pjbooks Chapter 499 499: Our Squad Was the Price
Chapter 499 499: Our Squad Was the Price
Just as Kitsuchi was in despair, he heard the cheers of the Iwa-nin behind him.
"The Tsuchikage-sama is here!"
The average Iwa-nin couldn't see the truth through the dust. Seeing the Dust Release barrier, they thought Ōnoki had personally arrived to deal with the terrifying Konoha Fox.
Kitsuchi felt even more despair. It wasn't that the Tsuchikage had come; it was that the Tsuchikage was dead, his memories taken by Konoha Village, and Konoha had mastered Iwagakure's most fundamental secret technique, the Kekkei Tōta: Dust Release.
The powerful Iwa-nin jōnin, seeing it was Konoha Fox using Dust Release within the dust, hastily turned and sharply rebuked the uninformed Iwa-nin who were celebrating blindly.
"Retreat!"
Kitsuchi stopped struggling and gave the order to retreat.
The Iwa-nin, thinking they were about to turn defeat into victory, were scolded by the jōnin and then told to retreat. Dazed, they were at a loss.
A second or two later, propelled by inertia, the Iwa-nin turned and followed their respective squad leaders, fleeing backward.
A voice rang out.
"Wood Release: Super World of Trees Technique!"
The Three Worlds Wood Human clapped its hands together and pressed them to the ground.
Yōkō, atop the Wood Human, also clapped his hands together, first entering Sage Mode, then releasing the Lozenge Seal.
Chakra at a level beyond Kage erupted instantly.
Maple trees burst from the ground one after another. In the blink of an eye, a staggeringly vast maple forest appeared before the Three Worlds Wood Human.
Some Iwa-nin, following orders to lie in ambush underground and prepare to ambush Konoha ninja, had just emerged from the ground when their lower bodies were crushed by the dense roots.
The fleeing Iwa-nin saw the ground churning before them as if from an earthquake, tree trunks pushing aside clumps of earth.
Some who weren't agile fell into fissures between the trees and were instantly crushed to death.
Some agile ones did jump up or used Substitution or Clone techniques. But there were too many trunks. In a vast forest like this, wherever they fled, death awaited.
An Iwa-nin heard a strange thumping sound behind him, like the sound of cracking coconuts during a mission in the Land of Waves long ago. Looking back, he saw his teammate's head being crushed and exploded by the Wood Release.
During the pre-war mobilization meeting, Tsuchikage Ōnoki-sama had said that Iwagakure must spare no cost, even sacrificing ten thousand Iwa-nin, to crush Konoha.
Who would have thought... the cost the Tsuchikage spoke of was his own squad...
Kitsuchi also knew the Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique, though he didn't use it often.
Now, Kitsuchi flew into the air and saw the maple forest's scale was exaggeratedly vast, spanning several kilometers.
He suddenly understood why, as a child, his father had repeatedly emphasized to him: even if you encounter the strongest ninja, you must still throw the stone in your hand at him.
His father had used psychological reinforcement over and over to erase the fear he felt facing Uchiha Madara as a child.
Uchiha Madara was a rival on par with Senju Hashirama, and Senju Hashirama bore the title God of Shinobi. Was this what it felt like to face the God of Shinobi?
Despair. Bone-chilling despair. He didn't know if he'd have the chance to use repeated psychological reinforcement to erase the fear of this moment.
A faint sound of something cutting through the air came from above.
As Kitsuchi looked up, he saw a kunai.
The kunai transformed into a figure in an instant. Konoha Fox appeared above Kitsuchi.
The kunai stabbed down vertically.
Kitsuchi plummeted into the maple forest below, was caught by a tree canopy for a moment, then crashed onto a protruding tree branch.
A kunai was buried in the top of his head, up to the hilt.
Kitsuchi wanted to pull out the kunai but found the nerves in his brain destroyed; he couldn't feel his arms.
Fox's figure appeared via Body Flicker.
Staring into Kitsuchi's unfocused pupils, Yōkō said:
"The war is ending. In the foreseeable decades, there will be no more great shinobi wars, or wars between hidden villages."
Kitsuchi didn't know why Fox was explaining this to him.
Was Fox also seeking an excuse for his killing?
Killing for peace?
A mocking smile appeared on Kitsuchi's face before he died completely.
Kika appeared via Body Flicker beside Minister Fox, glanced at the dead Iwa-nin commander-in-chief Kitsuchi, and reported:
"Minister, the surviving Iwa-nin are fleeing in all directions; we are pursuing them. The jōnin want to know how far we should chase?"
According to the conventions of ninja warfare, one shouldn't pursue a desperate foe, fearing the enemy might have backup or ambushes.
Yōkō said, "Tell all jōnin battalion commanders: chase them all the way to the gates of Iwagakure!"
Kika was stunned for a moment, then immediately vanished via Body Flicker to arrange messengers to notify all battalion commanders.
Yōkō didn't linger either. After sensing briefly, he charged towards the area with the densest concentration of Iwa-nin.
In another direction on the grassland, Tsunade and the other two Sannin were leading the Konoha forces, searching for the Iwa-nin.
A Hyūga ninja hurried to the Sannin. "Sirs! The Iwa-nin have changed direction! They are not heading towards us; they are retreating northwest!"
Tsunade asked, "Did you see who is commanding the Iwa-nin?"
"Lady Tsunade, it's Iwagakure's Jinchūriki Roshi and Han!"
Tsunade frowned seriously.
Two Jinchūriki were difficult to deal with. She had thought Kitsuchi would assign the Jinchūriki to two different forces.
The Hyūga ninja added, "However, the number of Iwa-nin isn't large, roughly around 2,000."
Jiraiya said, "We encountered a 2,000-strong Iwa-nin force. Doesn't that mean the other Iwa-nin force has 18,000? The Iwa-nin plan is to use the large 18,000-strong force for a steady, solid frontal assault, and the elite 2,000-strong Jinchūriki force for flanking maneuvers. I wonder how the frontal battlefield is going."
None of the three were overly worried; Fox was very strong.
After pursuing for two hours, the Sannin and Konoha forces stopped in their tracks.
A maple forest appeared in the distance.
The signature maple Wood Release—Fox had acted here.
The key point was the forest's area was too large, covering at least a two-kilometer radius.
The Hyūga ninja came to report again:
"Lady Tsunade, there are many corpses within the maple forest. I didn't have time to count in detail, but at least several thousand, even approaching ten thousand. The corpses are almost all Iwa-nin, with very few Konoha ninja."
Some Konoha ninja handling cleanup emerged from the maple forest.
They came before Tsunade and said:
"Commander-in-Chief! Lord Fox defeated the main Iwa-nin force here. Iwa-nin Commander-in-Chief Kitsuchi, Deputy Commander Bakura, and over 11,000 ninja died inside and outside the maple forest. Lord Fox said to pursue the Iwa-nin all the way to the gates of Iwagakure."
Jiraiya looked at Tsunade incredulously, then at Orochimaru.
Orochimaru's face was pale—of course, his face was always pale, but now it was even pale.
Killing over ten thousand Iwa-nin in a single battle... Some in the shinobi world said the Third Raikage was the strongest in the world. Even the Third Raikage might not be able to achieve this.
Perhaps he could, but he would certainly die too.
And Fox had actually given the order to pursue all the way to Iwagakure's gates.
Tsunade hastily said, "Let's go quickly, we'll pursue the Iwa-nin too!"
—
In the capital of the Land of Fire, a swarm of insects crawled along the base of a wall in a deep alley, like a colony of migrating ants.
The insects dispersed and entered the Daimyō's Tenshu Castle. White Ram was confident that even Hyūga Guardian Ninja wouldn't detect his infiltration.
After entering the Tenshu Castle, some insects transformed into an arm, the hand gripping a kunai.
(End of Chapter)