The ground soon shook as two figures finally broke through the chaos, stepping into Ryusei's range.
Soon, Ryusei and the two remaining Kumo elites finally came face to face.
Out of all their comrades, only these two had managed to do both: piece together what was happening, but also successfully force their way through the chaos all the way through here.
Both understood the truth that the strange chakra batteries and the slugs were the real reason Konoha's line still held.
They hadn't expected Ryusei's real body to be waiting here.
Their chakra signatures were sharp, both burning brighter than the average Elite Jōnin.
'Probably Kumo's strongest after that family...',
Ryusei assessed immediately from their auras.
One of them exhaled, lightning sparking faintly across his arms.
"So you're the one clogging the field with those damned clones, brat."
The other narrowed his eyes, clouds of black mist already curling from his hand.
"Doesn't matter if he's real or not. Kill him, the rest falls apart."
Ryusei grinned, slit eyes glinting.
"You came all this way thinking you'd find the summoner. Instead, you found me. Congratulations."
"Sorry to disappoint, but you won't be reaching her. You'll have to get through me first."
Neither responded. They knew wasting time on words against someone like him was dangerous.
He kept his position near the slug fragments, while the two clones he had prepared slipped into motion.
By now, his opponents had learned not to underestimate him.
Both jōnin immediately ripped apart the terrain, flooding the area with lightning-charged clouds and destroying cover.
"Storm Release: Storm Cloud."
No hidden approach, no stealth ambushes.
They knew he had clones capable of moving like ghosts, so they cut off every angle.
Ryusei's two clones were forced into the open, revealed, and engaged directly.
The Storm Release user next had even more black vapor pouring from his palm.
A mass of electrically charged mist coiled around him, forming a dark shroud that lashed out at any intruder.
The weight was nothing, so he could move freely inside it, while anyone else would be torn apart by surging shocks.
At the same time, his partner raised his hand, lightning condensing in spears.
They didn't rush Ryusei directly, not yet.
They went for area control first, making sure he couldn't close in.
Ryusei, standing back near the chakra batteries, saw the problem immediately.
His two clones alone couldn't push in while the storm clouds dominated the field.
He formed signs, inhaled, and unleashed his own counter.
"Wind Release: Gravitational Gale!"
A violent pull swept through the battlefield, dragging the storm mist outward, warping the air currents, and tearing holes in the cover.
His clones surged through the opening, moving to engage.
At the same time, Ryusei's main body formed another long string of seals.
Water swelled around him, bursting forward as a massive serpent-shaped dragon.
"Water Release: Abyssal Serpent Dragon!"
The huge construct roared forward, aiming to smash into the lightning user.
The man answered in kind.
"Raiton: Spear of Judgment!"
A dense spear of lightning shot outward, drilling through the air.
The clash between spear and serpent detonated in sparks and spray, the collision sending mist boiling into the air.
One of Ryusei's clones slipped through the steam, closing distance.
The lightning-user's eyes widened at the speed and ferocity of the clone, but he didn't hesitate, even if it cost him a lot.
He slammed his palms together.
"Kōten no Saiketsu — Heaven's Judgment!"
A massive spinning tube of lightning erupted from his body, boring straight through everything ahead.
The clone was caught, shredded by raw voltage, and destroyed in an explosion of electricity.
The feedback slammed into Ryusei's real body, who barely managed to dodge in time, as well, and he clicked his tongue.
That technique was devastating, even if it drained half the man's chakra.
Losing a precious clone so soon wasn't part of his plan.
He moved himself, out of necessity, this time.
Earth walls rose to intercept, wind gales burst to push the smoke, and a second water serpent snapped toward the enemy.
He stepped in with Shock Step, closing the distance like a coiled spring snapping loose.
The Kumo jōnin panicked, bursting chakra outward. "Thunder Pulse!"
A radial wave of electricity exploded from his body, frying the ground around him.
Ryusei tanked the burn, blood running down his arm, but he didn't stop.
Lightning flared across his hands, "Thunder Fang".
Fire erupted from his mouth, "Dragon's Maw".
Both slammed into the jōnin point-blank, piercing and scorching before the man could react.
He convulsed, then dropped.
Across the field, the second clone clashed with the storm user.
"Storm Release: Laser Circus!"
Dozens of beams of electricity lanced out, ripping through bulwarks and scattering kunai.
The clone barely parried, weaving earth shields and using Flowing Willow Guard to redirect the strikes.
The storm user followed up, chakra spiking. "Rising Dragon Storm!"
Black clouds twisted into dragon shapes, colliding and splitting before converging in a spiraling tornado.
The clone braced, slamming down a Fortress Stone Bulwark, but the storm shredded it apart, sparks scattering.
The clone pressed harder, but the man wasn't finished.
He wrapped himself in lightning and wind, his body glowing.
"Storm Release: Gale Force Armor!"
His speed and reflexes sharpened instantly, every movement electrocuting anything nearby.
The clone charged anyway and was cut down in the flashing exchange, dispersing in smoke.
But the real Ryusei was already moving in, the dead lightning-user behind him.
He stormed toward the storm-user, layering wind bursts to disrupt the man's rhythm.
His body glowed in a strange reddish light, his proto-Creation Rebirth already letting him push his body beyond safe limits, at all times, both offensively and defensively, while also using Tsunade's peak medical chakra enhancement on top of his first two Inner Gates.
The storm-user's armor sputtered as Ryusei forced his way through.
One clean Coiling Serpent Fist, one enhanced strike, bones cracked, armor shattered, and the man fell, drained and broken.
Ryusei exhaled heavily, with burns along his skin, but his grin remained. "Two down."
"They had the right idea," Ryusei thought, eyes narrowing. "Overwhelm me fast, dump as much potency as possible, don't drag it into a drawn-out fight where they'd burn out on lower-tier jutsu. But they miscalculated… their chakra pools can't sustain A-rank, let alone S-rank spam for long. They became slower, weaker, due to loss. That bought me an opening."
He exhaled slowly, already feeling the ache of burns across his arms. "I still had those two clones to throw away, this time, but from here it gets harder. I'll have to move my real body more… Better to pull some clones back, form a shield line, with them, and buy time until Kumo's numbers finally bleed out."
His thoughts lingered on the fallen storm-user. "That Storm Release was interesting. Maybe Kumo has some manual for nurturing it in chosen shinobi… just like Darui in the future."
With that, Ryusei signaled his remaining clones all around the base to start going toward him and then erect walls of earth and stone in overlapping layers, forming a bulwark initially.
Not perfect, not permanent, but enough. All he needed was for it to last until Konoha's tide rolled forward, until the enemy's momentum broke and their retreat began, from this base.