"The Sand Village… have they gone crazy? How dare they directly attack someone affiliated with the Daimyo? Aren't they afraid of repercussions?"
A young ninja, dressed in a gray robe with a Konoha rogue ninja headband on his forehead, stood on the watchtower with a grim expression. He watched as the neatly arranged Sand Hidden army advanced majestically, step by step, towards the Guardian Forces' camp.
"This isn't the time to talk about that. We need to quickly arrange our defenses. As long as we can withstand the Sand Hidden's initial assault and prove our strength to the Daimyo, we'll receive even greater support later!"
Beside him, a samurai with a long sword on his back and a scar on his face, surprisingly, showed an excited expression.
"It won't be that easy. It depends on how seriously Sand Hidden takes us and how much power they've brought. If super-standard combat strength appears, it won't be so easy to defend against!"
An Stone Hidden rogue ninja said in a deep voice.
"Then it's up to Lord Tsurutani. Didn't they say he defeated Rasa of the Sand Hidden's Magnet Release? Maybe he can stop the Kazekage. If so, perhaps we can replace the Sand Village and become the dominant power in the Ninja World!"
On the other side, a fierce-looking monk spoke malevolently.
"Not defeated, but killed. Master Nozawa, anyone hit by my father's Exploding Insects is as good as dead, even those Five Kage. I heard that Rasa of the Magnet Release was the Third Kazekage's disciple? I think it's precisely because of Rasa's death that the enraged Third Kazekage sent people to attack. I just don't know if he'll come himself. If we can kill the Kazekage here, that would be perfect."
A young ninja in red clothing and a hat climbed onto the observation deck with a chuckle, addressing the others.
"Lord Chin, where is Kyuichi? Without him, I'm afraid we'll have a hard time stopping the Sand Village's elite."
The Konoha rogue ninja, Torii Shuichi, said to the man in red.
Having come from Konoha and even served as a Special Jonin, he clearly understood the strength of a Five Great Ninja Villages.
Even their regular ninja, in terms of quality, were incomparable to rogue ninja or those from smaller ninja villages. The two Great Ninja Wars had made them exceptionally skilled in large-scale military engagements.
As a powerful ninja village that could contend with Konoha for dominance in the Ninja World, they alone would be no match. They would need Kage-level experts to change the tide of the battle.
"My father is currently deploying the ninja in the camp to resist the Sand Hidden army. I came up to ask for your assistance."
Tsurutani Chin replied with a smile.
Without a clear concept of the Five Great Ninja Villages' strength, he believed this battle would surely be a victory.
Nearly a thousand Guardian Force members, comprised of rogue ninja, rogue ninja, and samurai, haphazardly assembled. They formed a simple formation with close-range fighters at the front and long-range fighters at the back, preparing to meet the Sand Hidden ninja's attack.
Qingshui and Pakura stood at the front of the crowd, with Fukami Senran beside them.
As a veteran Elite Jonin of the Sand Village, Fukami Senran, who had just turned thirty-three, had fully experienced the Second Great Ninja War. He had considerable experience commanding medium-scale battles of this thousand-person magnitude and was assigned by the Third Kazekage as Qingshui's assistant and deputy commander.
Qingshui was in charge of the battlefield command, serving as an opportunity for him to gain experience. Fukami Senran was there to help Qingshui identify and fix any shortcomings.
After all, Qingshui had never commanded a ninja battle of this thousand-person scale before. While he had experienced gang fights involving several hundred people in Hogg United in the DC Universe, that was completely different from a ninja battle. It could only offer Qingshui some managerial reference, but was of little tactical significance.
The Sand Village was treating this battle as a training exercise.
A full thirty percent of these thousand Sand Hidden ninja were new generation ninja who had graduated in the past three or four years. They hadn't been on a battlefield before, but they were all relatively outstanding, so they were chosen to participate in this war, which the Sand Village considered low-risk—compared to wars with other Five Great Ninja Villages, the risk was indeed very small.
The remaining seventy percent of the ninja were all Chunin and above, having experienced the Second Great Ninja War. There were also nearly a hundred Special Jonin and over ten Jonin, all highly experienced. Their mid-to-high-level combat strength was more than three times that of the opposing side.
Assuming Qingshui could contain and defeat Kyuichi of Tsurutani, this was a battle without suspense.
"Wind Release squad, prepare to clear out the enemy's fortifications."
Estimating that they were close enough, Qingshui gave the order.
Two rows of Sand Hidden ninja, comprised of elite Wind Release users, stepped forward. They swiftly performed hand signs, and three Jonin-level Wind Release ninja took out their Three-Star Fans from their backs, collectively performing Ninjutsu.
"Wind Release: Net!"
"Wind Release: Great Net!"
This was the Sand Village's most proficient and frequently used combination Ninjutsu.
Qingshui, Pakura, and Fukami Senran, standing at the very front, also unleashed this Ninjutsu together.
They were also Wind Release ninja. Pakura had already stepped into the threshold of Kage-level, and while the power of Wind Release in her hands was not as strong as Scorch Release, her Wind Release proficiency was still considered top-tier in the Ninja World.
As for Qingshui, he was the orchestrator of this combined Ninjutsu.
Regarding Wind Release, Qingshui's mastery had almost reached its peak. His immense Chakra reserves combined with his Airflow Manipulation ability doubled the power of this wave of combined Ninjutsu.
Overwhelming wind nets, layer upon layer, had solidified to the point of being visible to the naked eye. They rapidly pushed forward, uniformly slicing everything into fragments.
Many rogue ninja among the Guardian Forces were already terrified.
During the Great Ninja Wars, they were too busy avoiding the Five Great Ninja Villages to have ever witnessed such a catastrophic sight.
However, there were still some rogue ninja from the Five Great Ninja Villages among them, with some knowledge. Soon, some of them proactively stepped forward, using long-range Ninjutsu to try and counterattack, releasing defensive Ninjutsu like Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide and Water Release: Water Formation Wall at the front, attempting to block the attack.
However, both the quality of the personnel and the organization of their Ninjutsu were severely lacking.
With one multi-layered net, a large number of Guardian ninja were already injured or even killed.
"Earth Release squad, clear the way. Puppet Masters and long-range combat units, prepare."
Qingshui looked at the battlefield ahead and continued to give orders.
The Wind Release ninja quickly retreated a step. The Earth Release ninja, who had already been prepared according to the formation, swiftly moved forward, forming hand signs and slamming their hands on the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Divide!"
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
The ground shattered, and dirt walls rose, blocking the few Ninjutsu that had managed to pass through the wind net.
At the same time, the path ahead began to rise at a relatively gentle slope, clearing out any potential underground traps that the previous Wind Release might not have destroyed, and creating advantageous terrain for the Sand Hidden ninja's subsequent attack.
New Puppets, controlled by Puppet Masters, swiftly leaped over the dirt mounds and charged into the Daimyo's guard camp.
The Sand Village's formation changed once again.
Ninjutsu users, working with Puppet Masters, used long-range Ninjutsu to provide cover for the Puppets. Simultaneously, close-combat ninja protected the former two.
This was pretty much the Sand Village's most classic combat squad setup: a three-person team consisting of a Puppet Master, a close-combat ninja, and a Ninjutsu user acting as a turret, with an additional versatile ninja for support if needed.
Qingshui, Pakura, and Baki's team used to be like this. However, training Puppet Masters was difficult back then; it required exceptional talent or family resources to cultivate a skilled one.
But with the emergence of the new Puppetry, the entry requirements for Puppetry were significantly lowered, raising the baseline for average Puppet Masters and reducing their training costs.
This led to a substantial increase in the number of Puppet Masters in the Sand Village compared to three years ago, which in turn caused a surge in the number of these squad formations.
Puppets of various designs, accompanied by flying Kunai and Ninjutsu, charged into the enemy lines.
Just the first two frontal assaults resulted in heavy casualties for the Daimyo's guards, who hadn't even engaged with the Sand Hidden ninja yet.
"Redirect the Fourth Company. In ten minutes, open a gap in the west to give them an escape route. Once they have a path to survival, they won't fight to the death. Pakura, take the reserve team and hide outside the west, set up an ambush. Just string along the chase; once they're exhausted, everything will be easy to resolve."
Qingshui glanced at the battlefield and said.
Besiege an army, but leave an escape route. This is a tactic to wear down the enemy's spirit.
These guards had already suffered heavy casualties.
The Daimyo recruited indiscriminately, taking anyone with some strength. A significant portion of them were even weaker than a Sand Village Genin, or even a ninja academy student.
At least the ninja academies of the Five Great Ninja Villages teach D-rank Ninjutsu like the Three Body Technique, as well as proper usage of tools like Kunai and Shuriken. Daily training also includes physical conditioning and tactical drills.
Even a freshly graduated Genin possesses far superior overall qualities compared to those who only know how to mold Chakra and blindly fumble with low-level, incomplete Ninjutsu bought from the black market.
The latter group makes up the majority of rogue ninja. Among the guards, many were exactly these types—guys who, when thrown onto a battlefield, couldn't even serve as cannon fodder and would simply suffer heavy casualties, affecting morale.
In close combat, the Sand Hidden army's formation appeared sparse, but in reality, every domain and every ninja was intertwined, maximizing individual strength while minimizing the chance of being hit by large-scale Ninjutsu.
The guards struggled even to resist, let alone counterattack or break the Sand Hidden ninja's formation.
And while maintaining a stable formation, the Sand Hidden army's advance was exceptionally efficient!
Qingshui didn't go all out; he merely deployed five Puppets and watched quietly, occasionally controlling them to rescue Sand Hidden ninja who inadvertently found themselves in danger.
If he were to fight seriously, this training exercise would be ineffective, becoming nothing more than his personal stage show from beginning to end.
In any case, the Sand Hidden side held the absolute advantage.
Unless a super-standard power emerged, the only force that could contend with the armies of the Five Great Ninja Villages was themselves.
Looking back decades, apart from Hanzo leading the Rain Hidden, there had never been any entity that could cause the armies of the Five Great Ninja Villages to suffer such a setback.
A collapsing army is like a crumbling mountain!
If the guards wanted to stabilize the situation and retain any chance of victory, they needed a strong individual, like Hanzo, capable of altering the course of a localized battlefield!
"Here they come!"
Qingshui, who had been observing the battlefield, suddenly looked up towards the center of the guards' position.
Countless invisible flying insects were surging towards the Sand Hidden side.
"Wind Release: Turbulent Dance."
Qingshui calmly extended a finger forward. Instantly, a strong wind surged, forming a wind wall that pushed forward, blocking the explosive insects.
"A powerful Wind Release, but useless."
An old man in a brown robe slowly approached, surrounded by five young people dressed in various colored outfits.
"Whether it's useful or not isn't up to you to decide."
Feeling the Chakra on the wind wall being rapidly infiltrated by the explosive insects, Qingshui quietly withdrew his Chakra and increased the intensity of his Airflow Manipulation.
At the same time, the Blue Jerboa, which had been by his side from the beginning, opened multiple switches on its body and hurled Ice Bombs into the sky, firing streams of Flash Freeze Coolant.
A solid ice wall replaced the wind wall. Several Ice Bombs exploded consecutively around Tsurutani Kyuichi, freezing large areas of the ground.
"Is this... Ice Release? No, this ice has no Chakra! And neither does the wind!"
Tsurutani Kyuichi was bewildered.
Having lived in seclusion for forty years, did ninja no longer need Chakra to perform Ninjutsu these days?
He had trained diligently for most of his life, finally mastering his techniques, only to come out and be told that times had changed?
Times hadn't really changed; it was just this old man's bad luck.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
A dragon-shaped flame slammed into the ice wall, shattering large chunks of ice.
Accompanying it were adult explosive insects, each fully fed with Chakra, and none smaller than the one Qingshui had previously extracted from Rasa.
If they couldn't absorb Chakra, then they would just explode!
Explosions erupted one after another with considerable force. Even the sturdy ice, made with Flash Freeze Coolant, was overwhelmed and began to show cracks under the continuous assault of a Kage-level expert skilled in demolitions.
"As expected, it's not that simple after all..."
Qingshui shook his head, though he wasn't too discouraged.
It was enough that the Ice Bombs and Flash Freeze Coolant released by the Blue Jerboa could restrain these explosive insect larvae, which were invisible to the naked eye and hard for ordinary ninja to guard against, preventing them from causing large-scale casualties to the Sand Hidden ninja.
Next, it was his turn to get serious.
*Boom!*
The ice wall shattered, but in the next instant, a bright blue dragon charged forward, baring its fangs and claws.
"Separation Breathing, Sixth Form: Parting Dragon Night Dance!"
Kyuichi's eyes lit up.
This time, there was Chakra!
But as soon as those explosive insects touched the Chakra, they were burned to death by the high temperature imbued by Separation Release.
Kyuichi's expression darkened once again.
The opponent's Chakra quality was very high, and it was an extremely special Kekkei Genkai Chakra, difficult to invade. It could only be done through breathing.
This meant the larvae would be far less effective, and with the opponent's Chakra quality, they would certainly be suppressed for a long time.
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