Naruto: Five Lives, Five Times the Excitement

Chapter 247 Battle of Lucang Mountain (5)

That's definitely good news.

Having breached this defensive line and drawn in the surrounding Sand Ninja forces, the mission is now perfectly accomplished; it's time to retreat.

"Kakashi, you lead the men to retreat. I'll stay behind to buy you some time."

Kyosuke wasted no opportunity to show his worth, and with a sense of righteousness, he decided to cover the rear for everyone.

Of course, whether it was to cover for everyone or to avoid being dragged down by others is hard to say.

After all, almost all of his teammates were injured.

Kyosuke will cover for everyone as long as his own life is not in danger. However, if he is unlucky enough to encounter a group of powerful enemies, Kyosuke will prioritize saving his own life.

After saying that, Kyosuke saw someone about to speak, especially Obito, who was practically jumping up while holding onto his limp leg.

Kyosuke's face darkened, and he said in an unquestionable tone, "This is an order! Evacuate immediately!"

Kakashi nodded slightly to Kyosuke and left first, followed by the others. Only Obito muttered a few complaints, saying that Kyosuke only knew how to show off and act like a hero.

Seeing the group leave, Kyosuke initially considered using a summoning jutsu, but ultimately decided against it.

This battle was tough for both Gamaken and Gamahiro, and they suffered quite a few injuries. It would be unfair to summon other toads to fight with them.

From the outside perspective, the toad of Mount Myōboku is Kyōsuke's summoned beast and should obey Kyōsuke's commands.

In reality, the two sides have an equal cooperative relationship, and Kyosuke has no way to force the toad to fight.

You could even say that he's Kyosuke's sage master, and Kyosuke needs to value the toads' feelings.

Since Gamaken and Gamahiro were injured, Kyosuke will send them some gifts to express his gratitude.

The stronger the bond, the more dedicated people will be in a fight.

If the relationship isn't good, someone might just go through the motions during a fight, which could potentially lead to Kyosuke's death.

Kyosuke is very wary and tends to project his own feelings onto others. He's always worried that these toads might try to manipulate him during battles, so he constantly tries to deepen their bond.

Commonly known as flattery.

Entering the obvious mode, Kyosuke's perception was greatly enhanced, and he sensed a large number of life forms containing chakra moving rapidly toward him.

Kakashi and the others had just come down the mountain.

"Let's use the terrain to hold them off for a while."

Kyosuke created hundreds of shadow clones, which lined up on the mountaintop, facing the direction of the Sand Ninja.

Mount Ashikura faces the direction of the Sand Village. Although it has not been transformed into a 90-degree vertical mountain wall, it is still quite steep, with hard, strange rocks everywhere, which can cause some trouble for ninjas, especially mediocre genin and chunin.

"Earth Release·Earth Release!"

The ten shadow clones pressed their hands to the ground, causing deep trenches to crack open and completely destroying the roads that the Sand Ninja had carved to lead to the mountaintop.

"coming!"

Kyosuke saw a group of dozens of Sand Ninja in his line of sight.

Behind this group of Sand Ninja, more Sand Ninja appeared one by one.

The first to launch the attack were nearly a hundred puppet birds in the sky.

These jet-black puppet birds were over a meter tall, yet they could fly nimbly through the sky, and in the blink of an eye, they were above Kyosuke's head.

The puppet bird retracted its wings and claws into its body, transforming into a smooth cone that swooped down like raindrops to attack Kyosuke's shadow clones below.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

On the mountaintop, some shadow clones took a step forward, creating a powerful hurricane that blew flames into the sky, forming a torrent of fire.

A torrent of flames ignited the dark sky, illuminating the entire mountainside and bathing the faces of all the charging Sand Ninja.

Some Sand Ninja looked up and saw the flames that almost covered the entire mountain, feeling like ants.

His orange-red face, illuminated by the light, was filled with fear and unease.

"How are we supposed to fight this kind of enemy...?"

Regardless of the ninja village, the majority of the ninja army consists of genin and chunin. When faced with a powerful enemy beyond their imagination, they cannot help but waver.

The Sand Ninja captains were used to this and offered no words of comfort, continuing to lead their subordinates forward.

They knew that once the battle began, these people would have no time to be afraid.

They were either killed or consumed by murderous intent, frantically attacking their enemies.

The puppet birds collided with the flames and exploded like fireworks, emitting plumes of purple smoke.

The puppets can not only explode, but also release poison gas—a classic tactic of the Sand Ninja.

The puppets in the sky had just been dealt with when, on the ground, one after another, strangely shaped puppets rushed up.

Compared to humans, treacherous terrain has less of an impact on puppets, making them well-suited for combat in complex terrain.

Numerous shadow clones began to fight back, shattering the charging puppets.

Kyosuke's pupils darted around, and through the chakra threads on the puppets, he located several hiding places of the puppeteers.

However, the puppeteer was closely guarded by Sand Ninja.

At this moment, a large number of Sand Ninja had already rushed to the mountainside, and Kyosuke had no time to deal with the puppeteers.

"Earth Release: Earth Flow!"

The shadow clone, several meters long, pressed its hands to the ground, injecting a large amount of chakra into the ground to cut through the solid mountain.

Within a radius of several hundred meters, the mountain began to collapse, and countless rocks and soil slid down the slope, burying many Sand Ninja who could not escape in time, while also forcing back even more Sand Ninja.

Only a few strong Sand Ninjas leaped quickly among the falling rocks and rushed to the top of the mountain.

An even more brutal melee erupted instantly. Wind blades, rocks, flames, kunai, senbon needles, and swords—both sides used all sorts of methods to fight to the death in the sky, on the ground, underground, among rocks, in sandstorms, and in flames, in all sorts of unexpected places, desperately trying to kill their enemy.

In just one clash, Kyosuke lost more than a dozen shadow clones, and the Sand Ninja also left behind many corpses.

"They're fighting so hard, I should retreat! I hope Kakashi and the others escape quickly enough."

Kyosuke was somewhat surprised by the Sand Ninja's fierce attack and created more than a dozen shadow clones to cover his escape.

Kyosuke turned and ran for more than ten steps before he had to stop.

Suddenly, a group of Sand Ninja appeared behind Kyosuke.

"Kyosuke Uesugi, as expected of Konoha's new generation genius, you actually possess such strength. However, you won't escape today!"

The leader was a middle-aged Sand Ninja who had already recognized Kyosuke. His gaze was as cold as ice as he swept over the numerous Kyosuke shadow clones.

"Deploy the barrier, and don't let a single shadow clone escape!"

Behind the middle-aged ninja, four Sand Ninjas jumped back a few meters, took down the huge scroll from their backs, opened it and placed it on the ground in front of them, then formed hand seals and pressed their hands onto the scroll.

"Sandstorm Barrier!"

Countless black sandstorms burst forth from the four scrolls.

These sandstorms seemed endless, swirling around the group. At first, they were just close to the ground, only a meter or two high.

However, when the wind and sand hit the ground, they directly grind the rocks into gravel, and then absorb these gravel to strengthen themselves.

The wind and sand have been constantly cutting and eroding the ground, creating bottomless trenches. At the same time, the sand itself has been growing and has reached a height of nearly 100 meters.

In the blink of an eye, the sandstorm formed a barrier, completely sealing off the space within a radius of two to three hundred meters.

One of Kyosuke's shadow clones shot out a kunai from its hand. The kunai struck the sandstorm barrier and was quickly ground to dust by the constantly flowing sand. The broken iron filings merged into the barrier.

Upon seeing this, Scarface revealed a confident smile.

"It's useless. Every grain of sand in the barrier is a particle of chakra metal and contains wind-style chakra, which can easily crush any object."