novelnext Chapter 166 Patience, Reversal
Chapter 166 Patience, Reversal
Chapter 166 Patience, Reversal
The main force of the Sunagakure pursuit team was now receiving a steady stream of intelligence reports from all directions, including reports of battle achievements, requests for cooperation, and requests for support.
Overall, however, the situation is developing in a direction that benefits Sunagakure.
Although Konoha also deployed blocking forces, and these blocking forces did indeed eliminate many Sand Village ninja.
But these were just a drop in the ocean for Sunagakure. Moreover, Sunagakure had also eliminated a considerable number of Konoha's blocking forces, all of whom were elite troops.
At that moment, another intelligence report arrived. The Jonin Aokawa, who was in charge of intelligence work, stepped forward, took the report, and read it carefully. In just a moment, his expression turned extremely ugly.
Commander Shamen saw his expression and knew that something bad might have happened, but he wasn't too anxious. At worst, it would just mean more deaths; there's no war without casualties.
"Lord Shamon, a troublesome Konoha ninja has appeared. Judging from the description, it should be Matsushita Taichi, that genius ninja from Konoha recently. He has single-handedly wiped out nearly 15 ninja squads on our flank, including 2..."
A jounin. "
Shamon's expression changed slightly, but he remained calm: "It's alright. Gather the ninjas and keep a close eye on him. Don't let him act so recklessly again—"
Before he could finish speaking, another piece of intelligence was sent in.
The same process, the same expression, only the content was slightly different: "Another Konoha ninja, according to the intelligence, it should be Minato Namikaze. Preliminary statistics show that he has already wiped out nearly 20 ninja squads, including at least 2 Jonin."
If his expression had only changed slightly before, Shamon's face was now as black as the bottom of a pot. Two mere people had wiped out over 100 Sunagakure ninjas? Did they really think Sunagakure's ninjas were mass-produced and trained for free?
"As for the puppet troops, send a portion of them to wipe out these Konoha elites. We can't let them continue to run rampant like this."
"But this would reduce the size of our main force attacking Konoha, and if they manage to escape, then—"
This time, Aokawa's words were interrupted, but seeing the expression on the face of the ninja who came to deliver the information, both Shamon and Aokawa had their own guesses.
Without waiting for Qingchuan to read it before reporting, Shamen took the intelligence himself and quickly skimmed through it, but his expression grew increasingly worse.
"No need for further discussion. Immediately detach half of the puppet force to cooperate with the other ninjas in encircling and annihilating those Konoha scum who are blocking our way."
"Yes!" This time, Qingchuan stopped arguing and immediately accepted the order to carry it out.
With the addition of the Sand Village puppeteers, the pressure on Konoha's blocking ninjas increased dramatically, resulting in a continuous rise in casualties.
Don't ask Taiichi how he knew. He had already encountered the puppeteer squad twice. Although he was quite good at both ninjutsu and taijutsu against these puppets, he couldn't withstand their numbers. Taiichi could only temporarily repel them and then turn around and run away.
During this process, Taiichi encountered the corpses of Konoha ninjas more than once. In such a vast battlefield, how many Konoha ninjas were there in total? The fact that Taiichi managed to encounter corpses twice shows just how many elite soldiers died for this ambush.
As Tai fled, he searched for his prey, but by now, the easy-to-hunt squads had been mostly killed, and what remained were the tougher targets.
If I waste too much time fighting them and get caught up by the pursuers, I'll be the one in trouble.
Looking at the time, they realized it was almost noon. According to the pre-battle agreement, the blocking force only needed to fight until this time before returning to rejoin the main force, as they were about to reach the ambush location.
Having confirmed the time, Taiyi no longer hesitated, turned around, and sped towards the Land of Fire, much faster than before.
As the blocking forces withdrew one after another, Sunagakure received the news immediately. Without Konoha's interference, their speed naturally increased.
As noon approached, Taiichi and the other snipers who had gone out to intercept the enemy finally returned to the main force one after another.
There were about 100 ninjas when they left, but now only less than 60 have returned.
The loss of nearly half of the assets left everyone somewhat silent.
Don't underestimate Sunagakure's strength just because Taiichi can move freely within their territory. After all, it's a major ninja village. They were causing trouble within their controlled area, which is like dancing in the hands of death. It's a combination of luck and strength that they managed to come back alive.
It should be noted that the team that went out this time consisted of at least Chunin level members, and most of them were elite Jonin squads.
With such heavy casualties, if Jiraiya's plan fails, even his status as a Hokage disciple won't be enough to save him.
"Taiichi, over here." A shout drew Taiichi's attention.
He turned his head to look in the direction from which the sound came, a smile spreading across his face. It was Yang Ping and the others he had been searching for.
A quick glance revealed Yangping, Saori, Kakashi, Obito, and Rin—all five were there, and Taichi's smile grew even brighter.
Taiyi stepped forward and was about to speak when he noticed that the faces of the others were not good, especially Yangping, whose eyes still showed traces of blood and tears.
Taiyi's face darkened, and he grabbed Yangping and jumped onto a platform. Yang attribute chakra quickly filled his brain and seeped into his eyes.
According to Yangping's perception, both eyes were severely damaged, some capillaries had ruptured, and even his nervous system had suffered minor damage.
"If you keep pushing yourself like this, you'll really go blind!" Taiyi's words were soft, but to Yangping they were like a thunderclap.
only!
"Sigh, I didn't want to either, but if I hadn't fought so hard, you might not have seen five people, maybe four, or maybe three!" Yangping's words were filled with helplessness. War is not something you can do as you please; it is often something you have no control over.
Taiyi's pupils contracted. Thinking of what he had experienced today, he stopped talking and focused on treating and soothing Yangping's eyes.
Finally, around 2 p.m., 20 kilometers from the border of the Land of Fire, Konoha's main force was intercepted by Sunagakure.
Without any pleasantries or shouting, the battle began the moment the two sides made contact.
One side wanted to annihilate all the Konoha ninjas. The other side, however, wanted to stabilize the situation and give the ninjas in the rear time to flank them.
The Sand Village, as the attacking force, sent countless puppets leading the charge towards the Leaf Village's camp, followed closely by melee ninjas.
Before the two sides even got close, a barrage of ninjutsu and ranged attacks, including shuriken, kunai, and explosive tags, enveloped the enemy.
Jiraiya had naturally heard about the immense power of Taichi's Fire Release techniques in Konoha, so he was assigned to the front lines to work with everyone to use Fire Release to stop the Sand Village's puppets.
When the Sand Village's puppets entered the range of the ninjutsu, the Konoha ninjas on the front lines unleashed their respective signature Fire Release ninjutsu.
Great Fireball, Great Dragon Fire, Great Fire Annihilation, Fire Dragon Bullet, Flame Bullet, Great Flame Bullet, Fire Dragon Flame Bullet.
Various fire-style ninjutsu, both familiar and unfamiliar, swept towards the charging puppet.
Among the countless fire-based attacks, a bright golden flame stood out the most.
Although Sunagakure's puppets are afraid of fire, Sunagakure is aware of their puppets' weakness and has therefore taken ample measures to prevent fire.
This resulted in the fact that although Konoha's fire jutsu was fierce, not many puppets were actually completely destroyed, and a large number of puppets were able to drag their burning bodies and continue to charge towards Konoha's formation.
But all of this was useless against the bright golden flames. Once touched by the flames, even the most powerful puppet would be reduced to charcoal in a matter of breaths.
Now, the flames were not just eye-catching, but extremely attention-grabbing.
Everyone near the battlefield looked toward the source of the flames, and then toward the caster of the ninjutsu, Taichi Ichimatsu.
The Sand Village ninjas immediately adjusted their direction to avoid the area covered by the flames. Even fireproof puppets couldn't withstand the scorching flames, so these mortals should stay as far away as possible.
The two battlefronts eventually clashed, with deafening shouts and the clash of weapons echoing across the entire battlefield.
The battle lines between Konoha and Sunagakure were intertwined like fangs, with ninjutsu flying wildly in the sky and ninjas and puppets below engaged in close-quarters combat.
The pressure on Taiyi's frontline position increased sharply. Although the Fire Dragon Flame Bullet he had just released cleared out a large number of puppets in front of him, puppets surging in from other directions immediately made up for the loss here.
"It's Matsushita Taichi, the one with the golden flames!" Behind Sunagakure, frontline commander Shamon stared intently at the source of the flames that was so conspicuous on the battlefield.
Thinking of the intelligence he had just received, he immediately issued an order: "Have the puppeteer unit send out some men to eliminate this Matsushita Taichi. We absolutely cannot give such a talent any more time to grow."
He emphasized, "We must eliminate him at all costs!"
The order was given swiftly, and soon, three powerful Sand Village Jonin with cold eyes, like sharks smelling blood, silently left the original battlefield and rapidly stealthily approached Taiichi from three different directions.
At this moment, Taiyi was swinging his fists, unleashing his superhuman strength, his figure flashing among the puppets.
Every time he appears, he throws a punch, followed by a tooth-grinding, twisting and shattering sound as the puppet is sent flying. Then he vanishes in an instant and reappears in front of the next puppet, repeating this cycle.
Wherever Taiichi went, whether it was puppets or ninjas, chaos ensued.
At the same time, his fire-style technique was also unleashed. Without needing to form hand seals, bright golden phoenix flames gathered around him, continuously bombarding the ninjas who attempted to launch ranged attacks against him.
In an instant, on the small battlefield where Taiyi was located, golden fireballs streaked across the sky like dense meteors, accurately eliminating various threats and, if conditions allowed, even providing support to other Konoha ninjas.
He himself, while dodging and weaving, transformed into a terrifying crusher, shattering any enemy that got close.
Taiichi's formidable strength was undoubtedly a great inspiration to the Konoha ninja, and he also shouldered the vast majority of the pressure for others. This allowed more Konoha ninja on his front to be freed up to support other struggling areas.
Such a remarkable record naturally fueled the killing intent of the Sand Village. The three elite puppeteers had already closed in, forming a triangular formation that enveloped Taiyi's figure in a chilling killing intent; a deadly encirclement was about to erupt.
Meanwhile, Taiyi was observing everything around him with the awareness of God. The three puppeteers thought they were well hidden, but their actions of coming from the opposite direction had already attracted Taiyi's attention.
Just as they were about to surround him, Taiichi suddenly activated his teleportation ability and quickly approached one of the puppeteers. As a puppeteer, instead of hiding in the crowd and under the protection of the puppets, you went against the flow of people to approach them. I don't know if all the puppeteers in Sunagakure are so arrogant, or if they really think they can't be found.
They were already close enough, but with this acceleration, Taiyi was right next to the puppeteer in the blink of an eye. He raised his fist, and the chakra he was gathering was visible to the naked eye. Taiyi could even read the despair of death in the puppeteer's eyes.
A dignified Jonin puppeteer, his sneak attack failed and he was instead killed. In order not to attract Tai's attention, his puppets were scattered all around, leaving him completely unprepared.
Faced with Taiyi's fist, he could only gather all his chakra and concentrate it on his arms, which were crossed in front of his chest, but all of this was in vain.
With a "crack," the crisp sound of a broken arm bone rang out, followed by a surge of force that slammed into his chest, sending him flying like a cannonball. He died before even hitting the ground.
The incident happened suddenly. The death of an elite puppeteer in the blink of an eye caught everyone off guard. Not to mention Sunagakure, even Konoha's own people did not expect Taichi to be so fierce.
But then, Konoha's morale soared, and their previously crumbling defenses miraculously stabilized.
Upon seeing this, the other two puppeteers immediately became wary of Da Sheng. They no longer hid, and the puppets scattered around them gathered in front of them, some defending themselves and others attacking Tai Yi.
Taiichi naturally dismissed this with disdain. He might have been somewhat wary of two ordinary Jonin, but he felt that his methods were far more effective against two puppeteers than Tsunade's.
More than ten minutes had passed since the official start of the battle, meaning that Konoha's main force had held out for so long against the Sand Ninja, whose forces were clearly superior to their own.
Looking across the entire battlefield, apart from a few areas where Konoha held an advantage due to individual strength, most other areas were clearly under pressure.
If it weren't for the Jonin (high-ranking ninja) desperately holding things up everywhere, this battle would probably have already ended in defeat.
Now, even the commander-in-chief Jiraiya has personally taken to the front lines to plug a gap that had been breached due to the deaths of Jonin.
At this moment, not to mention others, even Jiraiya himself was sweating profusely. Between battles, he kept looking to both sides, hoping that reinforcements would arrive soon, because Konoha was now basically on the verge of collapse.
Behind Sunagakure, Shamon stood on a high place, looking at the situation of the entire battlefield, his heart filled with joy.
So what if Konoha has many powerful warriors? Do you think they're all like Hashirama Senju, capable of turning the tide of battle with their individual strength? War is ultimately about overall strength!
Just as he was basking in his smug satisfaction, he suddenly noticed unusual activity on both sides of the battlefield.
But before he could get a good look at it, an intelligence ninja rushed up to him, his face filled with anxiety, fear, and even despair.
"My lord, a large number of Konoha reinforcements are arriving on both flanks of the battle line. Initial estimates suggest there are approximately 500 on each side."
people."
A bolt of lightning struck from a clear sky, so powerful that the monk could barely stand.
"How is that possible? Where did they get reinforcements? Konoha didn't send any more troops!"
Shamon was now hysterical, his face contorted. He looked at both sides of the battlefield, where the Sand Ninja were in chaos. Clearly, the sudden appearance of Konoha reinforcements had disrupted all their plans.
Moreover, there were too many of these people; when they were all gathered together, their small-scale counterattack was easily wiped out.
Just as Shamon was about to do something, a signal flare was launched into the air from both the left and right flanks. These were not signal flares from Sunagakure, but from Konoha, intended to notify the central army that reinforcements had arrived.
Seeing this, Shamen was thrown into disarray. Desperate to preserve his forces, he issued an order that he would regret for the rest of his life.
"Quickly, notify the retreat!"
At the front lines, the rising of two signal flares seemed to inject Konoha with adrenaline. All the Jonin knew it was a sign that reinforcements had arrived, and their morale immediately soared. While fighting, they shouted, "Brothers, reinforcements have arrived! We can counterattack now!"
One person's shout might be hard to believe, two people's shouts might be puzzling, but the shouts of all the Jonin (high-ranking ninja) would convince everyone that reinforcements had truly arrived.
Not only the people of Konoha believed it, but even their rival, Sunagakure, became suspicious.
Just then, everyone felt the sky darken, followed by a huge rumble. When they looked closely, they saw a colossal creature appear on the battlefield.
That was Gamabunta, Jiraiya's summoning beast from Mount Myōboku.
The Konoha ninjas erupted in unprecedented cheers. Reinforcements had arrived, and a giant summoning beast had descended from the sky to help them. Victory was within reach.
Meanwhile, Sunagakure, already dampened by news of Konoha's reinforcements, is now facing another behemoth, further damaging their morale.
Just then, three signal flares rose into the sky from behind, signaling the order to retreat.
Instantly, the already severely damaged morale collapsed like a flood.
The Jonin are alright, but there are only a few of them. The majority of those on the battlefield are Chunin and Genin, who are the main force on the front lines.
When the giant toad and Jiraiya on its head unleashed their combined ninjutsu, Toad Oil Flame Bullet, the defeat came so abruptly yet so naturally.