The Law of No Injury Amid Smoke once again came into effect.
When the thick smoke dispersed, the people of Konohagakure were completely unharmed. Makoto had used only two defensive ninjutsu to utterly restrain the Iwagakure Explosion Corps.
Running into him could only be considered the Iwagakure Explosion Corps' bad luck. Although he was not proficient in Lightning Release, he was still their natural nemesis.
The members of the Explosion Corps looked at their own leader, Gari. Both sides stared at one another, faces full of bewilderment.
Konohagakure had put up a turtle shell—how were they supposed to fight this?
Could that brat be the so-called "Shield of Konoha" that those bastards from Kumogakure had spread around?
Damn it, someone's cheating. Sage of Six Paths, are you going to do something about this? Come out and save us!
It could only be said that news traveled quickly in the shinobi world. Especially on Kumogakure's side—concerned for their own leader's reputation—they naturally exaggerated Higashino Makoto as much as possible.
Originally, everyone had thought the Raikage was too weak. Now they realized that the "Shield of Konoha's" defense was truly monstrous.
At this time, the Iwagakure Explosion Corps was still using the outdated method of hand-molding explosive clay. No one had mouths growing from their hands or chest.
The true orthodox inheritor and master of that secret technique would be Deidara several years later.
If he were here now, he would certainly curse loudly. What defense? What chakra shield? This clearly meant the firepower of art was insufficient.
If it couldn't be blown apart, it only meant the explosion wasn't powerful enough. Just keep increasing the yield. If that still didn't work, use a clay clone to self-detonate. If that still failed, self-detonate the real body. Let those bastards see what "explosion is art" really meant.
Unfortunately, he was only a little brat at this time, still back in the village playing with mud.
The members of the Explosion Corps did not share his obsessive pursuit of art. At the same time, Makoto would not give them a second chance to throw explosive clay.
After the technique of "One-Horn Tranquility" was released, Makoto gathered a large amount of Wind-attribute chakra and, holding his blade in one hand, swung it into a blur.
A great number of nearly invisible wind blades, each about the width of a palm, shot into the ranks of the Explosion Corps, carrying out indiscriminate strikes.
Iwagakure suffered heavy casualties in an instant. Cries of agony rang out everywhere.
As an elite among jōnin, Gari possessed sharp danger instincts and extremely fast reactions. The moment Makoto swung his short blade, he quickly formed hand seals and raised a wall of earth in front of his side.
However, though his chakra reserves were considerable, they could not compare to Makoto's. His ninjutsu could not protect everyone, and the dense wind blades, like high-velocity bullets, pierced through the earth wall and tore into the crowd.
After reacting, many others also cast Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall to block and weaken the wind blades' power.
Shrinking his body, Gari hid at the corner behind the wall. Watching his Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall be riddled with holes, he knew this battle could not continue.
When the rain-like barrage of wind blades finally ended, he leapt forcefully backward and shouted, "Retreat!"
But it was already too late. The people of Konohagakure were not wooden stakes. While Makoto was conducting a saturation strike with ninjutsu, they had already charged toward the enemy.
Makoto himself also sprang up, leaping over the heads of the Explosion Corps and the other Iwagakure shinobi, and chased after the fleeing Gari.
Toward this Bloodline Limit shinobi who had caused Konohagakure major losses and left many scars on his father and Uzuki Yūya, he had no intention of letting him go.
Gari was a close-combat shinobi. Every opponent who traded punches with him, besides having to endure the impact of his strength, also had to face the power of his chakra explosions.
He usually took down one opponent with each punch—killing was quick and straightforward for him.
Makoto naturally understood this, so he had no intention of fighting him up close at all. Flying overhead, he continuously fired wind blades down at the target below, cutting off his avenues of escape.
How do you deal with a close-combat expert like Tsunade, whose punching power is absurd?
The answer is: kite him. Isn't learning to fly meant for exactly this?
Air forces fighting ground troops with no anti-air capability—wouldn't that be bombing with your eyes closed? Would you jump out of the plane to have a fair duel with them?
Gari was miserable to the extreme. Down below, he dodged left and right in a sorry state, feeling utterly disgusted inside. He finally understood what it felt like for others to face their Tsuchikage-sama who could fly.
It was simply being forced to take hits, hard to strike back. This was what it meant to be stifled—this was it.
However, through observing the enemy's attack method just now, even if striking back was difficult, he still came up with a way to dodge.
A jōnin's reaction speed was far too sharp. Makoto's wind blades were not truly invisible. When Gari blasted clods of mud or rocks up toward Makoto with his fists, the impacts burst large bands of dust in the air between them, roughly revealing the wind blades' trajectories.
Just as Itachi said many years later, no ninjutsu is perfect. "Shadowless Sword" was naturally no exception.
So although Gari was dodging in a hair-raising way and had temporarily kept his life, running away was out of the question. And besides, if you defend for too long, you will slip up sooner or later and take a hit.
Unfortunately, Makoto did not want to waste chakra playing a war of attrition with him. This was a battlefield—wasting time and chakra was wasting life.
He planned to sell a flaw and lure the enemy into taking the bait.
After Makoto dropped to the ground, he clasped his hands behind his back and charged toward Gari in an awkward manner.
The moment Gari saw it, he was overjoyed. He clearly had an aerial advantage, yet he wasn't using it and actually planned to fight Gari in close combat on the ground—had something snapped in his head?
But seeing that the other side was not very old, it was probably insufficient chakra that made him unable to remain in the air for long. Either way, Gari would not let this chance slip.
You want to die—I'll grant it.
Gari immediately seized the opportunity and likewise accelerated toward the enemy.
Once the two sides closed to a certain distance, Makoto flicked out two wind blades with the sword in his right hand. Their flight speed was not fast, and they were not hidden enough.
Sure enough—just a young kid. Overusing chakra had led to insufficient control, and the wind blades' power had greatly diminished.
Gari, running, leapt up and avoided the wind blades in a single jump. Then he gathered a large amount of Explosion Release chakra on his right fist—he was going to smash this troublesome Konohagakure brat into minced meat with one punch.
Victory was right before his eyes. Gari revealed a ferocious smile.
But he suddenly noticed that the Konohagakure brat's left hand, which had been held behind his back, was drawn out and waved quickly toward him. In his palm, there seemed to be a half-transparent white disc-shaped object.
As his left hand swung, the disc flashed like a beam of light and vanished. The distance between them was already extremely close—he had no time to react. He only felt a chill at his neck, and his consciousness began to dissipate.
The two passed by each other. Makoto maintained the posture of having just flung his arm, while Gari fell to the ground, his head separated from his body—decapitated in a single strike.
The head that had rolled several times still retained a trace of thought. Looking at his opponent's back, he only felt that he had died a bit too casually. He had never expected that he, the Explosion Release Gari of Iwagakure, would ultimately die at the hands of a brat from Konohagakure.
What, he was the "Shield of Konoha" who could withstand the Raikage head-on?
That was precisely why it was depressing. Those damned Kumogakure bastards had only said that his defense was powerful—they never said his offense was this absurd as well.
His consciousness quickly faded. The shinobi world lost yet another peculiar Bloodline Limit.
Wind Release: Air Disc Slash!
This was the ninjutsu Makoto had developed after the Chūnin Exams, having absorbed the advanced sealing technique knowledge given by the Third, and it had instantly severed his opponent's head.
You could tell from the name where the inspiration came from.
A certain strongest Earthling with no nose, together with his beautiful wife, gave it a like and expressed that they did not intend to charge any copyright fees.
Since Makoto could use sealing technique knowledge to restrain the difficult-to-control Wind-attribute chakra into the defensive ninjutsu "Wind King's Barrier," he could naturally, after adding extreme cutting properties, restrain and shape it into a high-speed rotating disc.
Extreme speed and lethality—wasn't it far more useful than some energy ball or ki blast?
Carrying Gari's corpse, Makoto turned and walked back toward his own unit.
This scene was seen by many shinobi along the way. The Iwagakure forces were shocked pale, yet no one dared to step forward to snatch the body.
Seeing their leader killed by a Konohagakure shinobi, the Explosion Corps—who had still been stubbornly resisting—instantly lost heart in despair and rapidly collapsed into retreat.
This triggered a chain reaction. Gari's death became the turning point of this battle.
The defeat of Iwagakure's elite Explosion Corps intensified the defeat of the rest of the Iwagakure forces.
Many Iwagakure shinobi who were still fighting did not even know what had happened. They only saw their elite being chased and cut down by Konohagakure from behind, were greatly shaken, and then muddle-headedly followed in retreat.
A localized loss triggered a complete collapse across the battlefield. A large-scale rout began.
At this moment, it was the perfect opportunity to harvest military merit. How could the Konohagakure shinobi let such a good chance slip? They immediately intensified their offensive.
The Kumogakure shinobi also wanted to do the same, but suddenly realized that Konohagakure's momentum was overwhelming—cutting down anything that stood in their way, and even striking through them as they advanced.
Sensing that something was wrong, the Kumogakure shinobi, under the call of their stronger members, gathered the remnants and fled toward the northeast.
Clearly, the outcome of this battlefield had been decided. Konohagakure laughed last.
Having seized the fruits of victory, the Konohagakure shinobi split into two routes, following behind the enemies and harvesting as much merit as possible.
In war, the winner takes all—such has always been the case.
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