"Attack!"
"Kill them!"
"Avenge our fallen comrades!"
The Iwa Jonin let out a furious roar.
A hundred Iwa ninjas launched their attacks without hesitation.
Earth Release: Fissure!
Earth Release: Stone Spikes!
Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears!
"..."
Boom—
With a loud bang, the ground beneath Haruki and the others suddenly split open with a huge fissure. The fissure was like a gaping maw, attempting to swallow them whole.
At the same time, countless sharp, hard rock staffs condensed in the sky, shooting towards Haruki and the others from all directions like a tempest.
Not only that, but incredibly sharp rock spears burst from the ground, piercing towards their vital points at an astonishing speed.
Haruki's words had no effect whatsoever. The battle fully erupted.
Fugaku's Sharingan spun wildly in his eyes, and he precisely dodged all attacks.
Kazue frantically swung her hammer, shattering all incoming rock staffs and rock spears that emerged from the ground. For a moment, shattered rocks flew everywhere, and smoke billowed.
Haruki's expression was quite something when he saw Kazue take out her meteor hammer.
Combined Earth Release: Mountain Earth Technique!
Thirty Iwa ninjas simultaneously completed their hand seals, and vast Chakra poured into the earth.
Boom—
The ground seemed to be lifted by an invisible giant hand, emitting a deafening roar, and the massive raised ground abruptly closed in on the five people, including Haruki, in the center.
The sky was quickly obscured by the rapidly closing ground, and the light instantly dimmed.
"Oh no!"
Kazue's hammer could shatter Ninjutsu attacks, but facing two pieces of ground this large, she would need a hammer at least the size of a person to smash them.
"Minato!"
Fugaku looked at Minato next to him and asked, "Can your technique be used?"
In such a situation, besides Minato's Flying Thunder God, he couldn't think of any other solution for a moment.
Minato gritted his teeth. If the Flying Thunder God were used without having fully mastered it…
Minato's brows furrowed.
Haruki's hand was suddenly grabbed by Nagato. He turned to look at Nagato, whose face was as pale as paper. His pupils were fixed on the group of Iwa ninjas.
"I told you, I will definitely protect you!"
The eerie glow of the Rinnegan swirled. Haruki immediately pressed down on the impulsive Nagato.
"Nagato!"
"Don't be reckless!"
He looked at Nagato and slowly said, "Trust me. I can do it."
The Chakra surging wildly within Nagato's body immediately stopped.
[Ding!]
[System detected Nagato's Affection value +3000.]
[Your Love Curse growth value has increased to 52.8%.]
Haruki looked at Kazue, who was protecting him from behind, and then at Minato, who seemed to have made some kind of decision.
Just because he hadn't been able to copy Minato's Flying Thunder God yet, Minato couldn't die here.
Haruki had many ways to resolve the current predicament.
The first method: the brute force approach.
Directly summon Rika and Ame, letting them transform into their complete forms, and smash the ground pressing down on them. This method was the most time and effort saving but it wouldn't work.
Rika was too obvious and would easily expose his identity.
In the Ninja World's intel about him, Rika had already been listed as a cursed spirit.
Haruki's identity was, after all, the disciple of Amegakure's demigod, Hanzo. His every move could easily cause international disputes. He didn't want to bring calamity to Amegakure.
The second method: the transfer method.
Use Takako's technique to transfer the space beneath their feet to a safe place. It could even move the spatial plane beneath them thousands of miles away. But this was too dependent on precise execution. Haruki didn't have complete confidence.
After comprehensive consideration, Haruki chose the third method.
A cold aura appeared without warning beside him. Space seemed to be twisted by some invisible force. A purple-black vortex appeared out of thin air. The vortex silently spun, continuously expanding.
Kazue, as a sensory ninja, immediately noticed something was wrong. She sharply turned her head to look at the purple vortex next to Haruki, her pupils suddenly constricting.
"What is that thing?"
Fugaku's voice had just fallen when the purple vortex rapidly expanded to over one person's height, and within the purple vortex was rotating darkness.
A figure slowly emerged from it. He was tall and wore a loose, dark blue monk's robe. His long black hair was tied into a half-bun at the back of his head, with a few strands of bangs casually falling.
He had a half-smile on his face, and his gaze swept past Haruki, then across Minato and the others, and the Iwa ninjas.
"One monkey…"
"Two monkeys…"
"Three monkeys…"
"Four monkeys…"
"Five monkeys…"
"Six monkeys…"
"Seven monkeys…"
"…"
"Why are there so many monkeys?"
"I can't even count them anymore."
Haruki, who understood what Suguru was saying was speechless.
Kazue's pupils trembled.
This person…
How did he appear here?
Space-time Ninjutsu?
Kazue instinctively looked at Minato .
Minato stared gravely at the strange man in the monk's robe before him. He didn't sense the presence of Chakra on this man, yet an aura that made his entire body shiver emanated from him.
What exactly was going on?
This man just emerged from that purple vortex, didn't he?
"What monkeys?" Fugaku vigilantly stared at the man before him.
Why was he counting monkeys?
No!
More importantly, where were the monkeys here?
"Seeing these monkeys disgusts me."
Suguru's lips curved into a smile, but his eyes were utterly devoid of warmth, cold and indifferent.
Fugaku could finally confirm the guess in his mind this time. The monkeys this monk-like man spoke of were them.
Damn it!
To call people monkeys was far too arrogant!
"Who are you?"
"How did you appear here?"
"What do you want?"
Kazue stared at the man in the monk's robe before her, asking cautiously.
The crisis with the Iwa ninjas hadn't been resolved, and now such a man had appeared. Fortunately, this man's appearance caused the Iwa ninjas' attack to pause.
"Shut up. I don't want to talk to monkeys."
The smile on Suguru's lips abruptly vanished.
Haruki: "…"