"Haha, you reacted pretty quickly," a woman standing on the branches among the Sand Ninjas laughed.
"Are you… Chiyo?" Sarutobi Chiba asked, his eyes narrowing as he recognized the figure.
"You know me?" Chiyo raised an eyebrow, surprised. "It seems you're not just any ordinary ninja."
Although Chiyo was renowned in the ninja world, she hadn't been famous for long. The fact that the Konoha Jonin in front of her recognized her spoke to his experience and background.
Her eyes flicked to the symbol hanging on Sarutobi Chiba's chest, and she realized: "Ah, a Jonin from the Sarutobi clan. That explains it."
Sarutobi Chiba's face grew pale as the weight of the situation sank in. Chiyo's presence here meant one thing: their entire team of hundreds would likely be wiped out. There was no doubt about it.
Dozens of his subordinates had already been poisoned. As a skilled puppeteer, Chiyo's poisons were infamous for their lethality.
In this deadly situation, Sarutobi Chiba's body trembled slightly. He wasn't afraid of fighting, but the realization that their chances of victory were zero filled him with dread. Resistance felt futile.
"Go!" Chiyo ordered, and more than 200 ninjas positioned on the branches of the forest began forming hand seals.
Not all of the Konoha reinforcements recognized Chiyo as Sarutobi Chiba had. They didn't immediately lose hope and prepared to fight back. After all, they still had the advantage in numbers.
Boom boom!
Suddenly, loud explosions echoed through the mountains, shaking the landscape.
"This large-scale ninjutsu attack isn't a good sign. We have to move, quickly!" Sakumo's face darkened as he looked in the direction of the explosions.
Swish swish swish!
More than 30 of Sakumo's team immediately rushed at full speed toward the source of the noise, covering the straight distance of over a thousand meters in a matter of moments.
The narrow space between the mountains had expanded under the force of clashing ninjutsu. While Konoha's reinforcements had the advantage in numbers, the quality of ninjas on both sides was far from equal.
In addition, ten black-clad figures moved swiftly through the battlefield, ruthlessly cutting down Konoha ninjas. Chiyo's ten fingers, connected by chakra strings, controlled ten different puppets. Each puppet moved with the precision and strength of a highly skilled ninja.
Chiyo was using all ten fingers to manipulate her puppets simultaneously, a feat that demonstrated her mastery over puppetry.
In just a few minutes, Chiyo had already killed dozens of Konoha ninjas. She was determined not to let any Konoha ninja escape, as she couldn't afford to let information about the ambush leak.
Swish!
Just as one of Chiyo's puppets was about to strike down a Konoha ninja, a sharp blade, moving at terrifying speed, sliced through the air and shattered the puppet into pieces. A figure emerged from the forest, swiftly reclaiming the chakra tanto.
The figure looked at Chiyo with a cold, focused gaze.
"Hatake Sakumo?" Chiyo's wrinkled face twitched in shock, a look of disbelief flashing across her features. How could he be here?
Swish!
As Chiyo reeled from her surprise, a yellow flash darted toward her from Sakumo's direction, heading straight for one of her puppets.
"You're seeking death!" Chiyo reacted quickly, even if Sakumo's attack had caught her off guard. She wasn't slow enough to miss the second figure entirely. Controlling another puppet, she moved to intercept the intruder and form a pincer attack.
At the same time, she gathered her remaining seven puppets and locked them onto Sakumo.
However, Sakumo had no intention of helping Minato. His chakra blade crackled with lightning as he charged directly at Chiyo, ignoring the seven puppets closing in on him.
Minato's azure eyes focused as he dodged between two puppets. In his right hand, a chakra sphere formed—a swirling ball of pure energy.
"Rasengan!"
Minato didn't hesitate, slamming the Rasengan into the puppet in front of him. The chakra ball effortlessly shattered the puppet's blade, continuing to grind through its body and reduce it to splinters.
Chiyo miscalculated. Unlike typical ninjutsu, which required time for hand seals and chakra manipulation, the Rasengan had no such delay. Its destructive power was unparalleled.
After destroying the puppet, Minato pivoted on his feet, using the momentum to retreat a meter away and narrowly avoid a strike from the puppet behind him.
Without wasting any time, he raised his special kunai, and a thin layer of wind chakra enveloped the blade.
Buzz.
Though the wind blade was thin, it made the kunai razor-sharp. Minato slashed through one of the puppet's limbs with ease.
The puppet couldn't keep up with Minato's speed. Before its other limb could strike, Minato severed it as well.
With a swift horizontal slash, Minato extended a solid wind blade from his kunai, turning it into a wind sword that split the now-disarmed puppet in half.
Minato knew that cutting Chiyo's chakra strings would deactivate the puppet, but he preferred to destroy it completely.
Swish!
At that moment, Suzuka emerged from the forest and joined the battle, showing no hesitation.
The tide of battle, which had been turning against Konoha, began to shift in their favor.
Though Sakumo's team was small, they were all elite ninjas. The most powerful among them was an Uchiha Jonin with a fully developed three-tomoe Sharingan.
His opponents, once they locked eyes with him, fell under his genjutsu, helpless to defend themselves.
In a one-on-one fight, encountering someone with a Sharingan often meant one thing: retreat as soon as possible. A single glance was all it took to fall under a deadly genjutsu.
Boom boom boom!
As Sakumo advanced toward Chiyo, he swung his chakra tanto, smashing through three of her puppets in quick succession.
Chiyo's expression darkened as she cursed inwardly.
"Damn it, didn't they say no one from Konoha would come to support them?"
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