Special Jonin

Tsunade sent the Dual-Blade Puppet before her flying with a punch, calmly thinking it over.

"This should be a poison extracted from desert plants and snakes—a neurotoxin composed of proteins. Then... as long as it isn't a mineral toxin at the molecular level, I can cure it!"

Tsunade swiftly dodged Chiyo's attack, bit her thumb until it bled, and formed hand seals.

"Summoning Technique: Katsuyu!"

A plume of white smoke rose, and a gigantic summoned beast no smaller than a Tailed Beast suddenly appeared on the battlefield.

"Slug: Healing Slug!"

All at once, the enormous summoned beast abruptly split apart, transforming into countless tiny slugs that spread across the battlefield.

"Katsuyu! Split into sufficiently small clones and suck the poison out of every poisoned person for me!"

Tsunade roared, then continued charging Chiyo with her fists raised.

Chiyo was briefly taken aback.

If she wanted to concoct a poison that would kill someone within a certain period of time, she could certainly do so. But such poisons generally required time to take effect, meaning the Konoha Ninja could still retain their fighting strength for a while. Moreover, the cost was too high; impoverished Sunagakure could not afford enough poison to sustain a full-scale war.

So she had settled for the next best thing, creating this poison. Though not fatal, it took effect extremely quickly and could greatly impair the enemy's condition, allowing it to achieve results on the battlefield.

But she had not expected Tsunade to identify the poison's properties so quickly and immediately find the simplest and most direct antidote in the middle of the battlefield.

For a moment, the Konoha Ninja's morale soared.

They discovered that these tiny slugs could not only detoxify them, but also heal their wounds!

Now, as long as they had not suffered a fatal injury, the Konoha Ninja no longer cared. They launched savage attacks as though they had no regard for their lives.

But for the Sunagakure ninja, that was not even the worst part.

Because in the next moment, the Nara Elder issued a new order.

The Reserve Force, prepare to enter the battlefield and deliver the decisive blow!

Meikyō's body began running forward alongside everyone else in the unit of its own accord.

His shoes splashed through the cold muddy water, spraying mud all over his pant legs.

No one cared about such small details. Everyone gripped their weapons tightly and, under the Nara Elder's command, charged toward the weakest point in the Sand Ninja formation.

In an instant, it was as though part of the Sand Ninja position had been overwhelmed by a raging flood. Their previously intact formation was immediately scattered by the Konoha Ninja and split into two sections.

At that moment, Meikyō could clearly feel the blood throughout his body boiling, and he instinctively activated his Sharingan.

At this moment, the warlike instincts engraved into the bloodline of the Uchiha Clan were completely awakened.

Yet at the same time, the effects brought by his previous training in the Spirit Activation Technique seemed to be triggered as well.

Meikyō could sense his body's excitement and the surging heat in his bloodline, but his mind remained equally clear. Combined with the Sharingan's powerful insight, he sought to find his enemy's weakness the instant he saw them.

"Uchiha Style: Instant Fire Blade!"

The wakizashi swiftly traced a graceful arc through the air, cleaving the Sand Ninja before Meikyō cleanly in two.

Other Sand Ninja tried to attack from the side, only to have their faces swarmed by the Kikaichū controlled by Aburame Nami, before Inuzuka Ryo tore open their throats with his claws.

Suddenly, the Kikaichū scattered, blocking the vision of the enemies farther ahead.

Uchiha Meikyō's figure darted out of the insect swarm, the wakizashi in his hand unleashing a chilling blade wind.

"Uchiha Style: Swift Wind Blade!"

With a single slash, he beheaded the Sand Ninja before him, who did not look much older than himself.

"Keep going!"

Meikyō licked his lips, stained with his enemy's blood. A bloodthirsty gleam shone from his scarlet Sharingan.

Thus, Meikyō continued searching the battlefield for enemies he could handle, and then it was blade raised, blade fell; blade raised, blade fell; blade raised, blade fell...

But before long, Meikyō realized that his approach was not quite suitable for this battlefield.

Cleaving enemies apart or beheading them outright certainly felt satisfying, but it came with a problem.

It consumed Chakra and stamina a little too quickly.

If he had a few more years to develop, with his stamina and Chakra growing substantially, it might not have been an issue.

But at least for now, on a large-scale battlefield that would last this long, he needed to choose more energy-efficient ways to kill.

For example, slitting throats, or directly stabbing a sword into an enemy's heart.

With that in mind, Meikyō began changing his fighting style, striving for simple, swift movements, quickly catching his enemies' openings and defeating them in a single blow.

And that was, in fact, the fighting style best suited to an Uchiha with the Sharingan—agile, swift, clean and decisive, yet calm and elegant.

Since the war began, Meikyō and his squad had killed no fewer than twenty Sand Ninja, including three to five Chunin.

More than ten of those had been personally killed by Meikyō.

The Uchiha Clan seemed to have been born for war. With the Sharingan, they were like fish in water on this battlefield.

Such a performance naturally drew the attention of others in this small section of the battlefield.

Among them were Konoha Ninja who marveled at how formidable the younger generation was, as well as Sand Ninja who wished to eliminate Meikyō and his companions as quickly as possible.

It was like one of the tall, skinny Special Jonin from Sunagakure among them.

"Those brats actually had this kind of strength? If we let them continue, the village will lose even more manpower. And youngsters this powerful must be Konoha's genius ninja—we have to eliminate them as soon as possible. We can't let them grow into a threat to the village!"

The Special Jonin made his judgment at once and swiftly charged toward Meikyō and the others.

"Meikyō, left!"

Aburame Nami, having sensed the situation through her insects, issued a warning immediately.

Meikyō reacted in time, spinning around and using the Sharingan's dynamic vision to track the shuriken the Sunagakure Special Jonin had just thrown.

"Playing with shuriken in front of an Uchiha?"

A disdainful sneer flickered across Meikyō's lips as his left hand casually pulled more than a dozen shuriken from his Ninja Tool Pouch.

"Uchiha Style: Controlled Shuriken Technique!"

More than a dozen shuriken scattered like celestial maidens scattering flowers, colliding repeatedly with the enemy's shuriken in midair. In the end, nearly half of them were redirected toward the Sand Ninja.