Yagami had avoided going toe-to-toe with Rasa before because Rasa could use the Gold Dust Great Burial to trap him; he was genuinely afraid of being captured. These snake-shaped puppets, specialized in binding and grappling, posed a similar threat.
After dodging several times, he saw the snake puppets continuing to circle him. He delivered a hand-chop, severing one of the snakes, but to his surprise, the two halves continued to move under the manipulation of chakra threads. Three snake puppets coiled around Yagami from different angles.
Realizing that cutting them was inefficient, Yagami ignored the puppets and formed hand signs with lightning speed. Before he was completely immobilized, his jutsu was ready.
"Water Style: Severing Wave!"
A high-pressure jet of water shot from his mouth, first slicing the snake puppet at his chest before sweeping toward Camel Thorn's wife nearby. Exhausted by her struggle against Hatake Sakumo, her mental and physical energy spent, she couldn't dodge in time. In the moment before her death, she began to doubt twenty years of hard work; she had never felt as powerless as she did now. Her body was sliced in half, collapsing in opposite directions.
"Ah! Aaaaaah!"
Seeing his wife killed from the corner of his eye, Camel Thorn fell into a state of madness. Yagami immediately retreated to a safe distance.
Camel Thorn pulled out his final scroll, unsealing his last twenty puppets. Combined with his remaining forces, the entire swarm lunged at Hatake Sakumo. Facing this desperate display of bravado, Sakumo remained unperturbed and charged directly into the puppet horde.
White blade-light flashed like terrifying fangs, shredding puppet after puppet. Yagami thought to himself that while his Copper Light absolute defense countered puppeteers, Sakumo's "White Fang" was even more effective. The maximum durability of the puppets was simply too low; they were easily shattered by the White Fang. Even several all-iron puppets couldn't resist the refined Lightning Style chakra blade.
After a minute of holding out, Camel Thorn himself was struck by the blade-light, his body likewise cleaved in two.
Sakumo signaled his adjutant, who immediately shouted:
"Fire the signal flare! The Sand commander is dead! Charge!"
The Vice Commander-in-Chief of the Sand, Camel Thorn, had fallen by the banks of the White Field River. He was the highest-ranking ninja to die in this war so far. The genius recognized by the Second Kazekage, the son of Advisor Chiyo, and the nephew of Advisor Ebizo—the man seen as the present and future of the Sand—was dead.
His death was a catastrophic blow to the Hidden Sand. To put it in Leaf terms, it was equivalent to Tsunade dying in battle. They shared the same noble status, the same immense power, and the same promising youth. If Tsunade had been killed by the Sand, one can only imagine the fury that would consume the Hidden Leaf.
Yagami returned to his unit and said, "Let's go. Follow the charging troops and record the battle."
Fox Unit reached the riverbank. Yagami saw Hatake Sakumo standing over a body, his expression pained. It was one of his friends. After two seconds of grief, he gripped the White Fang sword and charged toward the densest gathering of Sand ninja.
Amidst the white flashes, the Lightning chakra solidified into a brilliant blade-light. Men and puppets alike were pulverized. Yagami watched with envy. 'Why is my primary chakra nature Earth? If it were Lightning, would I have such terrifying lethality?'
More importantly, it looked cool. Between the White Fang and a "Copper Tortoise," anyone would choose the former. But if he were to manifest a White Fang blade-light, it would be impossible to explain. He couldn't exactly force Sakumo to admit to having an illegitimate child, could he?
Sakumo looked like a serious man. It was more likely he'd have to claim he was Sakumo's father's late-life love child.
Yagami shook off these thoughts and continued observing. Sakumo's elite subordinates were responsible for herding the Sand ninja, while he used the White Fang to harvest their lives. With every swing, at least five Sand ninja were cut down. The Leaf pursued them relentlessly. The surface of the White Field River was covered in corpses and puppet debris; the banks were lined with the same.
They chased them all the way to the river's mouth. The last few dozen Sand ninja scrambled onto a small boat. They looked back at the shore, where the Leaf ninja stood in two long lines extending from the river mouth. The sheer number of Leaf ninja was overwhelming. Over 500 Sand elites had been nearly wiped out. Of the 600 Leaf ninja, over 400 remained. It was a total rout. The Sand's flanking maneuver was a one-sided disaster.
Just as the twenty-odd Sand ninja thought they had seen the worst of it, a white blade-light flashed by. The boat was split in half, and several unlucky ninja were bisected along with it. Their halved corpses fell into the water, eyes staring at each other, pupils reflecting their own severed gaze.
Yagami watched Sakumo's radiant blade-light kill the last of the Sand and kept shaking his head. Purple Cat asked, "Captain, is something wrong?"
"Nothing," Yagami said. "If it were me, I'd let those twenty people go. If you kill them all, who is left to witness your strength? It's like wearing silk in the dark; nobody sees it. Better to let them go back and live in fear for the rest of their lives, telling everyone they meet about the power of Hatake Sakumo."
Purple Cat bowed her head and wrote: "Anbu Fox Captain suggests not killing everyone; leave a few to spread terror."
"Yes, add that sentence. Vice Commander Sakumo is strong, but he doesn't understand the human heart."
Sakumo sheathed his short sword on his back and scanned the shore. Finding Copper Fox, he flickered to his side. "Copper Fox, I believe I should mobilize our elites to reinforce the main battlefield. The enemy can no longer threaten our rear."
Yagami said, "Vice Commander, you have the authority. I support your decision."
"Good!"
The adjutant had reported to Sakumo on the way that Copper Fox had intervened twice. First, helping the Water Style battalion seize the upper reaches of the river, and second, killing Camel Thorn's wife to relieve the pressure on Sakumo. His strength had earned Sakumo's respect.
From the 400 Leaf ninja, Sakumo selected 100 to follow him, leaving the rest to clean up the battlefield and treat the poisoned. The 100 elites, along with Fox Unit, headed straight for the main battlefield.
After two hours of travel, Yagami saw the main battlefield in the distance. The most striking sight was the four commanders wreaking havoc.
The Sand Commander-in-Chief, Ebizo, possessed the strongest Wind Style in the village. On his left and right were two hundred-meter-high tornadoes; no one could get within dozens of meters of him. The Sand Vice Commander, Rasa, stood atop a platform of Gold Dust, floating in mid-air. Beneath him were waves of Gold Dust dozens of meters high.
Next to Leaf Commander-in-Chief Nara Shikaku was Akimichi Yamashiro, who had used the Multi-Size Jutsu. Yamashiro had lost an arm but swung a massive iron staff dozens of meters long with his remaining hand, shaking the earth with every strike. Leaf Vice Commander Tsunade stood atop Katsuyu, who spat acid to counter Rasa's Gold Dust waves.
Sakumo scanned the field and said, "The left, center, and right wings are all in a stalemate. Follow me; we'll begin our penetration from the left wing!"
***
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