Might of the leech

-Chouji POV-

We were on our way to Asuma-sensei's location when we met a few groups of foreign shinobis. Without announcing who they were, they attacked us with some weird things that rapidly shot kunais at us. Some of them also threw a few jutsus at us.

Shikamaru and I were, of course, retaliating against them. Shikamaru incapacitated them in a flash with his Black lily which was derived from the shadow sewing technique and pulled them together while I tried my best to quickly decimated them with my multi-size and human bullet tank technique.

"[Kuro Higanbana] no Jutsu!"

"[Bubun Baika] no Jutsu!"

Shikamaru binds all of the opponents with his shadow sewing technique then pulls them together in one area, then I enlarge my body with a multi-size technique and smash them with a Human bullet tank technique like a bowling ball smashing the pins.

It's one of our Ino-Shika-Cho Formation, it would be more effective if the mind disturbance technique was performed to disorient the opponents.

Anyway, it's good that we're not surrounded yet and able to detect them before we're caught off guard. And to finish the deed, we attacked the enemies that were not trapped by Shikamaru's technique.

We're able to finish them in a couple of minutes. Although it sounds easy, what we did earlier by no means was easy. It involved delicate timing and control by Shikamaru, great chemistry and trust between Shikamaru and me, also a decisive act to execute the technique. One miss and a single opponent would be able to finish us with a mere kunai to our vital.

For example, what if Shikamaru did not manage to hold all of the nearby enemies in place and I rushed to them to attack? Well, they would just dodge my attack and surround me then turn me into a makeshift porcupine.

---

We rushed into the ruin where Asuma-sensei was supposed to be, and there we saw from some distance away Asuma-sensei bruised blood leaked from the corner of his mouth, while his nose looked broken, and his expression was grim. Beside him was Ko-san, his complexion was no better. His left hand even dangled on his side, it seems that the bone of his hand was broken.

They were facing a strange creature, it was a leech-like creature with some kind of mask on its supposed face and tentacles sprouted from its body. We saw they confronted the leech and managed to cut a few of its tentacles and even its body more than once, but it kept healing and regenerating at a rapid pace.

In front of one of the ruined temple's entrances, we also spotted a single person who looked similar to the Shinno guy that we were supposed to take. But, instead of an elderly man that we knew, we saw a man in his mid-thirties.

Compared to before, his hair and beard grew wild and much longer, as well as blackening in color. His eyebrows became black and wildly thicker. His muscles greatly expanded, which caused his former appearance like a matchstick compared to this one, he's bare-chested, with only shreds of the sleeve around his wrists. All this made him look younger and much more physically fit. The creases under his eyes and the dark bags around them also seem to have disappeared.

He stood from an elevated platform and watched the confrontation between the leech and Asuma-sensei along with Ko-san. His face made an excited expression like a child that just found his favorite toys.

We watched them in silence from afar. From what we saw, if we interfered recklessly we might become a deadweight to Sensei and Ko-san. They looked like they were in a disadvantageous position, and indeed they were.

Minutes later, we felt Ino's and Daen-san's presence approaching us. We rendezvous a bit far from the battle site, but from here we can clearly see what happened there due to its elevated position. We told Daen-san about what we knew and asked him about the next plan. His rank is higher than ours, and it is a must for a chain of command to remain intact while on a mission, especially in an urgent situation like this.

"Our main objective remains the same, it's to apprehend this person named Shinno..."

We're silent, no one answered him. We can't help it, we're worried about our sensei. Seeing us like this, Daen-san understood us and sighed. 'Kids, what a drag...'

"Look here kiddos, Asuma-san is not a weak person. In fact, he's the strongest among us and that's crystal clear, he's not chosen as one of the twelve guardians of the fire country for nothing. What we need to do is either create an opening for him and Ko-san or directly strike at our target, Shinno, and then retreat to wait for more reinforcement from the Village.

"Option one is a high-risk one because we're yet to know the full capabilities of that creature. And although we also don't know our target's full capabilities, at least we won't bother Asuma-san and Ko-san. So, we're going with the second option, any objection?"

We silently shook our heads, this mission was out of our league. Daen-san's ability to plan and discern our next step is an eye-opener for us, no matter how hard we trained, the experience is the true best teacher.

Then we briefly listened to Daen-san's plan and immediately circled around the area to apprehend our target from his blind side.

We silently approach him, and Daen-san and Shikamaru directly bind the target with their clan's technique.

"[Kagemane] no Jutsu!" "[Kage–Kubishibari] no Jutsu!"

Two lines of shadows rapidly extended from Daen-san's and Shikamaru's shadows. One line melded with the target's shadow while the other climbed on our target's body and strangled him. In tandem, I rushed and flipped my body forming a somersault then hit Shinno's head downward with my right foot.

"[Barista Swirl]!" It's a move that I'm familiar with since my past life, I can do it even with my eyes closed.

The floor below him was blasted and he fell down, on another side, the purple leech turned its head and growled deeply. Just then, suddenly it rushed toward us, its sudden acceleration was alarming and neither Asuma-sensei nor Ko-san was able to react before it rushed toward us.

We braced ourselves, in the spur of the moment I enlarged myself to shield Shikamaru and Ino from the impact while Daen-san jumped in front of me and used an earth-style technique to summon a wall in front of us. Silly me, why have I endangered myself when there's a better option to use ninjutsu instead?

The leech continued to get closer to us until...

*Kaboom*