Chapter 241: Supporting a Top-Tier Battlefield

When Muyue acted to save the injured Leaf ninja, the disciples also took action, aiding the Leaf ninja and striking back at the Rock ninja.

They did not have Muyue's strength, so they moved together in a group of three and did not stray too far from Muyue.

At first, all three seemed somewhat lost, because the scene was too chaotic; even Kakashi, who had the most experience among them, had never experienced such a large-scale melee of over a thousand ninjas.

However, they had just recently gone through a difficult life-and-death struggle. Although they were momentarily disoriented, their combat ability remained intact.

Some Rock ninjas, seeing their small stature and greenhorn appearance on the battlefield, directly attacked them with kunai.

Might Guy immediately entered the state of Rock Breathing and activated the Eight Gates.

"Eight Gates, First Gate: Open!"

Using both the breathing method and the Eight Gates greatly enhanced Might Guy's physical abilities.

Swoosh!

"Leaf Hurricane!"

Might Guy's chakra exploded from his feet. He used a Body Flicker Technique to disappear in front of the Rock ninja, then rapidly kicked out a whirlwind kick, sending the Rock ninja flying.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson!"

Obito used Flame Breathing to enhance his Fire Release ability and quickly hurled three flaming kunai at the knocked-back Rock ninja.

Boom!

When the flaming kunai hit the Rock ninja, they immediately exploded, and a fierce blaze engulfed his body.

Under the high temperature and explosion of the Fire Release and the powerful piercing force of the kunai, the attacking Rock ninja was reduced to a charred corpse that fell from the sky.

"We can just fight like before, right?" Having successfully eliminated one enemy, the confusion in Obito's eyes faded.

"You shouldn't have used a jutsu just now; you could have just thrown shuriken and kunai." Kakashi shook his head and said.

He had originally been about to attack with shuriken, but he held back after seeing Obito use a jutsu—after all, an ordinary ninja definitely couldn't withstand a Fire Release bombardment.

"Why? I feel like just using tools alone wouldn't kill them in one go." Obito asked in confusion.

He thought that if he could eliminate an enemy, he should hit them hard enough to completely take away their combat ability, to prevent accidents in battle.

"If it's just a spar, there's no problem. If there are only a few enemies, there's no problem either. But look at how many enemies there are here; we need to conserve our chakra as much as possible." Kakashi shared his insight.

Although he had never experienced a massive melee of a thousand ninjas, Kakashi believed that on a battlefield one should conserve stamina, using the least amount of stamina and chakra to achieve the greatest results.

For example, in that last exchange with Obito, even without Fire Release, if he and Obito had attacked together with tools, even if the enemy didn't die immediately, they would have been severely wounded. Being that badly hurt on the battlefield is almost as good as dead.

"And you too, Gai, don't consume too much stamina." Kakashi then said to Might Guy.

Total Concentration Breathing and the Eight Gates are both good skills for boosting strength, but they also drain a lot of stamina.

Obito glanced at the battlefield, where it was unclear how many enemies remained, and had to admit that what Kakashi said made a lot of sense.

War was completely different from the battles they had fought before. He was sure that exhausting too much chakra and stamina here would definitely not be a good thing.

Might Guy also nodded, acknowledging Kakashi's point, and decided not to use Total Concentration Breathing or the second gate unless he encountered an enemy that was too strong.

Actually, there was one more thing Kakashi didn't say: if the enemy was strong enough and had a high enough status, then spending more stamina to kill them would still be meaningful, but that wasn't something they could think about with their current strength.

Kakashi drew the White Light Short Blade from his back. Compared to using ninjutsu, finishing enemies with a blade was clearly more energy-efficient.

In his mind, he had already banned the two high-chakra-consumption techniques, Purple Lightning and False Darkness. Although both techniques had great power, using them twice would leave him without chakra.

Obito took another standard-issue kunai from his tool pouch, planning to conserve chakra and use ninjutsu only at critical moments.

Actually, he had also brought the birthday kunai that Muyue had given him, but Obito was worried it might get damaged in battle, so he didn't take it out.

Even without using ninjutsu, the three of them had decent taijutsu skills. With their well-coordinated teamwork, even when facing the same number of Rock chunin, Kakashi and the others steadily defeated the enemy.

However, compared to their side, Muyue's efficiency was clearly faster. He easily took out a Rock jonin with a Great Fire Dragon, and then, wielding a standard-issue kunai, swiftly killed several more Rock ninja like cutting through melons and vegetables.

"Muyue-sensei is really amazing. But why didn't Muyue-sensei use that wide-range Fire Release earlier? Was he worried about hurting his comrades?" Obito sighed at Muyue's swift killing, while also feeling a slight doubt in his heart.

"Muyue-sensei surely has his own considerations. You'd better worry more about yourself—it seems we've been targeted." Kakashi quickly warned.

Kakashi focused more on their surroundings and suddenly noticed that several Rock ninja were subtly moving closer to them.

Shortly after Kakashi finished speaking, the five Rock ninjas immediately sprang up and charged at them.

A Rock ninja was intercepted by a Konoha ninja on the road, but four more Rock ninjas continued charging toward them.

"Having such strength at such a young age, they must be prodigies of Konoha. Let's take them out first!" the leading Rock ninja shouted.

Muyue, who was always keeping an eye on his students, saw this and used Appraisal to measure the strength of the four Rock ninjas. After discovering that there was one Jonin with 5,000 chakra and no mastered skills plus three Chunin with 3,000 chakra, he continued his own actions.

The leading Rock Jonin approached Might Guy and quickly extended his fist, gathering a large amount of chakra into his right hand, then performed a nature transformation.

"Earth Release: Rock Fist!"

The right fist of the Rock Jonin was covered in yellowish-brown rock, greatly increasing its hardness and power.

But Might Guy was already on guard. He concentrated chakra in his feet and burst out with incredible speed, dodging several meters away.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!

Taking this opportunity, Obito and Kakashi quickly threw shuriken.

Clang! Clang!!

The Rock Jonin's Rock Fist was extremely hard; he swung the rocky fist in broad, sweeping motions, knocking away all the incoming shuriken.

Just then, the other three Chunin also reached an effective attack range and spat out sharp, fast-flying stones at the three of them.

"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall!"

Thud! Thud! Thud!!

Kakashi quickly formed hand seals, making the ground rise into a thick wall adorned with a doghead, blocking all the flying stones.

Even though conserving chakra was his own suggestion, this was clearly not the time to be stingy with it.

"Bullying a few kids, what kind of skill is that?" A Konoha ninja, seeing the young ninjas from his village being surrounded, wanted to help Kakashi, Obito, and Guy deal with the Rock ninjas.

But he clearly overestimated his own strength. Engaging the Rock Jonin in close combat, he was sent flying backward, spitting blood from a single punch, while the Rock Chunin continued spitting flying stones as a follow-up attack.

"Eight Gates: Second Gate, Gate of Healing, Open!"

Seeing the Konoha ninja who tried to help them get injured, Might Guy immediately opened the Second Gate of the Eight Gates, focused his breathing, burst out with extreme speed, and caught the injured Konoha ninja.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"

Obito rapidly formed hand seals, concentrated chakra in his throat, and spat out numerous small fireballs that precisely curved around Might Guy's body, destroying the incoming flying stones.

Might Guy landed behind the Earth Flow Wall and set the injured Konoha Chunin down.

"Sorry about that, I was a bit reckless. I didn't expect the enemy to be so strong," the injured Konoha Chunin said apologetically to the three of them.

He had really been a hindrance — not only failing to ease their pressure, but also forcing them to use ninjutsu to rescue him.

"Senior, you did your best. Leave the rest to us!" Might Guy gave the Konoha Chunin a thumbs-up and flashed a brilliant smile.

"Call it a rock fist if you want — even if it were an iron fist, I'd melt it down," Obito said, fully confident in his Fire Release.

Kakashi exchanged a glance with Might Guy and Obito, and both of them nodded.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Obito suddenly leaped out and spat a three-meter-tall, blazing fireball.

"Rock Breathing: Total Concentration Breathing!"

Then Might Guy focused his breathing to the limit, pushing his physical body to its maximum possible enhancement, and used the Great Fireball as cover to charge out fiercely.

Kakashi split off a Shadow Clone that also rushed out from behind the Earth Flow Wall, while his real body used Earth Release to move underground, slowly approaching the Rock Jonin.

While Obito and the others were rescuing people, the three Rock Chunin gathered behind the Rock Jonin.

They combined their efforts with Earth Release ninjutsu to block Obito's Great Fireball, but as a result, they failed to react in time to Might Guy's surprise attack.

"Extreme: Konoha Whirlwind of Great Strength!"

Might Guy appeared beside the four Rock ninjas, poured all his power into his leg, and delivered a maximized kick.

Thud! Thud! Thud!!!

Three Rock ninjas were kicked directly, spitting blood and flying backward. Only the Rock Jonin managed to block the blow, but a crack appeared in his Rock Fist.

"Impossible! How can he be that fast?"

"Such strong power. Could he actually be a short middle-aged ninja?"

The heavily wounded Rock Chunin was full of doubt. Might Guy, judging by age, was definitely not over ten years old, but his physique was abnormally strong.

They felt that even if someone trained from before birth, they couldn't forge their body to this extent.

"Pure taijutsu actually has such power. I absolutely must kill him!" The Rock Jonin was also very surprised.

Because he realized that if he only used taijutsu, he might get beaten up by this kid who was less than ten years old. He was a Jonin, after all.

The Rock Jonin had a premonition that if Might Guy didn't die in the war, he would definitely become a taijutsu powerhouse renowned in the ninja world.

To eliminate this future powerhouse, the Rock Jonin unleashed his strongest power and launched an extremely heavy attack at Might Guy.

But Obito and Kakashi were not dead; they wouldn't just watch the Rock Jonin attack Might Guy.

"Flame Breathing, Total Concentration Breathing!"

Obito also focused his breathing to the utmost limit to obtain the strongest power.

He rapidly threw two shuriken carrying flames. If the Rock Jonin wanted to attack Might Guy, he would have to take two high-temperature shuriken hits.

There were still some shuriken left in the tool pouch, but Obito was worried throwing too many would affect Might Guy.

But what Obito didn't expect was that the Rock Jonin truly chose to withstand his shuriken and use Rock Fist to attack Might Guy, who had just performed a powerful attack and couldn't leave immediately.

"As long as I kill this person, even getting injured is worth it," the Rock Jonin thought.

With no chance to dodge, Might Guy burst his chakra, concentrated all his power into his fist, and met the Rock Jonin's enormous rock fist head-on.

Boom!!

The sound of air bursting rang out; the powerful force caused the ground under their feet to shake violently, raising gray-yellow dust.

Might Guy's right fist became bloody, while the Rock Jonin's giant rock fist was also covered in cracks.

At the same time, Obito's flame shuriken also struck the Rock Jonin's body.

Although the Rock Jonin had mastered the Hardening Technique, his Hardening Technique was clearly not as proficient as Kari's. The shuriken carrying high-temperature flames successfully pierced into the Rock Jonin's abdomen, and the spouting blood splattered onto Might Guy.

The pain of a high-temperature sharp weapon piercing the body, the pain of flames burning the body — even the Rock Jonin, who naturally had a will of rock, couldn't help but slightly distort his face. But he knew this was the most critical moment; he endured the pain, concentrated his chakra to repair the rock fist on his arm, and tried to throw another rock fist at Might Guy.

But how could Kakashi let him have his way? He held a kunai and stabbed toward the Rock Jonin's head.

The Rock Jonin had to divide his attention to deal with the incoming Kakashi.

And Might Guy did not take the opportunity to leave; instead, he concentrated his power again and attacked with his uninjured arm.

The Rock Jonin barely blocked the two's attacks, but suddenly felt a huge pulling force from underground, and his entire body was pulled into the ground.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Claw Crimson!"

Obito threw a kunai burning with flames at the Rock Jonin's head that was exposed above ground.

Boom!!

An explosion sounded, and the Rock Jonin's head disappeared from the ground.

"What a wonderful cooperation!" A wounded Leaf Ninja had been about to get up to help; he just saw the three cleanly defeat their opponents and couldn't help but praise.

The three had clear division of labor throughout: Might Guy was responsible for close combat and eliminating the weaker Rock Chunin, Obito was responsible for Fire Release cover and finishing moves, and Kakashi waited in the shadows for a one-hit-kill opportunity.

He had to sigh at the huge gap between people. He, an adult ninja, tried to help and almost got killed instantly, but instead the three kids he thought were in danger saved him and eliminated the enemy.

After eliminating an enemy of no mean strength, Kakashi breathed a slight sigh of relief. Then he noticed a somewhat familiar figure in danger — it seemed to be his former former teammate.

"Lightning Breathing, Total Concentration Breathing, Flash!"

Kakashi immediately brought the Breathing Method power to its maximum, unleashing an extremely fast slash.

Tatsunori only felt a yellow flash pass by, and then the enemy in front of him was split in two.

He was about to thank this powerful ninja, but suddenly felt the figure before him looked very familiar. When Kakashi turned around, the former former teammate couldn't help but show an extremely shocked expression.

"Kakashi, how is it you?"

"Why wouldn't it be me?" Kakashi looked around warily and said indifferently.

"You weren't..." Tatsunori eventually didn't bring up the past matter, but said thanks to Kakashi.

Kakashi nodded slightly, then immediately ran over to Might Guy to check on his condition.

"Haha, just a minor injury, won't affect my fighting." Might Guy quickly wrapped a bandage around his wounded hand, then said with a laugh.

"He really has changed, completely different from before." Watching the way Kakashi interacted with Might Guy and Obito, Longxian couldn't help but sigh.

Actually, he had noticed a hint of it during their two previous encounters on the road, but he hadn't expected Kakashi to have changed so much.

"Let's be more careful from now on, focus on rescuing our comrades," Kakashi suggested.

Just as Kakashi finished saying this, the ground suddenly shook, and an incredibly dazzling flash of explosion lit up in the distance.

"Could that be a ninjutsu? But what kind of ninjutsu would have such power?" Kakashi looked into the distance with a somewhat puzzled expression.

Taking advantage of the commotion, many Rock Ninjas suddenly rushed out, trying to rescue the dying Shou.

The Leaf Ninjas, without hesitation, launched all kinds of ninjutsu at the Rock Ninjas, seizing the chance to kill many of them; Shou, already severely injured, became lost in the chaos.

Muyue went along with the crowd and threw out a Fire Release of average power, then began to recover his chakra.

He had already achieved his basic goal on the battlefield; by the time he returned to Konoha, his status would change from a Special Jonin known for excellent teaching to a powerful Jonin known for both strong teaching and combat ability.

Next, Muyue wanted to go see the top-level battlefield and observe the actual combat performance of Jiraiya and the Jinchuriki.

He wanted to know how many tens of thousands of chakra the Jinchuriki could output during battle, and to see the level of Jiraiya's full-strength fighting now.

After recovering for a while, Muyue took out a kunai and quickly killed every Rock Ninja he saw.

One Rock Ninja Jonin led eight Chunin, attempting to take Muyue down by numbers, but they were all burned to death by Muyue's Fire Release.

The Rock Ninjas had already lost Shou, a powerful combatant, and had also sacrificed some ninjas trying to rescue the gravely wounded Shou. With no one able to stop Muyue, the originally balanced situation was broken, putting them at a disadvantage.

"Retreat!"

The Rock Ninja commander helplessly issued the order to retreat and fired a signal flare for retreat.

Although the top-level combatants had not yet decided the outcome, if they didn't retreat now, they wouldn't even have a chance to escape.

The Rock Ninjas began to fight while retreating.

Muyue nodded inwardly; retreating was good, because only then could he legitimately head to another battlefield.

The Leaf Ninjas pursued for a while and then stopped, worried that if they chased too deep they might fall into an ambush.

"You all go back to camp and rest well; I need to go support Lord Jiraiya and the others," Muyue said to his three disciples.

He left a Shadow Clone to protect his disciples, then followed several other Leaf Jonin to support Jiraiya.

5k, so I'm a bit late; readers with ideas can help come up with a nickname for the protagonist.