As Kyosuke had predicted, a short while later, Kimimaro slowly erged from the deep crater.
A sinister chakra pulsed around his body, the most obvious sign of an activated cursed seal.
However, against Kyosuke's two powerful Fire Release jutsus, even with the cursed seal, he couldn't have taken the hit unscathed.
His body was covered in blackened, necrotic skin. In so places, large patches of skin had fallen off, revealing not red muscle tissue, but a layer of snow-white bone armor.
It was clear that in the mont of crisis, Kimimaro had successfully ford a protective layer of bone tissue under his skin, allowing him to survive the attack.
"What a hassle," Shikamaru muttered, watching Kimimaro once again engage in a war of attrition.
Just as he was about to try the sa tactic with Kyosuke again, sothing unexpected happened.
The wooden box a short distance behind Kimimaro began to shake violently.
Thump! The lid of the box was sent flying by the person inside.
Then, a gray-haired boy slowly climbed out of the barrel.
This person was their mission target, Uchiha Sasuke.
"Sasuke!" The mont he saw him, Naruto cried out in joy.
"You idiot, do you know how worried everyone was about you?"
"Especially Sakura, she..."
Seeing Sasuke appear, Naruto began to ramble. But as he spoke, his voice gradually grew fainter, until it was inaudible.
Because even he, in his slowness, had noticed that Sasuke was just standing there, his head bowed, a cold smile on his face, with no intention of acknowledging them.
And so, at this mont, Naruto felt an overwhelming sense of anger.
Kyosuke, however, had no ti to deal with the emotional turmoil between these two. He only felt an imnse headache.
"Kimimaro alone is this much trouble. Add to that a much stronger Sasuke... this is tricky."
"But we're not without our own backup. By my calculations, that person should be here by now."
The mont Kyosuke's thought ended, a boy in a green jumpsuit, with unusually thick hair and eyebrows, appeared before them.
The newcor was the recently healed Rock Lee.
"Lee, you... are you alright?" Neji, who had completely opened up his heart, was now increasingly concerned about his comrades. Seeing Lee, who had been seriously injured in bed, on the battlefield, he quickly asked about his condition.
"Lady Tsunade's dical skills are amazing. I'm basically fully recovered now," Lee said, giving a thumbs-up and a wide grin.
The two of them exchanged a few words, then turned to look at Sasuke.
"Sasuke-kun, he..." Lee said, looking at his forr comrade, a sense of unfamiliarity rising in his heart.
Neji shook his head, said nothing, but glanced with concern at the angry and hurt Naruto.
Just then, Kyosuke quietly walked over.
"Lee, you go with Naruto later. Bring Sasuke back," Kyosuke whispered to him.
The reason he said this was because at this ti, Rock Lee's strength was the best among the genin, even if his body was not in peak condition.
Instead of having him stay here to fight Kimimaro, who he was a bad matchup against, it was better to have him and Naruto go and defeat Sasuke.
As for the troubleso Kimimaro, they would handle him.
Even if Kyosuke and the others couldn't defeat him, they were not the only ones on this mission.
There were three other powerful allies on their way.
After a mont's hesitation, Lee agreed.
At the sa ti, Sasuke, ignoring Naruto's shouts behind him, chose to leave.
Seeing this, Kyosuke imdiately gave Lee a look, signaling him to follow.
Kimimaro, who was on the side, keenly sensed their intention and, with a flash, blocked their path.
"Naruto, Lee, you go on ahead," Kyosuke shouted, his hands quickly forming hand seals.
"Body Flicker Technique."
"Uchiha Style: Sun Halo Dance."
To buy them ti, Kyosuke went all out.
In an instant, his figure vanished from everyone's sight, transforming into a stream of fire that charged madly at Kimimaro.
Faced with Kyosuke's life-or-death attack, although Kimimaro wouldn't be defeated, it would not be an easy task to block it unscathed.
Naruto glanced at the others, nodded to Lee, and the two of them chased after Sasuke.
This ti, Kimimaro was powerless to stop them.
While Kyosuke was attacking, Shikamaru, Neji, and Choji were not idle.
Shikamaru's shadow, Choji's Multi-Size Technique, and Neji's Gentle Fist all attacked the enemy at the sa ti, hoping to buy more ti.
At this ti, a few kiloters away in a forest, three figures were rapidly advancing.
"Kankuro, have you found any trace of them?" a girl with a giant fan on her back asked impatiently.
She recalled the intelligent boy she had t in the Chunin Exams, and her heart grew even more anxious.
This girl was Temari of the Sand Village. And beside her were her two younger brothers.
The puppet master, Kankuro, and... Gaara of the Sand.
"You'd better be alright," Temari muttered to herself, then urged the poor Kankuro to search again.
Just then, a massive explosion ca from the distance, successfully attracting the attention of the three of them.
"There," Temari said hastily, then, without waiting for the other two to respond, she sped off in that direction.
Gaara: "...Let's go."
Kankuro: "...Oh."
"Neji!" Shikamaru cried out in panic, looking at his comrade, who now had several bloody holes in his body.
Before, with Naruto's clones as cover, he hadn't felt that it was so difficult. But after Naruto had left, Shikamaru truly understood the enemy's strength.
Kyosuke said this person was fighting them while suffering from a terminal illness. If his body was intact...
Thinking of this, Shikamaru felt a deep sense of fear rise in his heart, a feeling that made his entire body tremble.
This was the first ti he had faced such an invincible opponent, and it also made him understand a crucial principle: in the face of absolute power, strategy is sotis just a joke.
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