In the Sand Village, the clones are everywhere, and the Arkham game begins

Chapter 501 The Annihilation Plan of Iwagakure
Of these two hundred-plus sets of advanced Ark Puppet Armor, about one-tenth have been further enhanced and modified by Chiyo, Sasori, and Ebizo, achieving an A+ rating.

Rasa, Karura, the Third Kazekage, and Pakura, among other Kage-level shinobi from Sunagakure, have all fought against these Jonin equipped with advanced Ark Puppet Armor.

These Jonin varied in strength, with some ordinary Jonin reaching the level of elite Jonin after equipping the puppet armor.

In this situation, they would all have the ability to exchange a few blows with a Kage-level expert in a short period of time.

If three to five people join forces, they can barely hold their own against a Shadow-level expert for a while. If seven or eight people join forces, neither side can gain the upper hand. If there are more than ten people, they have a certain chance of winning.

Take Rasa as an example. His strength is not outstanding among Kage-level shinobi, and he is even at the bottom. In the Third Shinobi World War, the Third Hokage used the Reaper Death Seal to seal his hands. Even though Sasori made him a set of chakra metal hands that could perform ninjutsu, his strength still declined significantly.

Now that he has mastered the art of immortality, his strength has risen to a new level, he has recovered his strength, and even surpassed it compared to before. He is now roughly at the lower-middle level among Kage-level powerhouses.

He was the first Kage-level ninja from Sunagakure to participate in testing the power of the armor.

In that very experiment, Rasa was defeated by ten Jonin equipped with advanced Ark Armor.

The next person to be tested, Karyu, seemed to deliberately fail to defeat the ten Jonin equipped with advanced Ark Armor in order to save face for Rasa.

Shimizu wasn't there at the time; this is what Yokura told him. In Yokura's judgment, Karyura was much stronger than Rasa was now, and should be able to win.

Both being young female Kage-level shinobi from Sunagakure, the two women's relationship improved considerably after the competition between Shimizu and Rasa ended. While they weren't exactly best friends, they were good acquaintances and had even sparred with each other in private.

Although there was no life-or-death struggle, the fight was quite serious, and the two were actually evenly matched.

Shimizu had a fairly clear understanding of Yekura's strength, which was roughly at the upper-middle level of Kage. At the age of eighteen, even without considering other factors, based on the normal rate of development and strengthening of a ninja, she would definitely be at the upper-middle level of Kage by the time she reached Karuro's current age.

During the test, she was not suppressed until the fourteenth Jonin equipped with advanced Ark Armor appeared, and she began to show signs of defeat.

Currently, apart from Shimizu, among these non-puppet master Kage-level shinobi from Sunagakure, the strongest is still the Third Kazekage.

Although his strength has declined slightly in recent years due to his age, the Third Kazekage has mastered Sage Mode and re-established his summoning contract with Shinja. His strength is now even greater than at his peak, and he can almost hold his own against nearly twenty Jonin equipped with advanced Ark Armor.

These are the performance results of ordinary Sand Village Jonin equipped with these items.

Meanwhile, elite Jonin like Kurokawa, Kazami Chiran, and Ishido, who were second only to the higher-ups in Sunagakure, were among the first to learn Breathing Techniques several years ago and had accumulated enough experience in this area. Now, they have basically mastered the new Sage Mode developed by Shimizu, and their strength has risen to another level.

While the advanced version of the puppet armor does indeed enhance the abilities of such powerful individuals, the improvement is relatively limited. Therefore, they are equipped with enhanced versions customized by several top puppeteers based on their specific circumstances, which significantly improves their abilities in all aspects. Combined with their flight capabilities and excellent defensive capabilities, these twenty-odd elite Jonin almost all possess strength approaching Kage level.

This is extremely terrifying, greatly enhancing the top combat power of Sunagakure.

But it is also reasonable.

As elite Jonin, they are only one step away from the next level. If someone could learn a powerful forbidden technique like the Flying Thunder God Technique or synthesize a bloodline limit, they could truly take that final step and become a top-tier existence in the ninja world.

However, the further one progresses, the more difficult it becomes, especially for most elite Jonin. By the time they reach this stage, they are already quite old and have almost lost the potential to advance further.

An enhanced version of the Ark Puppet Armor, customized by a top puppeteer for each elite Jonin, perfectly filled this final step in the form of an external object.

The next day.

After visiting and inspecting various parts of Sunagakure and gaining a clearer understanding of the current situation in Sunagakure, Shimizu convened a high-level meeting of Sunagakure.

He needs to work with several high-ranking officials to determine the future development strategy for Sunagakure, and he also needs to take certain actions based on the current situation in the ninja world.

Ebizo was the one who started the conversation.

“Recently, the spies from the other villages have been very active. The ANBU deployed outside have also discovered that the high-level exchanges between Konoha, Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and even Kirigakure have been extremely frequent. If I’m not mistaken, they have already formed an alliance in secret, trying to contain and oppose us.”

On the genjutsu virtual projection screen, all the relevant information collected by the Anbu and intelligence departments was displayed to all the high-ranking officials of Sunagakure.

"It seems that the puppet armor we've recently unveiled has made these ninja villages quite uneasy, especially Iwagakure."

Chiyo flipped through the section about Iwagakure and immediately burst out laughing.

The one who is most anxious is Iwagakure.

If Sunagakure takes any action, the Land of Earth, which borders the Land of Wind, will be the first to suffer in order to ensure the stability of its rear.

They are also the weakest of the major ninja villages, and are completely unable to withstand the invasion of Sunagakure.

How could Onoki not be extremely anxious!

"That's normal. Just the standard puppet armor that's been openly displayed to those spies and informants already exceeds two thousand sets. That's at least equivalent to turning two thousand Chunin into Special Jonin. No matter which ninja village it is, it's a huge leap in strength. At that time, just those two thousand Special Jonin, plus a few high-ranking officials, will be enough to wipe out Iwagakure!"

The Third Kazekage also chuckled.

The other villages could never have imagined that the standard puppet armor that Sunagakure is currently displaying is just the tip of the iceberg!
Whether it's the Jonin and elite Jonin who have obtained stronger puppet armor, or the three large-scale war machines under construction that possess Kage-level combat power, they are the true trump cards that Sunagakure has been hiding!

If it weren't for the concern that the other ninja villages might unite to attack Sunagakure, causing massive casualties even if they won, Sunagakure could easily destroy a large ninja village right now.

Luo Sha said calmly:
"We still need to take precautions. In the past month, there have been several robberies targeting the puppet armor. A total of eleven teams that went out on missions have been robbed by groups of rogue ninja disguised as shinobi. If it weren't for the fact that each set of armor has a summoning seal that allows it to be summoned back after being lost, some of the puppet armor would already be in the hands of other villages."

"Have you found out who these people are? Or is it that every ninja village was involved?"

Rasa said, “Every ninja village except Amegakure is involved. However, Hanzo has sent an envoy to cooperate with us and purchase puppet armor. It is currently being housed in the envoy’s residence. The specific arrangements for its reception are being handled by Karu-ra’s people.”

Karyuro nodded slightly.

"I was originally planning to talk about this later."

"Tell Hanzo that we're not selling, but if he wants them, he can rent them for a fee. At most, he can rent two or three hundred sets as a token gesture. That should be enough for them. As for the specific quantity and price, I'll leave that to you, Gari. See how much Amegakure can offer and squeeze as much value out of them as possible. This stuff isn't like other ninja tools that we can sell to them cheaply."

The summoning seal on the puppet armor is a modified version by Shimizu, and the system permissions inside are all with Sunagakure. They can lock the permissions and summon it back whenever they want.

If Amegakure wanted to crack it, not to mention whether anyone in the ninja world could crack the arc reactor inside, the numerous restrictions set up inside would be beyond Amegakure's ability to overcome.

There are other seals inside the armor as well. If it is not one of the puppeteers in the Sunagakure puppet army who has the method to remove the seals and is responsible for repairing and manufacturing the armor, anyone else who breaks or forcibly removes the seals will simply send the armor back to its original state. Once the summoning seal is also removed or broken, the armor will activate its self-protection program.

The explosive power of a complete first-generation arc reactor is far greater than that of explosive tags. Even a Kage-level powerhouse who is not good at defense and dodging would be blown to pieces if he is not careful.

Perhaps if Konoha's Kushina Uzumaki were given a few years, she would have a chance to break these seals. But even if she did, the control of the armor would still be with Sunagakure, who could still make it self-destruct. Even if Konoha suppressed the self-destruction in some way, they still wouldn't have the ability to build an ark reactor. Once the energy inside was exhausted, it would still just be a piece of scrap metal.

Shimizu felt that it was uncertain whether Konoha would even survive until that day.

Whether it's absolute control over the puppet armor or absolute confidence in Sunagakure and his own strength, Shimizu isn't worried about the leak of those standard puppet armor pieces.

After all, they have far more advantages than this.

Shimizu continued:
"Besides, no matter what, we can't let the other ninja villages keep eyeing these things every day. We need to find something to distract them, at least to make them afraid to openly steal them again."

"What are you going to do?"

Hai Laozang asked.

"It's very simple. Find a weaker major ninja village, crush it like a soft persimmon to establish your authority. With the village's current strength, some preliminary work can already be put on the agenda."

Shimizu waved her hand at the illusionary holographic projection in front of her, deftly opening the map markers.

The location he marked was none other than—the Land of Earth, Iwagakure Village!

Shimizu is going to target Iwagakure!

Third Kazekage: "Fourth Kazekage, what do you plan to do?"

A confident smile curved at the corners of Shimizu's lips.

The method of surgery, of course, is...

"Destroy their village, destroy their country!"

The high-ranking members of Sunagakure were somewhat surprised, but none of them questioned Shimizu. Instead, they all began to eagerly anticipate his arrival.

Since defeating Konoha during the Third Shinobi World War and establishing itself as the new overlord of the shinobi world, the strength of Sunagakure has undergone a qualitative leap from top to bottom compared to before.

The entire village of Sunagakure is currently driven by a desire to vent their frustrations, demonstrate their strength, and make a fortune.

All the hard work in developing military strength is for the sake of profit, isn't it?

We must both safeguard our rightful interests and strive for even greater ones.

For ordinary ninjas who want to make contributions and climb the ranks, the upper echelons centered around Shimizu have already reached their ceiling, with little possibility of climbing any higher. However, they will still instinctively pursue other interests and make achievements to surpass their predecessors.

With Shimizu present, Sunagakure is capable of sweeping through the ninja world. Although the forces below are not yet strong enough to maintain a strong rule over the entire ninja world, adding another major power is not a big problem.

Shimizu continued:
"In any case, when our army moves, Konoha, Kumogakure, and even Kirigakure will try to stop or delay us. Even Hanzo, our ally, might become wary of us and waver in the middle."

Therefore, firstly, our offensive must be swift. We must take down the main force of Iwagakure as quickly as possible, and we also need to block other forces from supporting Iwagakure and restraining us from all directions.

"Third Hokage, I still need to trouble you to make a trip to the Land of Rain to appease Hanzo. Ideally, you should get them to help us defend against any possible threats from the direction of the Hidden Cloud Village. As a token of our sincerity, whatever territory the Hidden Cloud Village manages to conquer in this war, that territory will belong to them!"

Shimizu's sincerity toward Amegakure was substantial, yet it also contained a hidden trap.

How big is the Land of Rain? How many ninjas does it have? How much territory can it swallow up?

The fact that they had already annexed several small countries during the Third Shinobi World War was already their limit. Without the support of Sunagakure, the new overlord of the shinobi world, they certainly wouldn't have been able to do that.

Similarly, the extent to which Amegakure can seize the Land of Earth's territory largely depends on the amount of support Sunagakure can provide.

Because they lacked sufficient logistical capabilities to support them in fighting far from home.

Of course, if you want your allies to really contribute, you still have to give them what they deserve. At the very least, Sunagakure can't let Amegakure suffer losses, so they should naturally give them the benefits they deserve.

Even renting more puppet armor for Amegakure wouldn't be out of the question.

"The threat facing Amegakure is not limited to Kumogakure. To get them to exert their full strength, in addition to logistical support, we must also dispel their worries. I propose that I lead 1,500 men to the border of the Land of Rain to form an alliance with them and help resist the pressure from Kumogakure and Konoha."

(End of this chapter)