"Quick, dodge!" Kyuushin yelled. At the same time, he quickly took out two smoke bombs from his pouch and slammed them onto the ground. Instantly, black-purple smoke rapidly spread, concealing the three of them.
"Hmph! Trying to hide?!" The Sand ninja snorted, then quickly swung his arm. The force of his punch, combined with his chakra, created a powerful gust of wind that rapidly dispersed the smoke. But Kyuushin and the other two, who were there just a moment ago, had already vanished.
"I'll find you one by one and peel you apart, hahaha!" he roared, immediately beginning to search the surrounding area for their tracks. However, just as he stepped into a certain spot, a strong chakra fluctuation erupted from the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide!"
A massive slab of earth in front of the Sand ninja instantly rose. Just as he was about to retreat, the land behind him also rapidly flipped over. Not only the front and back, but the ground to his left and right also quickly shifted, and in an instant, earth walls from four directions had trapped him in the center.
"Ha! What's the use of such a jutsu!" he sneered, about to punch and shatter the earth block in front of him when he suddenly saw something buried beneath it.
"Explosive tags?!" he cried out in surprise, but it was too late to escape. The tags hidden underground all around him instantly detonated.
"Boom! Boom! Boom—" Not only that, but Kyuushin and the other two, hidden in the distance, continuously threw kunai with more explosive tags attached towards the center of the blast. Finally, after more than ten seconds, they exhausted their supply, and the explosion gradually subsided.
Nawaki plopped down on the ground, muttering, "There's no way he survived that, right?" Before they hid, they had set this trap. Nawaki, utilizing his constantly refined ninjutsu skills, had managed to raise not just one but four walls of earth, firmly trapping the Sand ninja. Then, using the buried explosive tags, they amplified the explosion's effect by creating a pseudo-sealed space.
"It's a pity. If we could have sealed the top, it would have been a perfect coffin," Kyuushin said with some regret. However, after enduring such a bombardment head-on, the Sand ninja must surely be either dead or severely injured. After the smoke and dust gradually cleared, there was still no movement.
"He should be blown to pieces. Should we go check?" Nawaki asked.
Kyuushin was about to speak, but the Gene Lock suddenly gave him a premonition of immense danger. "Not good, scatter!" he shouted.
Minato and Nawaki immediately jumped aside without hesitation. The moment they jumped, the ground where they had just been standing suddenly exploded, and a figure quickly rushed up from the earth.
"Ah, that was truly dangerous. If I didn't also know Earth Release, I probably would have been blown to death," the Sand ninja growled. His upper clothing was completely blown to pieces, his mask was half-damaged, and traces of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. If he hadn't decisively used Earth Release: Earth Dragon Evasion Jutsu to go underground, he would have been at least severely injured, if not dead.
While he was relieved, Kyuushin and the other two felt a heavy weight in their hearts. They had thought their trap would at least cripple most of his combat power, but the outcome was not what they had expected. Although the Sand ninja was somewhat injured, he still retained most of his strength.
"There's no other way. Kyuushin, Minato, you two hurry and go. Let me cover your retreat," Nawaki said, his voice grim.
"Nawaki, if anyone's covering the retreat, it's me. I'm just a civilian, but you're the grandson of the First Hokage. You can't die here," Minato said in a deep voice.
"Stop talking nonsense, you two! It's not time to give up yet! Use Plan C," Kyuushin whispered. The original plan had failed, but he wasn't giving up. During their training, they had devised many combat tactics. The explosive tags were one, and Plan C was another. Feeling his still ample stamina, Kyuushin instantly refined a large amount of chakra.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" After a puff of smoke, dozens of Kyuushins instantly appeared before the Sand ninja.
"Oh? Even now, you won't give up? Shadow Clone Jutsu, another advanced technique. It seems you're not so simple, brat, but this alone won't pose any threat to me," the Sand ninja mocked.
Nawaki and Minato exchanged glances, then similarly summoned several Shadow Clones. Their chakra wasn't as abundant as Kyuushin's, totaling only about a dozen. Afterward, these clones, including the real Nawaki and Minato, used the Transformation Jutsu to take on Kyuushin's appearance. Suddenly, the battlefield was filled with dozens of identical Kyuushins.
"Hmph! Petty tricks!" The Sand ninja snorted coldly and immediately attacked the clones. While some of the clones entangled the Jonin, the remaining ones simultaneously performed two ninjutsu.
"Water Release: Water Whip Jutsu!"
"Wind Release: Wind Binding Jutsu!"
Instantly, streams of water and gusts of wind appeared, swiftly heading towards the Sand ninja. He noticed the incoming jutsu and, in his berserk state, his speed was greatly increased. By dodging left and right, he managed to evade all the water streams and wind lines. However, the many clones around him continued their assault. One of them, taking advantage of the Sand ninja's dodge, punched towards his waist. The Jonin immediately noticed him and, remembering Kyuushin's previous monstrous punch, dared not be careless. After narrowly dodging the punch, he grabbed the clone by the throat.
This, however, gave the surrounding water streams and wind lines an opportunity. As the Sand ninja choked the clone, the binding jutsu finally wrapped tightly around him. But he didn't seem to care much. Instead, he looked at the clone in his hand and said, "Using clones to distract while the real body seizes the opportunity to attack. A good tactic. But you didn't think I'd be guarding against this move, did you, original?"
Unexpectedly, the Kyuushin whose throat was being choked just smiled. "Who told you I'm the original?" After speaking, with a "bang," he turned into smoke.
"How is this possible?! It's still a clone!" The Sand ninja's eyes burned with rage. He immediately tried to unleash his chakra to break free from the restraints.
However, a stone by the roadside suddenly transformed into Kyuushin, holding a brilliant blue sphere of chakra in his hand.
"Rasengan!"
Kyuushin directly thrust the Rasengan towards the still-restrained Sand ninja. The Jonin, seeing the approaching sphere, instinctively felt the immense power contained within it, and his own chakra instantly became even more violent. The water streams and wind lines on his body snapped one by one. Just as he was about to break free, two clones near him suddenly leaped up, one on each arm, firmly holding him in place. With a surge of violent chakra, he tried to destroy the two clones. Unexpectedly, with a "bang," the two Kyuushin clones instantly transformed back into Minato and Nawaki.
"What?!" the Sand ninja cried out in alarm, but it was already too late.
The brilliant blue sphere of chakra struck him directly in the abdomen. Even the violent chakra around him couldn't stop it in the slightest. The intense rotational friction disintegrated all the chakra in his abdomen, and then he took the full force of the Rasengan. The Sand ninja was instantly sent spinning into the distance, the large trees in his path snapping one after another. Finally, he slammed into a large rock, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
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