Once Hoshiyomi mastered chakra nature transformation, his control over Earth Release chakra reached a state of pure perfection.
After experimenting a bit, he discovered that he could actually shape his Earth-nature chakra into a thread-like extension, allowing it to spread through the ground—an effective way to probe for the Burrowing Unit's tunnel network.
And surprisingly, it worked. Hoshiyomi sent his Earth chakra deep into the ground and managed to trace it all the way to the very bottom of one of the tunnels dug by the enemy. Not only that—he could follow the path of the tunnel for nearly a kilometer.
Excited by the discovery, he leapt onto Lobo's back and patted his fur.
"Run forward one thousand meters. If you're fast enough, we might catch up with them."
Lobo responded immediately, launching into a sprint. Compared to the massive summons from the Three Sacred Places, Lobo's advantage was his speed. Although it couldn't compare to Hoshiyomi's Body Flicker Technique, it was much faster than a regular Jonin's travel speed.
Of course, if pure speed was the goal, Hoshiyomi's Body Flicker Technique was unbeatable. But using Body Flicker repeatedly over long distances would consume a lot of chakra and stamina.
Hoshiyomi still needed chakra to locate the enemy—and more importantly, to fight a high-level unit like this one. Even as a Kage-level shinobi, he had to conserve his strength. A single misstep mid-battle could be fatal.
So, tracking in intervals of one kilometer at a time, he persistently pursued the trail for more than 40 kilometers. After roughly an hour, he finally sensed a shift underground.
He could detect lingering chakra signatures—proof that the enemy had passed through recently.
"Lobo, another five kilometers straight ahead. We're almost there."
Lobo was starting to pant. Forty kilometers at high speed was no small feat, even for him. But wolves were built for endurance—and Lobo was no ordinary wolf summon. Despite his heavy breathing, his speed remained consistent.
He broke into a full sprint again.
Meanwhile, underground, the Burrowing Unit began to notice something unusual.
The sensory ninja in the squad suddenly paused, his expression growing odd.
"Captain… two chakra signatures approaching fast. From what I can sense, someone's chasing us—and he's riding a summon beast."
The entire squad stared at him in disbelief. What kind of lunatic is this?
One guy chasing down our whole Burrowing Unit? Who does he think he is—the Hokage?
The captain also looked baffled. But after a moment, he made a decision:
"Up. Let's surface and check it out. If it's an idiot, we'll just kill him. If it's someone strong, we retreat. I don't believe they can do anything to us."
He signaled the team to start digging upward.
This time, Hoshiyomi didn't even need to plunge his Mikazuki Munechika into the ground to feel the chakra fluctuations coming from below.
He didn't dare to be careless, knowing that he had been discovered. He immediately gripped the Mikazuki Munechika and prepared for battle.
The Iwa captain underground gestured for one of his team members to continue working as he retreated to the center of the squad and quickly performed Earth Style hand seals.
"Earth Style: Earth Mountain Jutsu!"
"This move should be enough to finish you off."
With that, he place his hands on the rock ceiling above.
Crack!Crack!
The other Burrowing Unit members all stopped what they were doing because they were no longer needed.
As the captain poured chakra into the ground, the earth began to change. From where his hands touched, a massive crack burst forth through the ground, expanding upward until it broke through the surface.
At the same time, the rock on both sides of the fissure was lifted up like paper by a mysterious force, forming two massive stone mountains. Hoshiyomi and Lobo were caught in the middle of these two mountains.
Taking advantage of the upheaval, the Iwa shinobi broke through the surface one after another.
The captain, still performing the jutsu, clapped his hands together and shouted
"Go to hell, dumbass!"
As he forcefully clapped his hands, the two massive stone mountains began to squeeze together, aiming to crush Hoshiyomi and Lobo between them. The result would be obvious—anyone caught in the middle would be flattened like a pancake.
Seeing the lone figure still standing motionless in the thick dust cloud, the Iwa shinobi broke out into laughter.
"I thought he might be some kind of elite. Turns out he's just a moron."
"Squashed flat. What an idiot."
As they watched in anticipation, the stone mountains slowly closed, making a loud bang. The squad erupted in cheers.
But a heartbeat later, one of those cheering shinobi abruptly lost his head.
Literally.
His head flew into the air, eyes still wide with joy, his mouth frozen in a half-formed laugh—completely unaware he'd been killed.
The rest of the unit froze. The cheering died with a comical, choked "gah" sound, like ducks being strangled.
Before they could react, a cold voice rang out:
"Piercing Sky Draw Slash."
In the next second, a ring of bluish-green sword light flashed across their vision.
The jōnin among them reacted quickly. At the moment that first head flew, they knew something was wrong. A few used Earth Substitution or Body Flicker to escape.
Others were less fortunate.
Those who misjudged Hoshiyomi's strength and relied on simple jutsu like Earth-Hardening Technique or Earth Wall found their defenses sliced clean through, leaving deep wounds.
Still, they were the lucky ones.
The real victims were the mid-level chūnin and special jōnin—caught completely off guard. They didn't even have time to react before Hoshiyomi's Piercing Sky Draw Slash sliced them in half.
With just two strikes, Hoshiyomi had already taken out nearly half the squad.
One of the survivors, saved only by his captain's intervention, screamed in disbelief:
"No way! How did you survive the captain's terrifying jutsu?!"
Hoshiyomi, mid-charge toward a wounded jōnin, glanced at him casually—then flicked a wave of sword energy in his direction.
This time, the captain couldn't save him. The sword energy cut the man clean in two.
"Terrifying jutsu? What, are you dreaming, or am I?"
"That slow-ass technique was never going to hit me."
He wasn't wrong. Earth Mountain Jutsu was a terrifying killer on a crowded battlefield. But against someone like Hoshiyomi? It was child's play.
The jutsu was so slow that Hoshiyomi could simply wait until the last moment and use the Body Flicker Technique twice to get away, and then activated Transparent Escape Technique to sneak right up to them.
"I thought you guys were supposed to be an elite unit. What a joke."