On the other side of the battlefield, the second giant Fūma Shuriken screamed through the air toward the other Sand Village captain. This one was a genuine jōnin, and his strength was extraordinary.
CLANG!
As expected of a Suna jōnin, he reacted with incredible speed, managing to get his sword up to block the impact. However, he gravely underestimated the sheer power behind the weapon. The terrifying centrifugal force struck, and the standard-issue ninja sword he carried instantly cracked, fissures spreading across it like a spiderweb. At the last moment, he managed to deflect the blade, narrowly avoiding the fate of being sliced in two.
This jōnin was lucky enough to avoid the critical blow, but the chūnin standing just behind him was not so fortunate.
Splat!
The chūnin was cut in half. His organs spilled from his abdominal cavity along the incision, scattering across the ground in a gruesome and cruel scene.
But the attack wasn't over. Just as the two Fūma Shuriken were about to pass completely through what was left of the Suna formation, Sasuke yanked hard on the wires attached to them.
Suddenly, two silver lines of death swept across the battlefield.
Zizizizi...
Two steel wires pulled taut, almost to their breaking point, anchored to the trees on the far side.
"Watch out!" one of the ninja screamed.
"It's the manipulated shuriken technique!"
The Sand ninja had barely recovered from the initial impact of the Fūma Shuriken and were already facing another life-or-death crisis, a surprise attack as unexpected as it was fatal. They were elites, but they weren't Sasuke Uchiha, after all. Even Itachi himself was injured when facing that very same technique. In a Kage-level battle, such a tactic could have astounding effects, which proved its fearsome power.
Under the high-speed pull of the Fūma Shuriken, the two steel wires became silver blades, two imitation versions of the Water Style: Water Cutting Wave, that swept across most of the battlefield. The attack was too sudden and too fast. The steel wires sliced through the air, almost soundlessly at first. Before the Suna jōnin could react, all five fingers of his left hand were severed at the root, blood gushing forth.
The wires continued their unstoppable advance, directly severing the legs of an unprepared chūnin puppeteer, who collapsed in a pool of his own blood, moaning endlessly, having lost all ability to fight back.
'A tactic worthy of the Uchiha's pillar. Simple, elegant, and devastatingly effective,' Sasuke thought, observing the stumps and the blood dripping from the steel wire, glinting in the firelight.
The main crisis was resolved. The Suna jōnin, the greatest threat, could no longer form hand seals, drastically reducing his strength. After all, only a few in the world, like Haku, could perform one-handed seals. If not for the solid defense of the puppet masters, who specialized in countering wire-based attacks, this wave would have annihilated all the survivors.
While the Sand ninja were still in shock, Sasuke launched the next phase of his plan.
"Tekudō! Now!"
"Katsu!" Tekudō roared.
They both formed a Tiger seal with their hands, detonating the hidden exploding tags. The moment the seal was formed, a sound of tearing paper came from within the Fūma Shuriken. They were hollow, and inside they housed a large number of exploding tags and poisoned senbon.
BOOM! BOOM!
In an instant, thousands of poisoned senbon exploded from the shuriken, blanketing the entire Sand ninja formation in a deadly fan shape.
"Dammit!"
"Watch out, there are traps inside the shuriken!"
The Suna ninja, not yet recovered, faced yet another life-or-death crisis. Their faces turned pale. Such a terrifying and complex trap tactic... the Konoha ninja attacking them had to be a jōnin who specialized in traps. Now, all of them injured, they no longer thought of retrieving the information; they just wanted to survive this desperate surprise attack.
Pfft, pfft, pfft!...
The ninja with the severed legs was impaled by the senbon, turning into a human pincushion before being sent to the Pure Land. Another of the puppeteers, though he blocked most of the senbon with his puppet, couldn't avoid the exploding tag's blast. His puppet was blown to pieces, and he was severely wounded.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!"
A bald Suna chūnin managed to execute a defensive jutsu at the critical moment, but he could only protect himself. Covered in a cold sweat, he watched his comrades get hit. The jōnin captain, his fingers already severed, now had three poisoned senbon stuck in his right shoulder, the wound glowing with an unnatural indigo color.
Except for the puppet master captain who had defended himself well, all the others had poisoned senbon lodged in their bodies.
"It's poison!" the jōnin shouted. He observed the blackened cut on his hand, immediately tore the bandage from his forehead to make a tourniquet on his arm, and quickly took an antidote pill.
Then, they realized something terrible: the tissues around the wounds had lost all feeling. They were paralyzed.
"Elder Chiyo's antidote pill... is ineffective!"
A cold sweat broke out on the surviving Sand ninja. Panic began to replace the pain. This was not a known toxin. Elder Chiyo's special pill could suppress even Hanzō's salamander poison, but against this, it did nothing.
Fortunately, they could suppress the paralysis with chakra. Otherwise, they would have to commit suicide to avoid being captured. But using chakra to suppress toxins was not a long-term solution. On the battlefield, when their chakra ran out, it would be their end. They were in a dilemma.
"Everyone!" roared the Suna jōnin captain, a suicidal determination in his eyes. "Even if there's no chance, we must retrieve that information!"
Sasuke was momentarily stunned. A cornered beast is the most dangerous. For them not to give up even in this situation... the information they were after must be truly extraordinary.