The battle had raged for four minutes and forty seconds. The relentless, shifting tactics had finally shattered the Suna ninjas' morale, and the swarm had reached melee range. Every Suna ninja was well-acquainted with the intelligence regarding the Scythe-Mantises; they knew about the two-inch-thick chitinous carapaces that rendered kunai and standard tanto useless.
Seeing the giants close in, the Sand ninjas stopped trying to trade blows. Everyone switched to evasive maneuvers, desperate to create enough distance to retaliate with ninjutsu.
But today was different. The Scythe-Mantises that breached the formation didn't just act as shields; they swung their massive blades. In an instant, three Suna ninjas were caught by the two-meter serrated scythes. The impact was horrific—a single hit meant death or permanent mutilation.
Behind the first four Mantises, six more surged into the gap, claiming two more victims.
As the Suna formation collapsed, a tide of standard large insects rushed in. Any wounded ninja who fell was instantly submerged by the swarm; after a few brief, frantic twitches, they went silent.
The Suna survivors who had managed to dodge the first two waves of Mantises had barely found their footing when they saw the wing-covers on the backs of the first four insects slide open. Four figures sat up from within the carapaces.
Sunabachi and his men felt their minds break. There's another layer?! Is this never going to end?
Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet! Uchiha Hiro unleashed a terrifying B-rank torrent of flames.
Wind Style: Wild Swirling Winds! Nara Yoshito followed up with an equally potent B-rank wind technique.
Ninja Art: Twin-Headed Wolf—Dazzling Fangs! Inuzuka O merged with his ninja dog, utilizing his attached insect limbs to begin a whirlwind of slaughter.
Aburame Tetsumaru didn't prepare a jutsu. He locked his sights on Sunabachi, the lone Jonin in the company, silently praying that the unit's communication channel was tied to this man.
If he could wipe out this company before the report of the ambush leaked, he wouldn't need to leave a blocking force. He could commit his entire strength to the assault on Battalion 1. If everything went that smoothly, his striking power would increase by half, and his overall odds of victory would effectively double.
The Suna Jonin who had made this fatal error was the key.
After the first few exchanges, Tetsumaru cursed inwardly. The plan was perfect, but there was one problem: this guy was incredibly strong.
As they traded blows, Tetsumaru found himself completely outmatched in pure Taijutsu. In just ten seconds, he had been stabbed four times by Sunabachi's kunai.
Ugh, this feels way too familiar. I really need to grind my Taijutsu level later. Getting suppressed the moment we touch is a real blow to the ego.
Sunabachi, however, was even more frustrated. What kind of armor is this guy wearing?!
He couldn't pierce the abdomen or the kidneys—the kunai simply wouldn't go in. He knew his opponent was armored, but even a desperate strike to the armpit failed. After a frantic series of maneuvers, he finally managed to drive his blade into the root of the man's inner thigh, only to find that was heavily armored too.
What is wrong with this guy? Is he that afraid of dying?
To reach the inner thigh, Sunabachi had been forced into an incredibly awkward posture. Tetsumaru seized the opening, his hand shooting out to clamp down on Sunabachi's right wrist.
And he truly "clamped" it. His gauntlet insect split open, enveloping Sunabachi's hand and the kunai he held, locking them in a biological vise.
Tetsumaru surreptitiously rubbed his thigh and grinned. Damn, that still hurt.
Tetsumaru had been rattled by the exchange—not because he was afraid of losing the fight, but because he was worried this agile ninja would realize he couldn't win and try to send out a signal or simply flee. That would be a disaster.
By trading a few "bruises" for a solid grip, Tetsumaru had ensured this troublesome elite couldn't run. Without the ability to use hand seals, the fight had devolved into a contest of raw strength and durability—Tetsumaru's specialty.
Without a word, Tetsumaru swung a head-sized right fist at Sunabachi's face. He didn't expect the Jonin to be agile enough to dodge the blow at point-blank range, even using Tetsumaru's own left arm as a springboard to twist away.
"Good grief. Are you a monkey, or is Jackie Chan your ancestor?" Tetsumaru couldn't help but roll his eyes and snark.
Sunabachi didn't understand the reference. He fished out a senbon and tried to pry open the insect gauntlet, but seeing it was futile, he immediately pulled out an explosive tag.
Tetsumaru didn't hesitate. He deployed every attached insect limb on his body. Eight spider legs, two mantis-shrimp hammers, four pincers, and four scorpion tails—eighteen appendages unfurled behind him in a massive fan.
A humble homage to Hashirama Senju!
Seeing the array of limbs, Sunabachi knew his life was over. Without a second's hesitation, he shoved the explosive tag into his own mouth and lunged forward, attempting to grapple the towering Konoha ninja with his left arm.
Because of the height difference, the grapple positioned the explosive tag right against Tetsumaru's waist.
What a ruthless bastard, Tetsumaru thought. He didn't try to break the hold. Instead, he reached out with his right hand to cup Sunabachi's head while his fourteen combat appendages stabbed, hugged, and clamped the Suna Jonin into a fixed position.
Once they were locked together, Tetsumaru looked at Sunabachi as if he were an idiot. Sunabachi stared back, his eyes wide with the shock of someone who thought they were looking at a madman.
Sunabachi's gaze hardened. He ignited the tag with a flare of chakra. As the fuse hissed, his eyes cleared, filled with the calm of a man ready to die for his village.
"Sorry about this," Tetsumaru said flatly.
His entire body blurred. As his Transformation Jutsu dispelled, his appearance shifted violently. The trench-coat ninja vanished, replaced by a suit of heavy biological plate armor, even the face completely obscured by chitinous layers.
Immediately, the back, waist, and shoulders of the armor split open. A second Tetsumaru, wearing his standard trench coat, stepped out from behind the shell. With practiced ease, he stepped away from the mutual-kill scenario.
While Sunabachi struggled in a frenzy of desperate, futile rage, Tetsumaru initiated a Body Flicker, clearing the blast radius in a blink.
BOOM.
With Sunabachi's death, the remnants of the Suna company were swiftly wiped out by Team 121.
Tetsumaru took a moment to confirm that no intelligence had been transmitted. He pumped a fist in the air, ecstatic. Ignoring the loot on the battlefield, he gathered his squad and commanded the swarm to charge west at full speed.
As they moved, Tetsumaru triggered the second wave of harassment attacks to cover their approach to Suna's Battalion 1. In the distance to the north, he saw pillars of sand and wind erupting one after another. It was the most effective counter to his swarms, and the veteran efficiency of the Sand elites was impressive—and expensive, as his insect numbers began to plummet.
The cost of today's battle is going to be way over budget. But the Kazekage is going to be even more heartbroken when he sees the bill for his ninjas.
Come on then. Let's see who can bleed longer.
Tetsumaru ignored the northern front, communicating the next phase of the plan to his squad while they ran. He briefed them on the key takeaways from the previous fight, and after a brief exchange with Yoshito and Hiro, the tactical adjustments were set.
Inuzuka O didn't participate in the discussion; he only cared about his next target. His total lack of ambition was enough to make Tetsumaru sigh. But then again, that was the Inuzuka way—they loved to fight and hated to think.
Besides, Tetsumaru thought, maybe being a 'blockhead' is the Inuzuka's secret to survival. Who would ever feel threatened by a bunch of lovable idiots?
A minute later, the swarm made contact with Suna Battalion 1. The battle erupted instantly.
Far to the north, a cloud of Iron Sand rose to blot out the sun, instantly shredding thousands of flying insects. The dragonflies monitoring the area were pulverized mid-air. Three Scythe-Mantises tried to take flight to escape, only for their wings to be hammered into dust, sending them crashing into the sand to be buried.
Despite their heavy carapaces, the Mantises struggled in vain. The Third Kazekage held his hands out, palms open, before slowly clenching them into fists.
Magnet Style: Sand Waterfall Funeral!
The Iron Sand ground together like a massive millstone. With a series of muffled, sickening cracks, the three bulges in the sand vanished.
Having crushed the giants, the Kazekage swept his hands outward.
Magnet Style: Iron Sand Drizzle!
The sand flew into the sky, condensing into a heavy, black storm cloud. A rain of countless black senbon poured down, tearing through the rolling swarm tide. Each needle was powerful enough to pierce through two or three insects in a single shot.
On his own, the Kazekage's Magnet Style displayed power far exceeding a company-level Legion Jutsu. He stood like a grinding wheel of iron; no matter how many millions of insects surged forward, they were efficiently reduced to dust.
Through the fuzzy remote signals of the swarm, Tetsumaru watched the scene and felt a chill. The Kazekage's killing efficiency was staggering—a true hard-counter to the swarm. The losses from a frontal assault against him would be catastrophic.
But to be honest, Tetsumaru was a little confused. Is the signal too blurry, or am I hallucinating? Why do I feel like if I just keep stacking the bodies high enough, I could actually get close to him?
Must be a hallucination.
He summoned his swarm reserves, directing them toward the Kazekage's position at Company 16. He ordered them to pin the Kage down—do not let him leave the area.
With that settled, Tetsumaru shook his head and refocused on the fierce engagement with Battalion 1.
The battalion numbered two hundred ninjas, but they were slightly less elite than the company he had just destroyed. Their killing efficiency was lower, allowing the swarm to push forward with grim determination.
When the front line reached twenty meters, Tetsumaru signaled his disciples. The swarm began to coalesce around the Scythe-Mantises, forming high-density "Spearhead" tides.
This time, Tetsumaru had more than enough mass. Since the enemy numbers had tripled and the front line had doubled in width, he selected ten Mantises as cores, constructing ten separate spearheads for a synchronized breakthrough.
Was a 200-man battalion stronger than a 30-man company?
Not necessarily. At the critical moment, Battalion 1's Legion Jutsu proved inferior to Sunabachi's unit. They only managed to summon five yellow wind-pillars, and the gaps between them were massive.
Massive numbers of insects poured through those gaps, striking the Suna formation. The forty ninjas in the front row were forced to abandon the combined jutsu to focus on the insects in their faces.
Tetsumaru seized the opening. He led with his Wind Style: Giant Tornado.
As the tornado tore a hole in their center, forty Exploding Locusts dove into the Suna lines under the cover of the main swarm. The violent explosions threw the front row into total chaos, while integrated smoke bombs created a blinding screen.
Then, the swarm's flanks swept around the two remaining wind-pillars.
In the chaos of the three-sided assault, the ten spearhead tides successfully breached the Suna formation. Not a single one was broken.
Ten "alleys of blood and gore" were carved through the Suna ranks. The formation collapsed completely. What followed was a one-sided slaughter.
Part of the reason was that Battalion 1 lacked elite leadership, but the real deciding factor was the Information Gap.
Through his fight with Sunabachi, Tetsumaru had mapped out Suna's tactical responses. Suna, however, had gained zero data on Tetsumaru's counter-measures. Tetsumaru could make surgical adjustments while the Sand ninjas were stuck following a playbook that no longer worked.
However, the battalion had one advantage Tetsumaru couldn't ignore: they had three Jonin.
Tetsumaru couldn't take down three Suna Jonin at once, especially with over a hundred Suna ninjas still on the field. Doing so would cost him too much time and too many bugs.
He didn't care about the bugs, but he was desperate for time.
The Kazekage was only a few kilometers away. If that monster realized what was happening and rushed over, Tetsumaru's life would be in genuine danger.
Being a man who valued his life above all else, Tetsumaru refused to take that risk. After he and his students finished a few passes through the ranks—claiming about eighty casualties—he opened the western side of his encirclement, allowing the Sand to retreat.
The strategy of "Surround three sides, leave one open." If they stayed to fight, he'd wipe them out. If they ran, so be it.
"A gap! There's a gap! We broke through!"
The moment the opening appeared, the more alert Sand ninjas bolted. When others saw them escaping, they assumed the encirclement had been broken by force and began shouting in triumph.
More and more Sand ninjas joined the rush, spontaneously charging toward the gap to escape the sea of insects.
Then, the best possible stroke of luck for Tetsumaru occurred: the two remaining Jonin (aside from the one currently fighting Tetsumaru) had a disagreement.
One wanted to break out immediately to regroup with the main army. The other insisted it was a trap and that they should hold their ground and wait for rescue, planning to strike from the inside once help arrived.
The two Jonin had a brief, heated argument and then went their separate ways.
The Jonin currently fighting Tetsumaru was being suppressed so hard he couldn't even catch his breath. He had no idea his colleagues had split up. If he did, he would have been screaming: I don't care if you leave or stay, just come and help me first! I'm getting my @#% kicked!
Tetsumaru's eyes lit up. He went all out, slamming the Jonin to the ground before his attached insect limbs shredded the man's defenses and finished him.
Strange. That was a bit too easy. Was he really a Jonin?
He didn't have time for doubt. Tetsumaru led the swarm to pounce on the Jonin who had stayed behind to hold the line.
Fifteen minutes later, the stubborn Jonin was cut down in the middle of his men.
He had been a formidable puppeteer, but he was also the unluckiest man on the field. He had allowed an Aburame to get into close quarters. Unsurprisingly, his three puppets had their joints jammed by Kikaichu almost instantly.
Realizing he hadn't used his Kikaichu in ages, Tetsumaru felt a moment of nostalgia as he beat the puppeteer to the ground. A locust leaped from his arm, driving itself into the Suna ninja's heart and ending his life.
With all the Jonin dead, Tetsumaru signaled his disciples to withdraw. They gathered the surviving Scythe-Mantises and broke off to the east.
As for the remaining Sand ninjas, he left them to the 200,000 insects still on the field—including four Mantises with leg injuries. They would finish off the remnants of Battalion 1 and, more importantly, serve as sacrificial bait to draw the Kazekage's attention, providing cover for Team 121's third engagement.
It was the exact same trick he had used after destroying the fourth logistics unit yesterday, but today he had added many more layers of interference. He doubted the Kazekage would be able to tell the difference.
Finally, Tetsumaru left three Shadow Clones behind. With clones to direct the swarm, the deception would be perfect.
Everything was going according to plan.