Chapter 80

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Blocking the enemy's attacks with ease, Toshiro felt a strange calmness.

Just as the Iwa jonin Genji had initially feared, Toshiro knew his teammates were dealing with the remaining chunin. Soon, whether facing his current opponent or the hidden Iwa Jonin, they would be like fish on the chopping block—escaping would be their only option.

A beast without its claws, no matter how formidable, can only meet a tragic end against a hunter.

Unnoticed by the two combatants, a small, dark brown stone ball lay quietly in the grass, slightly larger than a normal adult's eye. It observed the battlefield through the surrounding foliage—this was Genji's reconnaissance jutsu, akin to the Sand Eye by Gaara from the anime. To avoid detection by the Sharingan, it remained hidden, silently watching.

"We're in trouble now," muttered Genji. Hidden underground, surrounded by darkness, his grim expression remained unseen.

The situation was dire. Though he had responded quickly to the attack, he had only managed to block the second wave. Initially, when faced with the rapid fire bullets, he could only protect a few nearby comrades while ensuring his own safety. By the third wave, he had to retreat underground to survive. The enemy's attacks were relentless and highly targeted.

As the team leader, Genji was a primary target. Had he not reacted swiftly, his fate would have been much worse. From the moment the ambush began, their doom was almost sealed unless he sacrificed himself to block the attacks.

Now, they were completely on the defensive. While the three special Jonin were still alive, they were all injured to varying degrees. One was a sensory ninja, with combat skills comparable to those of an elite chunin. With the enemy's sneak attacker and another Sharingan user occupying two of their high-end fighters, and a third Sharingan user keeping watch, Genji doubted he could defeat a ninja with Sharingan quickly, even a young one.

The Iwa Chunin were at a severe numerical disadvantage. They had only six chunin left, each needing to face two enemies, an untenable situation. Moreover, many were injured, with burns and kunai wounds sapping their strength and morale.

Genji's reconnaissance jutsu, the 'Stone Eye', turned to scrutinize Toshiro, searching for a breakthrough.

Clang!

Blocking another attack, Toshiro felt his right arm go numb from the impact. The stone stick his opponent wielded—a nearly two-meter-long, egg-thick weapon—was formidable. Each swing stirred the air, making a sound more akin to metal than stone. The weapon's power and weight were clear, and the opponent's relentless assault left Toshiro with no chance to counterattack. His adversary was cautious, avoiding any eye contact with the Sharingan.

'Do you think guarding against the Sharingan alone will save you?'

Having regained some strength, Toshiro decided not to delay further.

"Demonic Illusion"

Retreating after another clash, Toshiro quickly formed a seal with his left hand, casting an illusion not exclusive to the Sharingan. As Uchiha Nako's grandson and a transmigrator, his spiritual energy was exceptional—it would be a waste not to use it.

"Hirako!!"

The stout Iwa Ninja's face twisted with emotion as he roared, swinging his stone stick wildly. He seemed to ignore the enemies around him, fixated on the illusion.

"How could it be? How could Hirako be here? Wasn't she captured by Konoha's ninjas?"

Seeing his teammate surrounded by foes, the Iwa ninja was momentarily stunned. He vividly remembered Hirako's death at Konoha's hands—how could she appear now?

"Damn!"

As expected of an elite Iwa ninja, he quickly realized he was caught in a genjutsu.

"Release!"

He didn't hesitate, immediately attempting to disrupt his chakra flow to break the illusion. Though he longed to see Hirako again, he knew he was still in a fight against a Konoha ninja. His only hope was to avenge Hirako and find some peace in his regret.

Unlike his slow progress with Yang Release, Toshiro's proficiency with Yin Release had advanced rapidly over the years, significantly enhancing his Genjutsu skills. Not only had he mastered his family's Sharingan illusions, but he also developed a strong command over various genjutsus, particularly those involving vision, hearing, and touch.

Visual illusions had a natural affinity with the Sharingan, and Toshiro found plenty of resources within his family's archives to study them. However, auditory and tactile illusions were much rarer. Fortunately, his status as an Uchiha and his connection with Satoshi-sensei allowed him to uncover some information from the family's extensive collection. As for other types of illusions, even the rich Uchiha archives offered only brief introductions. These two senses were so rare in genjutsu that few ninjas took an interest in them, leading to a fragmented and unstable inheritance of such jutsus.

The Kurama clan might have some relevant collections, but their practical combat value was uncertain. Smell and taste illusions were better suited for premeditated scenarios, limiting their appeal to Genjutsu users focused on combat applications.

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A streak of snow-white sword light flashed from Toshiro, aiming directly at the Iwa ninja's vital points. Seeing his opponent ensnared by the illusion, Toshiro utilized the Body Flicker jutsu to close in for the final strike.

Just as he was about to finish off the special jonin, the sound of friction between earth and stone reached his ears. Toshiro's expression changed as he realized the danger. He had anticipated that Genji might target him, given the trouble he had caused, but he hadn't expected the timing to be so precise. He was in the midst of the Body Flicker jutsu, moving in a straight line towards his opponent, when the earth barrier suddenly appeared.

If he collided with it, the impact would be catastrophic. In his previous life, such collisions were a minor inconvenience in games. In the ninja world, hitting an obstacle at high speed was akin to crashing into a speeding truck—potentially fatal.

Despite the peril, Toshiro's training and Sharingan allowed him to notice the anomaly in his path. With a swift motion, he used his left hand to push off the obstacle, performing a 360-degree turn and narrowly avoiding the attack.

Even though he escaped the immediate threat, Toshiro knew a Jonin's assault wouldn't be so easily evaded. Before landing, he noticed another danger through his Sharingan. Reacting quickly, he threw three shurikens connected by wire at a spot a few meters away and used the momentum to propel himself in that direction. The special wire, infused with chakra, helped the shurikens anchor firmly to the ground, allowing him to avoid yet another attack.

"Not good!" he thought as a sense of danger tingled in his mind. He looked down to see four dark brown, slender spikes rapidly protruding from the ground beneath him. Changing his trajectory mid-air again was impossible at this point.

"I didn't expect the enemy to set up an ambush here," Toshiro thought as he observed the spikes growing in slow motion through his Sharingan. In reality, their speed was astonishingly fast. If he landed, he would be impaled.

The ninjutsu used by his opponent was a simple yet effective C-rank jutsu: Earth Release: Earth Spikes. This jutsu caused four spikes to shoot up from the ground, aiming to impale the target from all directions. It was a vicious setup.

Clang!

The four spikes converged and collided just as Toshiro landed, making a sound reminiscent of metal striking metal. They clashed in the center, where they would have skewered Toshiro had he not evaded them.

At this moment, Asuka, who had been monitoring the battlefield from a distance to prevent sneak attacks, noticed Toshiro's precarious situation. Unfortunately, the tide turned against Toshiro so quickly that even if she wanted to help, she couldn't reach him in time. She could only watch helplessly as Toshiro fell into the enemy's trap, her face paling from the sudden shift in battle.

Her 'Sharingan began to spin slowly with anxiety. On one hand, she worried about Toshiro's safety, and on the other, she was concerned about the overall battle. She knew that if Toshiro fell, the enemy would free up a jonin and a special jonin to turn their full attention on her side. With no extra strength to counter such an assault, her teammates, who lacked the benefit of the Sharingan, would only become a liability.

"Thankfully," she sighed in relief as Toshiro narrowly dodged the attack, calming her three-tomoe Sharingan.

Toshiro stood in an odd posture, balancing on one foot with his ninja sword plunged into the ground, supporting his entire weight. "That was close," he muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead. He had narrowly avoided the spikes of earth, which had still managed to tear holes in his pants and draw blood from his calves.

Toshiro felt grateful for his Uchiha heritage. Without the vision granted by the Sharingan, he wouldn't have spotted the opening in the ninjutsu that saved him from a dire fate.

As he prepared to reposition himself, the ground rumbled like an earth dragon turning over, followed by a slight tremor. "What now?" he thought, dropping to the ground to brace for the next attack. The opponent's relentless assaults seemed determined to kill him.

"Retribution is a real pain," Toshiro thought, reflecting on how his earlier sneak attack had been similarly unrelenting. Now, the tables had turned, and he was on the receiving end, feeling just as exhausted.

Before he could catch his breath, two massive creatures emerged from the earth and charged at him. Covered in earth and rocks, with weeds and vines trailing, they resembled dragon-shaped monsters over thirty meters long and three to four meters thick. They treated the ground like water, swimming through it with ease.

Recognizing his current state of depletion, Toshiro turned and ran without hesitation. In his current condition, facing these monsters head-on was not an option. He needed to avoid their lethal attacks.

The Iwa ninja hiding underground had used an A-rank Earth Release Jutsu: Double Earth Stone Dragon. Normally, a B-rank jutsu, Stone Dragon creates an earth dragon to attack enemies. The enhanced version deployed here was twice as powerful, creating two dragons. Their heavy earth attributes made them difficult to defend against, and they could swim through the ground as if it were a bath.

Genji, the Iwa jonin, had refined this jutsu, achieving an elite level through hard work and talent, despite his relatively late advancement at age thirty. Iwagakure's conservative environment and systemic suppression of non-clan ninjas had hindered his progress. While Konoha's Sensei-disciple system was more organized, Iwagakure's unity came with the downside of suppressing civilian-born ninjas like Genji.

Genji faced significant obstacles, both in his jonin promotion and in redeeming high-level secret jutsus, often being thwarted by the village's top officials. This bred resentment in him towards the clan ninjas, though he was powerless to act against them. Even though such conflicts between civilians and clans existed in Konoha, they were particularly pronounced in Iwagakure.

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