On a high cliff, the four members of Anbu Team Eleven crouched or stood, all peering towards the distant palace.
The priestess’s palace was currently shielded by a thin barrier. The stone soldier puppets surrounding it couldn’t penetrate the barrier and could only cluster around the palace in layers.
Seeing this, Kakashi let out a long breath, “Looks like the priestess’s palace hasn’t fallen yet. We still have a chance!”
Guy, anxious, asked, “But with so many stone soldiers outside, how do we get in?”
Kakashi turned to Hyuga Kyo, “Kyo, can you find a way into the palace?”
Kyo shook his head. He had already observed that the palace was surrounded by the stone soldiers, leaving no gaps or dead angles.
Shisui said seriously, “It seems we have to force our way through!”
Forcing their way through was not an easy task.
Team Eleven had already encountered these stone soldiers multiple times. Although they were extremely clumsy, they were immensely powerful. Once they formed a formation, fighting them in a siege battle would be very tough.
While observing the surroundings, Kyo suddenly pointed to a high cliff opposite them, “Look over there!”
Everyone looked and saw several figures on the opposite cliff, dressed in Sunagakure attire.
Kakashi, the team leader, pondered for a moment and said, “They should be Sunagakure ninja sent to aid the priestess. Maybe we can cooperate with them to break through the stone soldiers’ siege and enter the palace.”
Given the current crisis involving a foreign demon, no one was opposed to cooperating with Sunagakure. They all agreed with Kakashi’s proposal.
Soon, the two teams joined together.
Sunagakure had also sent a four-person squad to support the priestess. The leader, Pakura, was a renowned Scorch Release kekkei genkai user in Sunagakure, second only to the Fourth Kazekage in fame and formidable strength.
After a brief exchange with Pakura, Kakashi reached a consensus.
Kakashi and Pakura would lead the charge at the front. The middle section would be handled by the three other Sunagakure ninjas and Guy, while Kyo and Shisui would bring up the rear.
With the deployment set, the assault began immediately.
In a sharp, bird-like cry, the not-so-tall Kakashi took the lead, like a spear glowing with lightning, charging into the ranks of the stone soldiers.
Boom…
Boom…
Boom…
With a series of explosions, the stone soldiers fell one after another.
Kakashi’s Chidori showcased its piercing ability to the fullest. In almost an instant, he had already broken through five or six layers of the stone soldiers’ formation.
Following close behind, Pakura quickly formed hand seals and shouted, “Scorch Release: Great Fireball!”
Five fireballs, seemingly sentient, circled Pakura, incinerating the surrounding stone soldiers and further tearing through their ranks.
In the middle section, the three Sunagakure ninjas simultaneously used a jutsu, “Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!”
In an instant, two earth walls rose from the ground, shielding Kakashi and Pakura’s newly formed corridor, creating a temporary safe passage through the stone soldiers’ formation.
At the rear of the team, Kyo said to Shisui, “You go to the middle, I’ll handle the rear alone.”
Knowing Kyo’s strength, Shisui didn’t argue. He wasn’t particularly good at dealing with the stone soldiers in a head-on fight, so he quickened his pace and left the rear.
At the very end of the team, Kyo fully activated his Tenseigan. The attacks from the stone soldiers appeared to him like a series of slow-motion movie frames. Aside from occasionally using Rotation to avoid unavoidable attacks, the stone soldiers posed little threat to him.
Through close combat, Kyo keenly noticed that the chakra within the stone soldiers was identical, clearly originating from the same source, which felt evil and violent.
“If the source of this chakra is the foreign demon Moryo, then…”
Thinking this, Kyo shook his head inwardly.
The chakra, being so evil and violent, was not suitable as a chakra source for an artificial-tailed beast, so he dismissed the option of using Moryo.
Although there were only eight ninja in total, they were all elite from their respective villages. Pakura, in particular, was a decision-maker in Sunagakure. It didn’t take long for the joint squad to break through the stone soldiers’ encirclement and safely enter the palace protected by the barrier.
As soon as the joint squad entered, the palace guards cheered.
With the demon’s arrival, the priestess of the Land of Demons was the first to face the threat. The palace guards had been on high alert, and the arrival of more powerful reinforcements naturally filled them with joy.
Inside the temple, the priestess, wearing a worried expression, sat on a cushion. Beside her was a young girl, barely over a year old, looking very similar to the priestess, presumably her daughter.
Also present was a squad of Iwagakure ninjas.
The Iwagakure ninja had arrived before Team Eleven, and they looked very arrogant.
Seeing the Iwagakure ninja, Kyo was immediately furious.
These were the same Iwagakure ninja who had ambushed him outside Konoha when he was escorting wounded comrades back to the village. That encounter was one of the closest times Kyo had come to death during the entire war.
If the Konoha jonin reinforcements had arrived a moment later, Kyo would have died just a few miles from the village, like most of his team.
Later, Kyo specifically inquired about this exceptionally skilled and daring Iwagakure squad and learned they were part of Iwagakure’s infamous Decapitation Unit.
At the same time, the Iwagakure ninjas were also sizing up the new arrivals.
Pakura needed no introduction. During the war, she was one of Sunagakure’s representatives, one of the most famous ninjas in the world. The Iwagakure Decapitation Unit leader ignored the Sunagakure team and taunted the four members of Anbu Team Eleven, “Hmph, Konoha sent a bunch of kids to die? It seems Konoha is really done for.”
Among Team Eleven, the oldest was only about fourteen or fifteen years old, with Shisui being the youngest at just eleven or twelve, making them physically shorter than the Iwagakure and Sunagakure ninjas.
Kyo coldly retorted, “You better watch out, or you might die at the hands of these kids.”
If someone else had provoked him, Kyo might have ignored them. But facing the Iwagakure Decapitation Unit that nearly killed him, he couldn’t suppress his anger.
The Iwagakure leader, arms crossed, scowled, “Kid, are you looking for death?”
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