The three of them fled in roughly the same direction, all heading towards Konoha.
Kami Kida was in the middle, with Uchiha Suien and Inoyue on either side.
Inoyue quickly resolved her battle, and to recover Chakra as soon as possible, she ate three soldier pills in a row. The soldier pills tasted like mud balls, a bit bitter, and truly unpalatable.
Determining the general direction, Inoyue kept her Mind's Eye active as she moved forward. The Mind's Eye's maximum range was about five hundred meters, and vision began to blur beyond three hundred meters. Although she couldn't see clearly, she could at least ascertain if anyone was there.
Inoyue ran at a high speed; she was a little worried that Uchiha Suien wouldn't last much longer, as the enemy was a Jonin.
Uchiha Suien seemed to know he was the main target and ran fast and far enough. Inoyue had been running for over twenty minutes but still hadn't seen him.
"You brat, don't you dare die!" Inoyue sighed inwardly, putting more power into her steps.
Visibility in the forest was obstructed, but thanks to the Mind's Eye's ability, she managed to avoid the Sand Ninja who were cleaning up the battlefield several times. It seemed Konoha had suffered severe losses tonight, and Inoyue's heart sank to rock bottom.
...
Between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind was the Land of Rivers, a buffer zone between Konoha and Sand Ninja Village. The Land of Rivers had no Ninja Village of its own, so the Land of Wind, which always had a poor environment, desired to annex the Land of Rivers.
The alert zone for this mission was actually within the Land of Rivers, about three hundred li from the Land of Wind's border. Konoha's main base was on the true border of the Land of Fire; before an absolute major war, the main force could not be fully stationed in the Land of Rivers.
The Sand Ninja launched a large-scale attack first, and with Konoha's reinforcements far away, the situation was not optimistic.
With a powerful push of her feet, a strong tree branch snapped with a 'ga' sound. Inoyue, leaping through the air, her eyes lit up, noticing someone fighting four hundred meters ahead. As Inoyue approached, she saw over ten Sand Ninja surrounding two Konoha Ninja, with five or six Sand Ninja corpses on the ground.
The two Konoha Ninja were one tall and one short. Judging from their figures, the shorter one should be Uchiha Suien. As for the taller one, his body was as thin as kindling; it was surprisingly the eerie Kimura Taku from the oleander forest.
Kimura Taku was in poor condition now; his left wrist was completely dislocated, leaving only his right hand gripping a kunai. Uchiha Suien was still relatively intact, with several minor scratches on his body. The biggest problem was his severe Chakra depletion, and he was now gasping for breath.
Inoyue didn't dare to rush in. She slowed her pace when she reached the outer perimeter. She wasn't a single-minded Naruto who would directly charge into the encirclement for a dramatic entrance.
There were ten Sand Ninja, but they surrounded the two in the middle without daring to advance, as if they were very wary.
With several 'swish' sounds, kunai flew, and two Sand Ninja behind Kimura Taku and Uchiha Suien launched an attack. First, they threw kunai, then closed in.
The two tilted their heads to dodge the flying kunai, then turned to engage the attacking Sand Ninja. The other Sand Ninja were not mere spectators; seizing this opportunity, they swarmed forward.
"Crouch!" Kimura Taku barked softly, and Uchiha Suien immediately complied, squatting low to the ground.
"Secret Jutsu: Blood Poison Rain!" Kimura Taku formed a hand seal with one hand, his body's Chakra erupted, and he horizontally extended his left arm and rotated it. Blood immediately gushed from his severed wrist, forming a rain of blood that sprayed out. Because it happened so suddenly, none of the ten attackers surrounding him were spared; all were hit by the blood rain.
The blood rain was highly corrosive, and upon landing on the Sand Ninja, it immediately caused a chorus of wails.
Of the ten affected, six were clones that disappeared directly, and the remaining four, severely poisoned, collapsed to the ground in agony.
"Truly splendid!" A figure slowly emerged from the ground, none other than the Sand Ninja whose clone had previously pursued Inoyue. He wore a Sand Ninja uniform, his head wrapped in cloth, with a long face, a round nose, and dangerous glints in his eyes. His words were full of praise, yet devoid of any warmth.
The previous Secret Jutsu was incredibly powerful, instantly dealing with everyone who had surrounded them. Kimura Taku's face grew even paler, making one worry if he had any blood left in his body.
...
Tap, tap...! The sound of a night hawk suddenly came from the forest. The full moon, previously obscured by dark clouds, emerged in the sky, its moonlight casting an eerie glow on the corpses in the forest clearing.
"Hehehe...! Such a Bloodline Limit is truly rare; your blood actually contains potent poison. However, looking at your physical condition, it seems you are also troubled by this Bloodline Limit!" The Sand Ninja did not attack but instead spoke at length, his meaning unclear.
"Scared?" Kimura Taku's hoarse voice suddenly rang out, without a trace of tremor, as if it wasn't his own blood he had just spilled, but tap water.
This voice, coupled with his expression, infuriated the Sand Ninja, causing him to explode: "I originally wanted you to retreat wisely, but since you wish to die, I shall grant your wish."
The Sand Ninja, enraged, charged forward with his kunai.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" Uchiha Suien attacked, but the Sand Ninja dodged the relatively small Great Fireball with a long-distance sidestep.
Chakra gathered and burst at his feet, and Uchiha Suien's speed suddenly increased. In mid-air, he suddenly turned and delivered a kick; this kick, angled from bottom to top, was extremely tricky and hard to guard against.
The Sand Ninja's sidestep was quite long, and he hadn't yet regained his balance when Uchiha Suien's kick arrived.
The Uchiha's prowess isn't limited to the Sharingan; it also includes their growth after awakening it, much like the Saiyans in Dragon Ball, improving in battle. As long as they don't die, their improvement speed is relentless. Uchiha Suien was exactly like this; that kick earlier must have been a superb taijutsu move from an opponent, which he completely copied. Such an ability is worthy of a genius.
"Watch out!" Kimura Taku roared, using Shunshin to appear beside Suien. Before Suien could kick the Sand Ninja, his body was grabbed by Kimura Taku and flung back. However, at this moment, the Sand Ninja's lips curved into a cold smile: "Explode!"
Bang! A flash of bright light, and the Sand Ninja self-destructed. More accurately, it was a Sand Clone explosion, as exploding tags were buried within it.
Sand and stones flew, and dust permeated the air. Kimura Taku turned at the crucial moment, but the immense power propelled him away, his back scorched. Yet, he wasn't dead; he even managed to stand up, though his injuries were extremely grave.
Though standing, his eyes were vacant, and his sole remaining left hand hung limply. Such injuries would likely mean the end of his Ninja career, even if he survived.
"How are you not dead?" The Sand Ninja's corpse, over ten meters away, suddenly rotated and spoke, then slowly crawled up, his tone full of questions. Because Kimura Taku had been at the center of the explosion just now, one exploding tag might not kill a Jonin, but five exploding tags stacked together would surely turn a Jonin to dust. Yet, the opponent was still alive.
"Impossible!" The Sand Ninja spoke again.
...
Ninja battles often have many seemingly illogical elements. If one rushes into action without understanding these illogicalities, there's a high chance of being overturned.
Inoyue had little Chakra left, and covert assistance would certainly be more effective than a direct entrance, which led to the perilous scene just now.
In the Sand Ninja's eyes just now, Kimura Taku was at the explosion's center, but in reality, the Sand Ninja was deceived by Inoyue's Instantaneous Illusion. Kimura Taku was still several meters away from the explosion's center, which was the fundamental reason Kimura Taku was able to survive.
From the moment the Sand Ninja was enraged by Kimura Taku, Inoyue had already arrived in the vicinity. She originally intended to use Instantaneous Illusion to secretly help Uchiha Suien land an attack, but Inoyue, with her Mind's Eye active, inadvertently glanced at the surrounding corpses. This glance immediately sent a cold sweat down her spine.
The corpse disguised as the Sand Ninja's true body had a very bright light source, which Inoyue, with her Mind's Eye, could clearly see. However, when she scanned the sand clones, she discovered that their bodies contained several exploding tags. In such a situation, Inoyue decisively used a genjutsu, subtly altering the Sand Ninja's visual perception of the distance between Kimura Taku and Uchiha Suien and himself, causing the Sand Ninja to detonate the exploding tags while still a few meters away.
If someone were to ask, "Why not adjust the distance even further?" Inoyue would surely deliver a hard slap to their face. Is a Jonin that easy to fool? If the distance were too great, they would feel something was wrong and might instantly see through the genjutsu. In that case, the situation wouldn't be as it is now, but rather a total annihilation.
The reason Instantaneous Illusion could deceive a Jonin was, firstly, due to Inoyue's unique Chakra control. Secondly, it was because of its short activation time; the illusion was almost identical to reality, with only minor, subtle differences, which allowed it to be so effective and hard to guard against.
The battle seemed to be at a stalemate; the Sand Ninja didn't want to act rashly before understanding what was happening. From his repeated use of sand clones for attack, it could be seen that he was someone who valued his life.
However, the advantage once again shifted to the Sand Ninja's side. Swish, swish, swish, several sounds indicated that nearly twenty Sand Ninja were converging from various directions.
One person walked out from among the more than twenty Sand Ninja. After glancing at the only two remaining Konoha Ninja, he walked up to the long-faced, round-nosed Sand Ninja: "Lord Goto, the other battlefields have been cleared!"