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The Sand ninja heard a sonic boom behind him, swiftly turning around to block with his kunai, causing two lightning-infused shuriken to be knocked down. Despite this, he felt no joy at the moment. Instead, a sense of unease crept into his heart, prompting him to instinctively take a step back. At that moment, a swift knifehand pierced through the earth wall he created with ninjutsu.
Had he not dodged in time, that hand would have likely pierced his chest!
Unfortunately, what was fortunate for him was unfortunate for the enemy. The kunai in his hand directly impaled the palm of that hand, and then he leaped high from behind the wall!
Wind Release: Wind Cutting Technique!
The wind blade sliced across the enemy's neck, and the next moment, the Sand ninja could have seen the scene of the enemy's head rolling to the ground!
However, that anticipated scene did not occur.
Another sound rang beside his ear.
Another Haori appeared on his side, holding the long sword that had been thrown as a projectile weapon.
At that moment, his attention was entirely focused on the Haori in front of him, completely unaware of the attack from the side.
With a gentle thrust, the long sword pierced his heart.
The Haori hit by his Wind Cutting, at that moment, also disappeared with a puff of smoke.
It was just a simple Shadow Clone Technique.
The enemy's final thought was, "Ah, it was a clone after all." Even in losing his life, the regret in his eyes was overshadowed by disappointment rather than remorse.
He should have regretted his carelessness leading to his demise at the enemy's hands, but he didn't. Ultimately, his regret was not being able to kill the enemy.
So, when did Haori use the Shadow Clone Technique?
Quite simply, it was when he fell, before using Fire Release, he also simultaneously used the Clone Technique and Transformation Technique. Not only did he create a clone, but he also hid himself, leading to this final fatal strike.
This was a tricky opponent. In order to take him down, Haori had consumed a significant amount of chakra. After calming himself down a bit, Haori began to retreat.
He needed to restore his chakra levels somewhat. In large-scale battles like these, he couldn't just keep charging forward. Without chakra, he would end up dead.
After retreating to the majority of Leaf's forces, for the next period, Haori hid behind his own forces, using long-range throwing of shuriken and kunai to inflict damage on the enemy.
Due to his precise throwing ability and calculation skills, his efficiency was high. Constantly lurking in the background to take shots, with his stylish movements and unexpected attacks, he could take down an enemy with an average of five to seven shuriken.
And so, until his ninja tools were almost depleted, Leaf's reinforcements finally arrived.
Unlike before, upon encountering Leaf's reinforcements, instead of retreating, the Sand ninja intensified their attacks.
Something was wrong, very wrong. This was the time to cut losses and retreat.
After Leaf's reinforcements arrived, the balance of power had shifted in favor of Leaf, but the Sand Village ninjas still fought desperately.
As if they had nothing to lose.
Haori suddenly had a bad feeling. Why did the Sand Village adopt this strategy? It was clearly voluntarily sacrificing their own forces... Perhaps there was some kind of conspiracy at play.
With hesitation in his heart, although Haori had recovered some chakra, he didn't rush to the front like at the beginning.
He needed to conserve some strength to deal with any unforeseen circumstances.
In terms of individual ninja quality, Leaf's ninjas might be slightly superior, but even if each side's ninjas were equally matched, Leaf's overwhelming advantage in numbers gave them the upper hand against the Sand Village. In terms of the initial deployment of forces, the ratio was now 2:1, and soon, the Sand Village forces would be wiped out.
Unless they truly didn't retreat.
However, the fact was, even when the casualty rate reached seventy percent, the Sand Village ninjas continued to fight to the death.
At this point, Leaf's reinforcements had been arriving for about an hour and a half. Almost all Leaf ninjas had realized the abnormality of the Sand Village's behavior. Why were they engaging in this suicidal action?
Suddenly, Haori's ears picked up a faint roar-like sound.
Like some kind of monster.
And the sound was coming from the direction of the Land of Fire.
Haori had a guess, his unease was about to be confirmed.
He quickly found his team captain, luckily, the captain was still alive and well, with no missing limbs.
"Captain Hyuga, do you know what's going on at headquarters?"
Haori didn't know if this Hyuga was from the main family or a branch family, or how good his reconnaissance abilities were.
"I don't know, my Byakugan can't see that far, but I can faintly sense a massive amount of chakra coming from there. I've never seen such chakra before, it's like..."
The Hyuga captain's words were left unfinished, but Haori already knew what he wanted to say.
Like a Tailed Beast.
Even if he hadn't seen a Tailed Beast, these ninjas had all heard rumors about them.
Then, a huge flash appeared in the sky above Leaf's headquarters!
This was a special flash bomb used by Leaf for communication.
Then, another four flash bombs rose in succession.
This was headquarters calling for urgent assistance. Without a doubt, Leaf's headquarters had come under attack!
And the situation had become extremely critical... In this light, the actions of the Sand Village ninjas made sense; their goal was to hold back Leaf's main forces and prevent them from providing reinforcements.
Haori and Captain Hyuga exchanged a glance, seeing the worry in each other's eyes.
"Disengage from the fight with the Sand Village and immediately head back to headquarters!"
Although Haori didn't know who was giving the command on the battlefield, at this moment, there was no time to verify. In any case, when Haori heard this command, he turned and started sprinting towards headquarters.
In truth, even without such an order, he would have run back. There weren't many enemies left here, but the situation at headquarters was extremely critical, and most importantly, Kusuna was there.
There had been a mistake in Leaf's intelligence department; they hadn't anticipated that these actions were all just feints. However, for this attack, the Sand Village had paid a heavy price, as they had long been prepared to lose one thousand men.
This meant that the attacking forces on headquarters were absolutely unprecedentedly powerful.
What are Haori's strengths and weaknesses based on the story so far?
How does Haori's fighting style differ from other characters in the Naruto universe?
Is Haori a good example of a strategic fighter, or does he rely more on brute force?
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