Looking at Mujin, Danzo's fist clenched. He stared coldly at Mujin and said, "Mujin, must you stop me today?"
Mujin replied calmly, "Please don't misunderstand, Lord Danzo. The war has just begun. We still have a lot of time to enjoy. What good is it to let Konoha's ninjas return to the Land of Grass? Only by letting Konoha truly feel the crisis can a hero's appearance be truly valuable, isn't it? Adding flowers to embroidery is far less significant than sending charcoal in the snow."
Indeed, that was the truth, but Danzo no longer wanted to follow Mujin's pace. After being threatened by the other party and losing Ieyasu, they no longer had any basis for cooperation.
A dangerous glint appeared in Danzo's eyes. "As for your words, I won't listen to another single..."
"Have you forgotten our deal? When the time comes, I will hand over more than a thousand Grassy Leaf ninjas to you; their fates are yours to decide."
"Hmm..." Danzo's subsequent words were immediately choked back.
However, he also cursed himself for his greed. Although he had already decided not to trust Mujin again, faced with such a tempting bargaining chip, he couldn't help but be swayed.
Mujin knew from Danzo's expression that he had taken his words to heart.
Bitterness in everything; righteousness where there is none. Such is the way of the world.
Looking at Danzo, wanting to be Hokage but failing—this was what tormented him his entire life.
Just as Danzo was struggling inwardly, Mujin continued, "This battle line will not collapse now, you know. Our goal has never been to defeat Konoha. Just wait a few more days, and you'll get what you want."
"Of course, if Lord Danzo wants to try his hand against Mujin, we would be happy to oblige. However, our battle against each other is destined to be a meaningless struggle."
Saying that, Mujin looked at the battlefield again. Konoha's ninjas were attempting to divide the Grass ninja formation. If they could divide this army of over a thousand into several small squads, Konoha's ninjas could rely on their superior individual quality to equally crush the Grass ninjas.
This was a very effective strategy, though he didn't know who came up with it.
Mujin naturally couldn't let them truly divide the Grass ninja forces. He glanced at Danzo, then pulled out a signal flare from his pocket and launched it high into the sky.
Thump!
A bright red color exploded in the sky. Everyone on the battlefield saw the red light emanating from above their heads!
Seeing this, Danzo slowly retreated into the shadows behind him, and at the same time said, "Mujin, I will trust you one last time. If I don't get what I want after this, I will cooperate with others and do everything in my power to kill you all! Any of your plans or schemes will be utterly ruined, please believe me on this point!"
Having a master schemer like Danzo fully focused on you was indeed a very troublesome matter. Fortunately, they wouldn't see each other again for a long time.
As Danzo withdrew, upon seeing the signal flare above their heads, that group of Cursed Seal ninjas immediately all entered Cursed Seal Mode!
A series of guttural roars began to spread across the battlefield. Their bodies began to undergo bestial transformation. Lions, tigers, crocodiles, and vultures, regardless of type—everyone transformed into ferocious beasts!
The balance of power in the battle was suddenly broken at that instant. The changes on the battlefield caught Konoha off guard!
In their Cursed Seal state, every ninja almost gained a powerful strength that transcended a level! Although a few were eroded by the Cursed Seal and lost their minds, the vast majority were still able to act according to the previous plan.
They swiftly counterattacked. Their abundant vitality even allowed them to ignore minor injuries. The power boost brought by their bestial transformation simply turned them into a shockwave, easily scattering Konoha's formation!
After that, they once again entered the rotten-wood mode...
Fortunately, Konoha had learned its lesson. They issued an order to retreat before their troops were completely entangled, allowing Konoha's ninjas to escape the battlefield in time, without suffering too many casualties like last time.
Mujin and Konan also entered the battlefield. They needed to direct those feral Cursed Seal ninjas from the front line.
Mujin led them forward with his superhuman physical abilities, first blocking the Konoha ninjas' retreat routes, forcing them to abandon those strongholds to withdraw. Then, he immediately ordered the undefended strongholds to be destroyed and razed!
As for the Grass ninjas who were not Cursed Seal users, they were left in place, not attacking the stronghold they had initially assaulted, but rather surrounding it.
Slowly, the battlefield returned to peace.
Konoha had completely failed to anticipate the existence of the Cursed Seal ninjas. They suffered another major loss on the battlefield. Six frontline strongholds were destroyed on the first day of the war, with only one remaining stronghold still caught in the Grass Village's encirclement, unable to advance or retreat.
Of the thousand ninjas originally stationed here, apart from the eighty or so trapped in the forward stronghold, only about four hundred returned to the main stronghold at this time.
They suffered another loss of about a hundred personnel in the midnight attack!
The casualties on the Grass Village side were around three hundred people. However, similar to the last time, they could still create over a hundred Cursed Seal ninjas from the injured.
Both battles Konoha participated in could only end in forced retreats. They couldn't take those injured away; they could only leave them behind to die!
A night of battle left both sides unable to continue. In the time that followed, both sides were in a state of silence.
When the morning sunlight slowly rose, the first day of the war finally ended.
The three thousand Grass Village ninjas now only had two thousand two hundred left, with over seven hundred dead.
And among these two thousand two hundred people, there were nearly six hundred Cursed Seal ninjas. However, they didn't know that Orochimaru's Cursed Seal of the Earth and Heaven would drastically consume their life force. The average lifespan of these people had already been shortened by at least ten years.
Fortunately, they wouldn't live to see the day they discovered the Cursed Seal's side effects.
On Konoha's side, they originally had one main fortress, six medium-sized defensive strongholds, and a thousand ninjas.
But now, they only had one main fortress, one defensive stronghold, and over four hundred ninjas left.
And among these four hundred people, over eighty were trapped in the forward defensive stronghold, unable to move!
In last night's battle, Mujin did not directly attack this stronghold. Instead, he dispatched five hundred people to encircle it, not allowing anyone to escape.
Shibi Aburame had over three hundred people on his hands. After excluding the necessary personnel who had to remain in the main fortress, he could only mobilize about two hundred and fifty people.
This number was no longer enough to rescue those trapped comrades from the Grass Village's hands.
But should they abandon them?
No. At least Konoha, a village that valued love and bonds, could not do such a thing.
Danzo narrowed his eyes. He was pondering Mujin's motive for doing this and also inferring what the other party might do next.
But there was no result. The intelligence he had was too little.
The Root ninjas also suffered some losses last night. The most serious loss was the death of Aburame Torune, which made him lose an extremely precious tool.
Danzo didn't want to waste his manpower anymore, so he took the initiative and said, "Leaving those people in the Grass Village is abandoning them. We can't do anything else now. Stop hesitating. Ask the village for help."
Danzo's words made everyone's faces turn grim.
On the first day of the first battle, the front line strongholds were almost completely lost, over half the personnel were lost, and comrades were trapped in the enemy's encirclement, unable to move.
In the entire history of Konoha, perhaps there was no more humiliating battle record than theirs.
At this moment, someone angrily slammed the table and asked, "What's wrong with those Grass ninjas? That bestial transformation directly increased their strength by one level. If they can maintain that state for a long time, we won't have the advantage in terms of combat power!"
Danzo said with a grim expression, "Information from the Root ninjas states that a thousand years ago, the Grass Village almost dominated the world by means of something. Although they ultimately failed, that 'something' was left behind, and the Grass Village has been researching it. Recently, they seem to have achieved some results, and those transformed ninjas might be because of this 'something'."
Orochimaru's Cursed Seal research was only completed in recent years. The early Cursed Seal on Anko Mitarashi's body had not yet changed her abilities, so Danzo was not clear about the origins of these Cursed Seal ninjas.
Sarutobi Hiruzen also sighed. He said, "In short, first report the situation to Lord Hokage. Subsequent actions will await the village's orders."
Hearing this, everyone also sighed softly.
Afterwards, an intelligence ninja stuffed a miniature scroll into a small pipe on a cloud swallow's leg, then released it to fly.
The small cloud swallow flapped its wings and flew directly into the sky, continuously flapping its wings and flying towards Konoha Village.
One day later, Konoha's Intelligence Division's "Crow's Nest" received a small cloud swallow in return.
The intelligence ninja stationed in the village pulled out the miniature scroll from the cloud swallow's leg and then sent it to the analysis team.
The ninja of the analysis team then followed the procedure: first, they formed a few hand signs to restore the miniature scroll to its normal size. Then, specialized analysis ninjas restored the content on it. After that, this intelligence was sent to the hands of the analysis team leader, Inoichi Yamanaka.
The team leader opened the scroll. His face instantly changed, and he hurriedly sent the intelligence to Inoichi Yamanaka of the Intelligence Division. Inoichi also turned pale upon opening it and rushed to the Hokage's office, delivering the intelligence to the Fifth Hokage, Jiraiya.
"Lord Hokage! Urgent report from the front line! Approximately one hundred of our ninjas are besieged by five hundred Grass ninjas! Our latest reinforcements only number about four hundred! How should we act?"
Jiraiya, who had been busy all night and had not yet slept, was startled upon hearing this. He asked again, somewhat uncertainly, "How many people did you say?"
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