Time seemed to slow down to an crawl at this moment.
In Hatake Sakumo's mind, two voices were at war.
One voice, cold and rational, was like the ironclad rule of the Anbu he had followed for many years: "The mission comes first. Individual sacrifices are for the greater good of the village. Now is the best time to kill the enemy commander. Hesitation will only make the sacrifice worthless."
The other voice carried the gentle yet firm tone of his teacher, Sarutobi Hiruzen: "Sakumo, remember, we are human, not machines for missions. Cold rules can never replace the warmth of the Will of Fire. Protecting one's comrades is, in itself, the highest level of mission."
Sakumo abruptly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, all struggle and hesitation had vanished.
"Cover the wounded and retreat immediately! That's an order!"
"Captain?!" The cat-masked deputy was stunned. He couldn't believe his ears. "But..."
"Retreat!" Sakumo's tone was indisputable. He threw the poisoned team member over his shoulder, and with a backhand slash, he split a scorpion puppet that was lunging at him in two.
At the top of the canyon, the couple, Rōra and Uzuki, couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh? Choosing to run away?" Rōra's tone was full of contempt. "Is this the famous White Fang of Konoha? Truly, the reputation precedes the man."
"It seems we overestimated him," Uzuki also shook her head. "Trying to leave? You might as well leave your lives behind. Intensify the attack, don't let a single one escape!"
Instantly, the puppets' attacks became even more ferocious.
The Konoha Anbu squad, under Sakumo's leadership, fought as they retreated.
One team member, in order to cover the retreat, was overwhelmed by dozens of puppets and was instantly torn to shreds.
Finally, they retreated to a relatively narrow valley entrance.
"You take the wounded and go first! Quickly!"
Sakumo handed the poisoned team member on his shoulder to his deputy, then abruptly turned around, alone, to face the tide of hundreds of puppets surging behind them.
"Captain!!"
Everyone cried out in alarm.
Without turning his head, Sakumo's voice was firm. "I'll cover the rear!"
The deputy gritted his teeth, looking at Sakumo's resolute back. "Retreat!!"
The Anbu, carrying their wounded, quickly disappeared behind the valley entrance.
On the battlefield, only Hatake Sakumo remained, along with the endless army of puppets.
"Covering the rear? What foolish individual heroism," Rōra commented with a sneer from the top of the canyon. "With just you alone, you think you can stop my Ten Puppet Collection? Crush him!"
However, what happened next made his smile freeze on his face.
Hatake Sakumo, facing the tide of puppets alone, was not instantly overwhelmed as they had expected.
Not only did he not retreat, but he... charged forward.
Compared to the passive situation just now, Hatake Sakumo's solo combat allowed him to unleash his full potential.
The White Fang short sword in his hand seemed to come alive at this moment.
A silver flash of lightning, against the torrent of puppets, charged into the enemy's formation without hesitation.
His figure was extremely fast.
He didn't clash head-on with the hard puppets, but moved like a top-tier dancer, weaving through the gaps between blades and claws.
Every dodge was perfectly timed to avoid a fatal attack.
Every slash was incomparably precise, striking the puppets' most vulnerable joints, or... the chakra threads controlling them.
"Swish! Swish! Swish!"
Silver light flashed, and several chakra threads, barely visible to the naked eye, snapped.
In mid-air, a dozen or so puppets instantly lost control and fell to the ground like broken kites.
"What?!" Rōra's brow twitched.
Only then did he realize that Sakumo's target had gradually shifted from the puppets themselves to the chakra threads used to control them.
He figured that out so quickly?
"Stop him!"
Alarm bells rang in Rōra's mind. He immediately changed his strategy, commanding all the puppets to stop their indiscriminate area attacks and instead contract their formation, intending to trap Sakumo in the center.
However, it was too late.
"Swoosh!"
Sakumo's figure, after cutting a large number of chakra threads and creating a moment of chaos, stomped on the ground and shot up the almost vertical canyon wall like a cannonball.
His target was the Couple of the Sand at the top of the canyon.
"He's coming! Uzuki, use the Black Secret Technique!"
Rōra's face changed drastically. He hadn't expected Sakumo to have the strength to launch a counterattack under those circumstances.
"Understood!" Uzuki formed hand seals, and a huge scroll on her back instantly unfurled.
"Black Secret Technique: Puppet Summoning: Three Treasures Suction Crushing!"
Three giant humanoid puppets appeared instantly, blocking their path. One of them opened its large mouth, creating a huge suction force, trying to pull Sakumo, who was in mid-air, directly towards it.
However, Sakumo's figure made a strange turn in mid-air, and a white light flashed.
Rip—!
The puppet that was creating the suction was cleanly split in two from head to toe.
Without the slightest pause, he used the force of the slash to break through the defense and appeared before the couple as if he had teleported.
Too fast!
Uzuki's face still held the concentration of casting the jutsu. Her pupils reflected a pure, silver glint of a blade.
It was the last light she would see in her life.
Pfft!
The White Fang short sword silently slit her throat.
A spray of warm blood splattered on Rōra's face beside her.
"Uzu...ki..."
Rōra turned his head stiffly, looking at the incredulous expression on his wife's face and the thin line of blood on her neck. His mind went blank.
"You..."
He only had time to say one word.
Sakumo backhanded his sword, and the White Fang short sword drew a perfect arc, piercing through his heart.
He withdrew the short sword, not a single drop of blood on it.
The two bodies fell limply to the ground.
Below the canyon, the dozens of originally ferocious puppets lost all power at the same time and fell to the ground with a clatter, becoming a pile of scrap metal.
On Sakumo's chest and abdomen, a wound cut by a poisoned claw was oozing black blood.
This was the price he paid for breaking through the Three Treasures Suction Crushing defense, for taking a direct hit.
He endured the severe pain and the numbness from the poison and hurriedly chased after his main unit.
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