manynovel Chapter 46 Life-or-Death Crisis
Chapter 46 Life-or-Death Crisis
Hyuga Kanan carried Jiraiya on his back, constantly weaving through the forest while carefully avoiding the Iwa ninja's search party. They didn't escape the Iwa ninja's encirclement until the early morning of the next day.
Covered in a mess, Hyuga Kanan quickly headed towards Konoha's last stronghold.
They quickly reached the perimeter of the base's perimeter security personnel, but were spotted by Konoha's vigilant ninjas. Like Jiraiya, they immediately collapsed unconscious. Exhausted from constantly scouting and hiding behind Iwa ninjas, playing hide-and-seek all night, constantly taking detours and maintaining vigilance, Hyuga Kanan was physically and mentally drained. Once he felt safe, he relaxed and fell into a deep sleep.
When Hyuga Kanan woke up again, a day had passed. He immediately got out of bed and quickly sensed the outside world. He needed to find out the situation immediately and whether the war with the Iwa ninja had begun.
Inside the command center, Orochimaru, after being treated by Tsunade, a medical ninja, had regained his cool and elegant demeanor, no longer looking as disheveled as he had after the battle, but his expression remained somber.
This Konoha force has been holding off the main Iwa ninja force for almost a month, and the original force of over a thousand ninjas is now reduced to less than 300. According to the plan devised by the Konoha leadership, the Sannin leading this force should be able to hold off the main Iwa reinforcements for a month, which would be more than enough. With Sakumo Hatake leading the elite Konoha force, a month should be enough to defeat the Sand Village's forces in the Land of Rain.
But things don't always go as planned. Sakumo Hatake's elite Konoha army initially fared well, with the Sand Ninja constantly retreating and on the verge of being routed and surrendering. However, during Sakumo's pursuit, he killed two elite Sand Ninja who tried to stop them. This further crumbled the Sand Ninja, forcing them into a continuous retreat, and victory seemed imminent.
When Sakumo Hatake was preparing to decisively defeat the Sand Ninja forces, he discovered that Elder Chiyo, a high-ranking Sand Ninja official responsible for logistics, medical care, and management, was personally leading an attack on the Konoha forces, disregarding casualties. This prevented Konoha from achieving an immediate victory, leading to a stalemate. Although Konoha still held a significant advantage, the Sand Ninja refused to surrender, even at the cost of heavy casualties. This behavior, which was essentially depleting the Sand Village's resources and potential, was a major headache for Konoha. Intelligence revealed that the two elite Sand Ninja blocking Sakumo Hatake were Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law. Chiyo had lost her mind, focused solely on avenging her son and daughter-in-law by killing Sakumo Hatake, forgetting that the Sand Ninja forces were already severely weakened. If this continued, Konoha would suffer greatly, with massive casualties, but the Sand Village might lose its status as one of the Five Great Nations.
The plan to defeat the Sand Ninja within a month has fallen through, and it may take more time to support Hyuga Kanan's team. This has also sown the seeds for the complete annihilation of Hyuga Kanan's team.
Orochimaru's face was extremely grim. The troops had already lost 80% of their strength, but reinforcements seemed a long way off. Now, all they could do was make final preparations.
The Iwa ninja forces didn't give Orochimaru and his group much time to prepare. After only one day, they were already preparing to attack Konoha's last stronghold.
Hyuga Kanan only rested in the cave for less than a day. When he woke up, the Iwa ninja were already less than 10 kilometers away from Konoha's stronghold. The guards on the perimeter of Konoha had all been withdrawn in preparation for the final battle.
The Iwa ninja leader, Explosion Release Takashi, looked at Orochimaru and the others standing in front of the Konoha base from afar. His already ferocious face now looked even more terrifying.
His teeth were grinding together, his body was taut like a bowstring, and his eyes were blazing with intense heat.
Over this period, Iwagakure has also suffered considerable losses, with nearly 10 Jonin killed and more than 30% of the unit lost. It's important to understand that Iwagakure's forces held an absolute advantage, both in numbers and quality. Yet, this cannon fodder force from Konoha inflicted such heavy losses on Iwagakure. Especially the Jonin; Iwagakure only had less than a hundred men, and losing one-tenth of them was a devastating blow to the leader.
Xiao waved his hand fiercely, ordering the Iwa ninja forces to attack. He had already realized that the Konoha force was there to delay the Iwa ninja's reinforcements to the Sand Village. Although it was an unspoken understanding among the Iwa ninja's leadership to let the Sand Village wear down their frontline troops, they couldn't let the Sand Village actually lose. Otherwise, the Iwa ninja would have to fight Konoha directly in the Land of Rain. Even if they could defeat Konoha's forces in the Land of Rain, they would have to pay an unimaginable price. It was hard to say whether they could then invade the Land of Fire and receive the treatment of a victorious nation. After all, the Cloud Village of the Land of Lightning hadn't joined the battle yet. Although the previous rebellion had caused considerable losses to the Cloud Village, seeing the Iwa and Konoha villages weakened, they wouldn't let go of such an opportunity.
"Ah!" The Iwa ninja squad charged forward without hesitation, shouting as they went.
Orochimaru's face was also gloomy. Without saying a word, he quickly formed hand seals and unleashed his most powerful destructive ninjutsu at the Iwa ninja forces.
"Wind Release - Thousand Faces Wind Blade Technique!"
Countless wind blades, as sharp as razor blades, condensed directly from the sky and roared towards the Iwa ninja who were charging forward, covering a very wide area.
Without hesitation, several Iwa ninja in the front row simultaneously formed hand seals and then slammed them onto the ground.
"Earth Release-Earth Flow Wall!"
Earthen walls rapidly rose from the ground in front of the Iwa ninja, blocking their path and defending against Orochimaru's Wind Release ninjutsu.
The wind blades continued to cut across the earthen walls, quickly shattering many of them. However, their power gradually decreased, and in the end, they failed to shatter all the earthen walls, leaving only slash marks on the walls near the Iwa ninja forces.
Orochimaru's ninjutsu wasn't actually designed to kill the Iwa ninja. After all, with so many Iwa ninja charging at once, and multiple people using defensive ninjutsu simultaneously, Orochimaru wouldn't be able to break through. His goal was simply to slow down the Iwa ninja's charge and break their attack formation, preventing the Konoha team from directly facing the Iwa ninja's main force. Otherwise, the Konoha team would be scattered and surrounded.
Soon, a squad of Iwa ninja troops bypassed the earthen wall and continued their charge towards the Konoha camp, clearly not wanting Orochimaru to continue using ninjutsu to block the Iwa ninja troops' advance.
The Iwa ninja team leader and his companions went directly to Orochimaru, preventing Orochimaru from attending to the other Iwa ninja and allowing the Iwa ninja force to directly engage the Konoha forces in a decisive battle, thus denying Orochimaru another chance to rescue the Konoha forces.
The battle between the two sides quickly began. Konoha was outnumbered, and each Konoha ninja had to face attacks from multiple Iwa ninjas, which caused the Konoha team to retreat very quickly.
Hyuga Kanan was also facing attacks from several Iwa ninjas, constantly moving and dodging, using his agile body to weave through them and avoid being surrounded as before.
Several Iwa ninjas had obviously also obtained some information about Hyuga Kanan, knowing that Hyuga Kanan was skilled in taijutsu attacks, very fast, and exceptionally agile. The Iwa ninjas had already prepared tactics to deal with this kind of ninja.
Several Iwa ninjas quickly stepped forward to entangle Hyuga Kanan, preventing him from escaping directly, while the others rapidly formed hand seals behind him, preparing to unleash ninjutsu.
"Earth Release: Rock Pillar Prison Technique!"
Multiple pillars immediately rose up around him, quickly forming a cage-like rock room, ready to directly trap Hyuga Kanan, who was still dodging, and deprive him of any space to move or dodge.
Hyuga Kanan noticed the Iwa ninja just as they began forming hand seals. He knew that if he didn't leave quickly, he would soon be attacked by ninjutsu or possibly surrounded. He immediately activated his soul power's perception of earth elements and quickly sensed fluctuations in the earth element in those areas. Judging from the earth element fluctuations he sensed, the Iwa ninja were about to use a trapping ninjutsu to imprison him.
With swift footsteps, Hyuga Kanan arrived directly at the outermost edge of the earth element fluctuation, narrowly avoiding the Stone Pillar prison of the Iwa ninja, which startled the Iwa ninja.
Hyuga Kanan is now arguably the most adept at dealing with Earth Release ninjas. Unless there's a significant difference in their basic strength, he can easily handle ordinary Earth Release ninjas. He can clearly sense the fluctuations of earth element when an opponent uses Earth Release ninjutsu, allowing him to avoid it or identify its weaknesses in advance. This gives him more tactical options, enabling him to both retreat and attack. He's no longer helpless against ninjutsu-type ninjas, forced to simply evade them.
As soon as Hyuga Kanan landed, the ground beneath his feet suddenly cracked open, and an arm reached out, trying to grab Hyuga Kanan's ankle.
However, Hyuga Kanan had already spotted the Iwa ninja underground. He sensed the obvious earth element fluctuations from the beginning, and deliberately landed there to provoke them into using ninjutsu, thus forcing out the Iwa ninja who had been lying in ambush underground for a long time. He couldn't allow the Iwa ninja to form a three-dimensional attack pattern. Even if he could sense the movement of the Iwa ninja underground, this wasn't a one-on-one battle; he also had to face attacks from other Iwa ninja, which would reduce his focus on pinpointing their location.
Hyuga Kanan didn't make any unnecessary movements. He simply touched the ground, leaned back, and did a backflip to get away. The Iwa ninja's ninjutsu failed to be released, and his body burst out of the ground.
Before the Iwa ninja who had just emerged from the ground could even land and stand still, Hyuga Kanan performed a backflip and landed with a powerful stomp on the ground, his body shooting towards the opponent like an arrow, quickly striking at the opponent's heart.
After the attack landed, Hyuga Kanan didn't pause at all. He instantly twisted his body, kicked straight into the opponent's abdomen with his right leg, and bounced away, just avoiding the earth-style ninjutsu attack from the newly arrived Iwa ninja.
The one who came this time was a Jonin from Iwagakure, accompanied by a complete squad.
"Wow! That's a quick reaction!"
When the Jonin saw Hyuga Kanan dodge his ninjutsu sneak attack, he also exclaimed in admiration, but his tone was very cold, and the killing intent he exuded made even the surrounding air freeze.
"You're the brat who killed the Jonin Ida who was chasing you, aren't you! I don't know how you did it, but you won't be so lucky to escape this time!"
The Iwa ninja's tone remained icy, his killing intent locking onto Hyuga Kanan, causing Kanan to feel a chill run down his spine. This ninja was completely different from the ones he had encountered before; his killing intent was almost tangible, subtly solidifying the surrounding air and making Kanan feel somewhat oppressed.
After saying that, he didn't wait for Hyuga Kanan's reply and immediately took action.
The speed was extremely fast, twice as fast as the Jonin they had encountered before, which made Hyuga Kanan's heart tighten. Although his nerves reacted in time, his body did not have the speed to dodge.
"boom!"
A punch slammed into Hyuga Kanan's chest, sending him flying. Before he even hit the ground, the Iwa ninja was already beside him, delivering another whip kick to his waist.
Hyuga Kanan was violently thrown back and crashed into a stone pillar formed by ninjutsu, breaking the pillar before landing on the ground. He was coughing up blood and had lost the strength to even stand up.
Hyuga Kanan is seriously injured. He has two broken ribs, is experiencing severe back pain, and his internal organs have been severely concussed.