During their earlier exchanges, Gaara had suffered at Second Tsuchikage Mu's hands more than once.
Not only was Mu highly mobile and able to fly freely high in the sky, he was also a sensor ninja, and had even mastered an invisibility ability that could evade sensory detection.
On top of that, the Dust Release he already excelled at was immensely powerful.
Ordinary ninjutsu fell far short of Dust Release in power.
After all, this was a powerful ninjutsu that could disintegrate an opponent into atoms.
At any rate, if Gaara took a direct hit from Dust Release, surviving would be very difficult.
Fortunately, he had plenty of tricks of his own, and he could also use a sand cloud to move through the air at high speed. That made catching him no easy task for Mu, either.
Of course, Dust Release activated so quickly that Mu had nearly caught Gaara several times. Only his quick reactions had kept him from dying.
Their battle had gone on for a long time, but Mu ultimately held a slight edge, and Gaara remained at a disadvantage throughout.
Although the other ninja wanted to help, they could not keep up with the pace of the two men's battle at all.
Even the sensor ninja had particular difficulty tracking Mu while he was invisible.
Still, defeating Gaara would not be so simple for Mu, either.
That left the battle at a stalemate.
Seeing Mu turn invisible and vanish once again, Gaara controlled his sand while shouting to the Allied Shinobi Forces behind him, "Sensor ninja, stay alert! Keep a close watch on our surroundings and notify me the moment he appears!"
"Yes!"
The Allied Shinobi Forces searched nervously in every direction for signs of Mu, bracing themselves for a formidable enemy.
This time, however,