"Heh heh, let's see how you escape now!"
Satetsu watched as Shinji stood in the sea of fire, a ferocious expression on his face.
"Go! Bury him!"
Satetsu shouted at the two Jonin colleagues who had also escaped beside him. Both nodded and immediately began to run along the edge of the sea of fire.
Shinji curved his lips, watching the three Sunagakure Jonin gradually form a triangular formation. As the three began to raise their hands to form seals, he was surprised.
This seal is—
"It's over! You Konoha bastard!"
Satetsu shouted loudly, and then the three simultaneously slammed their hands onto the ground.
Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral!
The entire surrounding ground seemed to wail. Shinji looked down at the earth beneath his feet, which instantly turned into sand, then seemingly came alive.
Boom!
Vast amounts of sand, like a giant wave, rolled high, squeezing in on Shinji in the center from all directions, leaving no blind spots.
Rumble—!
Shinji's figure had just been covered when the entire sandy area immediately began to shake. In a moment, a huge crater, nearly half a kilometer in diameter, appeared where he had been.
With the Jutsu complete, the three Sunagakure Jonin were all panting heavily. This Jutsu, even with the three of them activating it together, consumed a huge amount of Chakra.
Satetsu looked at the giant pit, his expression exceedingly grim. Even though he had killed a Konoha genius like Shinji, his side had lost dozens of Chunin and Genin.
Among them were many clan members, even if they were only peripheral figures.
"Satetsu, is he dead?"
Beside him, the Jonin who had just been manipulating puppets asked, his voice slightly trembling.
"With this level of Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral, even if Minato were here, he would absolutely not escape." Satetsu sensed the ground beneath them and responded coldly.
The other two exchanged glances, fear still lingering in their eyes. After all, this Konoha guy was too terrifying.
"Let's go. We need to report back, or the village will not be peaceful."
Satetsu stood up. That last attack had buried his comrades' bodies. Forget about recovery, there wasn't even a trace left.
"Alright." The other two nodded, their faces extremely pale, having clearly realized the situation.
Just then, the pupils of the two Jonin who had taken a few steps instantly dilated.
Thud—
Shinji's figure landed, and behind him, a Sunagakure Jonin slowly fell to the ground, clutching his neck.
"Damn it! How could you have escaped!" Satetsu roared, full of rage.
"Who said I was fighting you with my main body?" Shinji looked coldly at the sole surviving Satetsu.
Knowing that they were intentionally cornering him, how could he be so naive as to stand still?
However, the results were good.
Shinji glanced at the two corpses of Sunagakure Jonin behind him. Next up was the one in front of him.
Wind Release: Vacuum Serial Waves!
Air bullets, like from a machine gun, spewed from Satetsu's mouth, aimed directly at Shinji.
Shinji lightly tapped his foot, and his figure instantly vanished.
Satetsu's face was grim as he searched around, still unable to find Shinji's figure.
"Damn it! It's like this again! I didn't sense him at all! He couldn't possibly jump out of my sensory range in an instant and then reappear!" Satetsu was nearly driven mad by Shinji, shouting at his surroundings.
"Maybe when you first started tracking me, you already fell into a Genjutsu?"
"Didn't you notice that my teammates have disappeared?"
Shinji's figure reappeared, and a kunai slashed at Satetsu's neck.
"Genjutsu—"
In his dying moments, hearing this, Satetsu involuntarily recalled the initial situation.
So, it was at that time?
As blood sprayed, Satetsu's entire body fell forward.
Whoosh—whoosh—
In the dense forest, Muta and Yushu's figures appeared. Both had shocked expressions on their faces. After all, from beginning to end, these ninjas seemed to have been led around by Shinji like dogs.
Ninjutsu was indeed activated, but it was all directed at their own people.
Around Shinji were the corpses of the pursuing Suna ninjas, each with an expression of dread on their faces.
Shinji reached up and rubbed his temples.
Yin Release: Mind Illumination World.
The system's previous reward to him could be said to be the use of a Yin Release system, which included various Genjutsu.
Like when he controlled the leader of the Ibu clan before, that was one of the control methods.
And this kind of group control now was another method, only it no longer relied on those black threads.
This group control could make people unknowingly fall into a Genjutsu world, and the conditions for activation...
It was very simple. It was to emit Yin Chakra to dominate the five senses. It was more strenuous than ordinary Genjutsu, but surprisingly effective.
Mind Illumination World, as the name suggests: where the mind illuminates, the illusory becomes real!
It was very similar to Yakumo's Genjutsu, but it had a different characteristic.
Shinji formed a force field with his own Yin Chakra, and anyone within this range would be dominated by him. But it had distance limitations and consumed a lot, Shinji already felt a headache after just this short amount of time.
"Shinji-sama?" Yushu walked over, looking at Shinji with a worried expression.
"I'm fine. Notify people to come over. These things need specialized personnel to recover."
Shinji pointed to the scattered weapons and the intact puppet around them. These were all poisoned.
"Yes." Yushu nodded and immediately began to make contact.
Shinji, meanwhile, walked over and tapped the puppet. It was a very strange substance. Although it looked like wood, it had the texture of steel when tapped.
Muta explained, "Shinji-sama, the Suna ninja's puppets have always been their trump card. The puppet manufacturing process has almost never been revealed externally."
Shinji nodded, it made sense then.
—
Sunagakure main camp.
An elderly woman with gray hair was resting with her eyes closed. The entire large tent was incredibly quiet.
Thud—thud—
Footsteps approached from a distance. The old woman, who had her eyes closed, frowned and opened them to look.
A Jonin, wearing Sunagakure's distinctive white headscarf, ran in in a hurry.
"Chiyo-sama!"
"Hmph!" Chiyo snorted lightly, which immediately silenced the Jonin who had run in.
After all, the person before him was an experienced ninja who had been active since the time of the Second Kazekage. Her strength and status were beyond what youngsters like them could compare to.
"What is it?" Seeing that the running Jonin was no longer so anxious, Chiyo finally asked.
"Satetsu took dozens of Chunin and two Jonin to pursue the ninja who had been harassing the main camp, and there has been no news since."
"Just now, the patrol personnel reported that some traces were found in a dense forest near the Land of Rivers border."
"Satetsu and the others... they might all be dead."
Below, the reporting Jonin watched Chiyo's expression, his voice gradually lowering as he spoke the last part. After all, Chiyo, sitting above, now had a face clouded with gloom.
"Is there any news from Iwagakure?"
The Sunagakure troops had been deployed to the border but had not yet launched an attack, waiting for Iwagakure's move. However, after all this time, no news had been received.
"Not yet." The reporting Jonin shook his head.
"Strengthen patrols. Don't let a single one of those rats escape." Chiyo narrowed her eyes, saying in a cold tone.
"Yes."