King against king

This time, the Kirigakure ninja had learned their lesson and advanced cautiously toward the Fourth Division. Their scouting methods might not have matched Konoha's, but they were still useful. At least they no longer had to worry about walking blindly into a trap and taking a faceful of Combined Ninjutsu.

Konoha had no intention of using that tactic again, either. Combined Ninjutsu was certainly powerful, but if it only blasted one or two Kirigakure scouts, they were better off saving their chakra. What good was an impressive spectacle alone?

The Hyuga Clan's scouting range exceeded that of the Kirigakure ninja. They saw the enemy stop a short distance away and hold position. It was a carefully chosen distance: both sides could detect each other, and it was suitable for long-range ninjutsu, but not close combat. The scouts hurriedly relayed this information to their two supreme commanders, Kazemori Masaki and Hyuga Masato.

"Are they planning to wear us down with ninjutsu?" Hyuga Masato asked, puzzled. "That might work by the river, but this isn't a good place to fight a battle of attrition against us."

The release techniques ninja used generally drew their power from nature transformation, then gave that power a corresponding form. Since creating that form relied entirely on chakra, powerful ninjutsu consumed large amounts of it. Usually, ninja borrowed materials from nature to greatly reduce the drain on their own chakra.

For example, in an environment with a water source, a ninja could use relatively little chakra to perform a Water Release technique that would normally require a great deal. The same applied to other release techniques. Thus, of the five basic releases, Lightning Release and Fire Release were usually considered particularly chakra-intensive, since under normal circumstances, there was nothing available for them to draw upon.

Among the