The opposing side showed no intention of letting Hiruzen Sarutobi command easily. The Yatagarasu continued to drop bombs to disrupt the Anbu's formation, while the Asura Path launched an attack. To Hiruzen Sarutobi's astonishment, the Asura Path Pain snapped off his own wrist, and the wrist then flew towards him, spewing flames.

when

Hiruzen Sarutobi swung his Vajra Staff and slammed it down on the incoming wrist. The impact produced a loud clang of metal against metal, and the wrist flew back and reattached to Asura Path's arm.

Although he repelled the enemy's attack, Hiruzen Sarutobi was not in good shape either. He felt a great force coming from the Vajra Staff in his hand, and he was forced to take two and a half steps back involuntarily.

This was only one enemy attacking, and Hiruzen Sarutobi sensed something was wrong. Seeing that there were many enemies, he decided to use ninjutsu to attack.

Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet

Three raging fire dragons soared through the air, charging towards the Asura Path, Animal Path, Hungry Ghost Path, and Konan and the others. Just as the fire dragons were about to encircle them, Hiruzen Sarutobi suddenly noticed that the enemy who had previously blocked the Water Severing Wave Technique had reappeared.

He spread his hands apart, and the three fire dragons, each nearly ten meters tall, rapidly shrank after reaching him, quickly disappearing completely from his palms!

Does it have the ability to absorb ninjutsu chakra?

Hiruzen Sarutobi guessed what was going on, and then swung his Ruyi Jingu Bang at the opponent. This time, the opponent didn't stand there to absorb the attack, but instead dodged it directly.

This undoubtedly confirmed Hiruzen Sarutobi's guess. His mind instantly settled; it was indeed the case. To deal with this kind of enemy, one had to rely on taijutsu.

Having seized upon the enemy's weakness, Hiruzen Sarutobi, wielding his Ruyi Jingu Bang, attempted to pursue. Suddenly, a barrage of shuriken rained down upon him, forcing him to halt and defend. While intercepting them, Hiruzen discovered that although the shuriken were made of paper, they were as sharp as knives. He managed to defend against them, but a large number of his ANBU followers instantly fell to the ground.

"asshole!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi, his eyes blazing with fury, was preparing to retaliate when he caught a glimpse of several missiles rapidly approaching out of the corner of his eye. The intelligence he had previously seen instantly flooded his mind, and Hiruzen Sarutobi dodged them.

Boom

Five missiles landed where Hiruzen Sarutobi had been standing, causing a violent explosion that turned the area within a radius of nearly 100 meters into ruins. Another batch of ANBU ninjas who were dealing with the summoning beasts and some civilian ninjas who had surrounded them fell.

Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique

After dodging, Hiruzen Sarutobi immediately gathered chakra and used Water Release: a giant water sphere spewed from his mouth, extinguishing the flames along the way and stopping the giant dog that was charging towards him.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique"

Hiruzen Sarutobi pulled out a giant shuriken and hurled it into the air. As if by magic, tens of thousands of shuriken appeared in the sky and then rained down. The range of these vicious shuriken not only covered the Akatsuki members, but even the Yatagarasu bird in the air was affected by the continuous barrage of shuriken.

The enemy's bizarre attack methods left Hiruzen Sarutobi somewhat bewildered. To counterattack, he first needed to stop the enemy's combo. That's why he chose to use this area-of-effect ninjutsu. He also had another idea in mind. Wasn't that strange enemy capable of absorbing ninjutsu? Then he would use a large number of densely packed ninjutsu attacks to see if the enemy could absorb them in time.

Unfortunately, the enemy's unpredictability exceeded Hiruzen Sarutobi's expectations. The shuriken clones vanished rapidly before they even got close, and any that escaped were blocked and defeated by the flying white paper shuriken. At the same time, another strange attack came. The head of one of the enemies suddenly opened like a book, revealing a smooth, rounded structure. Then, boundless light condensed into a pillar above his head, shooting straight at Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Escape. Earth flow wall"

Hiruzen Sarutobi gathered his chakra, formed hand seals, and pressed them against the ground. Instantly, three solid walls, each half a meter thick, rose from the ground. However, these seemingly sturdy walls were extremely fragile in the face of the pillar of light, and were pierced through almost in the blink of an eye.

Hiruzen Sarutobi noticed something was wrong as soon as the first wall broke, and without hesitation, he jumped away to dodge. However, the ANBU ninjas fighting behind him were not so alert, and several of them were pierced through the chest by the beam of light.

Rumble

The beam of light pierced through the darkness and then through a large number of houses before disappearing, causing those houses to collapse and dust to rise up all around.

The situation of being almost passively attacked made Hiruzen Sarutobi both angry and anxious, while the Anbu around him were entangled with paper cutouts or summoning beasts and could not help at all. He could only rack his brains for a way to defeat the enemy.

However, the enemy showed no sign of letting up. Before Hiruzen Sarutobi could come up with a way to change the unfavorable situation, the enemy came up with a new trick.

Suddenly, a mechanical arm grew from the shoulder of the enemy who had launched the missile. The arm quickly transformed into a cannon barrel, and then an even more powerful chakra gathered at the muzzle of the barrel, unleashing an even more terrifying beam of light.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sensed danger as his enemy's chakra gathered; the attack gave him a vague feeling of being unable to defend against it. He tried to use ninjutsu to interrupt the enemy, but it was too late; a terrifying beam of light shot towards him.

"It's up to you now, Ape Demon!"

The attack was too fast for Hiruzen Sarutobi to dodge. He could only raise his Ruyi Jingu Bang and smash it hard against the beam cannon.

The Vajra Rod and the Light Cannon collided, and a blinding white light flashed across the entire area, plunging everything into an intense glare that made it impossible to see.

After the light faded, the surrounding houses disappeared, as if they had been easily erased like children's building blocks, leaving behind an empty space.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's hands were covered in blood, and he was panting heavily at the edge of the area. As for the Ruyi Jingu Bang, it was severely damaged in the collision and screamed as it turned into white smoke and disappeared.

Along with Enma, Hiruzen Sarutobi's recently rekindled fighting spirit also vanished. Seeing that the enemy was too difficult to deal with, he no longer had the courage to personally engage in battle. He decided to wait until the Konoha ninjas were older before surrounding and killing them.

The constant stinging sensation in his hand brought Hiruzen Sarutobi back to his senses, stopping his impulsive actions. He quickly retreated to the very back of the ANBU squad, facing the giant dog that was splitting apart.

"I also know some sealing techniques. Leave this to me. You all go and wipe out those enemies. Attack!"

"This is the so-called strongest Hokage? Is this all the strength and courage you have?!"

Looking at the disheveled Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Preta Path Pain said disdainfully, "How can this kind of strength support your invasion of other countries? Never mind, I'll come back to you after I've investigated and found out that the Nine-Tails is not helping anyone else."

After making a few sarcastic remarks, the people in the room suddenly vanished, leaving behind only a clone that was clearly made of paper and several giant summoned beasts that were wreaking havoc.