Ninshu

Outside Konoha, Kankuro carefully concealed himself.

With the movements of his fingers, the Crow puppet moved like a ghost, launching poisoned blades one after another from every devious angle.

Sasuke pushed the Sharingan's motion tracking to its limits, carefully dodging the attacks while searching for the figure hidden in the shadows.

When fighting a Sunagakure puppeteer, the simplest method was to find the puppeteer hiding in the dark and avoid fighting the puppet directly.

A ninja's body was fragile, while puppets were meticulously designed by their users. It could be said that they were full of little surprises.

One careless move, and you might get hit by some specially made poison.

Where is he?!

Sasuke suddenly accelerated, evading the Crow puppet's thrust.

To the Sharingan, the so-called concealment techniques of Sunagakure ninja were nothing but a joke.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

Watching the incoming fireball, Kankuro's expression darkened slightly. He hated ninja with ocular jutsu.

Boom!

As he watched sparks scatter overhead, Kankuro carefully surveyed his surroundings.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several shuriken carrying Explosive Tags flew in from his blind spot.

Their fuses ignited in midair. The moment the shuriken reached him, leaving him no chance to dodge, they exploded.

Uchiha Sasuke looked down at the enemy below. Though Kankuro appeared disheveled, he had not suffered any fatal wounds, and Sasuke's expression darkened.

If he had enough chakra, one Chidori would have ended this long ago. Why waste so much time?

"Secret Technique: Insect Sphere!" "Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"

The arriving Shino Aburame and Neji Hyuga attacked Kankuro from opposite angles.

Not far away, Naruto and the other three rapidly pursued Gaara and his siblings.

Sasuke's Sharingan flickered. Watching the four figures race past in the distance, he instantly guessed their tactical arrangement. With a leap, he followed after them.

He still had an unfinished battle with Gaara!

"We have the numerical advantage, while they only have two people. The plan from here is for Naruto and me to take down the ninja named Temari as quickly as possible. You three will deal with Gaara."

Seeing Sasuke arrive, Shikamaru laid out the plan.

"No. Leave Gaara to me." Sasuke spoke confidently.

"..." Shikamaru gave him a long look, but remembering Sasuke's combat strength during the exam, he said nothing more and merely nodded.

"That works. Once we finish our fight, we'll come help you as quickly as possible."

This time, Sasuke said nothing further.

Temari half-carried Gaara as she rapidly leaped through the forest. This speed might have been fast for ordinary genin, but it was still nowhere near enough to shake the pursuers behind them.

"Kankuro!" Temari clenched her teeth, hastily hid the injured Gaara within the bushes, then removed the Three-Star Fan from her back and faced the approaching enemies.

This time, she would bear her responsibility as the older sister.

"Wind Release: Great Sickle Weasel!"

A gale mixed with razor-sharp blades swept forth, uprooting countless trees. Shattered rocks and branches completely cut off both sides' lines of sight.

Just as the storm settled, a black shadow rapidly darted over from the shade beneath a tree stump.

Temari's expression changed. She swiftly leaped backward. Fighting in a place filled with shadows was simply too advantageous for a ninja of the Nara Clan.

Her gaze darted around until she found a relatively open stretch of flat ground. She swung the Three-Star Fan again, and the raging wind stripped away all the surrounding vegetation.

Three figures leaped out from the shadows.

On the left was Kiba, already in Beast Mimicry State. On the right was Lee, who had removed his weights. In the middle, Naruto's Shadow Clone held Kusabimaru as it rapidly closed in on the distant enemy.

"Wind Release: Great Sickle Weasel!"

A few beads of sweat slowly trickled down Temari's temple as she forcibly converted her remaining chakra into a powerful Wind Release Ninjutsu.

"Fang Over Fang!" "Eight Gates Formation: Gate of Life, Open!"

Kiba and Rock Lee both unleashed their trump-card ninjutsu. According to their earlier plan, they needed to defeat this ninja as quickly as possible, concentrate all their strength at one point, and deal with the strongest opponent, Gaara.

Naruto's Shadow Clone sheathed his sword. If a blade was fast enough, even wind could be cut.

"Secret Transmission: Dragon Flash!"

In an instant, several streaks of blade light too fast for the naked eye flashed past, forcibly cleaving apart the gale blowing toward him.

Soon... this Shadow Clone won't be able to hold on much longer...

Feeling the scant chakra remaining within him, Naruto's Shadow Clone thought to himself.

Temari drew a deep breath and prepared to widen the distance again.

But her body stiffened in place, refusing to obey her.

"W-when?!!"

She struggled to look at the black shadow beneath her. If she remembered correctly, the battlefield she had just opened up was definitely beyond the Shadow Imitation Technique's limit.

Naruto was not someone who enjoyed answering questions. With a swing of his sword hilt, he knocked her unconscious.

At the same time, a crude parachute made from a coat slowly drifted down from the air.

Shikamaru let out a slight breath of relief. The timing was just right.

"You good?" Kiba looked at Temari, who had been tied up tightly. Ordinary ropes were not much of a restraint for ninja.

"It just needs to hold for a while." Naruto stood up and looked at his handiwork helplessly.

None of them had any special means of restraining enemies.

It would have been great if Shino and Neji had caught up. Either one of them could solve the problem of the bindings being too weak.

"Can you still hold on?" Naruto asked as he looked at Shikamaru, who was walking as if he were floating.

This was one of chakra's side effects. It was a combination of mental energy and physical energy, so normal usage was not much of a problem.

But once chakra was extracted excessively, it was essentially squeezing one's body dry.

Those with strong recovery abilities would be fine, but those with weaker recovery abilities might be left with permanent ailments.

"I won't die yet." Shikamaru shook his head.

Roar!

On the distant battlefield, a tanuki enlarged countless times over and more than ten meters tall came into view. Its entire body was pale yellow, covered in strange violet patterns, while Gaara had buried half his body within its head.

"H-hey! This has gone way too far, hasn't it? This is an A-rank Mission?" Kiba stared at the colossal creature, his words even coming out unsteadily.

"Probably..." Shikamaru's tone was a little weak as well.

What he hated most was this kind of absolute power gap. No scheme would be of any use.

So this is the One-Tail...

Naruto's Shadow Clone looked at Shukaku in the distance. Because he was often around the Nine-Tails, he was not as afraid of that huge creature as the others were.

"Can Naruto still hold on?" Shikamaru asked. Among them, perhaps only Naruto's attacks could cut that thing. Probably...

"Hold o—" Naruto's Shadow Clone suddenly froze.

Within his Mental Space.

"What do you mean, lend me chakra?"

Naruto asked in confusion. The Nine-Tails should know that he was only a Shadow Clone, right?

Shadow Clones were absurd, but not so absurd that they could split a tailed beast as well.

"Chakra is inherently connected. You humans merely severed that connection yourselves." The Nine-Tails seemed to understand his confusion and snorted.

As it spoke, the Nine-Tails clenched one paw into a fist and pressed it against the bars.

"I'll teach you something. Bring your fist over."

Naruto's Shadow Clone clenched his fist, reached it through the bars, and pressed it against the Nine-Tails' fist.

Feeling chakra instantly flood his body, Naruto looked at the giant fox before him in shock.

"Remember this. It's called Ninshu!" Kurama turned his head and snorted at his gaze.

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