Chapter 156: What Are You Doing Here?
"Mother, what about us?"
Yuzu looked up at her mother, uncertain and not knowing what to do next.
"We're leaving first."
Kushi took her daughter and ran toward the edge of the barrier. They were already close to it and arrived in no time.
"Yuzu , stay here… if there's no danger, don't go anywhere. When the barrier goes down, leave by yourself. Understand?"
Uzumaki Kushi crouched down, gently brushing the hair from her daughter's forehead, her expression serious as she gave her this instruction.
"What about you, Mother?" Little Yuzu's expression changed slightly as she asked.
Kushi looked toward the towering trees rising in the distance like surging earth dragons. Her eyes were resolute. "I'm going to Lord Li Yao."
If Li Yao died here, their chances of survival were slim. Only if he lived would there be hope—at the very least, for her daughter.
This, Uzumaki Kushi understood clearly.
Even if it meant sacrificing herself, she had to make sure Li Yao survived.
"I…" Yuzu wanted to say she would go too, but under her mother's sharp gaze, she lowered her head and said softly, "I understand, Mother."
"Good girl." Kushi smiled and stroked her daughter's head. Then she stood and said, "Don't worry. Mother and Lord Li Yao will come back for you."
With that, Kushi ran toward Li Yao's position, leaving behind only a trace of tears floating in the air.
Escaping from the joint siege of the Five Kage wasn't going to be easy.
She didn't know what she could do to help Li Yao, but even if it meant giving her life, she was willing to offer whatever little help she could.
"Ōnoki, Li Yao's real body is pinned down. Go kill him. I'll handle the clone here."
The Third Raikage flew up beside Ōnoki and said.
Ōnoki looked at the Raikage, feeling somewhat strange—it was unusual to receive help from him.
"Alright."
Ōnoki nodded without hesitation and immediately flew toward Li Yao's true body.
With the Raikage present, Li Yao's clone couldn't stop Ōnoki anymore—he could only watch as the old man left.
But… Li Yao had more than one clone.
Two shadow clones created from the Kushi side charged toward Ōnoki, intercepting him halfway.
Five minutes had passed.
Only four minutes left.
Ōnoki kept silent note of the time. Once four more minutes passed, he could unleash a large-scale Dust Release and kill Li Yao. The barrier would lift just after, and he might still have enough strength to escape.
Boom boom boom…
The clones fighting the Mizukage and Raikage had exhausted their chakra and were destroyed.
No surprise—fighting the Mizukage and Tsuchikage had drained them rapidly. Surviving four minutes was already impressive.
"Shadow Clone Technique."
One of Li Yao's clones, flying high along the barrier's edge after shaking off Ayase, took out the giant scroll from the Black Water space again and began creating more shadow clones to absorb chakra and prepare to transfer it to the real body.
Dan Katō sensed this and urgently warned Ayase, "Ayase-senpai, Li Yao's clone is channeling chakra to his real body again. We must stop him!"
Ayase frowned slightly. She looked at the relaxed, smiling Li Yao clone ahead, then at the other clones farther away. She wasn't strong enough to stop even one clone without Dan's help, let alone the others.
Unless… she looked toward the distant barrier edge, remembering the Uzumaki mother and daughter.
Whoosh!
Ayase decided to gamble—that Li Yao cared about the mother and child enough to divert more clones to protect them.
That way, she could pin down more of them.
"Ayase-senpai, what are you doing?!"
Dan Katō's angry voice rang out in her mind. She ignored him, focusing on defending against the clone's attacks while moving toward Little Yuzu's location.
"Wake up, senpai," Dan snapped. "That clone isn't even trying hard to stop you. He doesn't care about the mother and daughter. He's just conserving chakra to stall us longer."
It had to be said—Dan's battle instincts were sharp. He saw right through the clone's strategy.
Indeed, Li Yao didn't want to burn too much chakra blocking Ayase. The scroll's chakra wasn't infinite; it had to be saved for critical moments.
If Ayase wanted to kill Yuzu —so be it.
Li Yao had said it before: their lives depended on luck.
If luck failed them, there was nothing he could do.
Hearing that Li Yao didn't care about the mother and daughter, Ayase paused and asked, "Then what should we do? We can't escape under the clone's watch."
"No choice. You must first move beyond his genjutsu range," Dan instructed.
Only then could he notify the others to target the most critical clone—the one with the scroll. That was the key. Without that chakra supply, Li Yao wouldn't be able to sustain his Wood Release.
If the trees were gone, Getsuishi would've reached Li Yao already.
"Understood."
Ayase shot a hateful look at the clone and took off.
"Trying to run?"
Li Yao's clone sneered. Now that she wanted to leave, he had no intention of letting her.
He flew his ink eagle in pursuit.
"Ink Waterfall!"
Ayase expended a large amount of chakra to form a towering cascade of ink that surged toward the clone.
Not wanting to waste chakra on a wide-range attack, the clone simply maneuvered the ink eagle high into the sky to evade it.
With that, a 600-meter gap opened between them.
"Good, I'll be right back."
Dan exited Ayase's body and quickly flew to the Mizukage and Raikage, whispering the intel about Li Yao's clone using the giant scroll and shadow clones to supply the real body with chakra. He urged them to destroy those clones.
"Shadow clones… what a troublesome jutsu."
The nature of clones returning their remaining chakra to the real body made both the Mizukage and Raikage frown.
The Raikage glanced at Ōnoki, still locked in a dance with two clones. He realized that Ōnoki wasn't retaliating—he was saving up chakra.
"That guy's charging up a big move!"
At that realization, the Raikage's eyes flickered. He made up his mind—he would follow Dan's advice and target the clones instead of going after Li Yao directly.
Seeing this, the Mizukage also looked surprised but followed Dan's instructions and went to eliminate the clones.
"Cunning bastards!"
From a distance, Ōnoki saw the Raikage and Mizukage abandon their assault on Li Yao and cursed inwardly.
If they had finished off all four Kage in one stroke, Iwagakure would surely have emerged the ultimate victor of this war.
Too bad.
The Mizukage and Raikage had sensed his intent. And that Hokage... he never expected him to be so weak.
To be honest, seeing the Third almost killed by a clone shocked Ōnoki. For someone with the title "Hero of the Ninja World," the Third was underwhelming. Now he was hiding, not even part of the fight.
Really, if Li Yao weren't such a threat to Iwagakure, Ōnoki would've left already.
But it was too late. They were all involved now. Li Yao had to die.
So where was the Third now?
"Third Hokage, what are you doing here?!"
A Raikage guard stared in shock at the Third Hokage, who had appeared at the edge of the barrier while the other four Kage were still in battle.
What was going on?
What did this mean?
The Third looked a little embarrassed. Afraid the Raikage's men might remove the barrier early, he quickly explained, "Li Yao is heading this way. I came early to prepare a forbidden technique."
He then sat down, gathering chakra to look like he was getting ready for something major.
The Raikage's guard looked skeptical, but seeing that no other Kage's guards had removed the barrier, he hesitated. He didn't take action—but his wariness had increased. If anything seemed off, he would cancel the barrier immediately.
Biwako's eyes narrowed as she caught the signal from her husband. If anything went wrong, she was to summon Enma through summoning technique, and have him use reverse summoning to get the Hokage out of the barrier.
Without Dan's protection, the Third wasn't confident he could withstand Li Yao's genjutsu.
(END CHAPTER)
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