The final hand seal completed, Pakura brought her palms together, instantly, a massive blade of wind slashed vertically toward Minami.
Wind Release: Sickle Weasel Slash.
The earthen wave surging toward Pakura, like a rising tide, was cleaved clean down the middle by the cutting wind. Seeing this, Minami twisted his body and leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack and seeking a new opportunity.
But he hadn't expected it.
Just as his feet touched the ground again, Pakura appeared at his side like a shadow, bringing with her the deadly heat of the Oversteam Kill Technique.
"This is it!"
The moment Pakura appeared beside him, three scorching Scorch Release fireballs came hurtling at once. With no time left to dodge, Minami realized in that instant, he was going to die.
Boom.
Pakura looked coldly at Minami's charred corpse, collapsed on the battlefield, just one more soul claimed by her hands.
Then she turned her gaze across the battlefield.
Though she had slain multiple Iwagakure shinobi, two of them Jōnin, the other Sunagakure shinobi were faring poorly, steadily being cut down.
"This can't go on."
Reading the flow of battle, Pakura came to a clear conclusion: if things continued like this, Sunagakure would lose.
She made her decision.
"Everyone, gather on me!"
Pakura's shout rang out across the war-torn dunes.
The beleaguered Suna-nin didn't hesitate. They clenched their teeth and obeyed, no longer caring who gave the order.
"Yes!"
Swish, swish, swish…
The fragmented Suna forces, each locked in their own skirmishes, broke off and regrouped at Pakura's position.
In a matter of moments, over forty Sunagakure shinobi had assembled at Pakura's side. Opposite them, more than sixty Iwagakure shinobi formed up in response.
The battlefield hardened into a standoff between two opposing forces.
"Everyone," Pakura said quietly, her expression stern, "I have a plan to break them. Buy me time. Whatever happens, don't let them scatter."
"And I'll need Wind Release support."
Within the Sunagakure ranks, Pakura's hushed words carried a heavy weight.
"Understood. We'll leave it to you."
"I'll command the others and create your opening."
Beside her, a Jōnin drenched in blood, Seiji Nagata, nodded grimly.
He didn't know whether Pakura truly had a winning move, but given the odds, he had no choice but to believe in her.
Pakura gave him a nod and began forming hand seals.
Seeing Pakura begin, Seiji stepped forward and shouted across the formation:
"Puppet Corps, advance!"
Sunagakure's puppet users were few, but not absent. At Seiji's command, five voices replied in unison.
"Yes!"
Even before the echoes faded, five puppets flew forward from behind Seiji, surging toward the Iwagakure ranks.
In response, an Iwa Jōnin, Shōta Kozeki, stepped forward.
"Crush them! Use Earth Dragon Bullet Technique!"
"Yes!"
Seven or eight Iwa-nin moved up under Shōta's command, forming seals in unison.
Earth Release: Great Earth Dragon Bullet Technique!
From the sand dunes, a massive earth dragon rose, lobbing boulder-sized mud bullets at the approaching puppets.
Boom, boom, boom…
The five puppets were struck down instantly, exploding into shattered wood and steel.
"Smoke bombs, disrupt their sightline!"
Seiji moved swiftly to the next phase, sacrificing the puppets to buy time and deploy a smoke screen for Pakura.
"Yes!"
Sunagakure shinobi responded again, throwing down smoke bombs to shroud the battlefield in thick, blinding fog.
"It's coming."
As Pakura neared the final seal, she called to Nagata, eyes locked on the cloud of smoke.
"Prepare Wind Release: Great Breakthrough! Support Pakura!" Seiji barked.
Across the field, Shōta scowled at the rising smoke. Fearing an ambush, he gave a quick order:
"Use Earthen Spike Barrage on the entire fogged area, no mercy!"
An effective counter, indiscriminate suppression fire.
From the Iwa ranks, over twenty shinobi stepped forward, forming seals.
Earth Release: Infinite Earthen Spike Barrage!
In the heart of the smoke, jagged spikes of earth exploded from the ground, lancing upward, anyone caught inside would be torn to shreds.
Shōta watched intently, his eyes locked on the silent fog. Nothing moved. No screams followed.
But that only made him more certain, Sunagakure had a plan.
"Stay alert. As soon as the smoke clears, we attack. Be ready for anything."
Cautious, methodical, Shōta's orders were reasonable.
But this final command… was a fatal mistake.
"Yes, sir!"
Behind him, Iwa-nin braced for action.
Back within the smoke, Pakura completed all sixty-six hand seals. The half-finished technique she had developed, an A-rank Scorch Release jutsu, was finally ready.
Scorch Release: Evaporation Blast.
A colossal fireball erupted in front of Pakura. Its pace was steady, neither fast nor slow, as it surged toward the Iwagakure formation.
Had Pakura perfected the technique, it would be an S-rank jutsu, a force of utter destruction.
It wasn't complete yet, but with the right Wind Release boost, it might still achieve that devastating potential.
Seiji saw the fireball and prayed. There was no certainty it would turn the tide, but they had no other choice.
"Wind Release: Hurricane Great Breakthrough!"
He shouted, and one by one, over twenty Suna-nin launched their jutsu.
Wind surged, twenty Wind Release techniques fused into a single monstrous cyclone, hurling itself into the Evaporation Blast.
Fire feeds on wind.
In an instant, the flaming sphere swelled to monstrous proportions. It accelerated, blazing toward the fog bank, its heat so intense that the very smoke ahead of it vaporized into nothing.
BOOM.
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