[Combined Ninjutsu Techniques: Earth Release - Earth Pellet Technique!]
Though stunned by Kitsuchi's order and uneasy about unleashing jutsu into the chaos, the Iwagakure ninjas were driven forward by their Jonin commanders and launched a barrage on instinct.
The Konoha ninjas in the targeted zone—and even the Iwagakure forces locked in close combat—never saw it coming. This sudden, bizarre assault left both sides suffering massive losses.
And just like that, the frontline clash zone became a true no-man's land, with both factions blasted into disarray.
As Konoha and Iwagakure forces scrambled to retreat, Onoki, stationed across the battlefield, unleashed his technique from afar.
[Earth Release: Rockburst Colossus Technique!]
A small lump of white clay spat from Onoki's mouth soared toward the battlefield's empty zone. When it met the wind, it expanded rapidly, swelling into a ten-meter-tall clay colossus that blocked Konoha's attempt to advance once more.
Seeing this, Hyuga Soushu ordered his forces to halt their attack and slowly spread out in an organized way toward both flanks.
Up against an army like Iwagakure that ran like a war machine, staying in formation was just asking for trouble.
Plus, these troops were cobbled together on the fly—making them hard to control under pressure—which was why Soushu had adopted this seemingly chaotic melee strategy.
Sure, it came at a heavy cost. But better than standing neatly in line while getting wiped out by Iwagakure's Combined Ninjutsu Techniques.
Still, Iwagakure's intentions right now were far too unclear. There was no room for recklessness.
Meanwhile, Sanshouo Hanzo—who had been locked in fierce battle with the Sannin—noticed what was happening, and his heart sank instantly.
It was only now that he came down from the heat of combat, regaining a bit of clarity as he checked the status of his Rain ninja forces.
His stomach dropped even further.
The three thousand Rain ninja who had marched out en masse from their village had already been utterly crushed by Sakumo Hatake's relentless assault, fleeing straight into Iwagakure's ranks. Whether intentional or not, they were now scattered throughout the Iwa formations, completely separated.
This could've been pure collapse—or it could've been Iwagakure intentionally scattering the defeated Rain ninja among their ranks, using them as living shields. And as leader of the Rain Village, Sanshouo Hanzo couldn't afford to ignore the possibility of his own men being held hostage.
With Onoki personally securing the flank, Sakumo Hatake also began pulling his forces away from Iwagakure, so he could avoid being wiped out all at once by a single Dust Release technique. As a result, the only ones still locked in combat were Sanshouo Hanzo and the Legendary Leaf Sannin.
For Sanshouo Hanzo, this was the absolute worst possible scenario.
Instantly, his once-fiery fighting spirit cooled.
[Chain Sickle: Second Impact!]
After making his decision, Sanshouo Hanzo immediately whirled his sickle forward. Guided by chains, the weapon slashed toward Jiraiya. At the same time, he used his left hand—gripping a short sword in reverse—to deflect Orochimaru's Sword of Kusanagi – Sky Cut. Then, stamping his foot down, he urged his summoned beast Summoning: Ibuse Poisoning to release a thick cloud of poison mist, forcing Manda back. He then leaped swiftly backward, attempting to disengage from combat with the Sannin.
Gamabunta, however, was an extremely vengeful summoned beast. It had no intention of letting Sanshouo Hanzo—who had once defeated it—escape so easily. So it immediately puffed out its cheeks.
[Water Release: Mouth Bullet Technique!]
A massive ball of water erupted from Gamabunta's mouth, roaring straight toward Sanshouo Hanzo!
[Such a petty trick!]
Infuriated, Sanshouo Hanzo quickly flicked his left hand to sheath his short sword and formed a single-handed seal to complete his technique: [Water Style Iron Cannon Ball Technique!]
[Boom! Boom! Boom!!]
The two Water Release techniques clashed violently, triggering a fierce chain-reaction chakra explosion. Spraying droplets instantly vaporized into mist, blurring everyone's vision.
[Water Body Flicker Technique!]
Without hesitation, Sanshouo Hanzo vanished instantly using the Body Flicker, simultaneously ending the Summoning Technique and allowing his summoned beast Summoning: Ibuse Poisoning to escape being attacked by Manda and Katsuyu.
At this point, the intense battle finally calmed down, as both sides entered a standoff phase.
[Heh...]
Only now could Sakumo Hatake, who was covered in wounds, finally catch his breath.
Tsunade immediately manipulated her slug to create countless clones. These spread out and landed beside the surviving Konoha ninja, healing their injuries through her summoned beast connection.
Onoki watched emotionlessly as the Konoha ninjas slowly recovered from their near-death states.
Sanshouo Hanzo's stomach sank further!
This definitely wasn't a good omen!
They had just been bloodied and battered not long ago. Now they simply let their enemies recover? Unless Onoki had ulterior motives, Sanshouo Hanzo wouldn't believe it for a second—no matter how many times you told him!
Suddenly, another possibility struck him: Now that most Rain ninjas were already dead, could the Land of Rain—and even its village—still find means to resist Iwagakure's infiltration?
As for Konoha, once the Allied Forces marched into war, there would be no room left for reconciliation.
Taking it even deeper—if Iwagakure had actually targeted the Land of Rain all along, perhaps the entire plan of forming an alliance to attack Konoha might just be nothing more than a trap set to lure the Rain ninjas into ruin?
The more Sanshouo Hanzo thought, the more anxious he became.
Therefore, he began signaling with hand gestures, attempting to regroup the scattered Rain ninjas embedded within Iwagakure's forces.
Onoki also noticed Hanzo's unusual movements but didn't seem overly concerned.
Moreover, realistically speaking, unless he could kill Hanzo outright in one strike, recklessly attacking would certainly bring severe negative consequences upon his own forces—especially with Leaf ninja watching like hungry tigers nearby.
Thus, after some quick calculations, Onoki slowly rose into the air by activating his Super Lightweight Rock Technique.
Hatake Sakumo instantly activated his Secret Jutsu. With a soft "pop," his figure vanished into thin air. At the same time, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and their summoned beasts—tasked with the critical mission of ambushing Hanzo of the Hidden Swamp—seemed to share a single mind. They seamlessly moved to fill Sakumo's place, facing off directly against Onoki and establishing a new tactical equilibrium.
Sakumo's sudden disappearance was in no way an act of fleeing from battle. Quite the opposite—it was the calculated maneuver of a master assassin renowned for speed and stealth. His strength lay in remaining unseen—striking only at the decisive moment with a fatal blow. So, when he vanished right before the eyes of dozens of Iwagakure ninja, every one of Onoki's men instinctively paled. Without being able to track his movements, none could feel secure against his sudden reappearance. While the Sannin might not be capable of defeating Onoki alone—a Kage among the Five Shadows—the rest of the Iwagakure shinobi were clearly unable to withstand Sakumo's swift assassination strikes. A new and terrifying balance had thus been formed.
At the frontlines of Iwa's Ninja Force, Kitsuchi fell deep into thought after listening to a war report from his subordinate staff ninja. Though Iwagakure managed to kill close to a thousand Konoha reinforcements within just thirty minutes, their own losses exceeded Konoha's. Even more alarming, the number of direct casualties was nearly equal on both sides. This clear statistical contrast revealed a harsh truth: the strength of Iwa's ninja was insufficient to rival that of Konoha.
Certainly, Hyuga Soushu's heroic charges had won great glory for Konoha on the battlefield, but regardless, the heavy toll suffered by Iwa was now an undeniable fact. Even more troubling was that once the battle paused, injured Konoha ninja received swift healing from summoned slugs, allowing them to return to fighting form in no time. For Iwagakure, this was undoubtedly terrible news.
Kitsuchi couldn't understand why a situation that initially seemed firmly under control had rapidly deteriorated within such a short span, showing signs even of imminent defeat.
When the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi received urgent reports from Rain Country's Military Camp, he did not remain indifferent or attempt complete secrecy.
After all, suffering a devastating military loss would severely damage the Hokage's prestige. Though Hiruzen harbored intentions to have Sakumo executed eventually, he wouldn't risk placing his own position atop a volcano.
Therefore, he needed tangible evidence proving that he was visibly preparing for war, to avoid giving others grounds for criticism.
The reasoning was straightforward: considering Konoha's current weakened state and aiming to prevent unnecessary panic within the village that might jeopardize the overall strategy, he secretly arranged for Anbu ninja to request various ninja clans to dispatch additional clan members to form a newly trained regiment under village command.
With no explanation given, these requests were swiftly and flatly rejected by each of the ninja clans.
As a result, the planned reinforcement unit intended for Rain Country's frontline never managed to materialize.
Following this failure, the Third Hokage then dispatched several teams of Anbu covertly—though not as secretively as before—in the direction of Rain Country, aiming to create the impression that these were merely envoys sent to confirm intelligence regarding border attacks.
The sudden departure of the Anbu from Konoha, appearing so conspicuous and hurried that they didn't even attempt to hide their movements, inevitably led the villagers to speculate.
In no time, panic spread throughout Konoha Village. Those ninja clans who had just rejected the Hokage's secret conscription orders began showing signs of unease.
Shortly afterward, Hiruzen Sarutobi announced urgent battle reports from Herb Country—the Iwagakure army had already crossed neutral Herb Country and engaged in fierce combat with Konoha's border defense forces stationed in the northwest region of the Land of Fire!
Coincidentally, this was precisely the moment when Hyuga Soushu received an urgent plea for help from Sakumo Hatake and was preparing to race across hundreds of miles to reinforce him! At this point, the Konoha ninjas at Rain Country's military camp had already been pushed back by the combined assaults of Iwagakure and Rain ninjas to their last defensive line.
Only after receiving a top-secret message from Orochimaru informing him that Soushu's reinforcements were about to arrive did Third Hokage finally announce within the village the grim news—that Iwagakure and Rain ninjas had launched an unprovoked war against Konoha.
However, these time gaps weren't lost on the various ninja clans. After all, the relief force dispatched by Hyuga Soushu mainly consisted of troops loyal to the Hokage faction and members of the Coalition of Ninja Clans. As soon as they received marching orders, their first instinct was naturally to secretly inform their families back in the village.
Yet under the cover of the Third Hokage's carefully managed actions, each clan only learned about the situation and began preparing accordingly. They hadn't linked this invasion by the Iwa-Rain alliance with the seemingly nonsensical framing of Sakumo Hatake—because such a notion sounded utterly absurd; normal people simply wouldn't believe it.
Therefore, Third Hokage's deception successfully outwitted everyone, though the outcome left him deeply dissatisfied.
"How could Iwagakure be so incompetent!"
Inside the Hokage Tower, Third Hokage turned deathly pale upon reading the latest battlefield reports from the frontlines.
To ensure timely access to intelligence, he had practically mobilized nearly every elite agent from special agencies like Anbu, Cipher Unit, and Sealing Team, yet the final reports only brought him profound disappointment.
Under circumstances where the Third Tsuchikage himself led the Iwa army into battle alongside "Semi-Deity" Sanshouo Hanzo bringing his full forces, how could an allied army of 7,000 fail to defeat Sakumo Hatake's mere two thousand exhausted soldiers? This wasn't just passing the buck onto Sakumo—it was practically boosting his reputation!
It was only at this point that Third Hokage started questioning whether some critical mistake had occurred somewhere along his carefully laid plans, otherwise how could things have gone so wildly off track?
"Why would Orochimaru fully cooperate and rush reinforcements?"
After quickly skimming through the report, Homura Mitokado immediately noticed a flaw: "Two out of the three thousand shinobi deployed by that brat from the Hyuga house were actually our men! How could they have obediently marched thousands of miles straight into a meat grinder like this?"
"Tsunade..."
Koharu Utatane also noticed a small issue: "Before Iwagakure initiated this war, Dan Kato had already been taken by Koryo to Rain Country's military camp."
"You're suggesting everything went wrong because of that blonde pretty boy?"
Clearly, Homura refused to accept this hastily drawn conclusion.
"Not entirely his fault, but ultimately because of him."
Koharu Utatane didn't dwell too long on the point and turned her blame toward her longtime rival. "If that Hyuga boy Soushu hadn't interfered, things probably wouldn't have gotten this bad."
"Hiruzen, I'm not trying to shift blame here, but unless we eliminate that Hyuga boy Soushu, he might become an even bigger problem than the White Fang!"
Homura Mitokado immediately caught on and shifted the blame elsewhere.
After all, it had been critical intelligence leaked by Homura himself that enabled secret communications with Iwagakure and prompted the Third Tsuchikage Onoki to launch his attack.
"What exactly are you suggesting?"
The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, looked up slowly.
"Eliminate Soushu before dealing with the White Fang!"
Homura Mitokado said firmly and decisively.
"...I see."
The Third Hokage hesitated for a moment, but ultimately shook his head.
Not because he didn't want to—but because he couldn't bring himself to do it.
More accurately, after seeing how Soushu performed in the Great Ninja World War, he didn't feel confident enough to make a move.
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