Hidden Combat Strength

On the battlefield, the Konoha ninjas saw a force appear behind them and sank into despair. "Our escape route's cut off! We're going to die here!" The Hidden Sand ninjas, meanwhile, were thrilled, and their assault grew even fiercer. "Keep it up! Hunt down the Konoha ninjas!"

At that moment, the final straw that broke the camel's back arrived!

Nearly a thousand people reached the top of the dunes behind Konoha's forces and looked down at the battlefield below. The Konoha ninjas had already prepared themselves to die fighting. The newcomers charged down the slope toward them, their Forehead Protectors flashing brilliantly in the sunlight!

After a flash of light, everyone finally made out the symbol on the Forehead Protectors. It was... Konoha's symbol! (BGM: "March into Battle," Yasuharu Takanashi)

Hyuga Nichigetsu, Shikaku Nara, Choza Akimichi, Inoichi Yamanaka, Aburame Shibi, and Hyuga Mizuki led the charge. Nichigetsu's short stature made him stand out among the others. A smug smile spread across his face. "Heh heh! We made it at last!"

Chiyo, Ebizo, and Kalo froze in shock. "W-what's going on? Where's our flanking force? Where did they go?!"

As it turned out, after Nichigetsu and the others realized a sandstorm was coming, they immediately assembled the 420-member reconnaissance unit and gathered the 500-man company that had been preparing to intercept the enemy.

Once the worst of the sandstorm had passed, Nichigetsu used his Byakugan to determine that it was nearly over. Shikaku then led the 920-strong force on the offensive. With the reconnaissance unit's powerful sensory abilities, they swiftly and decisively wiped out the thousand Hidden Sand ninjas who were still sheltering from the storm!

The group then rushed straight to the main battlefield without stopping, becoming the decisive weight that tipped the scales!

Nichigetsu had originally planned to establish the reconnaissance unit as a second reserve force. If anything changed on the battlefield, it could quickly assemble and join the fight, potentially deciding the outcome of the entire battle!

Tsunade and Sakumo immediately smiled with delight, while Ebizo, Chiyo, and Kalo looked grim.

"Reinforcements! Our reinforcements are here!" The Konoha ninjas' spirits surged, and they began to calm down after their initial panic. The Hidden Sand, however, sensed that something was wrong. Where were their reinforcements? Where had they gone?

Nichigetsu looked over the battlefield, his expression serious. "Then let's win this battle!"

"Charge! Win the day!" Nearly a thousand people charged straight into the fight, and the scattered Konoha ninjas immediately joined them, rushing at the Hidden Sand alongside Nichigetsu and the others. (BGM: "Moving Heaven," Yasuharu Takanashi)

Choza gritted his teeth and swallowed a round green pill. "I've taken the Secret Medicine: Green Spinach Pill. Time to give it my all! Super Multi-Size Technique!" Choza's already burly body instantly grew several times larger, becoming an eight-meter-tall giant.

He leaped high and crashed down amid a dense cluster of Hidden Sand ninjas. "Boom!" Sand flew everywhere, and several of them were sent tumbling through the air.

"Super Palm Push!" Choza raised his car-sized palms and slammed them into the ground.

"Boom!" The ground shook and split apart. More than a dozen enemies were flung into the air. Some fell into the fissures left by his palms, while others were crushed flat.

Choza swept his huge hands across the area. A gust of wind rushed past, and several Hidden Sand ninjas shrieked as they were swatted away like flies.

Shikaku followed close behind and leaped into the giant's shadow. After sweeping his gaze around, he said, "Eleven enemies in total! Shadow Possession Technique!" Dozens of shadows shot toward enemies in every direction, pinning them all in place.

"Shadow Strangle Technique!" The shadows holding the enemies solidified at once, forming hands that reached for their necks. The enemies would soon be strangled to death.

"Damn it! Stop them!" More Hidden Sand ninjas rushed over to reinforce their comrades.

"You won't stop us! Ninja Art: Mind Chaos Performance Technique!" Inoichi jumped onto Choza's shoulder, spreading his palms with one facing up and the other down in front of his chest.

The ninjas Shikaku had trapped within the technique's range suddenly turned around, drew their Kunai, and stabbed at the very comrades rushing to rescue them. More than a dozen died in the ensuing slaughter.

Within minutes, the area around Choza had been cleared. The Hidden Sand ninjas kept their distance, not daring to approach within twenty meters.

Choza then leaped forward with all his might. "Boom!" He landed in another area crowded with Hidden Sand ninjas. They were exasperated. You couldn't just fight like this!

"Attack at once! Don't let those three use their secret techniques! Get in there!" Dozens of Hidden Sand ninjas leaped up and charged at the trio.

"Honestly, you're all so full of energy! What a pain." Shikaku shook his head and immediately formed hand seals. "Shadow Stitching: Black Spider Lily!"

Centered on Shikaku, countless shadows surged rapidly in every direction. Then the pointed shadows shot up into the air, piercing the airborne Hidden Sand ninjas one after another and pinning them there. From above, the shadows formed a blooming black spider lily, now stained red!

The Hidden Sand ninjas were stunned and didn't dare approach. A few who were still alive were swatted away again and again by Choza's two enormous hands.

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

"Heh, do these uncles think I'm a pushover?" Nichigetsu said irritably. He drew back both palms, curled his fingers, and quickly gathered chakra in his hands. Then he thrust his palms out to either side. His chakra burst forth, and two shock waves compressed the air as they rushed toward the enemies on his left and right.

"Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm: Split!"

The two enemies looked as if they had run headfirst into an invisible wall. A shock wave slammed into the fronts of their bodies, crushing them inward. "Crack!" Their bones shattered, their internal organs were pulverized by the chakra, and they were hurled several meters backward.

"Damn it! This brat's no pushover!" The third Hidden Sand ninja, charging straight at him, was startled. He stopped and tried to retreat.

"Heh, trying to run?" Nichigetsu could tell what he was thinking without using the Byakugan to read his muscles. He used the Body Flicker Technique to appear in front of him and lightly struck his abdomen with one palm.

"Gentle Fist Art: Five Elements Disintegration Palm! Metal, wood, water, fire, earth—break!"

Nichigetsu's strike was fast, but the force behind it was gentle. It seemed as though he had merely patted the man on the stomach. Yet the man suddenly clutched his belly, spewed mouthful after mouthful of blood, and collapsed dead.

Only Nichigetsu knew that the instant his palm touched the man's abdomen, the chakra released through his Gentle Fist had struck all five of the man's internal organs in succession. The Five Elements were wood (liver), fire (heart), earth (spleen), metal (lungs), and water (kidneys).

At the same time, the chakra Nichigetsu released from his palm pulsed at a precise frequency. He rapidly released chakra five times per second, striking the enemy's internal organs at a frequency of five hertz—the same as the pulsing frequency of human organs. This caused them to resonate, multiplying the force of the vibrations several times over.

The principle was the same as the way infrasound caused injury: resonance increased the amplitude of the internal organs' vibrations, ultimately causing them to rupture. The chakra's impact did far more damage to the organs than an ordinary Gentle Fist strike to the abdomen. Nichigetsu had used such a light touch because applying too much force would make it harder to control the frequency of the chakra pulses.

Seeing Nichigetsu take out three people in an instant, the Hidden Sand ninjas finally realized that the seemingly harmless child was not to be trifled with. He had merely patted one of them on the stomach, and the man had died. Anyone hoping to pick on an easy target immediately abandoned the idea.

"Charge! They don't have many people!" a Hidden Sand captain shouted, leading a squad in an attempt to stop Nichigetsu and the others.

"That's right! We really don't have many people!" Nichigetsu smiled faintly. He drew his palms back to his sides and finished gathering a dense mass of chakra. Then he brought his palms together, parallel to each other, and thrust them toward the shouting Hidden Sand captain dozens of meters away!

"Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm: Merge!"

Chakra burst from both palms. The shock waves from the two palms fused into one, forming a circular blast several times larger and kicking up a violent gale. Packed with chakra and countless dense streams of air, the enormous cylindrical shock wave roared toward the enemy!

"Boom! Rumble..." The Hidden Sand captain, still in the middle of shouting, was swallowed by the shock wave and vanished from sight. The enemies in its path were crushed by the violent blast and hurled more than ten meters backward, their bones shattered. The captain in particular was dead beyond any doubt. Those who couldn't dodge were caught in the blast and flung off to the sides as well.

The shock wave plowed through the sand like a giant bowling ball, leaving a deep furrow in its wake. The recoil made Nichigetsu slide back several steps, and he instantly lost a third of his chakra.

"That move is a lot like the Hyuga Clan's combined technique, Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm, except Nichigetsu performed it all by himself!" Mizuki was thrilled.

The move had a devastating effect. Seeing their captain killed by the child in an instant, the Hidden Sand squad's morale crumbled, and they hesitated in place.

"Hmph! They don't dare come closer. Big Sister Mizuki, let's charge!" Nichigetsu and Mizuki rushed forward. Mizuki used Gentle Fist to knock down the enemies on Nichigetsu's flanks and protect him. Nichigetsu's fingers darted out again and again, his footwork nimble as he swiftly struck several people down.

The ones he struck could no longer move, but Nichigetsu didn't kill them. He would leave them as prisoners. Seeing their comrades collapse to the ground, helpless after a single tap, the Hidden Sand ninjas panicked even more and didn't dare approach Nichigetsu. Before long, Nichigetsu and Mizuki had worked together to take down more than ten ninjas.

Konoha's more than 900 ninjas launched a furious assault, and the Hidden Sand couldn't recover. Their morale had also taken a blow, stopping their advance. Konoha's forces got the chance to catch their breath. Led by those 900 or so reinforcements, the Konoha ninjas regrouped, gathering more and more strength like a snowball rolling downhill. More and more of them recovered their fighting ability.

Before long, Konoha had recovered from the chaos and launched a full counterattack. The Hidden Sand forces became the poor victims crushed beneath a giant snowball!

As the Hidden Sand faced Konoha's furious counterattack, they were forced to switch from attacking to defending. But they still couldn't hold their ground. Before long, they were overwhelmed, large numbers of their ninjas had fallen, and their forces began to break apart.

"Attack!" "Avenge our comrades!" "Kill!" ... The Konoha ninjas pursued the enemy with all their might, hurling every kind of ninjutsu at the clusters of Hidden Sand ninjas. The Hidden Sand formation quickly broke apart. The Konoha ninjas closed in for hand-to-hand combat, staying on their opponents and hammering them without mercy!

"Hold the line! Don't retreat!" a Hidden Sand captain shouted. Suddenly, a fist as large as a sandbag loomed bigger and bigger in his eyes.

"Bam!" Tsunade's punch struck him. The air around him shuddered, and a ring of wind spread outward. His face was crushed in an instant, and he got a free plane ride across half the battlefield. He was already dead before he hit the ground.

"Counterattack!" Tsunade waved her hand.

"Yes!" The others had already charged forward without waiting for Tsunade's order. Many Konoha ninjas had fought desperately when the Hidden Sand attacked, but they had still died in battle. Now the Konoha forces were burning with pent-up fury, their eyes bloodshot as they hunted down the Hidden Sand. The enemy couldn't fight back at all.

"Take this!" Sakumo Hatake leaped high into the air. The White Fang Blade in his hand flashed with brilliant blue arcs of lightning, and a fierce power gathered around it.

"Lightning Style: Lightning Wolf Dance!"

As Sakumo descended, he plunged the White Fang Blade vertically into the sand. Lightning flared brilliantly, and the ground around him cracked under its strike. The light was so bright no one could keep their eyes open.

"Not good! Fall back!" Chiyo and Ebizo immediately retreated.

Crackling arcs of electricity raced across the ground in every direction. Six thick bolts connected to the White Fang Blade, forming six lightning wolves that shimmered with light. "Awooooo! Awooooo!" The pack howled and darted toward more than a dozen elite Hidden Sand ninjas!

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!" After a series of blinding flashes and explosive crashes, the area around Sakumo fell quiet. Only more than a dozen charred corpses and a heap of shattered puppets remained.

The next moment, Sakumo Hatake vanished from where he stood and reappeared beside Chiyo!

"Not good!" Chiyo was horrified. The White Fang Blade flashed in Sakumo's hand, and the remaining arm of the Ox-Head Puppet guarding Chiyo was severed. Chiyo's clothes were slashed as well, and she hurriedly dodged to the side. The White Fang Blade swept through the air again, drawing a perfect cross. The Ox-Head Puppet was split into four pieces.

Puppet fragments littered the ground beneath Sakumo's feet. The White Fang had smashed all Ten Chikamatsu Puppets to pieces, and Ebizo had no puppets left to replace them. It wasn't just Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law who would die by the White Fang Blade. Chiyo herself was about to meet the same fate.

"Damn it!" Chiyo was furious. She clutched her arm and panted heavily.

Sakumo looked at Chiyo, gripped the White Fang, and said coldly, "The Hidden Sand has lost!" His words made Chiyo feel as if she had plunged into an icy cavern.

"Big Sister, we can't hold them back! We have to retreat or we'll all die here! Go!" Ebizo yanked Chiyo back with his puppet strings, threw out several Smoke Bombs, and forcibly led her away.

The Hidden Sand forces had been utterly routed!