"What?! Something happened to the supply convoy responsible for transporting provisions?!"
At the Konoha front line command post in the Land of Tang, Hyūga Hizashi, the temporary commander-in-chief of the Kumogakure defense line, received information from his younger brother, Hyūga Hiashi, and was immediately shaken.
"Brother, this is urgent intelligence directly from the Third Hokage's ANBU. There's no mistake. Master Choza refused to follow the ANBU's orders. If he's encountered Kumogakure's elite, something may have happened!"
Hyūga Hizashi himself was only acting commander. If not for the worsening of Akimichi Choza's injuries, he should have returned a month ago.
At this moment, the Hyūga clan was already under tremendous pressure, and now facing a situation like this, he felt as if his head was about to explode.
Fortunately, his fundamental qualities as a commander remained intact, so he immediately pulled out a map and began asking for their location:
"Where are they now?"
Hyūga Hiashi quickly located a spot slightly north, near the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Tang.
"Here, brother."
Seeing this location, Hyūga Hizashi quickly assessed that it was only twenty-five kilometers from their current command post. If they moved fast, they could catch up.
Therefore, he immediately asked his younger brother to lead a separate unit, along with elite ninja from the Inuzuka and Aburame clans, to provide support.
After Hyūga Hiashi departed, Hyūga Hizashi once again checked the sand table on the map and discovered a problem.
Thirty kilometers from their incident site, numerous traces of Iwagakure ninja had already been detected. According to intelligence from Konoha, Iwagakure had recently made significant moves on the front line, mobilizing a large number of ninja.
The estimated strength was around 8,000 to 10,000.
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On the forest battlefield at the border of the Land of Fire and the Land of Tang, Akimichi Choza and Nara Locke were fighting against twenty-four Kumogakure shinobi.
As a disciple of the Second Hokage, Akimichi Choza had accumulated decades of combat experience. Though he was significantly inferior to Sarutobi Hiruzen, he was not someone ordinary ninja could easily take down.
If it were only these twenty or so Kumogakure shinobi, even if he couldn't defeat them, escaping wouldn't be a problem. He might be injured, but it wouldn't be too serious.
But now, with a kid like Locke here, perhaps he could rely on his hidden killing techniques to wipe out all the pursuers before the Raikage arrived——
The moment that thought flashed through his mind like a spark, an explosion of lightning burst forth. Cold waves of water and sharp howls of wind had already intertwined into a net, occasionally mixed with sparse flames of fire release and stone spikes erupting from the ground, instantly covering the entire battlefield in an instant.
Giant trees that would take several people to wrap around were cut down one after another by the energy of chakra, some even uprooted entirely. Layer after layer of the forest canopy that blocked out the sun collapsed. Sky light poured through the gaps, suddenly piercing through the dense, interwoven forest cover, diagonally scattering across the chaotic battlefield, clearly reflecting the sawdust flying through the sky and the faint glow of chakra.
Choza, transformed into a giant, turned his entire body into a weapon. His fists and hardened hair scattered the Kumogakure's lightning release techniques. The air waves generated by his punches instantly shook a group of Kumogakure shinobi.
Though Choza's combat power was substantial, he was still fighting against Kumogakure's elite. Even if they were not as strong as him, they should not be underestimated when working together.
A Kumogakure jonin specializing in lightning release saw the quasi-commander and instantly unleashed a large-scale lightning release ninjutsu.
"Lightning Release: Wide-Area Lightning Net!"
Before the words landed, purple, lightning-like chakra instantly condensed into a precise interweaving between the trees, forming a net several feet long, accurately avoiding friendly forces and effectively trapping Choza within the net.
Nara Locke took advantage of this opening to hide in the dense shadows, vanishing without a trace. Everyone in Kumogakure saw it but could do nothing about him, forced to constantly watch which shadow he might slip into.
Though they were fighting Choza, they always kept a wary eye on Locke's movements. But in the next second, from the shadow of the lightning release jonin, a figure slowly condensed.
The lightning release jonin only felt his entire body tense, unable to move. Even without turning around, he already understood his situation.
He had fought against the Nara clan and knew about the Shadow Imitation Technique. But he hadn't expected Locke to sneak into a shadow and emerge from his own shadow!
This was simply limitless: sneaking into a shadow where others couldn't hit him, then moving into someone else's shadow, and emerging directly with the Shadow Imitation Technique for hard control. How could anyone fight against that?
If the Nara clan was like this, then in the ninja world wars, a Nara clan ninja with two genin could just control the opposing ninja while the genin got up and stabbed them.
At this moment, the Kumogakure ninja, full of explosive fury, just wanted to shout out his heartfelt words.
"I'll f#%¥ you...@¥%!"
Locke only sneered. As he emerged from his opponent's shadow, a long blade of shadow condensed in his hand. He then wrapped all his chakra and Haki around the blade, condensing the shadow blade ever sharper.
"Ninja combat is a game of intelligence. If you lose to me, don't blame yourself."
Then, with a backhand thrust, he pierced the heart of the Kumogakure jonin, causing his opponent's face to suddenly change. Blood spat out, his face contorted grotesquely from intense pain and unwillingness.
Locke leaned in, his lips lightly brushing the ear, his voice low:
"Honestly, you're not bad. It's just a pity you ran into... me."
Though Locke spoke the truth, how could the Kumogakure ninja know how high Nara Locke would rise in the future? To them, these words were the ultimate mockery after his victory. The jonin's chest pain was unbearable, and choked by these wild words, his blood and qi surged, and he died on the spot from rage, not even letting out a single breath of protest.
The Kumogakure comrades who were still besieging Choza quickly realized something was wrong. They abandoned their attack on Choza and turned back.
"Karui!!"
"Damn it! When did he—?! Why is his shadow manipulation so strange?!"
"Don't worry about that fat old man Akimichi! Kill the Nara boy first!"
Only at this moment did this group of Kumogakure shinobi truly understand that this Nara clan ninja, who defied all common sense, was their deadliest threat. They immediately surrounded him, vowing to strangle him on the spot.
All eyes were locked on his hands, not daring to relax. But Locke did the opposite, without the slightest stance, as if he was ready to be killed.
Just as they began to wonder if he was a shadow clone, a chilling smile suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth. At the same time, the shadow beneath his feet was like boiling lake water, bubbling and trembling.
[Group Shadow Dance: Iron Thorn Forest]
Dense shadow thorns suddenly erupted from Locke's body, astonishing the surrounding space. Nearly twenty Kumogakure shinobi were enveloped and instantly severely injured.
Only a few who reacted very quickly hastily used the Substitution Technique, staggering to hide behind a giant tree nearby, clutching the trunk and gasping for breath. The fear of surviving by a hair's breadth surged in their eyes.
But while they managed to escape, the dozen comrades behind them had no chance of survival. Nearly half of the Kumogakure shinobi who had just surrounded Locke were damaged on the spot by the shadow thorns. Like the three unknown comrades who died at the beginning, their bodies were riddled with bloody holes, crashing heavily to the ground, completely silent.
The remaining elite jonin were also in various states, their wounds bleeding from deep or shallow cuts, their breathing already disrupted. At this moment, Choza had already broken free from the lightning net and returned to the battlefield.
When this group of Kumogakure shinobi raised their eyes again and fixed their gaze on Locke, their thoughts churned, leaving only stunned and frightened doubt—
Why him?