Chapter 214 : Burning Escape: Ye Cang
In a blink, Naraku silently vanished into the shadows, quickly moving to a high rock face to activate his Sensing Ninjutsu, concealing himself and waiting for the opportune moment.
As soon as his sensing range spread out, nearly forty Chakra signatures appeared at the edge, moving alternately towards his location. After running a few kilometers, they inexplicably stopped for about a minute.
Then, many more Chakra signatures, connected to the initial group, suddenly emerged in front of and beside them. Large and small, they amounted to roughly two to three times the number of individuals, likely indicating the deployment of scouting puppets.
Naraku lowered his presence to the absolute minimum and applied two Sealing Jutsu, suppressing his Chakra fluctuations to the extreme, enough to evade ordinary sensing techniques.
As expected, once those smaller Chakra signatures entered his field of vision, the first things to emerge from the jungle were dozens of spider-shaped scouting puppets.
They were small, not reaching an adult's knee in height, and their material strength appeared low, unable to withstand certain powerful Ninjutsu or Taijutsu attacks.
However, Naraku also noticed the exposed spikes at their joints. The silvery-gray metal faintly shimmered with a purplish-blue hue, clearly indicating they were coated with a lethal poison. A small portion of their structure showed signs of modification, possibly equipped with poison gas as well.
These spider puppets worked together, nimbly climbing and leaping between trees and bushes, conducting a thorough search.
Even though they were spread out over a large area, appearing somewhat sparse, they still collectively resembled a swarm of rampaging steel locusts, rushing past Naraku from distances of a few meters to dozens of meters.
Following them were about a dozen large, strangely shaped puppets, approximately one hundred meters behind the spider puppets. Their formation was loose, with ample distance between them, allowing for both prevention of concentrated attacks and mutual support.
Due to his proximity to the puppets' path, Naraku could even hear the eerie 'clatter-clatter' friction from their joints, rising and falling, continuous.
Only after the entire puppet group had passed him did the controlling Sunagakure forces gradually appear.
"Hoo—!"
A loud roar suddenly came from the direction of the Konoha scouting squad. A green figure, enveloped in a violently swirling vortex of air, descended from the sky with a crash. Upon landing, he stomped and shattered the leading spider puppet, sending mechanical debris flying everywhere.
With his excellent eyesight, Naraku clearly saw the green jumpsuit and the Konoha forehead protector tied around his waist.
Several spider puppets on either side launched poisoned darts from their mouths, attempting to leap and attack. As soon as they left the ground, Might Guy used Konoha Great Whirlwind to send them flying, and they crashed down, knocking over even more.
Inuzuka Tsume also joined the battle, and her combined Ninjutsu with Kuro-Maru was unstoppable, tearing apart eight or nine spider puppets like a whirlwind.
She also instructed Shiranui Genma and Ebisu to cooperate and help her clear the spiders coming from another direction.
Hyuga Hizashi's squad, not far from her, also fought back and forth without falling behind, even using exploding tag traps to instantly shatter more than a dozen of them.
However, Konoha's numbers were still too few, and the supply of exploding tags was limited. Eventually, they were gradually surrounded by the converging spider puppets.
When the large puppets also joined the encirclement, Konoha's disadvantage began to amplify, quickly shifting from an even fight to a desperate struggle.
Ebisu was the first to get injured.
While bending to dodge a poisonous dart, he accidentally inhaled some poison gas, immediately suffering paralyzed limbs and losing his fighting capability. This exposed a gap in the defense, causing the pressure on the others to surge and their lines to crumble.
However, the puppets concentrating in one area also created an attack opportunity for Naraku.
Naraku took a deep breath, released the Sealing Jutsu that masked his presence, drew his ninja sword from his waist, infused it with Lightning Release Chakra, and his eyes glowed crimson. The runes of the Multiple Healing Seal rapidly spread from his forehead across his entire body.
His Chakra became maximally active in less than half a second. Tiny blue electrical arcs burst and coursed from the blade. He stomped down with immense force, his soles almost grinding into the earth and rock, leaving lightning-shaped cracks on the solid ground.
Amidst the air-rending shriek, Naraku, like a swift leopard, transformed into an afterimage and shot forward. His blade, trailing lightning, drew a dazzling line as he cleanly charged into the battlefield, severing dozens of spider puppets' Chakra threads in succession.
The uncontrolled puppets fell to the ground. Several of them emitted a faint white light from their seams before exploding in a series of rumbling blasts, causing considerable chaos and damage to the spider swarm.
The pressure on Inuzuka Tsume's side significantly eased. She found a gap in the encirclement and leaped out, using this opportunity to further reduce the number of puppets.
Naraku pressed his advantage, holding his sword in a reverse grip and forming hand signs. The extremely wide-range Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation instantly materialized. Boundless, surging waves of flame rose from nowhere, sweeping grandly towards the direction of the enemies within his sensing range.
Most Sunagakure puppet masters could currently only control one or two puppets. Once their Chakra threads were severed, they lost most of their offensive and defensive capabilities, and many were caught off guard and engulfed by the sea of fire.
"Quickly kill this damned brat!!"
The Sunagakure Ninja who appeared to give the order was likely a captain. At his command, the other puppet masters manipulated their puppets to surround and kill Naraku.
Naraku seemed a bit overwhelmed and was quickly cornered in an area too small to move freely.
The Sunagakure captain's fingertips twitched, controlling his large puppet to leap into the air. In an instant, it sprayed a green poisonous mist, mixed with countless poisoned needles, at Naraku.
This technique had always been effective, and the captain couldn't help but relax his guard.
He was about to lament that his already scarce poison was now completely used up to deal with a mere brat, when he suddenly realized that the boy with the Konoha forehead protector was no longer within the poisonous gas.
When he reappeared, the opponent's blood-red eyes glowed like a ghost. He moved deftly, stepping on puppet bodies, gracefully dodging all attacks, leaping out of the poison gas's range, and then used a powerful Fire Release to incinerate all the poison.
—It's an Uchiha...?!
He didn't have time to be amazed; the opponent's blade continued to flash across the battlefield.
Every time a blue-white arc of light illuminated around those eyes, two or three puppets would fall helplessly. Then, lightning and fire erupted like a natural disaster, repeatedly claiming the lives of the Sunagakure Ninja.
—No, he deliberately gathered the puppets around him just now!
The Sunagakure captain tried to block him, but he couldn't even last half a second before his Chakra threads were severed, and the opponent got close and slit his throat with a single slash.
As blood splattered in the corner of his vision, he still couldn't understand how Konoha could produce such a monster.
The legendary White Fang, who had dealt a heavy blow to Hidden Sand Village, was dead, but Konoha seemed to have countless "White Fangs" that just couldn't be killed off.
—The world is truly unfair, he lamented before losing consciousness, closing his eyes in resignation as he fell from the ancient tree.
Before Naraku could even catch his breath, he sensed two high-energy Chakra bodies appearing out of nowhere and rapidly approaching him. His hair stood on end, and he quickly twisted and retreated.
The next instant, two enormous orange-red fireballs whizzed past him. The air was twisted by the extreme heat, churning up layers of heatwaves that stung his skin and singed his hair.
Missing their target, the fireballs relentlessly pursued his footsteps. He narrowly dodged them again.
—This Bloodline Limit...—Scorch Release Pakura!
Naraku's eyes sharpened. His ninja sword once again erupted with countless electrical arcs, striking the fireball rushing towards his face with lightning speed.
The clash of two extremely high-energy Chakras created a violent explosion. In an instant, smoke and dust rapidly expanded, obscuring his figure and temporarily causing the other fireball to lose its target.
—If only I had Water Release.
Naraku felt his life was difficult. Neither of his two Chakra natures could counter Scorch Release, forcing him to clash head-on.
—Forget it, maybe I should just use genjutsu.
Having made up his mind, Naraku locked onto the fireball's position with his Sensing Ninjutsu and instantly moved towards Pakura.
As soon as he burst out of the smoke, he met Pakura's gaze from a distance. As expected, she matched her anime appearance: tall and well-proportioned, with long yellow-green gradient hair coiled at the back of her head. The fireballs surrounding her—which were Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder—were dividing from two into four.
"Hmph, you're asking for death!"
Pakura noticed Naraku's movement, surprised that this Konoha brat dared to jump out of her blind spot and actively engage. She swung her arm, controlling the fireballs to fly around Naraku, swirling and encircling him from four directions.
When the Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder fireballs collided in pairs, hitting Naraku squarely, a puff of white smoke rose from him. The boy who was about to die from the high-temperature steaming murder vanished, leaving only a wooden stake charred by the fireballs.
"Oh no!"
Pakura quickly used Scorch Release again, releasing two more fireballs, but in her haste, Naraku had already closed the distance.
The moment their eyes met, his blood-colored eyes suddenly bloomed. A powerful Chakra disrupted Pakura's brain, plunging her consciousness into an inescapable illusion.
Demonic Illusion: Kyoka Suigetsu!