Kitsuchi had an ugly expression as he sensed where Fujin was heading. He thought, 'There are at least 40 ninjas there. We can't lose them all.'
He looked at the storm that was obstructing them and commanded loudly, "We will move underground and chase them. If they return to attack us, we will escape deeper and move towards the village. If they don't, then we will return to the surface after getting out of range of the storm and chase."
Immediately, all the Iwa ninjas followed him. Despite his quick thinking, Kitsuchi was much slower than Kurogane who reached the location in merely a couple of seconds. Fujin looked down and sensed, 'Oh, there are 44 trapped here due to the explosion. But they won't be trapped for long. In fact, 13 have already escaped even deeper and are moving towards the village...'
The simultaneous explosion from 1000 explosion tags had blown up the ground and transformed it into the soil. More than 60% of this soil was blown into the air while the remaining stayed in the depression that the explosion created, burying the Iwa ninjas within.
However, thanks to Iron Skin jutsu and using the ground itself as cover, none of the Iwa ninjas were critically injured. And despite being buried, they weren't in any danger. They just needed slightly extra time to move through the soft soil. But, in high-speed intense combat, time was a luxury.
Without wasting any time, Kurogane once again infused a massive amount of Sage chakra in his breath and shot a beam towards the location where he sensed the maximum number of Iwa ninjas. Fujin was even faster. He shot a dozen Vacuum Bullets where the soil cover was the thinnest.
Since more than half the soil was blown away, the defense provided was reduced by more than 50%. In addition, the loose soil provided far lesser resistance than hard ground. Fujin's teammates just stayed alert, prepared to defend in case they were attacked. They didn't have any jutsus to pierce that deeply into the ground despite the weakened defenses.
The Vacuum Bullets pierced into the soil. Kurogane's Wind Breath also hit the soil and moved straight through it, pushing the soil out of its way and creating a large hole. The Iwa ninjas sensed Fujin's and Kurogane's attacks and tried to move. However, they couldn't move as freely under the ground as they could above it.
Of the 12 Vacuum bullets, 7 pierced into the hearts of the Iwa ninjas. The remaining 5 ninjas managed to avoid taking a fatal blow but were still left with a hole in their body.
The Wind Breath directly hit 5 Iwa ninjas that were in the path. All 5 were obliterated on the spot. Fujin created another dozen Vacuum Bullets and shot them at the 5 injured Iwa ninjas and another 7 ninjas who were escaping. He thought, 'Finally some easy kills. I was so sick of them dodging every attack!'
Meanwhile, Kurogane changed the direction of the beam towards the Iwa ninjas in the vicinity. He managed to kill another 3 when he and all the Konoha ninjas looked to their right, towards the village. A strange bird made of rocks flew from inside the barrier and moved towards Kurogane.
The Konoha ninjas and Kurogane were shocked. Fujin immediately made a hand seal while Kurogane flapped his wings and began soaring into the sky. Fumito muttered, "Such high chakra!"
The rocky bird tried to give chase but was too slow. As soon as the distance began growing larger, the rocky bird pointed its wing tips towards Kurogane and began glowing. In the next moment, it exploded!
Fujin immediately pointed his hand forward. A barrier appeared under them, shielding Kurogane. Thanks to their quick response, the distance was quite large. Despite the massive explosion, only a small impact was felt on the barrier. But Fujin didn't let his guard down and kept pouring more chakra into the barrier.
As he expected, two rock spears crashed into the barrier at tremendous speed! They were the rock spears inside the rocky bird's wings which it had pointed at Kurogane before detonating. They created multiple cracks in the barrier before losing their power and crumbling into the soil as they fell to the ground. The Konoha ninjas were finally relieved as Kurogane continued rising in the air.
Bunjiro looked towards the village below and asked in shock, "What was that?"
Fujin replied, "Explosion Release Kekkei Genkai."
He wondered, 'That didn't seem like Deidara. Besides, he should be younger than me by a year. It looks like there are others with this Kekkei Genkai in Iwa. But who and how strong is the one hiding inside the barrier?'
The intensity of the chakra in the jutsu had surprised Fujin. His first thought was that the attacker might be as strong as Kitsuchi. His eyes glowed as he observed the village but wasn't able to gather anything. He asked, "Kurogane, can you sense anything inside that barrier?"
Kurogane tried sensing using Nature's energy. However, he shook his head as well and said, "No. I can't sense anything. I didn't even notice that barrier earlier. What do you want to do?"
Fujin calculated, 'I still don't know who is inside the village. Considering that they didn't come out to help, I assumed that they aren't strong or confident enough to finish me off. But this attack was strong. Even flying on Kurogane won't guarantee our safety. Should I test out who it is and why that ninja hasn't revealed himself?'
Fujin thought for a few seconds and decided, 'Leave it… It's not worth the risk. My chakra is already very low. And creating another opportunity to kill them easily will be difficult. Not to mention, if the ninja hiding inside the barrier is as strong as Kitsuchi, then even my life would be at risk.'
He said, "Let's retreat. We have killed enough today."
Kurogane agreed with Fujin's decision and his teammates didn't object either. Fujin pointed Kurogane in the direction of the Ito family's town as he flew away.
On the ground, Kitsuchi's group arrived a couple of seconds after the Rocky bird exploded. Kitsuchi sighed and muttered, 'Old man Yoshiki was forced to make a move…'
Inside the barrier, an old man was on his knees, coughing heavily. He had a very pale face. It was the same old man who warned Kitsuchi about Fujin's attainments in Fuinjutsu. He thought, 'Fortunately, my bluff worked! I poured almost my entire chakra into the jutsu and would not be able to perform another any time soon. If he had stayed, then we could have faced more losses.'
A younger man supported him and asked, "Are you fine, master?"
Yoshiki caught his breath and said, "I am fine, Makoto. It's just that I used too much chakra in that jutsu. Looks like my old bones won't support me much."
Makoto sighed. Yoshiki was 76 years old. Though he was an Elite Jounin in his prime, his prime was far behind him. Of course, he was still highly respected. The reason was that he was among the only 3 Fuinjutsu Grandmasters in Iwagakure. As for Makoto, he was one of the SealMaster that Yoshiki was guiding.
Makoto looked into the sky and saw that Kurogane was flying away. He asked, "Why did you scare him away? Now we can't kill him."
Yoshiki got up and shook his head. He said, "The battle was lost even before we started. Kitsuchi wasn't aware of his summon nor did he know about his expertise in Fuinjutsu. So killing him today wasn't possible. He would have just continued attacking until he ran out of chakra and then escaped. The only thing that would happen is that more of our ninjas would have died."
Makoto had a complicated expression. He was being guided to become the next Fuinjutsu Grandmaster in Iwagakure. Though he wasn't anywhere close to reaching it, his future prospects were very good. But, to know that someone 7 years younger than him from an enemy country was not only strong enough to fight against one of Iwa's strongest ninjas but also better than him in his speciality was a bitter pill for him to swallow.
He muttered, "But isn't he just 14?"
Yoshiki sighed and nodded. He said, "In every generation, Konoha produces many such talents. Two decades ago, it was the 3 Sannins. A decade ago it was the Fourth Hokage. And now they have the Copy Ninja, Konoha's Green Beast and this youngster, the Spectral Swordsman.
Not to mention, I heard that the children of their clan leaders will be graduating from the academy in little more than a year. Once they do, Konoha would likely gain even more elites in another 4 to 5 years even if they don't reach the same level as these three."
Makoto didn't have any response. He could just sigh helplessly.
