jumped onto Choza's shoulder, his palms spread open and held against his chest, one facing up and one down.

The ninja under Shikaku's control within the technique's range suddenly turned around, drew their kunai, and stabbed at their own allies who had come to rescue them. In an instant, over a dozen men killed each other.

Within minutes, a clearing had been cleared around Choza, and no Hidden Sand ninja within twenty meters dared to approach.

Choza then took a fierce leap forward. "Boom!" He landed once again in another area dense with Hidden Sand ninja. The Hidden Sand were frustrated—this wasn't how you were supposed to play!

"Attack quickly! Don't let those three use their secret techniques! Get them!" Dozens of Hidden Sand ninja leaped up, rushing toward the trio.

"Good grief, so much energy! What a drag!" Shikaku shook his head and immediately formed hand seals. "[Shadow Stitching: Black Spider Lily]!"

With Shikaku as the center, countless shadows surged outward at high speed. Sharp, needle-like shadows then shot into the air, piercing through the airborne Sand ninja one by one and pinning them in place. Viewed from above, the shadows formed a blooming black spider lily, now stained red!

The Hidden Sand were stunned and dared not approach for a time. Those who hadn't died were swatted away one by one by Choza's massive hands.

On Nichigetsu's side, three middle-aged Hidden Sand ninja charged at him from three directions. "Die, brat!"

"Heh, these uncles—do they see me as a soft target?" Nichigetsu felt a bit annoyed. He retracted his palms, curled his fingers, and rapidly accumulated chakra in his palms. He then pushed his palms outward to either side, and the chakra erupted. Two chakra shockwaves compressed the air, rushing toward the enemies on his left and right.

"[Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm: Split]!"

The two enemies felt as if they had run into an invisible wall. Their bodies were violently flattened by the shockwave from the front. "Crack!" Accompanied by the sound of shattering bones, their internal organs were pulverized by the chakra, and they were sent flying backward several meters.

"Damn it! This brat is a tough nut to crack!" The third Sand ninja uncle, who had been charging head-on, was startled and stopped in his tracks, preparing to retreat.

"Heh, want to run?" Nichigetsu could see his intentions even without using his Byakugan to predict his muscle movements. He used a Body Flicker Technique to appear before the man and tapped his abdomen with a light palm.

"[Gentle Fist Art: Five Elements Disintegration Palm]! Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth—Break!"

Although Nichigetsu's palm strike was fast, the force was incredibly gentle, as if he had merely tapped the man's stomach. The man suddenly clutched his abdomen, vomited a mouthful of blood, and collapsed, dead.

Only Nichigetsu knew that the moment his palm touched the man's abdomen, the chakra he released through his Gentle Fist technique had struck the man's five internal organs in sequence, corresponding to the Five Elements: Wood (liver), Fire (heart), Earth (spleen), Metal (lungs), and Water (kidneys).

At the same time, the chakra released from Nichigetsu's palm carried a specific frequency. By releasing chakra five times per second—a frequency of five hertz—he struck the enemy's internal organs in sync with their natural pulsation, causing resonance that amplified the vibration effect several times over.

This worked on the same principle as infrasound weaponry: the resonance caused the amplitude of the organs' vibrations to increase, resulting in their rupture. The damage caused by the chakra shock to the internal organs was significantly greater than a standard Gentle Fist strike to the abdomen. The reason Nichigetsu's palm strike was so light was that using too much force would have made it difficult to control the frequency of the Gentle Fist chakra.

Seeing Nichigetsu take out three people in an instant, the Hidden Sand ninja finally realized that this seemingly harmless child was not to be trifled with. Especially after seeing the man die from a mere tap to the stomach, those who had hoped to pick off a soft target immediately abandoned the idea.

"Charge! There aren't many of them!" a Hidden Sand captain shouted, leading a squad to intercept Nichigetsu and his group.

"That's true! There aren't many of us!" Nichigetsu smiled slightly. He pulled his palms back to his ribs, finished accumulating high-density chakra, and thrust both palms forward in parallel toward the shouting captain dozens of meters away!

"[Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm: Merge]!"

The chakra in his palms erupted, and the shockwaves from the two vacuum palms merged into one, becoming a circular shockwave several times larger and carrying a violent, turbulent flow. This massive, cylindrical shockwave was infused with a dense amount of chakra and countless strip-like turbulent currents, roaring toward the enemy!

"Boom! Rumble..." The captain, still in the middle of shouting, was swallowed by the shockwave and vanished from where he stood. The enemies in a straight line were crushed by the ferocious shockwave and sent flying backward for over a dozen meters, their bones shattered as they died; the captain, in particular, was beyond dead. Others who couldn't dodge in time were caught in the blast and sent flying to the sides.

The path of the shockwave looked as if it had been leveled by a giant bowling ball, leaving a deep trench in the sandy ground. Nichigetsu himself slid back several steps from the recoil, his chakra reserves instantly depleted by a third.

This move is very similar to the Hyuga clan's combined technique, [Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm], except this was performed by Nichigetsu alone! Mizuki thought, filled with pleasant surprise.

The effect of this move was also excellent. Seeing their captain instantly killed by the child, the resolve of that Hidden Sand squad crumbled, and they stood frozen in hesitation.

"Hmph! They don't dare to come over. Sister Mizuki, let's charge!" Riyue and Mizuki rushed forward. Mizuki used Gentle Fist to continuously strike down enemies on Riyue's flanks, shielding his sides. Riyue's fingers flicked out repeatedly, his footwork elegant, instantly incapacitating several men with precise strikes.

Those struck collapsed to the ground, unable to move. Riyue didn't deliver any killing blows, leaving them to be taken as prisoners. Seeing their comrades inexplicably crumple to the ground after being tapped once, the Hidden Sand ninja grew even more panicked, not daring to approach Riyue at all. In no time, the coordination between Riyue and Mizuki had taken down over a dozen ninja.

The frenzied assault of the 900-plus Konoha troops left the Hidden Sand unable to catch their breath. Compounded by the blow to their morale, the momentum of the Hidden Sand's offensive was stifled. The Konoha forces gained a moment to breathe, and led by these 900-plus warriors, the Konoha ninja coalesced once more, snowballing in size as more and more soldiers recovered their combat strength.

Before they knew it, Konoha had recovered from the chaos and begun a full-scale counterattack. The Hidden Sand troops had become the poor wretches crushed by that massive snowball!

Faced with Konoha's wild counter-offensive, the Hidden Sand was forced from attack into defense. Yet, they still couldn't hold the line; in moments, they lost the ability to parry, suffering heavy casualties as their ranks began to crumble.

"Attack!" "Avenge our comrades!" "Kill!"... Konoha ninja pursued the enemy desperately, raining various ninjutsu onto clusters of Hidden Sand ninja, quickly shattering their formations. Konoha ninja surged forward for hand-to-hand combat, latching on and refusing to let go, pursuing and striking relentlessly!

"Hold the line! Don't retreat!" a Hidden Sand captain shouted orders, but suddenly, a fist the size of a sandbag grew larger and larger in his vision.

"Boom!" The man was struck by Tsunade's punch. The surrounding air shuddered violently, and a shockwave rippled outward. The man's face deformed instantly, and he was sent on a free flight, soaring across half the battlefield and dying before he even hit the ground.

"Counterattack!" Tsunade waved her hand grandly.

"Yes!" Without needing Tsunade to command them, everyone had already charged forward. Many Konoha ninja had fought desperately during the earlier Hidden Sand ambush, only to die in the process. Now, the Konoha forces were filled with pent-up rage, their eyes bloodshot as they hunted down the enemy, leaving the Hidden Sand completely demoralized.

"Take this!" Sakumo Hatake leaped high into the air, the White Fang Blade in his hand flickering with dazzling blue electric arcs as a wild, fierce power gathered upon it.

"[Lightning Style: Lightning Wolf Dance]!"

Descending, Sakumo plunged the White Fang Blade vertically into the sandy ground. Suddenly, lightning flared brilliantly, the surrounding earth cracking under the electrical discharge, the light so intense it was impossible to keep one's eyes open.

"Oh no! Retreat quickly!" Chiyo and Ebizo immediately fell back.

"Zzzzt" went the electric arcs, spreading across the ground in all directions. Six thick bolts of lightning connected to the White Fang Blade instantly coalesced into six wolves flickering with thunderous light. "Awoo! Oooo!" The pack howled, swiftly charging toward the dozen or so Hidden Sand elites nearby!

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" After a series of flashes and thunderous explosions, the area around Sakumo fell silent, leaving only a dozen charred corpses and a ground littered with shattered puppets.

The next second, Sakumo Hatake vanished from his spot, reappearing right beside Chiyo!

"No!" Chiyo was struck with terror. The White Fang Blade in Sakumo's hand flashed, and the remaining arm of the Ox-Head Puppet, which had been protecting Chiyo at close range, was instantly severed. Chiyo's clothes were slashed as well, and she scrambled to dodge to the side. The White Fang Blade traced a perfect cross, and the Ox-Head Puppet was sliced into four pieces.

Sakumo stood amidst the debris of puppets; the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets had all been shattered by the White Fang, and even if Ebizo wanted to replenish them, he had no puppets left. Now, not to mention Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law, even Chiyo herself was about to die under the White Fang's blade.

"Damn it!" Chiyo raged, clutching her arm and gasping for breath.

Sakumo looked at Chiyo, gripping the White Fang, and said coldly, "Your Hidden Sand has lost!" The words made Chiyo feel as though she had fallen into an ice cavern.

"Sister, we can't hold them! We must retreat, or we'll all die here! Go!" Ebizo used puppet strings to yank Chiyo away, throwing several Smoke Bombs to forcibly cover their retreat.

The Hidden Sand troops had completely collapsed!