"Something's wrong! A massive chakra signature is rapidly approaching!"
Suddenly, a sensory ninja from Sunagakure stationed at the perimeter shouted loudly.
Ishito, who was controlling his puppet to decapitate a member of the Yamanaka clan, frowned slightly and made a snap decision.
"Change of mission—kill the Uchiha ninja, seize the Sharingan, and retreat immediately!"
All the Sunagakure ninja, including Hardy, instantly concentrated their firepower on the Uchiha.
As for the Konoha chunin, he was tightly entangled by Sasori's Salamander puppet.
To be honest, that Uchiha had performed brilliantly. Relying on his double-tomoe Sharingan, he managed to withstand the combined assault of a special jonin and two chunin, suffering only minor injuries.
But no matter how strong he was, it was difficult to withstand the siege of so many.
He had just dodged hundreds, if not thousands, of poisoned needles with his Sharingan's dynamic vision, and used his exquisite Fire Release to evade four or five incoming jutsu. Just as he was looking for a weak point to break through, a powerful iron fist came crashing down.
Clearly, this Uchiha's reflexes and combat skills were far superior to those of the previous sword-wielding ninja. In an instant, he drew the short sword at his waist to block and absorb the impact, then performed a stylish backflip to retreat.
In just a few seconds, aside from the unavoidable internal injuries from absorbing the force, this Uchiha ninja had nearly escaped unscathed!
This is the power of an Uchiha who has awakened the Sharingan!
With the Sharingan, they can push their taijutsu and ninjutsu to the absolute limit, and their genjutsu is greatly enhanced, making them nearly invincible among their peers.
After throwing that punch, Hardy withdrew, relying on poisoned needles and kunai to harass from a distance.
The pneumatic cylinders in both arms needed to recompress air to recharge. Even with chakra threads speeding up the process, it still took about ten seconds.
Three special jonin swarmed in, attacking Uchiha Sen from all angles.
Two seconds later—
"Stop him!"
Mitsuba, controlling his puppet, shouted anxiously.
Uchiha Sen, knowing there was no hope of escape, pressed his fingers to his eye sockets, intending to destroy his Sharingan in his final moments.
Blood splattered. Uchiha Sen's fingers were severed by a flying knife shot from a puppet, and a fresh wound appeared on his neck.
In the next instant, his head fell to the ground. The two tomoe in his scarlet Sharingan spun rapidly, the faint shadow of a third tomoe appearing, but it quickly faded without enough chakra to sustain it.
"Not good! He's here!"
The Sunagakure sensory ninja cried out in alarm.
At the edge of their vision, atop a distant sand dune, a white flash streaked across the land like lightning.
Seeing this, Hardy hurriedly removed the Formentor Puppet.
The Formentor Puppet was fine against low- and mid-level ninja, but against a speed-specialized special jonin, it would just become a target—let alone someone who was clearly no ordinary enemy.
"Damn it… It's White Fang! Everyone, retreat!"
Seeing this, Ishito abandoned the fight, turned, and controlled several puppets to scoop up Hardy and Sasori as they fled at full speed.
Carried by a puppet over two meters tall, Hardy quickly used chakra threads to retrieve the Formentor Puppet and Little Boy Puppet, sealing them into the scroll on his back.
Compared to Ishito, Kyuichi was less fortunate—and more greedy.
He wanted to take the Uchiha's head.
Even if they couldn't capture the Uchiha alive, bringing back a pair of Sharingan would be a great achievement.
But he miscalculated.
Nara Hirano, whose body had already been half severed by a puppet and seemed long dead, suddenly opened his eyes and managed to form a hand seal with one hand.
"Shadow Imitation Technique."
But at this point, Nara Hirano was close to death, his consciousness fading, and even the jutsu was hard to—
It lasted only for less than two seconds.
But those two seconds determined the distance between life and death.
Two seconds later, a surge of jonin-level chakra erupted from Jiuichi's body, forcibly breaking free from the Shadow Imitation Technique's restraints.
However, within those combined five seconds, that streak of white lightning had already crossed the distant edge of the desert in his vision and arrived on the battlefield.
It was a slender, medium-height man with white hair.
Hatake Sakumo!
"The White Fang of Konoha—"
"Swish!"
In an instant, a flash of white light streaked across his vision.
Jiuichi wasn't dead—after all, he was a jonin. Even in the face of a Kage-level powerhouse, he wouldn't be cut down like grass.
But he didn't get off easy, either.
The kunai in his hand snapped, and a new gash appeared on his brown flak jacket, faint blood seeping from it.
"Konoha's White Fang… why are you here?"
Hatake Sakumo didn't answer. Instead, he looked sorrowfully at the Konoha ninja lying all over the ground. The white short blade in his hand crackled with even more dazzling lightning.
Another streak of white light followed by another.
A few breaths later, Jiuichi's head fell to the ground.
Hatake Sakumo sighed.
Of Konoha's elite six-man squad, only two were left alive, and one of them—Nara Hirano—was barely clinging to life.
He was doomed not to last long.
The only one left was the middle-aged ninja.
The moment Hatake Sakumo arrived, the gravely injured man finally snapped and collapsed unconscious.
"Looks like only Inosuke will make it back alive. He's always been that lucky," Nara Hirano said, coughing after Sakumo stopped his bleeding and fed him a soldier pill.
"Sakumo-sama, you're injured, aren't you? Otherwise, it wouldn't have taken you so long to deal with that jonin."
Hatake Sakumo didn't answer, only pressing a hand to Nara Hirano's shoulder.
"Hirano, I'll bring you all back to the village."
"No need, Sakumo-sama. My injuries are beyond saving, even for Lady Tsunade. You must dispose of our bodies here to prevent Sunagakure from extracting intel from us. Just bring our ashes back to the village."
Hatake Sakumo pressed his lips together and uttered a single word.
"Alright."
"Cough, cough… Also, the Sunagakure team that ambushed us was led by Ishito of the Puppet Corps. There are two very young, but far stronger than their peers, puppet masters among them. If you still have the strength, Sakumo-sama, please eliminate them—they'll be a threat to the village's future. If you can't, at least bring the intel back. And finally… please… end… my pain…"
Nara Hirano's breath grew weaker, his words faltering.
Hatake Sakumo sighed again and reached out to snap Nara Hirano's neck.
"Sorry, I may not be able to chase them down for your revenge, or bring all of you home."