Oita's Byakugan scanned the surroundings in a full 360-degree sweep.
He prayed this time he would find a gap—any gap—to break out of the battlefield.
But what he did not know was that after Omoi fired his distress signal, every Cloud shinobi in the vicinity began converging toward their location.
More than a hundred of them, dense as a swarm of locusts.
And when all those figures finally entered Oita's field of vision—
He froze.
More than a hundred and fifty Cloud shinobi from every direction.
His limbs turned cold; despair slammed into him so hard he stopped moving.
In his heart, he couldn't help blaming the front-line commander—Nara Shikaku.
It's fine if I die…
But the boy I'm carrying—Yue—
In Shikaku-sama's eyes, he carries the future of Konoha.
Shikaku has seen Yue's talent and diligence with his own eyes. His future is limitless. Even the Third Hokage instructed us that Yue's life takes priority over any mission. That's how important he is to the village.
And now I've led him straight into a death trap. Even if I die, how can I face the Third Hokage in the afterlife?
There was no path left but one.
Fight to the death.
Kill one and you break even—kill two and you profit.
"We're surrounded. Completely."
Oita finally spoke the despairing truth aloud.
"How many?" Nara Roku still forced himself to ask.
Oita's voice was bitter:
"About one hundred and fifty Cloud shinobi. We are encircled from all sides."
"Then we fight to the death. Show them the backbone of Konoha shinobi."
This would be their final battle cry.
Leaning weakly against a tree, Yue listened and could only sigh inwardly.
He wasn't afraid of death anymore—he just never expected his shinobi career to end the moment it began.
Then, on the brink of death, a ridiculous list from a book in his previous life popped into his mind:
Ultraman, Avatar, Armor Hero Flame Dragon, Kakarot and Vegeta, Shark Pepper Kabuda, Saint Mary of Paris, Athena from King's Canyon—
I, Lu Benwei, didn't cheat!!
Yue chuckled weakly.
Who knew the last thing he'd think of before dying would be something so stupid.
What a sinful little life he had lived.
The remaining three who still had any combat ability formed up.
Oita stood at the open clearing ahead.
Roku quickly laid down every trap and tool he had—his frontal combat ability wasn't anything impressive.
Yamato stood firmly in front of Yue, silently deciding that if he must die, he'd die first—this was the duty of a protector.
Moments later, a dense mass of Cloud shinobi emerged around them, fully encircling the group.
"Kill them all. No survivors—especially those two brats."
Omoi stepped out of the crowd, issuing the order.
There was no value in capturing them: Yue's squad had no intel worth taking, and the two kids who could use Wood Release were future threats to Killer Bee.
The first wave came—a rainstorm of kunai and shuriken.
"Rotation!"
Oita's high-speed spin deflected the hail of metal, while Yamato shielded Yue with a Wood Release wall, blocking the volley.
Seeing that tools were ineffective, the Cloud nin organized into squads and charged.
"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"
"Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!"
Oita unleashed his full strength.
His arms blurred like machine-gun barrels, his palms firing faster than the eye could follow.
Many Cloud shinobi were struck down—some crippled, some killed outright.
Yamato held his ground, wooden shield in his left hand, extending wooden pillars with his right to intercept attack after attack.
Roku lured several enemies into his traps, binding them with Shadow Imitation and taking out a few—before being overwhelmed and skewered by Cloud blades.
He was the first to fall, collapsing straight to the ground.
Then came Oita.
His chakra burned out from the intense Gentle Fist barrage.
His speed slowed.
Multiple wounds opened across his body.
Omoi seized the moment, his blade piercing straight through Oita's heart.
Oita collapsed slowly… and closed his eyes.
"NO!! Sensei Oita!!!"
Watching Oita die, something inside Yue snapped.
He had thought he was ready for death—but seeing his teacher killed shattered him. His scream tore through the battlefield.
Memories of two years together flashed before him—
And then came the fire.
A burning rage that ignited his chakra from the core of his being.
"Wood Release…
Deep Forest Emergence!!!"
Burning his own life force, Yue forced out the jutsu.
The earth rumbled violently.
Every tree in the entire area ripped out of the ground, surging skyward.
Massive trunks erupted, branches lashing out like living beasts, snaring every Cloud shinobi present—
Then crushing or strangling them.
Omoi didn't escape either.
His last expression was disbelief—
That the nearly collapsed, chakra-drained Yue could unleash such a monstrous jutsu
More than a hundred Cloud shinobi died in an instant.
And Yue, having burned his life to fuel the technique, blacked out immediately—
Alive or dead, no one could tell.
Yue, who promised himself not to rely on "cheat powers," had still used one in his darkest moment to finish the battle.
Yamato didn't hesitate for a second.
He grabbed Yue and fled the battlefield at full speed.
---
Meanwhile, in the Cloud front-line command tent—
The future Fourth Raikage, A, smashed table after table after receiving the report:
They had interrogated the location correctly.
They had sent a full force to encircle the Konoha squad.
And somehow…
They lost over one hundred and sixty elite shinobi.
It was unbelievable.
Killer Bee, normally smiling behind his sunglasses, shed a silent tear.
His beloved student had died in this battle.
Since the start of the war, Cloud had completely crushed Konoha.
Their kill-ratio was five-to-one, and with A and Bee on the field, regular Konoha shinobi couldn't even survive a single exchange.
None of them ever expected Cloud to suffer such a devastating loss.
"Bee… The intel says a single Konoha shinobi using a powerful Wood Release killed them all. If you encounter him, be careful."
A warned, breathing heavily through suppressed rage.
"Don't worry, bro. Even without the Eight-Tails, I can beat that punk. When I find out who that Wood-Release brat is, I'll cut him down myself—for Omoi's sake."
Killer Bee's voice was low and murderous.
The Wood-Style user had just been added to his personal kill list.
~------------------------------------
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