Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

You'd better be careful.

Suddenly, Kirito's voice appeared in Ebizo's mind.

Upon hearing Kirito's telepathic message, Ebizo's expression changed drastically, but he remained absolutely calm. He decisively and frantically poured a large amount of chakra into his legs, completely disregarding the limits of his legs' ability to withstand it, forcibly making his legs burst with even greater speed.

He stomped his feet hard, and two small cracks appeared on the ground instantly. He then successfully broke free from the two ropes made of iron sand.

At the same time, he moved three fingers on his left hand, and two of the three humanoid puppets beside him—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—rushed towards Kirito. Under his control, the two puppets quickly formed hand seals, one spewing out a gust of wind and the other spewing out a huge fireball.

Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!

The wind intensified the fire, and the fireball rapidly expanded in the gale, becoming a gigantic fireball that charged menacingly toward Kirito.

The next moment, a blinding flash of lightning appeared, followed by a massive blue chakra slash that instantly sliced ​​the colossal fireball in two. A purple-haired woman wielding a naginata, her body crackling with blue-white electricity, swiftly passed through the two halves of the fireball.

It was the Thunder God puppet that used the Thunder Strike Secret Technique to accelerate.

In an instant, the Thunder God puppet charged towards the two humanoid puppets of the Buddha.

"The intelligence was indeed true. This guy is also proficient in puppetry, and the puppets he controls are extremely powerful."

Ebizo witnessed the entire scene of the Thunder God Puppet annihilating the colossal fireball with a single strike, thanks to his third eye in the sky. He was both shocked and excited, staring intently at the Thunder God Puppet, wishing he could capture it and study it carefully.

As a puppet master, he could tell at a glance that the Thunder God Puppet was a puppet because it had too many traces of the Sand Village Puppet Technique.

Furthermore, the materials used on Kirito's puppet were better than those of his five puppets, and its cost was definitely on par with, or even higher than, that of the Chikamatsu Ten.

Ebizo did not show mercy to the Thunder God Puppet just because he was envious of it. Under his skillful control, the two humanoid puppets of the Buddha instantly launched two sharp blades from their hands. One of them blocked the naginata slash that the Thunder God Puppet was returning from the front, while the other quickly circled around to the side to attack.

But to Ebizo's utter surprise, just as the puppet of Fa succeeded, a blue chakra chain suddenly shot out from the chest of the Thunder God puppet and instantly struck the puppet of Fa.

In an instant, the puppet was heavily blasted away by the chakra chains, and the part that was hit was pierced.

Moreover, Ebizo was horrified to discover that he had lost control of the puppet; the chakra threads connecting him to the puppet had broken.

"What exactly is that chakra chain? I can't let it continue to touch my puppet."

Ebizo stared intently at the chakra chains on the Thunder God puppet with his third eye in the sky, his face extremely grim. Then he quickly manipulated the Buddha puppet to retreat.

Then, when he saw the puppet being engulfed by some iron sand controlled by Kirito, his expression turned even more grim.

"Stay here with me."

Kirito once again used the telepathic communication technique to transmit his voice to Ebizo.

A tremendous sound exploded in Ebizo's mind, making his head buzz and causing his control over the puppet to almost come to a halt.

The Mountain Secret Technique: Mind Transfer Technique can be used for more than just silent communication with teammates; it can also be used to interfere with and control enemies.

This is a rather unreasonable Yin Escape technique. As long as the user's mental strength is stronger than others, they can forcibly establish a mental link with others and then engage in mental dialogue.

At this time, if the enemy's mental strength is far from that of the user (i.e., the difference in Yin Release level is too great), the user can use this secret technique to control the enemy and cause mental damage to the enemy.

Ebi hides in the shadows of Sunagakure and is skilled in using sealing techniques like Mind Control Sand, which contains Yin Release. His Yin Release level is naturally not low; although it has not reached level five, it is at least level four, which is not too much different from Kirito's.

Unfortunately, Kirito is currently using Sage Chakra to temporarily enhance the Mind Transfer Technique, allowing it to reach a level where it can inflict a slight mental attack on Ebizo.

Immortal Technique: Mind Transmission to Body - Astounding!

For top experts, even a moment's carelessness in battle can be fatal.

Under Kirito's control, lightning flashed all over the Thunder God Puppet. The Thunder Release technique continuously enhanced the Thunder God Puppet's speed, making it almost transform into a bolt of lightning. In the blink of an eye, it broke free from the entanglement of the Buddha Puppet and the Monk Puppet and rushed to Ebizo's front. The razor blade in its hand also shone with a cold light covered with purple lightning.

Sword Skill: Lightning Flash!

A bolt of lightning appeared from the void, accompanied by a deafening roar.

A flash of light, a single slash, and a blood flower blooming in death appeared in the air before withering away.

"The people of Sunagakure are really tenacious."

Kirito looked at the ninja sword in the hand and the Sand Ninja corpse cut in half in front of the Thunder God Puppet, and sighed inwardly.

This is a Sand Village Jonin who is skilled in Wind Release techniques.

At the critical moment, he suddenly descended from the sky, using his own life to shield Ebizo, giving Ebizo a chance to survive.

Not only this Sand Village Jonin, but after his death, five more Sand Village Jonin and more than twenty Sand Village Chunin volunteered to cover Ebizo's retreat.

"Damn Konoha brats, I will settle this score with you."

Ebizo looked at the Sand Ninja covering his retreat behind him, his heart filled with torment.

These Sand Ninja who volunteered to cover his retreat were the backbone of Sunagakure, not those useless cowards who only cared about escaping. Now that they were gone, his heart was bleeding.

If he could, he would rather bear all of this himself.

However, Sunagakure is too weak, and it is far more difficult for it to produce a Kage-level ninja than for a resource-rich and deeply rooted village like Konoha. They cannot afford to lose a Kage-level ninja now.

For the sake of Sunagakure, he cannot die, even if it means living another life of ignominy.

"Your courage is commendable."

Kirito looked at the twenty-odd Sand Village ninjas who had volunteered to cover Ebizo's retreat and said expressionlessly.

"Enough with the nonsense. We will make sure you don't hurt Lord Ebizo again before we die."

"That's right, you better not underestimate us Sunagakure, you damn brat."

"Come on, you brats from Konoha, today I'm going to show you the backbone of Sunagakure! Let's all attack and kill him!"

……

Upon hearing Kirito's words, the Sand Ninja shouted loudly, seemingly trying to bolster their courage and dispel their fear of Kirito.

From the moment Kirito started chasing Ebizo, the man who had recently been wreaking havoc on the battlefield had become a nightmare for many Sand Villagers—an invincible nightmare. They understood that being targeted by Kirito meant certain death.

No one wants to die, but some people are aware of their responsibilities, so even knowing they are facing death, they bravely step forward.

"Kirito, leave these guys to us. You continue to go after Ebizo. A little further on is the true stronghold of Sunagakure. It's easy to defend and difficult to attack. Once he escapes back, there will be no chance to kill him."

At that moment, a Jonin from the Nara clan loudly reminded Kirito.

As they spoke, a large number of Konoha ninjas quickly surrounded the twenty-odd Sand Ninjas.

"Let me do it. I happen to be short of batteries to replenish my chakra."

Kirito shook his head at the group of Konoha ninjas around him who were trying to help him, using his Mind Transfer Technique.

The Konoha ninjas were taken aback by Kirito's words. Just as some of them were about to try to persuade Kirito again, they saw Kirito and the Rock God Puppet clap their hands together, and four huge rock pillars rose up from four directions, surrounding more than twenty Sand Ninjas.

Then, a large number of sealing spells shot out from Kirito and the Rock God Puppet, quickly covering the four rock pillars.

At the same time, the Thunder God Puppet once again unleashed its Thunderous Secret Technique to quickly pursue Ebizo.

"Stop them, and work together to destroy those four rock pillars."

A sharp-eyed Sand Village Jonin, seeing this, shouted.

"Hmph, are you guys pretending we don't exist? Behave yourselves."

At that moment, Sakumo Hatake suddenly appeared, wielding a short sword called White Fang.

A person's name is like the shadow of a tree.

Although Kirito stole the show in this battle, his fame still couldn't compare to that of Sakumo Hatake, a titled Kage-level powerhouse.

The appearance of Konoha's White Fang instantly drew the attention of all the Sand Ninja. They stared at Hatake Sakumo with great fear, not daring to make any rash moves, and some of them already showed deep despair in their eyes.

Kirito Tohsaka alone was enough to drive them to despair, and now with the arrival of Sakumo Hatake from Konoha, they have completely given up hope of survival.

Taking advantage of Hatake Sakumo's intimidation of the Sand Ninja, Kirito used the Rock God Puppet to multitask and quickly spread the sealing formula across the four rock pillars.

The sealing spells on the four rock pillars began to activate in the next moment.

The five transparent, earthen-yellow walls quickly connected with each other using four rock pillars as nodes, forming a small-scale sealing barrier.

Sealing Barrier Technique: Earth Prison Hall Without End!

Once the sealing barrier was complete, the Geo Puppet arrived in front of it and placed its hand on the earthen-yellow barrier wall.

The Sand Ninja were completely taken aback that Kirito could set up a sealing barrier so quickly all by himself. By the time they realized what was happening, Kirito had already completed the sealing barrier in less than ten seconds.

"As expected of Mito-sama's disciple, sealing techniques must be his specialty. With his ability to control puppets to cast sealing techniques and create sealing barriers, he could probably capture a Kage-level powerhouse if he had some decent helpers."

The Jonin of the Nara clan exclaimed in amazement upon witnessing this scene.

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the surrounding Konoha Jonin became somewhat unnatural, but none of them spoke.

Because the Jonin of the Nara clan was right, when they were trying to stop Ebizo, most of them were just going through the motions. Only a few hot-headed guys dared to rush up and fight Ebizo to the death, but the result was predictable.

Those who had fought against Sunagakure many times knew all too well how powerful Ebizo was. Even Sakumo Hatake almost lost his life when he was careless. If Kirito hadn't intervened in time, Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang of Konoha, would have been crippled or killed.

Kirito was able to force Ebizo to escape because Kirito's special Lightning Release ninjutsu was a severe counter to Ebizo's.

Which of these Jonin, who crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, had poor eyesight? Those with poor eyesight had already perished on the very ground beneath them.

However, little did they know that Kirito possessed such terrifying sealing abilities.

They had heard that Kirito was a genius in sealing techniques and a disciple of Lady Mito, but seeing is believing. Before they had witnessed Kirito's sealing abilities firsthand, they would never entrust their lives to him.

Not long after the sealing barrier technique, Earth Prison Hall, was completed, the Sand Ninja inside the sealing barrier noticed something was wrong.

"What's going on? My chakra is draining away rapidly."

"mine too."

"It's this sealing barrier that's absorbing our chakra."

……

After the Sand Ninja realized that the sealing barrier was absorbing their chakra, they naturally did not intend to sit idly by and attacked the sealing barrier. However, no matter how hard they tried, the sealing barrier remained unmoved.

Moreover, the more they use chakra, the faster their chakra is depleted.

Earth Release: Earth Prison Hall is a very magical Earth Release barrier technique. It can not only absorb the chakra of others, but also has the effect of purification, converting chakra of various attributes into non-attribute chakra.

It was developed and improved based on the sealing barrier technique "Earth Prison Hall Without End" and naturally possesses all the effects of "Earth Prison Hall Without End".

"Using other people's chakra always feels a bit awkward, but what can I do when I don't have enough chakra? I'll just have to make do."

Kirito used the Rock God Puppet and chakra threads to transfer the chakra he had absorbed from the Sand Village ninja into his body through the Sealing Barrier Technique: Earth Prison Hall, restoring his nearly depleted chakra. He exclaimed in amazement.

He had just fought a fierce battle with Ebizo, and it seemed that he had suppressed Ebizo, but in fact, if he did not use the chakra in the Yin Seal, he would already be at his limit.

There was no way around it; the Lightning Transformation Technique was powerful, but it consumed too much chakra. Just two uses had depleted a third of his chakra.