A grin spread on Renzo's face. He said, "You are now trapped. I was planning to just kill you and get your head. But since you have killed 4 of my men, I will torture you until you beg for death!"
The morale of the remaining hunters in the barrier finally recovered.
Fujin thought, 'Just 4? Are there multiple groups here?'
No fear appeared on Fujin's face. He retorted, "Torture me?"
He looked towards his right and said, "I left the village to bait and hunt you down. If you dissolve the formation and surrender, you might be able to keep your life. Otherwise, even if you manage to kill me, your only result will be death!"
The bounty hunters were shocked to hear that Fujin was the bait. Renzo and others followed Fujin's gaze. Their eyes widened as four Konoha ninjas appeared outside the barrier. Shingo muttered with a grim face, "We were schemed against! It is Kakashi of the Sharingan!"
Their morale which had just recovered crashed down. Fujin's words were completely true. They would have a very difficult battle to just kill Fujin. Facing even stronger Konoha ninjas right after it would be a certain death!
Meanwhile, Kakashi's group also had grim faces.
Yamanaka Ken said, "Fujin is trapped."
Kakashi too had a grim face. He said, "The barrier has a high demand for chakra. And all four ninjas need to keep supplying chakra continuously. We will target one spot and kill one of them."
The battlefield entered a deadlock. The Konoha jounins couldn't interfere. And though the bounty hunters were safe for the moment, they were very fearful for their life.
Fujin noticed the distraction and immediately took advantage. The clones gathered chakra. The four jounins facing them noticed it and reacted. However, a dozen Vacuum Bullets were already fired at each of them.
Despite the low distance and the fast speed of the bullets, they still moved their body as much as they could. Renzo dodged 10 bullets and the remaining 2 he blocked with his sword. However, cracks spread through his sword due to the power behind the bullets. His expression became dark as he realized, 'If I hadn't used chakra flow on the swords, the bullets might have pierced straight through them!'
However, the other 3 weren't as strong as him. They could only move sufficiently for the bullets to miss their vital organs. A bullet grazed the right arm of Shingo. It left a cut so deep that even his bone was visible. The other two were hit by two to three Vacuum Bullets each.
Unfortunately for those two, they were once again standing right behind each other. So despite dodging, they were targeted by the Vacuum Bullets heading towards them from their back. One of them was very unlucky. A vacuum bullet hit his back and pierced straight through his heart. He dropped dead. The other one had a couple more holes created in his body but luckily avoided any critical injuries.
One of Fujin's clones laughed and taunted, "This barrier is good. This way, none of you can run away. Hahahaha!"
Not wanting to lose any more morale, Renzo immediately attacked the clone closest to him and shouted, "Everyone! Attack him! Attack and kill all four of him. Only after he is dead we can plan on how to escape the once outside the barrier!"
There was still another barrier created inside the Four Violet Flames Formation. It still had five people. One was the injured Jounin from Renzo's group. Another was the SealMaster while three were from the other group. Other than the injured Jounin, the others exited the barrier and attacked Fujin's clones.
The SealMaster said, "His chakra has become very low. He won't be able to continue for much longer."
Fujin's clones were all low on chakra. They had spent a lot of their chakra on the Fire-Wind combination jutsu. And after using Vacuum jutsus repeatedly, they didn't have much chakra.
Outside the barrier, the Konoha ninjas were getting worried. They were bombarding the barrier with Ninjutsu at the spot where Shiro was. The barrier shook but still stood erect. However, the four ninjas, especially Shiro, were under a lot of pressure. Their chakra was being drained rapidly.
Suddenly, Pakkun noticed something and looked to his left. After observing properly, he said, "Kakashi, focus on your smell in that direction."
Kakashi was surprised by Pakkun's request. He quickly gathered chakra in his nose and enhanced his sense of smell. Suddenly his expression became very peculiar. Guy noticed and asked, "What did you smell?"
Kakashi shook his head and said, "Nothing. Keep an eye on the barrier. We won't attack any more as we might run out of chakra before the barrier breaks. If that happens, we will be in a tougher spot."
Guy and the two Special Jounins from the Yamanaka clan realized that Kakashi was hiding something. They didn't question him and began paying attention to fighting inside the barrier. Without their attacks, the four ninjas maintaining the formation sighed in relief. They quickly consumed a soldier pill to recover their chakra rapidly.
Yamanaka Ken said, "Though maintaining the barrier needs a lot of chakra, they could rest until they have recovered if they keep using soldier pills. Should we call in reinforcements to prevent that?"
Kakashi shook his head and replied, "No need. There are only 12 left and two are severely injured. Regardless of the pills, the four maintaining the barrier will be exhausted. We can take them out without much issue."
Yamanaka Ken nodded. Inside the barrier, Fujin and his clones fought intensely for five minutes. However, the remaining ninjas were all very careful. Fujin took deep breaths while analyzing, 'They are too careful! In the last five minutes, I only managed to kill that guy with 5-6 holes in his body. Though I injured the rest to varying degrees, I haven't been able to injure them critically.'
He looked towards his other clones. At the same time, they too looked into his eyes and nodded. Suddenly, three clones flickered away and appeared next to Shiro.
Renzo had a bad feeling. He and the rest ran towards them, but the three clones touched the barrier and at the next moment exploded!
The force of the explosions was felt throughout the barrier. Shiro fell to his knees and began vomiting blood. While the remaining three also felt the impact. They began coughing blood.
Renzo shouted in panic, "Hang on! The barrier must not fall!"
The four rogue ninjas gritted their teeth and forcefully maintained the formation. Kakashi and the rest didn't manage to enter inside.
Renzo looked viciously at Fujin and said, "That was stupid! Without clones, you are an easy target for us!"
He immediately ran towards Fujin who was breathing roughly. Everyone could see that he was exhausted. Guy was getting restless, but Kakashi said, "It's fine, just watch."
Renzo swung his sword at Fujin. Fujin deflected his blow with his sword and punched him with his left hand. Renzo punched back at his fist. However, Fujin opened his fist at the last moment and caught Renzo's fist. A grin broke on his face. Renzo suddenly had a bad feeling. Without a word, Fujin exploded!
All the bounty hunters were stunned. The explosion created a dust cloud. In a second, a body was launched out of the dust cloud. He landed a few meters away. It was Renzo. His left arm was completely blown off! His chest, abdomen, face and thighs had hideous burns and were covered in blood. In addition to the existing horrible scars, his entire appearance looked similar to that of a terrifying demon!
One of the bounty hunters muttered in disbelief, "Did he explode his main body?"
Renzo replied with a hoarse voice, "It was a shadow clone!"
A sense of disbelief and shock spread through the four ninjas maintaining the barrier and the remaining seven ninjas inside the barrier. Such huge casualties were inflicted upon them by merely shadow clones.
Finally, one said, "No wonder he has a 20 million bounty! No, even a 20 million bounty is low for him."
Outside the barrier, everyone other than Kakashi and Pakkun was shocked. Yamanaka Ken exclaimed, "That was a shadow clone? Where is his real body?"
On cue, Fujin flickered behind him. They quickly turned around to see him. There wasn't a single scratch on his body. Guy and the others realised that Kakashi and Pakkun had smelled his scent and hence stopped attacking the formation. Kakashi looked at him and memories regarding Fujin's graduation exam surfaced. Fujin had made quite an impact that day by asking for a chakra metal sword. Kakashi never imagined that the boy would become so strong in just a few years. He said, "Good work."
Guy had no idea how Fujin managed to achieve this. But he didn't care. He raised his thumb and said with a grin, "You are good! I can feel the power of youth flowing through you!"
The two Yamanaka ninjas also looked at Fujin with surprise in their eyes.
The bounty hunters in the barrier noticed Fujin outside the barrier. They had already expected. However, the eyes of the SealMaster widened. He exclaimed in horror, "His chakra!"
