Yin Seal, Release!

"Alright!"

Hatake Sakumo nodded. "Kurenai, Shizune, stay behind."

"Asuma, I need you to provide support from here on."

Hatake Sakumo said seriously, "The Sand Ninja will definitely choose another direction to break through while I'm absent. They'll breach our defenses and crush us as quickly as possible, so we don't become a major problem for them."

"So whichever direction the Sand Ninja focuses their attack on, Asuma, that's the direction you need to reinforce."

The squad leaders gathered around were all startled. Even though Asuma had already displayed astonishing strength earlier...

Still, on his own...

Asuma agreed without hesitation. "No problem!"

As he spoke, four Shadow Clones appeared beside him.

"As long as one of my Shadow Clones is at the Sand Ninja's main attack point, I can get there instantly!"

Asuma was brimming with confidence. "And I'm confident I can stop the Sand Ninja's assault!"

"Asuma, you..."

A Jōnin from the Sarutobi Clan hesitated.

Of course, he knew Asuma was a genius and immensely capable, but claiming he could stop the Sand Ninja's main assault was a little too arrogant.

If he failed to hold them back, it would not simply mean being killed by the enemy. He would drag down the Sarutobi Clan and even the reigning Third Hokage with him.

"Amayo, don't worry. I believe in Asuma. His current strength is not much inferior to mine."

Hatake Sakumo supported Asuma with absolute conviction.

But that statement left everyone else utterly stunned.

Strength not much inferior to Hatake Sakumo's? How was that possible?

Asuma was not even eleven yet, was he?

"You flatter me, Teacher Sakumo. I'm still far from that."

"However, the techniques I've mastered happen to be well suited for dealing with large groups of enemies!"

Asuma said with a smile.

For a moment, no one knew whether he was being modest or conceited.

Still, while they did not fully believe in Asuma, they trusted Hatake Sakumo. No one raised another objection. After agreeing on their signal methods, they each used the Body Flicker Technique and departed.

Asuma and the other two remained where they were, waiting silently.

Five minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

Before long, faint rumbling sounds came through the dense forest.

The Sand Ninja had attacked!

And they were attacking from several directions at once.

From the sounds alone, Asuma could tell that the fiercest fighting was directly ahead, on the side defended by Hatake Sakumo. The Sand Ninja had come from that direction as well.

Including Asuma and the others, Konoha had a total of thirty squads.

Their circular defensive formation was arranged into three echelons, three lines of defense. Each line consisted of ten squads.

The distance between each echelon was not far, only around a hundred meters.

Time slowly passed.

Both Yūhi Kurenai and Shizune inevitably grew anxious.

Asuma did not try to comfort them. After taking a Ration Pill, he kept his eyes lowered and rested.

Chirp! Chirp!

Suddenly, birdsong came from the left.

Asuma's eyes snapped open. "Kurenai, Shizune, I'm going ahead!"

Before his voice had even faded, he had already swapped places with a Shadow Clone.

At the front line.

At the second line of defense, after switching positions with the Shadow Clone, Asuma immediately entered Scorch Release Chakra Mode. A blue-white flaming Chakra Cloak covered his entire body.

"This is..."

Sarutobi Amayo and the other Konoha ninja widened their eyes as they stared at Asuma.

They could clearly sense Asuma's immense Chakra, as well as the uniqueness of that Chakra.

Asuma flashed a bright smile. "This is the Kekkei Genkai I developed myself, Scorch Release, as well as a Chakra Mode developed based on that Kekkei Genkai."

"Scorch Release Chakra Mode... I see!"

Sarutobi Amayo, a Jōnin of the Sarutobi Clan, was both shocked and excited.

At that moment, the Konoha ninja from the first line of defense had already fallen back.

A large number of Sand Ninja were weaving through the forest toward them.

"Everyone, I'll need you to cover me while I use my technique."

Asuma spoke as he formed Hand Seals.

Yin Seal, Release!

An enormous amount of Chakra surged forth. Four Chakra Hands rapidly extended from beneath his arms, and then a Scorch Release Rasenshuriken swiftly formed in each hand.

They were only miniature Scorch Release Rasenshuriken.

Even so, the powerful Chakra left Amayo and the others deeply alarmed.

"Understood, Asuma! Leave it to us!"

Amayo shouted.

The others nodded one after another.

At that moment, the Sand Ninja's Wind Style arrived.

However, it was not an offensive Wind Style, but one used to create a vacuum and clear away traps.

Although time had been short, Konoha had still set up some simple traps.

The Wind Style cleared the traps first, followed immediately by a large number of Sand Ninja charging in.

A quick glance was enough to tell that there were at least forty or fifty of them.

When they were roughly thirty meters apart, Asuma immediately shouted, "Attack!"

The many Konoha ninja hiding behind the trees launched their attacks at once.

Ninjutsu, shuriken, and Kunai carrying Explosive Tags flew out in a dense barrage.

Then Asuma vanished from where he stood and reappeared on a tree branch ten meters ahead. He hurled the Scorch Release Rasenshuriken held by the four Chakra Hands.

"Watch out!"

"Damn it!"

"Stop them!"

The Sand Ninja shouted in succession, but when the Scorch Release Rasenshuriken were intercepted by their ninjutsu, Kunai, and shuriken, they had already passed over the first wave of Sand Ninja and flown more than fifteen meters beyond them.

Accompanied by an intense, piercing grinding sound, the four Scorch Release Rasenshuriken rapidly expanded into four small spheres of light, blue on the outside and white within.

Each one enveloped an area roughly twenty meters across.

"Amazing!"

"What terrifying ninjutsu!"

"What incredible heat!"

The Konoha ninja cried out in astonishment, their eyes wide. Even they could feel the scorching heat from such a terrifying temperature, and they had already begun to sweat.

Everyone knew Asuma had created an S-Rank Wind Style Ninjutsu, but not a single person present had ever seen it firsthand.

"Everyone, the heat storm is coming!"

Asuma landed in front of them all and pressed both palms against the ground.

Earth Style—Multiple Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!

Rumble!

Layers upon layers of Earth Walls carved with dragon heads rose from the ground in staggered formations.

Then the scorching gale swept toward them.

"If you were caught at the core of that ninjutsu's eruption, the heat could probably kill you instantly!"

"Scorch Release, formed by combining Wind Style and Fire Style, is truly incredible!"

"Yeah. The Sand Ninja have a Scorch Release user too—I've seen it—but their ninjutsu is nowhere near as powerful as Asuma's!"

The Konoha ninja marveled one after another. As they looked at the not-so-tall figure before them, their gazes had completely changed.

"The storm has passed!"

Sarutobi Amayo, standing behind Asuma, gave the reminder.

The Konoha ninja hiding behind the Earth Walls or tree trunks emerged one after another.

However, the once-dense forest had become sparse.

The scorching air currents had swept through it, directly withering and stripping away the leaves and grass.

Moonlight poured down from overhead, and the surroundings suddenly became much brighter.

However.

When Amayo and the other Konoha ninja looked ahead, they could not help swallowing nervously.

The forest where the ninjutsu had erupted was gone, leaving behind only four connected craters.

The craters did not seem deep, but more than twenty horribly mutilated corpses lay within them.

Besides the Sand Ninja killed inside the craters, more than a dozen injured Sand Ninja at the edges were letting out miserable wails.

Their bodies bore varying degrees of injuries from the scorching air.

Some even had an entire arm shriveled and dried out.

Others had large areas of severe burns across their bodies.