Chapter157

As soon as I burst out into the street after the clone, I was immediately hit by the noise of the clash and the thunderous sound of earth techniques from beyond the wall, which had previously been muffled by the tent walls. Although the dispersed chakra in the air slightly hindered a precise assessment of the situation, it didn't prevent me from evaluating the strength of our forces and the enemy's, who were currently engaged in a long-range battle.

The first thing that surprised me was the number of people in the camp — twenty chunin, half of whom were currently on the walls and the other half were already pulling up from the tents, hastily dressing and checking their weapons, as well as two teams of genin, who were bewilderedly looking around.

I expected that all the strong fighters would be sent for a breakthrough into the enemy lines, but that no jonin or tokubetsu jonin were left (excluding the wounded)?! When the strongest in the entire camp is my significantly depleted kage bunshin, that's just too much! However, the attackers' situation wasn't much better.

One strong shinobi, who used techniques to dismantle the most lethal chakra traps in the protective belt around the walls, fourteen chunin, and… a progressively decreasing number of genin, used as cannon fodder to deal with numerous unpleasant surprises before the main attacking forces.

Moreover, judging by the blatantly weak sensation from their chakra, they had sent literal academy children to their deaths! Well, if Oonoki wants to wipe out his younger generation, so be it.

— Activate the hospital's barrier and take care of our genin, — I commanded the clone, quickly assessing the situation.

In due time, I had made sure to reinforce the hastily built walls with seals and planned for the possibility of rapid activation of protection in case of unforeseen circumstances. I then focused and created a kage bunshin with the reserve of a mid-level jonin, passing him the scroll containing the prisoners and dashed to the other defenders who were trying to hold back the advancing attackers and prevent the wall from being destroyed.

However, despite the seemingly short distance of about fifty meters to the needed section, I didn't manage to reach it in time — a massive burst of chakra slashed through my senses, and the earth trembled.

The support that had disappeared from under my feet and the terrifying roar nearly made me dig my nose into the ground, but by sticking my arms out just in time, I did a forward roll and landed almost without losing speed. However, it didn't matter because, of course, the point of my sprint was no longer there — instead of the wall, there was now a deep chasm about fifteen meters wide, stretching beyond the camp, where some of the defenders who hadn't reacted in time had fallen.

Three chunin managed to cling to the edges and were now being pulled up by quicker or luckier comrades, but the rest were not so fortunate. Realizing what was about to happen, I jumped to the edge, releasing chakra threads from my fingers and attaching them to the nearest fallen ones who had grabbed onto the wall. With a powerful pull, I drew them back.

Another strong burst of chakra came from the Iwagakure jonin, and the earth trembled and began to move again. As I was jerked, I couldn't stay on my feet even with the help of chakra and started to fall backward, but I managed to pull the girl and two boys from the collapsing chasm. However, the last one was less fortunate — the walls slammed shut with a crash, and only splashes of blood from the crushed body shot up, unable even to scream before facing imminent death.

Six chakra sources below extinguished almost instantly, leaving only fourteen Konoha chunin against the enemy. But no time was given for mourning — the attackers recovered quickly and, with the destroyed wall no longer in our section, attempted to further increase the gap in numbers.

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