Looking at Ryuzetsu and Chino standing on the canyon rock wall, Yakushi Kabuto frowned slightly.
In 'Sage Mode', his perception ability was almost similar to Naruto during the Fourth Great Ninja War in the original timeline, reaching an extraordinary level.
So at this distance, he could clearly feel that in terms of chakra, these two rookies from the Hidden Grass Village, Ryuzetsu and Chino, were actually a level higher than the geniuses from the great ninja villages like Kurotsuchi, Darui, and Ameyuri Ringo.
Also noticing the arrival of reinforcements, the morale of the Ninja Village Alliance did not improve much.
After personally experiencing the terror of Yakushi Kabuto, ordinary reinforcements were of no use to the survivors on the field, let alone two brats from the Hidden Grass.
Even if these two Hidden Grass brats had indeed made a name for themselves in the Hidden Leaf Chunin Exams, they were definitely not enough compared to Yakushi Kabuto.
Kurotsuchi couldn't speak anymore, slumped on the ground barely maintaining consciousness without passing out.
"Run quickly!"
"Be careful!"
Darui and Ameyuri Ringo, who were relatively familiar with Ryuzetsu and Chino, one holding onto the rock wall, the other leaning on the ninja sword, tried their best to warn Ryuzetsu and Chino.
Yakushi Kabuto smirked; he liked this feeling of cat and mouse.
However, contrary to his expectations, looking at the messy battlefield full of casualties before them, Ryuzetsu and Chino did not shrink back and flee.
"Interesting!"
Yakushi Kabuto flashed and pounced.
Seeing Yakushi Kabuto rapidly climbing along the mountain wall as if walking on flat ground, attacking towards them, Ryuzetsu retreated while forming seals quickly with both hands.
The smaller Chino went to meet him instead.
Bang bang bang...
Instantly, Yakushi Kabuto and Chino collided on the canyon rock wall, immediately erupting into a fierce taijutsu battle.
In terms of speed and strength, Chino, operating the 'Twelve Palaces' at full power, was not inferior to Darui who activated the 'Lightning Release Chakra Mode', and Ameyuri Ringo who donned the 'Lightning Release Chakra Mode'. Moreover, she had the 'Ketsuryugan' that the two didn't possess, her insight far surpassing them.
So encountering Yakushi Kabuto in 'Sage Mode', she didn't flinch at all, fighting methodically.
"Eh!?"
After exchanging blows, Yakushi Kabuto exclaimed softly; he didn't expect Chino's taijutsu to be so strong!
Swish swish swish...
At this time, fireballs attacked from all directions, drawing strange arcs towards Yakushi Kabuto.
Undoubtedly, this was the Fire Release ninjutsu activated by Ryuzetsu.
With continuous study of the 'Twelve Palaces', Ryuzetsu's control over her body and chakra became stronger and stronger. What followed was not only the growth of taijutsu strength, but even the intensity of ninjutsu was greatly enhanced.
The sudden Fire Release made Yakushi Kabuto flustered for a while.
He shuttled on the rock wall like a snake, narrowly avoiding the fireballs one by one, then activated the Sage Art 'Inorganic Reincarnation'.
Instantly, the entire rock wall seemed to come alive, spontaneously thrusting out rock pillars, forcing the distant Ryuzetsu to retreat constantly, and the nearby Chino didn't even have a place to land.
Once 'Sage Art' was used, the situation took a turn for the worse!
In peril, Chino ignored everything else and directly cut open the wound on her hand, letting more blood flow out from her body. Then she used the pupil power of the 'Ketsuryugan' to control this blood, turning it into liquid armor, which could both defend and turn into protruding spikes at any time to attack the enemy!
Soon, the two sides gradually evolved from a contest of taijutsu to a confrontation between Sage Art and Bloodline Limit!
The entire battlefield seemed to be Yakushi Kabuto's home field. The rocks would actively cooperate with him, either protruding at critical moments to provide support for his feet, or raising rock walls to block various attacks for him, or thrusting out rock pillars to attack enemies for him.
Chino integrated offense and defense. The blood lingering around her sometimes turned into blood walls to block attacks for her, and sometimes turned into blood blades and blood spikes to assist her in attacking.
The two attacked each other for a while, dazzling the eyes, leaving the surrounding surviving ninjas of the Hidden Rock and Hidden Cloud dumbfounded.
Failing to gain an advantage in a round of rapid attacks, Yakushi Kabuto quickly pulled away.
Continuously activating 'Sage Art' consumed a lot of the Sage chakra stored in his body. So seeing Chino being trickier than imagined, he chose to retreat without any burden, disappearing from everyone's sight after a few leaps.
Watching Yakushi Kabuto retreat, the Hidden Rock and Hidden Cloud ninjas who were previously shouting to kill him not only didn't pursue but all breathed a sigh of relief.
Ryuzetsu rushed to Chino's side: "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!"
Chino shook her head while preparing to retrieve the blood just released.
At this time, Ryuzetsu suddenly grabbed Chino's arm: "Wait a minute!"
Chino asked: "What's wrong?"
Ryuzetsu stared solemnly at the blood lingering around Chino: "Your blood seems a bit off!"
"Off?" Stunned, Chino said: "I've purified it with pupil power, it's not contaminated by poison or impurities!"
Ryuzetsu said: "I can't say exactly, just feel something is wrong. Anyway, you'd better be careful."
"I know!"
Chino nodded, didn't retrieve all the blood at once, but tried to retrieve a little bit first.
As the blood returned to her body, she felt it carefully and said: "Seems like no problem..."
Before her voice fell, her wound became inexplicably mottled. Then, the wound began to petrify and spread continuously around the body.
Ryuzetsu was shocked: "Quick, get that blood out!"
Chino made a prompt decision, immediately cut open the petrified wound with a kunai, and then used pupil power to extract the blood retrieved earlier.
After being extracted, this blood quickly shriveled, petrified, and finally turned into ashes before the eyes of Ryuzetsu and Chino.
The two looked at each other in dismay.
Undoubtedly, during the fierce battle earlier, Yakushi Kabuto quietly integrated his 'Sage Chakra' containing natural energy into the blood Chino released outside her body through the confrontation.
This move was extremely insidious. If Chino hurriedly retrieved the blood outside her body to pursue when Yakushi Kabuto retreated, she would very likely petrify instantly due to absorbing excessive natural energy, turning into a stone statue.
Fortunately, Chino knew the opponent was strong and didn't pursue rashly. Coupled with Ryuzetsu's reminder, she barely escaped Yakushi Kabuto's ambush.
Realizing that the unretrieved blood had been tampered with by Yakushi Kabuto, Chino had to extract the pupil power from it and helplessly abandon this blood.
Splash
The blood lingering in mid-air quickly lost its vitality as the pupil power was extracted, splashing all over the ground like ordinary spilled blood.
To ensure Chino's blood wasn't used by the enemy, Ryuzetsu immediately released a Fire Release, roasting the blood on the ground into ashes, only then feeling relieved.