Chaos

Spinning Paper Windmill.

The scorching power was increased by the Great Fireball, and the Wind Release boosted the power of the fire, as well as the speed of the spinning Paper Windmill.

Swoosh-swoosh--!

A massive trench was instantly plowed into the ground, and the Paper Windmill carried roaring flames.

The speed was extremely fast.

Squeak-squeak-squeak--!

At that moment, Kyūsuke's Summoned Rats swarmed again, densely packed like the bugs of the Aburame.

There was no telling how he summoned so many rats.

Goenji wanted to use the power of the Rocket Propulsion, but there was no safe footing to escape.

Boar-Horse-...Tiger.

He rapidly formed hand seals with both hands, completing the Tiger seal representing Fire Release, and Goenji took a deep breath.

Chakra gathered in his throat.

At this moment, he poured in the ultimate chakra shape transformation and chakra nature transformation, spewing out a mouthful of raging fire.

Majestic Destroyer Flame.

A jutsu with greater destructive power among Fire Release techniques, the very one Madara Uchiha used in the original story against the Allied Shinobi Forces.

At this moment, he used his full strength.

Boom--!

Swoosh--!

On one side was the three-person combination of the Flaming Paper Windmill, and on the other was Goenji's explosive flame.

The collision of the two jutsus instantly crashed together.

Yet at that moment, rats from all directions desperately lunged at Goenji's body.

Squeak-squeak-squeak--!

Goenji, who was defending against the attack, was instantly swarmed by the rats, and only the rats in the front were burned to death in large numbers.

Rip--!

Click-clack, crunch-crunch.

The sharp fangs of the rats bit into Goenji's body, making chewing sounds.

In an instant, the flames of Majestic Destroyer Flame gradually extinguished.

The Flaming Paper Windmill lost its resistance, and in a split second, it cut through the remaining flames, striking directly at Goenji, who was heavily covered by the rats.

Boom!

An explosion rang out.

Swish-swish--!

Yahiko and the three others used Wind Release to blow away the dust and smoke, and what came into their view was a large crater.

After looking closely, one could see these were the marks carved out by the Paper Windmill.

There were also many corpses of Summoned Rats on the ground.

"Damn it, he got away."

Kyūsuke inspected the area and found that on the ground, there was simply no corpse of that Konoha ninja.

There were only the bodies of rats and a single charred piece of wood.

Recalling Goenji's unperturbed expression just moments ago, it was evident he had been prepared all along.

There was no telling when he had prepared his substitution item.

Seeing this, Yahiko sighed, saying, "As expected of someone from the Uchiha, to be able to escape from our sight even under the joint assault of the few of us!"

They had long since heard of the Uchiha's reputation, yet unexpectedly, he slipped away from their encirclement without a sound.

"What do we do now?" Nagato asked.

Konan extended her hand, and paper cranes converged from all directions: "They've been gone for quite a long time, I'm afraid we won't catch up."

She carefully sensed the information transmitted back by the paper cranes.

Kyūsuke: "Let's go notify Lord Hanzō, at least to give Amegakure some preparation."

"Listen to Kyūsuke, let's go." Yahiko nodded.

Swish-swish--!

Goenji bounded across the treetops, advancing rapidly.

Because there might be traps, he did not use the Rocket Propulsion jutsu to make himself move too fast.

Instead, he used the ordinary Body Flicker Technique, though it was still quite swift.

His cloak had already been gnawed to shreds, and sparse tooth marks dotted the fabric.

Rainwater seeped in through the holes.

"Tsk tsk, the strength of these guys isn't bad at all; fortunately, I'm stronger."

Goenji had already been preparing the moment he knew enemies were present.

Although he did not know the exact level Yahiko and the others' ordinary jutsus had reached.

He could still deduce certain things from reality.

Someone capable of organizing a faction surely possessed the strength of a Jonin.

Moreover, since Yahiko and the others were Jiraiya's disciples, it was impossible for them to lack Jonin-level strength.

Facing Jonin, let alone three or four, he would not lower his guard even if there were only one.

Therefore, he ultimately utilized a pre-prepared substitution item, combined with the Substitution Technique he had practiced for a long time, to evade their attack.

The Substitution Technique is really useful!

It just required extremely fast hand seal speed and preparation of a substitute well in advance.

Only because he possessed the Sharingan's powerful dynamic vision could he pull off the Substitution Technique right under the noses of four Jonins without anyone noticing.

As a common technique among ninjas, everyone guarded against the Substitution Technique.

Their intelligence and awareness regarding this aspect were also much greater.

Without extremely fast hand seal speed and strong observation skills, pulling it off imperceptibly was impossible.

Timing was extremely crucial.

The reason why the Substitution Technique was not used very frequently in the original story lay right here.

For experts, if you failed to grasp the timing properly, you might even lose your life because of it.

Consequently, ninjas generally only used the Substitution Technique against experts when they were completely sure of success.

The Clone Technique was the same.

The limits of the Three Basic Techniques rested right here.

It wasn't that they were useless, but rather that one had to use the appropriate jutsu in coordination at the right moment.

Because the spy obtained a massive amount of intelligence on Hanzō.

Danzo immediately launched the subsequent offensive.

It wasn't just Goenji's side; intelligence on Danzo came from other places as well.

Goenji had no idea how large Danzo's intelligence network was, but at any rate, intelligence came from both Hanzō's Amegakure and Iwagakure.

The Land of Rain was stirred into an impending storm by Danzo.

Hanzō took action personally, intending to deal with such hidden factions that stirred up chaos like Danzo's group.

Over on Iwagakure's side, a team led by Gari as captain even discovered Danzo and the others' base through a reconnaissance mission.

And they got into a fight with them.

This time, coming prepared, both the Iwagakure and Konoha sides fought back and forth.

Goenji could also perceive that Iwagakure's strength was not to be underestimated either.

Although their side had an old hand like Shimura Danzō, they could only give ground when facing the formidable Iwagakure.

Or rather, Danzo had no choice but to do so without support from other battle forces.

After all, Konoha's battlefront was currently far too stretched out.

There was no surplus of forces for reinforcement.

They could only use the Transformation Technique—a divine art for ninjas—to disrupt the alliance between Amegakure and Iwagakure.

At any rate, even though both sides knew Konoha was the one making trouble, Hanzō and Iwagakure could do nothing about it.

Who knew whether Iwagakure genuinely wanted an alliance or was secretly using Konoha as a pretext to do the exact same things Konoha was doing.

Boom-boom--!

Clang-clang-clang--!

The Land of Rain was a battlefield everywhere.

Danzo acted like a troublemaking stirring rod, leading Goenji and the others to stir up chaos all over the place.

Goenji's combat skills also rapidly sublimated amidst battle after battle.

Utilizing the power of the Sharingan, he replicated the techniques of many ninjas, then integrated them with his super-powered brain to incorporate them into his own combat system.

Furthermore, his performance grew increasingly brilliant.

In combat, teaming up with the three of Aburame Fuzei, he made enormous contributions to Konoha.

"Tsk tsk, Danzo is awesome."

To this, Goenji could only say that Danzo was awesome.

Amidst the intertwining of so many different factions, Danzo could still sort everything out with absolute clarity.

And handle it all so transparently.

There was just one bad thing: recently, he found out that Danzo seemed to be interested in him.