At this moment, within the Hidden Cloud's encampment, Samui's brows were tightly furrowed.
"Still no useful intelligence extracted?" she asked in a low voice, watching Yugito wipe blood from her hands. Although she, as the commander, hadn't personally entered the battlefield, she could sense that Konoha's movements were unusual, yet she couldn't figure out Konoha's intentions or objectives.
"No."
Yugito Nii shook her head, glancing at the Konoha jōnin who was now utterly disfigured and completely lifeless. "This guy even spilled details about how many times he's been to FUNFUN Street. He probably knows nothing about Jiraiya's plans."
With that, Yugito paused, then offered a comforting thought, "Perhaps there really isn't any conspiracy, and they just lack the patience to drag this out further?"
Samui shook her head. The unease in her heart didn't dissipate; instead, it grew even stronger.
"Sister! Sister!"
Just then, Atsui, carrying a headless corpse, ran over, his shouts interrupting Samui and Yugito's thoughts.
"What are you doing?" Samui suppressed her impatience, frowning as she looked at him.
"Sister, look at this corpse!" Atsui released the body, letting it fall to the ground.
"Look at what?" Samui's brows knitted together.
Atsui scratched his head, whispering, "I don't know either, I just feel like something's wrong."
"..." Samui's face darkened.
"Atsui, you idiot, don't cause trouble here!" Yugito, beside her, twitched her lips, walked over, grabbed his collar, and started to drag him outside.
"No! Sis!" Atsui struggled, shouting, "Konoha really is strange! They're throwing exploding tags like kunai this time! They... ngh!"
Before Atsui could finish, Yugito clapped a hand over his mouth.
But at that moment, Samui suddenly looked up.
"Wait!" She narrowed her eyes, stopping Yugito and Atsui, and thoughtfully said, "Atsui, you said Konoha's exploding tag consumption rate is off?" This was something Samui, who was stationed at the rear of the battlefield, wouldn't know; only those directly on the battlefield would notice such subtle anomalies.
"Mm-mm!" Atsui, whose mouth was covered, nodded repeatedly.
After pondering for a moment, Samui stood up and said gravely, "I need to personally go to the battlefield and see."
"Samui!" Yugito frowned, "If Konoha finds out, they'll specifically target and decapitate you!"
"It's fine." Samui shook her head, smiling. "You'll protect me, right?"
Hearing this, Yugito fell silent, then sighed, her voice helpless. "You're too reckless. There's nothing I can do with you."
Samui exhaled deeply. After giving a few instructions to her deputy, she walked out of the tent.
Soon, the three of them arrived at the main battlefield, standing on high ground and gazing into the distance. Samui stared intently at everything unfolding before her, sensing everything she possibly could. The drizzling rain was chillingly cold, mixing with the unique smells of mud, gunpowder, and blood from the battlefield, forming a nauseating, foul odor.
Her ears were filled with a distorted cacophony of sounds: the roar of ninjutsu, screams of agony and battle cries, deafening explosions, the grating clang of metal on metal... Sweat mixed with cold rainwater streamed down Samui's face, but what tightened her heart even more was an insistent feeling of incongruity.
Where exactly was it? Where did this sense of incongruity come from?
"So hot." Atsui instinctively blurted out his catchphrase.
Hot?
Samui's pupils suddenly constricted. She finally realized the incongruity.
Temperature! The temperature is wrong!
This was definitely not the temperature a normal battle should have! Every time she opened her mouth to breathe, it felt like she was swallowing scorching, reeking air, and her throat burned with pain. Samui's gaze sharply swept across the battlefield. Sure enough, she saw orange-red explosions erupting everywhere, one after another. The thunderous roar of exploding tags was continuous, far exceeding the intensity of previous offensives. Each explosion unleashed an astonishing wave of heat, violently heating the surrounding air.
Not only that, it wasn't just because of the exploding tags...
"Fire Style!" Samui's throat bobbed. She rasped, "The number of Fire Style ninja is wrong! There are too many!"
The heat generated by Fire Style and exploding tags far exceeded the intensity of a normal battle. The scorching flames repeatedly roasted the damp, cold air. The immense heat produced evaporated the rainwater, forming distorted white steam that rose upwards.
This tactic of deliberately piling on Fire Style and wildly scattering exploding tags—Konoha's goal was definitely not just simple casualties! This was practically cooking this battlefield!
At this thought, Samui suddenly looked up at the low, oppressive, churning, dense rain clouds. The heavy, dark clouds weren't a static curtain; they were violently surging and tumbling, as if constantly pushed up by the enormous heat rising from the battlefield below. Under the moisture of the rain and the evaporation of heat, the clouds were accumulating and thickening at an unprecedented rate, so oppressive it was hard to breathe, as if the sky could collapse at any moment!
"Exploding tags and Fire Style... rising air temperature... updrafts... forming clouds..."
Innumerable thoughts gradually connected at this moment. Samui finally realized Konoha's objective.
They were artificially creating a rainy environment?
But why? What was the meaning?
"Sis! I remember now!"
Just then, Atsui suddenly yelled, pointing at the corpses of the Konoha ninja. He exclaimed, "Their shoes! The shoes are wrong!"
Samui unconsciously lowered her head to look, her gaze fixed on the feet of several corpses. Through the mud, she clearly saw that the Konoha ninja were no longer wearing common ninja boots, but shoes made of a distinctly different material!
Those were rubber soles?!
A terrifying thought, like lightning, struck Samui's mind. The cold rainwater seemed to instantly penetrate her bones, leaving her entirely chilled!
Rubber! Insulation!
This discovery instantly linked all the previous anomalies, forming a chilling conspiracy in her mind.
Recklessly using Fire Style and exploding tags to artificially create massive updrafts of hot air. Cultivating cumulonimbus clouds with violent internal collisions in a wet, rainy environment. They had already changed into insulating rubber shoes...
"They want to use the weather phenomena?!"
This hypothesis made all the hairs on Samui's body stand on end. An indescribable sense of dread and absurdity seized her!
Are those Konoha guys insane? How is that even possible?!
Because of its unique geographical environment, Hidden Cloud Village's weather phenomena caused many deaths almost every year, so most Hidden Cloud ninja inherently held reverence for natural phenomena. This was the real reason Samui had never detected Konoha's scheme. She had never even considered that someone would dare to wield the mighty power of nature!
Just then, Yugito seemed to sense something. She instinctively looked up at the sky, and her face immediately changed.
The next moment, a whooshing sound came from above. Yugito suddenly grabbed Samui's arm, pulling the dazed Samui away from her spot.
Zzzzzzt!
A spike several meters long plunged directly into the ground.
No, not just one spike, but countless spikes. Several figures in the sky threw spikes downwards, and Samui was all too familiar with the appearance of those spikes.
They were lightning rods.
Or rather, they were lightning rods used to guide lightning!
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