Chapter 312: Suicide?
Orochimaru had no intention of making a move, watching the show the entire time. The four's chakra was all being used to maintain the Four Red Yang Formation, so their main bodies could only attack with taijutsu.
While chakra would be divided, the body's strength and taijutsu were copied by the ninjutsu and would not be affected by the shadow clones.
Ino's taijutsu was impressive, and Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi were powerhouses forged in countless battles, each with stronger taijutsu than the last.
Ino kicked at a puppet with red eyeshadow. Suddenly, a female puppet wielding two large swords rushed out from the side. It was extremely fast, one sword aiming for the neck, the other for the spine.
The puppets didn't have a human's way of generating force. Controlled by chakra threads, they didn't need to build up power. These two slashes were both fast and vicious.
Ino pressed down with the sole of her foot, stepping on the puppet's wrist. Using the force, she did a backflip in the air, dodging the decapitating blow. Then, she drew her short sword "Shūsui," infused it with her Water Release chakra, and cut the chakra threads controlling the puppet.
"Well prepared," Ebizō said. With a flick of his finger, the female puppet retreated, and a puppet with a bull's head charged forward fiercely.
At the same time, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Kakashi each engaged the puppets of the Chikamatsu Collection with their taijutsu.
Kakashi had recently picked up his sword skills again, practicing for truly just two days, not a day more. Fortunately, his foundation was still there. His Sharingan saw through the puppet's movements in advance, and his exquisite swordsmanship allowed him to cut the chakra threads behind a puppet in the tenth second of their engagement.
Jiraiya's assault was the most ferocious. With fists and kicks, without a chakra blade, he relied on his Rasengan to forcibly destroy a puppet whose body was as hard as refined steel.
On the other side, Tsunade and Ino cooperated. The master and disciple used Monster Strength Fist and Heavenly Foot of Pain simultaneously in a pincer attack, also shattering a puppet.
The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten became a collection of seven. Ino and the other three Kage-level ninja besieged Ebizō, a seventy-year-old man known for his intellect.
At the twenty-fifth second, Ino stepped on Tsunade's arm and leaped into the air, as light as a butterfly. Shūsui left her hand, streaking through the air like a white light, and embedded itself in Ebizō's shoulder clavicle.
Shūsui was incomparably sharp, piercing straight through and leaving a large hole.
Ebizō's speed in controlling the puppets with his right hand immediately slowed.
"Ebizō, you have no chance of winning…" Jiraiya felt victory was in their grasp and was about to say something, but unexpectedly, Ebizō expressionlessly tore off his own arm. Not a single drop of blood flowed from the stump. He turned the severed arm around, palm gripping the shoulder, and aimed the green bone at the four of them. The bone then split and transformed, and in one second, it became a dark green chakra cannon.
A highly compressed ball of dark chakra flew out.
Ebizō's puppet-ized arm was instantly blown to pieces; no trace of human flesh could be seen in the powder. This arm had completed its mission. The Tailed Beast Bomb, sealed in the arm long ago and weakened by about thirty percent, shot straight towards the four of them.
With a loud "BOOM," the main bodies all retreated. The Four Red Yang Formation could even block the Ten-Tails, let alone a Tailed Beast Bomb of this level. The shadow clones controlled the formation, lowering a red curtain in front of their respective main bodies.
The chakra of the Four Red Yang Formation was a single entity, with no weak points.
The explosion was extremely violent but still within the formation's tolerance. The five, including Orochimaru, showed no sign of wavering. The aftershock of the explosion was absorbed by the four walls, with not a single trace of energy leaking out.
Perform all you want. If you manage to escape today, we'll admit defeat.
"Hey, old man, if you've got the guts, fire another shot! Looking at your old arms and legs, you probably don't have a second shot in you, do you? Come and hit me if you dare!" Ino was extremely dissatisfied with Ebizō's comment about the wild boar's nest and couldn't help but taunt him, while also probing.
Ebizō, with his two white eyebrows drooping, studied their Four Red Yang Formation. He had exposed a trump card and blown off his right arm, drastically reducing his combat power, but the result was not good.
He snorted. With a flick of his left hand's fingers, the remaining five puppets continuously poked the chakra points on his left arm with a special rhythm. The last two puppets then dismantled each other, breaking into a pile of parts.
"Stop him!" Tsunade shouted.
Ino and the others all moved, but after taking just two steps, they retreated behind the formation's curtain even faster.
A large amount of Iron Sand spewed out from Ebizō's chakra points. His left arm completely disintegrated, this arm also containing no human flesh. The remaining seven puppets of the Chikamatsu Collection, like candles meeting high heat, decomposed into Iron Sand within two seconds. Then, the walls, floor, and furnishings of the small hut—everything was quickly infused and transformed into special chakra-infused Iron Sand.
Jiraiya was a bit gloomy. "It seems to be the Third Kazekage's Magnet Release."
This ability wasn't particularly strong in itself, but using it now was rather disgusting.
They had already guessed Ebizō's intention.
A dense mass of Iron Sand completely enveloped the armless Ebizō, then continuously transformed and accumulated within the room, transforming and accumulating again.
The small space was completely filled. After the internal space was filled and compressed to the limit, the Iron Sand began to press against the four walls of the Four Red Yang Formation.
Layer after layer of Iron Sand was melted by the Four Red Yang Formation, but it was only melted, not vanished into thin air. After the residue cooled for a moment, it would turn back into Iron Sand, repeating the cycle.
It was unknown how much of the Third Kazekage's Magnet Release chakra Ebizō had stored in his body, but under the continuous transformation and pressure of the Iron Sand, the four's chakra consumption rate was extremely fast.
Considering they were currently in enemy territory, they couldn't afford this consumption.
Jiraiya asked, "Is Ebizō still alive?"
Ino sensed for a moment, then thought. "That old man has been crushed into a meat patty by the Iron Sand. I currently see no signs of life. It seems he committed suicide to prevent information from leaking... However, the extent of this old man's body modification is deeper than expected. I don't really understand their puppet techniques, so I'm not entirely certain."
Ebizō wasn't using human puppet techniques but something more like mechanized modification.
Ordinary machinery couldn't serve as a ninja's limbs because metal lacks chakra pathways and the property of chakra conduction.
The Ebizō before her left Ino at a loss for words. The old fellow's arms and stomach were not ordinary metal but had been modified with special chakra metal!
Ino had gone to the Land of Iron, gotten an introduction from an acquaintance, robbed temples, and in the end, spent over ten million ryo to forge a single short sword. Ebizō's project was much larger than hers. To forge two arms, the old bastard must have embezzled quite a bit in the past!
What Ino hated most were corrupt officials!
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