Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 30, Wave 1 Attack

Seeing the injured Yuan Feiquanxiong being sent to the rear, Hyuga Kanan returned to her original spot and began to train silently.

Unfortunately, the Iwa ninja didn't give Hyuga Kanan much time. It was only early afternoon when Hyuga Kanan sensed the arrival of the main Iwa ninja force. This time, there was no vanguard; the entire force was deployed, and countless figures stretched out in a long line, rapidly advancing towards the blocking line.

Clearly, Konoha's two previous ambushes revealed Konoha's intentions to the Iwa ninja. Each time, Konoha's ambushes involved relatively few people and were not particularly strong; their sole purpose was to delay the main Iwa ninja force's advance.

The Iwa ninja decided to launch a large-scale attack to directly crush the Konoha ninja force that was blocking their way, thus achieving their goal of quickly supporting the Sand ninja.

However, this time it happened right into Orochimaru's plan. Orochimaru understood that the previous two attacks had revealed Konoha's intentions to the Iwa ninja, so this first wave of attack would be incredibly powerful. Therefore, he prepared to mobilize most of his ninja and expend most of his resources to hold off this wave. This would force the Iwa ninja to hesitate and return to reconnaissance and probing operations. In this way, he could delay the main Iwa ninja force's advance, buying more time for the Konoha and Sand ninja to decide the outcome of their battle.

When Orochimaru reported the intelligence about the Iwa ninja operation to Kanan that day, he also showed an expression of "I knew it," and at the same time issued an order for the entire army to prepare to meet the enemy.

As usual, at the three-kilometer mark, the Iwa ninja stopped advancing, made final preparations for their attack, and then launched a large-scale assault.

However, this time the Iwa ninja underestimated the strength of Konoha's frontline traps. Countless traps were triggered along the Iwa ninja's attack route. Numerous explosive tags detonated, causing severe chakra depletion for the Iwa ninja. The numerous high-powered traps directly slowed down the Iwa ninja's main force's advance, resulting in some casualties.

Before reaching the attack range of the Konoha ninjas, some powerful ninjas even had to expend a lot of chakra to maintain their defensive ninjutsu, casting a shadow over the Iwa ninjas even before they officially launched their attack.

However, the Iwa ninja did not stop their offensive and maintained their attack posture. In the Iwa ninja's mind, Konoha did not have many ninja troops to resist their large-scale attack, and once they officially engaged the enemy, they could quickly defeat the Konoha forces with their numerical advantage.

Upon entering Konoha's attack range, the Iwa ninja's front-line ninja were fully prepared to defend against the attack, ready to face Konoha's first wave of assault. However, the Iwa ninja never expected the sheer number of Konoha's attackers.

The Iwa ninja, positioned 20 to 30 meters in front of Konoha's defensive line, faced an overwhelming barrage of attacks. Countless shuriken and kunai, armed with explosive tags, along with numerous offensive ninjutsu, directly covered a 30-meter radius around the Iwa ninja.

Instantly, the sounds of wind breaking, explosions, and impacts filled the area, obscuring everyone's vision with smoke and dust.

The Iwa ninja were caught off guard by the scale of this attack, and some casualties were immediately incurred. As a result, the Iwa ninja forces did not continue their attack immediately, but instead retreated several dozen meters.

Both sides immediately ceased their attacks. The Iwa ninja and Konoha ninja stood facing each other across the smoke and dust kicked up by the explosion, each wanting to wait for the smoke to clear before launching an attack.

An eerie calm descended upon the battlefield.

As the smoke and dust slowly dissipated, both sides gradually became visible. The Iwa ninja were still led by their Explosion Captain, 'Kou,' while on the Konoha side was their old rival, Orochimaru.

The two stood at the very front of the line, their gazes silently sweeping over each other, both revealing serious expressions. Iwa Ninja was wary of Orochimaru's strength, while Orochimaru was impressed by the sheer number and quality of the Iwa ninja on the opposing side.

Iwa Shinobu took a deep breath, said something to the figures around him, and then immediately ordered the Iwa ninja to launch an attack. This time, the Iwa ninja expanded their attack range, stretching the battle line several times over, and no longer concentrated their forces in one place. Instead, they attacked in small squad units.

This made it difficult for Konoha to use a large number of ninja tools and ninjutsu to concentrate fire on the enemy's concentrated areas as before, and they could only attack these small teams in a dispersed manner. However, the power of this attack was greatly reduced, and it could no longer cause huge casualties to the Iwa ninja as before.

Orochimaru and his companions also noticed the Iwa ninja's attack pattern of splitting into small teams, and then directly told Jiraiya and Tsunade about the preparations for Plan B.

The so-called Plan B is simple: abandon some defenses and personnel, concentrate ninjas to attack several small teams, and quickly surround and kill them. Jiraiya and Tsunade will be under much more pressure. They will lead the most elite members of their teams to ensure that the Iwa ninjas cannot form an encirclement, while also ensuring that their retreat is unobstructed.

This puts all the pressure on Jiraiya and Tsunade, who have to face multiple Iwa ninja squads simultaneously and eliminate them quickly, preventing the squads from gathering and surrounding them. This arrangement also allows Jiraiya and Tsunade to unleash powerful attacks, quickly eliminating Iwa ninja and denying them the opportunity to encircle them.

Orochimaru, on the other hand, was under even greater pressure. He had to hold off a large number of elite Iwa ninjas head-on, including the attack from Taka, an Iwa ninja who led the Explosion Release ninja team.

At this moment, the Konoha ninja automatically split into three parts.

One battlefield was Orochimaru's main battleground. While the number of opponents was small, it was the highest quality, with even the weakest being Jonin. Orochimaru was taking the initiative, fighting against more than five Jonin alone, plus the Iwa ninja leading the charge. This meant he was single-handedly holding off nearly 30% of the enemy's high-level combatants. Given Orochimaru's strength, while victory wasn't guaranteed, killing him with such a small force wouldn't be easy either.

The second battlefield is constantly shifting, with a dozen or so Konoha ninja forming a small team to quickly surround and kill a four-person Iwa ninja team. This is the least stressful, but these teams are too weak, and there are bound to be casualties when they try to surround and kill the opposing team.

The third battlefield was the most dangerous. Jiraiya and Tsunade each led a few people to split into two groups, left and right, constantly blocking the Iwa ninja squads that were trying to surround them, and their numbers were constantly increasing.

At this moment, Hyuga Kanan was on the third battlefield, with Moonlight Flame not far away. They had been assigned to Jiraiya's side of the battlefield, and now each of them had to deal with at least two Iwa ninja!

The Konoha ninjas assigned to the third battlefield were all ninjas with extremely high attack power. The requirement for them was simple: to kill the enemy quickly and not give the Iwa ninjas a chance to surround the Konoha team.

Hyuga Kanan faced an attack from three Iwa ninjas alone, but he didn't care and launched a quick attack, using the Eight Trigrams Palm - Deadly Palm to quickly kill one of the Iwa ninjas, completely disregarding the cost of his attacks.

On the other side, Moonlight Nobunaga also directly used the Leaf Village Sword Technique to quickly attack the two Iwa ninjas on the other side, without any defense, only aiming to kill them quickly.

Hyuga Kanan quickly killed the three Iwa ninja in front of him. He was not injured, but he was greatly exhausted, directly consuming nearly 30% of his internal energy.

On the other side, Moonlight Nobunaga was not so lucky. Although he also quickly killed two Iwa ninjas, he still had a kunai stuck in his thigh and a wound in his abdomen, both of which were bleeding.

Soon, Moonlight Flame took out a scroll, opened it with a bang, and a slug appeared from the smoke. Without delay, he placed the slug on the wound, and the slug emitted specks of green light, quickly healing the wound, which soon recovered.

This is one of the trump cards that allows their team to disregard their injuries and quickly kill Iwa ninjas by trading blows: Tsunade's summoning beast, the slug, can quickly heal injuries, restoring combat power as long as they are not fatally wounded.

However, Hyuga Kanan still tried his best to avoid injury. He didn't want the slug to heal his body; his body was different from a ninja's. He had no intention of letting the slug know his secrets. After all, there was only one slug, and these were all its clones, sharing a common consciousness. Being discovered by it would increase the risk of exposure. Who knew if he was part of the Sage of Six Paths' scheme?

Hyuga Kanan would rather expend more of her internal energy than risk exposing herself to the slug. Since she could quickly replenish her energy by consuming soul power, there was no need to increase the possibility of exposure.

So what if it consumes a lot of soul power? At most, it just means I'll have to spend more time cultivating. It's just slowing down my cultivation progress, but that's still better than losing my life.

Before the Hyuga Kanan squad could even catch their breath, another Iwa ninja squad arrived, forcing them to confront them once more, and the two sides clashed again.

Before the two sides could determine a winner, another Iwa ninja squad appeared nearby, this time making a total of three squads.

Seeing this, Hyuga Kanan and the others gritted their teeth, but still did not retreat, and immediately engaged in battle.

At this point, their pressure increased dramatically, and they became flustered and overwhelmed.

This time, Hyuga Kanan was facing four Iwa ninja, whose strength was greater than the previous teams. It wasn't so easy to kill them quickly. Whenever he tried to attack one of them, the other Iwa ninja would immediately use ninjutsu or throw shuriken and kunai to interrupt his attack. This was a complete team, and their coordination was excellent. They suppressed Hyuga Kanan for a while.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Gekko Shinka and a Konoha Chunin were facing six Iwa ninja at the same time. Gekko Shinka had been stabbed in the arm, which directly affected his ability to use swordsmanship. The two dodged left and right, and it looked like they were about to be overwhelmed.

Jiraiya didn't have time to come and help either. He was facing even more Iwa ninjas, and they were all accompanied by Iwa ninja leaders. At the very least, they were surrounded by Chunin. Although he had the upper hand, it wasn't something that could be ended quickly.

Seeing this, Hyuga Kanan's expression became even more serious. While constantly attacking and dodging, he kept glancing at Gekko Nobuhiro and the other person on the opposite side, preparing to forcefully break through and provide support at any time.

"Oh ho, you still have time to worry about that battlefield?" Several Iwa ninjas mocked. They were also somewhat angry; were they being looked down upon?

Hyuga Kanan didn't reply. He took out the kunai that Hyuga Hizashi had prepared for him from his ninja tool pouch, intending to use his soul power to gather most of his internal energy to accelerate and kill one of them directly.

"Super Instantaneous Movement Technique!"

Hyuga Kanan instantly appeared beside an Iwa ninja, the team leader. From their earlier exchange, it was clear this ninja's reflexes and strength far surpassed the other three. A simple Body Flicker Technique was too much for the opponent to react to, allowing them to prepare defenses and create opportunities for their teammates; it had almost resulted in Kanan being injured in conjunction with his teammates. Therefore, this time, Hyuga Kanan used most of his internal energy to unleash the Super Body Flicker Technique, a movement method he had enhanced based on the ninja's Body Flicker Technique, which would cause significant pressure and damage to his body. But he couldn't worry about that now.

This time, the Iwa ninja didn't react in time, allowing Hyuga Kanan to appear behind him and plunge a kunai into his back, killing him instantly.

The other Iwa ninjas then realized what was happening and immediately threw several kunai at Hyuga Kanan.

"Clang clang clang!" Hyuga Kanan drew his kunai and quickly parried several flying kunai, making a clanging sound.

Hyuga Kanon was unable to dodge as quickly as before because his legs were still a little sore after using the Super Instantaneous Movement Technique. He could only rely on kunai to block, which was why he took out kunai to attack.

After killing the squad's leader, the other Iwa ninjas visibly panicked, giving Hyuga Kanan the opportunity to pick them off one by one. However, Hyuga Kanan quickly gave up. His teammates were already on the verge of collapse, and he needed to quickly provide support.

After the soreness in his legs subsided considerably, Hyuga Kanan immediately went to support his teammates, surprising the Iwa ninja squad.

"Bagua Palm - Deadly Strike!"

Hyuga Kanan instantly appeared behind the Iwa ninja who were besieging Gekko Shinka and his companion, and used the Eight Trigrams Palm technique in quick succession, killing several unsuspecting Iwa ninja and allowing his two teammates to catch their breath.

With the slug's help, the two recovered from their injuries. The three of them resumed their attack on the Iwa ninja squad that had initially surrounded Hyuga Kanan. After quickly eliminating them, the two immediately swallowed several soldier pills to restore their chakra and prepare to support Jiraiya.

Jiraiya, who already had the upper hand, quickly killed his opponent with the support of Hyuga Kanan and the other two.

The group quickly rested to prepare for the upcoming battle.