"Find cover and hide!"
The moment Kyuushin sensed the enemy, he gave the order.
The training of these past few days had made these genin resemble an army; after he gave the order, there was no sign of panic, and they each found cover to hide or directly used the Cloak of Invisibility Jutsu.
"Minato, Nawaki, go set up traps ahead! The enemy will arrive in about three minutes!"
Minato and Nawaki didn't need Kyuushin to say more; they skillfully began setting up traps ahead, but due to time constraints, large traps couldn't be set, and only some simple exploding tag traps could be arranged.
A Sunagakure squad capable of entering the Land of Fire to participate in an interception would naturally be equipped with a sensory shinobi; as Kyuushin sensed them, they naturally sensed him as well.
In Kyuushin's perception, there were a total of about two dozen chakra signatures rapidly moving towards their location, quickly approaching their hiding place.
Although to ordinary people, these Konoha genin were hidden extremely well, to a true expert, there were numerous flaws.
The captain of the leading Sunagakure squad merely glanced around and could find many incongruities in the forest before him; he couldn't help but sneer but still quickly ordered:
"Spread out, stay alert! Be careful of their squad leader shinobi!"
As a major shinobi village, Konoha would naturally not allow these genin-looking individuals to go to the front lines alone; there must be a squad leader shinobi present.
Although their team's sensory shinobi had previously told him that this squad was not very large and was unlikely to be led by a jonin, he was not a rookie fresh to the battlefield; everything was to be handled with caution.
It was precisely his caution that prevented him from directly stepping into the traps Minato and Nawaki had laid earlier, but for Kyuushin, none of that mattered.
Hiding on a treetop, Kyuushin saw the Sunagakure shinobi gradually approaching and no longer hesitated; he opened his Gene Lock, flashed out directly, and before the Sunagakure shinobi at the very front could cry out, the scorching flames spewed from Kyuushin's mouth engulfed him.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
The flames spewed from Kyuushin's mouth were like a raging giant dragon; after engulfing the first Sunagakure shinobi, it did not stop for a moment but split into three directions—front, left, and right—all heading towards the leading Sunagakure captain.
The scorching fiery dragon, as if sentient, under Kyuushin's control, also swept in seven or eight Sunagakure shinobi along the way; those Sunagakure shinobi only let out a tragic cry before falling silent.
The Sunagakure captain noticed Kyuushin the moment he jumped out, but before he could make any warning, Kyuushin's ninjutsu had already arrived.
But as a captain of an interception squad, this Sunagakure shinobi naturally had some skills; although Kyuushin's ninjutsu activated extremely fast, the moment he saw the ninjutsu, he chose to retreat, escaping the ninjutsu's range at the last moment.
The Fire Dragon Flame Bullet, as a mid-to-close-range ninjutsu, has its maximum destructive range within ten meters; once it exceeds ten meters, control becomes extremely difficult.
Kyuushin naturally didn't expect to eliminate this group of Sunagakure shinobi with just one ninjutsu; seeing that the captain had already retreated, he didn't forcefully control the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet to expand its coverage.
"Attack together, kill him!"
Seeing that only Kyuushin had jumped out, the captain, after dodging the ninjutsu, immediately gave the order and simultaneously charged forward himself.
Kyuushin directly retreated, and when the enemy pursued him to a certain spot, he shouted loudly:
"Now!"
Minato and Nawaki, hiding in the dark, heard Kyuushin's command and immediately injected chakra to detonate the exploding tag traps they had set earlier.
"Boom, boom, boom—"
In an instant, the entire forest seemed to tremble, and the continuous explosions were deafening; although there wasn't enough time to set up traps, Kyuushin had an extremely large number of exploding tags.
Expensive exploding tags for ordinary shinobi were something Kyuushin could produce in large quantities with just some effort, so Minato and Nawaki showed no hesitation when setting the traps.
After the explosions subsided, the Sunagakure captain couldn't help but be furious; his thirty-man squad had first lost seven or eight members to one of Kyuushin's ninjutsu, and this recent round of explosions had reduced nearly a dozen more to dust.
Now, there were fewer than ten combat-capable individuals left by his side, yet they themselves had achieved no results.
However, there was no time for him to be angry now; after the explosions stopped, Kyuushin immediately charged towards them, with Minato and Nawaki following closely behind.
Kyuushin naturally charged directly at the captain; in contrast to the captain's ferocious expression, Kyuushin's face was devoid of emotion.
However, midway through his sprint, streaks of electricity suddenly flashed across Kyuushin's body, accelerating his already fast speed to the extreme, and the sound of Chidori chirping also echoed through the dense forest.
"Lightning Release: Chidori!"
The Sunagakure captain had initially inwardly rejoiced when he saw Kyuushin charging at him alone; as a genuine jonin of the Hidden Sand Village, seeing a half-grown child like Kyuushin, even though Kyuushin had previously used a large-scale Fire Release ninjutsu.
But in his opinion, it was merely taking advantage of a pre-ambush and hand-sign timing difference; his true strength was naturally inferior to his, but this brat was undoubtedly a Konoha genius.
As long as he killed this genius, the previous losses would still be acceptable, but he never expected that Kyuushin would still unleash ninjutsu even while sprinting.
With a distance of about ten meters, coupled with the extreme speed burst when using Chidori, it was already too late to react; looking at the red-haired youth getting closer and closer, the Sunagakure captain's face turned from ferocious to despair.
"Chh!"
Without any resistance, Kyuushin's Chidori directly pierced through the captain's chest, and only then did he seem to awaken, remembering the intelligence that had circulated among the village's jonin earlier.
Kyuushin expressionlessly withdrew his hand, looking at the Sunagakure shinobi who died with his eyes wide open, and said:
"It's too late to react now!"
Meanwhile, Minato and Nawaki cooperated with each other; even though those Sunagakure shinobi could be considered elites, they basically had little power to fight back and were eliminated one by one by the two.
However, whether due to their oversight or not, one of the Sunagakure shinobi, seeing the dire situation, directly disengaged from the battlefield and headed straight for where the Konoha genin were hiding.
He was the sensory shinobi of this Sunagakure squad; seeing his comrades dying one by one, and even the jonin captain being instantly killed, he knew he couldn't escape death, but before he died, he had to take a few people down with him.
The genin hiding in the back saw an enemy charging at them, with a ferocious expression and overflowing killing intent; although they had killed some bandits before.
But they had never truly fought a shinobi to the death, let alone an enemy who was a chunin far stronger than them.
Seeing this situation, most of the genin panicked and couldn't control themselves; some even, unable to bear it, actively broke their hidden state and ran directly to the rear.
Only a few of the genin drew their kunai, showing determination, and instead of running, charged towards this Sunagakure shinobi.