Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage, was being carried through the air by his sand. Elder Chiyo was with him. As the main forces for this operation, both needed to conserve their stamina to attack Konoha's strongholds.
They had brought no large machinery this time, so they could only rely on Kage-level powerhouses to forcefully assault the enemy's defensive strongholds!
Ebizo looked around. Konoha's scout teams, after realizing they couldn't send messages back, had begun attacking their forces, intending to slow their advance.
After a brief thought, Ebizo said to Baki, "Baki, send men to drive them off! Don't delay the team's advance! Afterwards, gather the scattered team members here! Once we break through Konoha's defensive stronghold, we'll head straight for Withered Mountain Castle. Then pull back the scout teams. Let's make Withered Mountain Castle our finish line and carve this piece of land out of the Land of Fire's map!"
Ebizo's words made Baki's eyes light up. He nodded vigorously, then waved a hand, leading a group of shinobi away from the main force.
Immediately, sounds of fierce combat echoed around them.
Eight thousand shinobi surged like a tide towards the Land of Fire. Even with some stragglers, the number of those who crossed the Land of Fire's border with Gaara and his forces exceeded six thousand!
And at this very moment, the defensive stronghold located on their path of advance had just received intelligence of the Sand Village's main forces attacking!
The Sand Village had poured out its full strength! Nearly ten thousand shinobi surged towards the Land of Fire!
The Jonin captain looked at the intelligence scroll before him in shock, even doubting if it was false information!
But he had no time for shock, because what followed was the trembling earth and dust rising into the sky in the distance!
There was simply no time to deploy!
The Jonin captain of the defensive stronghold could only manage to relay the intelligence outwards before having to directly face the Sand Village's assault!
The Jonin captain's heart jumped, but his rich experience still allowed him to immediately relay the order: "Activate the defensive barrier! Prepare the city's defenses! As long as we hold out, the village's reinforcements will arrive soon!"
Because the date for war had been set long ago, the barrier squad had members on duty twenty-four hours a day. As soon as the Jonin captain's words fell, a thick layer of purple light membrane slowly converged above their heads, completely protecting the entire stronghold!
Dozens of Konoha shinobi also scrambled onto the city walls, beginning to load various defensive mechanisms, such as kunai rapid-fire guns, and bundled explosive tag projectiles.
But at this moment, a cloud of sand arrived first, in front of the stronghold. Gaara held out a sword-finger with one hand in front of him, then said with a voice full of killing intent, "Shukaku! The carnage you crave is right here! Do you wish to taste blood? Then lend me your strength!"
At this time, Gaara still lacked sufficient training to control the Tailed Beast's power, so he could only unleash Kage-level combat strength with Shukaku's cooperation!
And at this moment, inside the sealing space, Shukaku burst into laughter, "Hahaha, if it's about killing shinobi, then there's no helping it! Take my power, brat!!!"
Gaara heard this and immediately let out a soft roar, "Ninja Art: Sand Shuriken Arm!!!"
As his words fell, a sand claw, over ten meters in diameter and hundreds of meters long, appeared out of thin air!
Then, like a giant dragon, it ruthlessly crashed into the barrier's light membrane above the stronghold!!
Crackling sounds and sparks!!!
Massive electric currents constantly flickered on the light membrane. The shinobi maintaining the barrier gritted their teeth and trembled all over, cold sweat already beading on their foreheads!
But only for a moment!
Innumerable cracks instantly appeared on the light membrane, and then...
Shattering sounds!!!
The sharp claw instantly pierced the light membrane, tearing it into fragments!!!
This was a Tailed Beast!
This was the power capable of changing the battlefield!!
As the barrier shattered, Elder Chiyo spread her arms, and with six puppets, directly leaped from the sand cloud into the stronghold!
Her ten fingers seemed to be playing exquisite music; every twitch would cause a puppet to take a fresh life!
In just a moment, she cleared out the guards near the main gate, then quickly opened the gate, allowing Ebizo and others to enter!
Ebizo charged in, then with a wave of his hand, the several hundred Sand shinobi running at the forefront immediately rushed in, engaging in battle with the Konoha shinobi!
At the same time, he immediately said to Elder Chiyo and Gaara, "They must have already sent out the message! Gaara, Elder Sister, you two continue forward with the remaining forces and capture the other strongholds before Konoha can fully prepare! I will rejoin you after I've cleared this place!"
Elder Chiyo didn't hesitate. This operation was all about speed, speed, speed!
She immediately nodded at Ebizo, then leaped back onto Gaara's sand cloud, continuing to advance with the Sand shinobi following behind!
And Ebizo, who remained, led a shinobi corps several times larger than Konoha's to clear out the stronghold...
Fifteen hundred shinobi from the Cloud Village had already crossed the territory of the Land of Hot Water and gathered at the border of the Land of Fire.
The Fourth Raikage A and his personal bodyguard, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B, were currently hidden within the crowd; no one detected their presence.
As dusk arrived, the Cloud Sparrows raised by the Cloud Village brought back intelligence reporting a mutually damaging struggle between Grass Village and Konoha.
And as the ostensible commander, Dodai, a trusted subordinate of the Third Raikage, quietly sought out the Fourth Raikage A after receiving the intelligence.
The Fourth Raikage A scratched his chin while looking at the intelligence, slowly saying, "Hmm... So Grass Village has already made its move? But they were actually able to inflict such heavy losses on Konoha. It seems Konoha truly isn't what it used to be."
The Cloud Village's scouts were unaware of the precise casualties on both sides, but the scattered corpses everywhere and the two destroyed strongholds undeniably proved that Konoha's losses were considerable as well.
Dodai then asked, "So, should we abandon our previous plan and conquer the Land of Fire first?"
Their original plan was to fight as they advanced, maintaining a stalemate with Konoha in the direction nearing Stone Village. Once an opening appeared in Stone Village's defenses, they would immediately abandon Konoha and launch a direct assault towards Stone Village.
Then, they would seize their village in one fell swoop before the Stone shinobi could report back, completely taking down Stone Village to avenge the Third Raikage's blood feud, who was ambushed and killed by Onoki and ten thousand Stone shinobi!
However, at this moment, since Konoha had revealed a weakness, they didn't necessarily have to cling rigidly to their previous plan.
However, their actions undoubtedly also confirmed the worries of the Raikage Daimyo.
The Daimyo simply had no means to rein in the ninja villages!
The Fourth Raikage A didn't hesitate and immediately said, "Being able to adapt to changing circumstances is the mark of an excellent ninja! Let's try fighting them first! We'll know if they're strong or weak after a clash, won't we? If Konoha is weak, then we'll just take them down directly!"
"I understand!" Dodai responded, then turned and left.
The Fourth Raikage A and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki still remained hidden among the crowd, not revealing themselves.
A Kage of a village absolutely must not reveal themselves easily. Even a hero as brave as the Third Raikage, who could face ten thousand men, would ultimately die in a siege!
Mugen, who commanded Grass Village, simply didn't treat the Grass shinobi as people. Ebizo of Sand Village was gambling on luck. The wars they initiated were not conventional wars. The stable and prosperous Cloud Village would naturally not act like them.
Casualties of hundreds of people cannot be borne casually.
The fifteen hundred shinobi of the Cloud Village did not invade the Land of Fire's territory but instead began setting up camp in the neutral Land of Hot Water.
The Land of Hot Water's villagers smiled outwardly while bleeding inwardly, but could only watch as the other party used their country as a battlefield.
Small ninja villages have no human rights!
But fortunately, Konoha was also overwhelmed at the moment, and they couldn't push back in the early stages, so they wouldn't reduce the Land of Hot Water to ruins.
While the Cloud Village was establishing their stronghold, Dodai also divided their forces into many ninja battalions.
Based on a four-person squad, with four squads forming a battalion of sixteen people, and four platoons forming a brigade of sixty-four people, Dodai pulled out four brigades, instructing them to invade the Land of Fire's territory in a linear formation. While scouting the distribution of Konoha shinobi, they were also to eliminate Konoha's scout teams hidden in the dense forest!
Forcefully attacking the enemy's defensive stronghold was an extremely foolish act. Therefore, the best strategy was to lure the enemy out of their shell and engage them in open combat.
So the question arises, why did Konoha's shinobi insist on fighting outside the city to intercept the Cloud Village's invasion?
This is because the destructive power caused by shinobi in small-scale actions is unimaginable to anyone!
Once Cloud Village squads bypassed the strongholds and infiltrated the rear, they would wantonly destroy villages in the Land of Fire, devastate their towns, and burn their farmlands!
They would even sneak in to sabotage their transportation and supply lines!
Enemy shinobi lurking about would also require more manpower for search and capture, but this would reduce the number of front-line shinobi, leading to the defensive lines being infiltrated again, creating an endless vicious cycle!
Therefore, Konoha absolutely had to stop the enemy at the border!
The commander of this battle line was Hiruzen Sarutobi's son, Asuma Sarutobi. He was lucky not to encounter unreasonable types like Mugen or Ebizo.
Furthermore, although the Sarutobi clan didn't have many high-ranking members, as the Third Hokage had served for decades, the Sarutobi clan's infiltration into Konoha was far beyond that of the Shimura clan. They provided Asuma with comprehensive assistance.
Manpower, resources, intelligence—Asuma lacked nothing that was available, which allowed him to barely fend off Cloud Village's offensive.
However, sometimes the Cloud Village would use previously acquired intelligence to send several brigades to attack weak points in Konoha's defenses, causing Asuma considerable trouble.
But fortunately, Konoha's shinobi were skilled enough, which prevented the Cloud Village from breaking through their defenses.
The war between the Cloud Village and Konoha did not result in excessive casualties.
This was because it was still the early stage of the war, and the shinobi from all sides were experienced, mature shinobi; the difference in strength between the two sides was not significant.
When they encountered each other in the dense forest, in most cases, they would first send out a distress signal, then fiercely battle for about ten minutes, sustaining minor injuries and some bleeding, and then begin to withdraw before the opponent's reinforcements arrived, thus entering the next cycle.
Aside from a few unlucky ones, both sides could act as if nothing had happened.
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