The iron sand transformed into countless long spikes, interlocking to form a barrier. Hatake Sakumo landed on the ground, now completely enclosed by the iron sand barrier.
Chiyo appeared outside the barrier, while the Kazekage floated effortlessly near its edge, not requiring any external support to remain suspended.
However...
He touched his face, feeling a cut that had opened up, blood slowly trickling down.
He was injured.
Looking down at Hatake Sakumo, the Kazekage spoke, "Among Konoha's shinobi, I must admit, your strength is remarkable."
The cradle of geniuses... Konoha, huh?
Why do such extraordinary individuals always come from there?
Hatake Sakumo exhaled deeply, exhausted. Whether the Kazekage acknowledged him or not was of little consequence to him.
His gaze shifted to Chiyo, who was controlling her puppets, and then back to the Kazekage, floating within the barrier.
He realized he was in a dire situation.
Chiyo, unwilling to let him go, commanded her puppets to attack once again. Hatake Sakumo could only continue battling against them, while simultaneously avoiding the ever-encroaching black spikes.
The powerful piercing force of those spikes was not something he could take lightly.
In this current predicament, Hatake Sakumo couldn't afford to stop. If he paused for even a moment, the combined attacks of the two would overwhelm him, leaving him with no means to fight back.
He couldn't afford to get injured either. Chiyo's poison was no trivial matter. Whenever he sensed an attempt to use poison, Hatake Sakumo quickly utilized Wind Release to blow it away.
Facing two opponents of equal caliber simultaneously—no matter how strong he was—it was a battle he could not hope to win.
Had it not been for his enhanced physical reflexes from basic internal techniques, the accumulation of a large amount of chakra, and the Thunder Breathing technique that Jin had recently taught him, he would have surely fallen by now.
But even with all that, he couldn't find an opportunity to counterattack. Being dragged down like this, defeat was inevitable.
He continued to chase after the Kazekage, swinging his blade. But with the Kazekage moving freely inside the barrier and Chiyo's assistance, he couldn't gain any advantage.
Retreating wasn't an option either.
He knew that if he tried to retreat, the two of them would stop at nothing to prevent it.
It felt like being dragged to death was his destined outcome.
In that case, he would at least take one of them down with him.
Taking advantage of a brief respite, Hatake Sakumo pulled out a kunai from his ninja pouch. Wrapped with numerous explosive tags, the kunai now looked bulky, and he clenched it between his teeth.
Where the leaves of Konoha dance, fire burns. The flames will continue to illuminate the village, allowing new leaves to sprout.
For Konoha.
Seeing the explosive tags in Hatake Sakumo's mouth, both the Kazekage and Chiyo sensed the imminent danger.
Their attacks slowed down.
They could tell that Hatake Sakumo was preparing for a desperate final struggle.
With his abilities, if he decided to throw caution to the wind, at the very least one of them would be severely injured, if not killed.
As Hatake Sakumo sought the right moment, a sudden voice rang out.
"Spirit Ball! Self-detonation!"
"Wind Release! Great Breakthrough!"
"Combined Ninjutsu! Spirit Ball Explosion!"
A fierce gust of wind swept in from the distance, carrying a blue orb towards them. As its controller released it, the orb began to rapidly expand.
All three of them focused their attention on the figure that had suddenly appeared in the distance.
Hatake Sakumo couldn't help but mutter the person's name.
"Uchiha Jin."
Chiyo immediately sent one of her puppets hurtling towards Jin.
"Snap out of it!"
Uchiha Jin shouted angrily, "At least take me with you before you go and get yourself killed!"
As Jin roared, one of Chiyo's white puppets pierced straight through his body with its weapon. However, Jin wrapped his arms tightly around the puppet.
"Get me out of here alive, you bastard!"
No blood flowed from his body, but flames began to ignite instead.
With a loud "Boom!", Jin's body vanished into a puff of white smoke. All that remained was a scorched puppet.
It almost seemed like a joke.
But the Spirit Ball he left behind was no joke.
It continued to rapidly expand.
Chiyo and the Kazekage's eyes widened, and they quickly retreated.
The iron sand barrier naturally could not hold.
Hatake Sakumo was free again, and with a swift step, he moved even faster than them, distancing himself from the center of the Spirit Ball.
At that moment, the rapidly swelling Spirit Ball exploded.
"Boom!!"
The blue energy sphere devoured everything around it, leaving behind a massive crater when it finally dissipated.
Standing on the other side of the crater, Hatake Sakumo looked into the distance at Chiyo and the Kazekage.
From afar, Jin gritted his teeth.
"That bastard, don't waste my Spirit Ball like that!"
That had drained all of his chakra.
It felt like starting all over from scratch.
Truly miserable.
On the battlefield, Hatake Sakumo shook his head with a slight smile.
In the end, Jin had come to save him, likely fearing he wouldn't make it back alive otherwise.
If Jin had returned alone, he might've been labeled a rogue ninja.
Hatake Sakumo didn't know what to say.
"But... I owe you one."
"Uchiha Jin."
Hatake Sakumo, or rather White Fang, tightened his grip on his blade as he watched the Kazekage and Chiyo, flying towards him once again on iron sand.
"The outcome is already decided. Any resistance is futile," the Kazekage said, as iron sand began to swirl behind him once more.
Chiyo's ten puppets were poised and ready.
Hatake Sakumo, however, put away the explosive kunai and even removed his mask.
Breaking the heavy silence, he suddenly began to speak.
"I've been pondering something for a while now."
Hatake Sakumo sheathed his sword.
"Why does the third stage of the Basic Internal Technique require such a vast amount of chakra?"
The first stage only needed as much chakra as a student level ninja would have.
The second stage required the amount of chakra a Genin would have.
But the third stage suddenly demanded a quantity on par with a Tailed Beast, far beyond even a Kage.
So how could one achieve that?
"What are you trying to say?" the Kazekage asked, confused.
Meanwhile, the iron sand barrier formed once again.
"Die with my son and daughter-in-law!" Chiyo had reached the limits of her patience, unable to bear Hatake Sakumo's continued survival, even for another second.
But, once again, her attacks failed to succeed.
Hatake Sakumo was surrounded by the barrier and encircled by the ten white puppets.
It seemed like the end once more.
"The answer, I still don't know. But it feels like I've grasped a way to achieve it."
Hatake Sakumo crouched down as white chakra began to swirl around him, gradually condensing into the shape of a towering giant.
The giant, standing tens of meters tall, enveloped Hatake Sakumo entirely.
"What... is that?" Both Chiyo and the Kazekage were utterly bewildered.
A battle of ninjutsu had suddenly turned into something akin to fighting a giant.
"This... is willpower! Forcing it into existence!" Hatake Sakumo had figured it out after Jin's voice had snapped him back from the brink of death.
Willpower was actually stronger than chakra.
"What is that thing!?" The two of them sensed something terrible was about to happen and attacked simultaneously.
Hatake Sakumo, however, calmly drew his blade once more.
The giant mirrored his actions.
With a slow but deliberate movement, they slashed at the two of them in the air.
It appeared slow, but the slash was faster than their attacks.
With that one strike...
A blinding white light extended for hundreds of meters.
With that one strike...
It cleaved through the distant mountains.
With that one strike...
The name of White Fang would echo across the entire shinobi world!
"Boom!!"
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