Elsewhere, on the border of the Land of Demons, a thick pall of gloom smothered the sky.
Despair nearly drowned the battlefield.
The samurai guards of the Land of Demons were locked in a brutal struggle with Moryo's stone army.
These monsters formed from rock never tired. Even when the samurai cut their bodies apart with long swords, they pieced themselves back together into hideous forms.
"Hold the line! Don't retreat!"
The captain of the guard roared hoarsely, driving his katana hard into a stone soldier's neck.
The blade lodged in the hard rock. The impact split the web of his hand, sending blood streaming out.
But before he could pull his sword free, another stone soldier's palm swept toward his back with a foul gust.
The captain closed his eyes in despair.
Yet the searing pain he expected never came.
BOOM!!
An incredibly deep explosion rang out over the battlefield.
Then a savage blast of air swept through, bodily flinging away the stone soldier behind the captain.
The captain's eyes snapped open. A figure in ordinary clothes had slammed into the position before him like a meteor.
Dust billowed everywhere.
Konohamaru Sarutobi slowly straightened up. His legs had gone numb.
But Konohamaru reacted quickly. This was his first mission, and he absolutely would not make any mistakes.
"Sorry I'm late."
"Uh... you're..."
"Konohamaru, Konoha ninja!"
A confident smile curled Konohamaru's lips, but his eyes were as sharp as blades.
The next second, he moved.
There was no flashy ninjutsu, no dazzling display of light.
Konohamaru charged straight into the densest part of the stone army.
BAM!
He threw a plain, straightforward punch, striking a three-meter-tall stone soldier square in the chest.
Its seemingly indestructible rocky body instantly filled with spiderweb cracks, then exploded from within into a shower of