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

Chapter 503 Greatly Destroy the Hidden Rock Cave
Iwagakure is located amidst the towering mountains of the Land of Earth, with layers upon layers of high mountain passes blocking its way. Thanks to these natural barriers, its ability to defend itself within the country was once considered the best among the five great nations.

However, this very terrain not only hinders external communication but also has a significant negative impact on internal transportation.

The basins formed by the convergence of mountain peaks, along with the snowmelt left on the high mountains, make their land not as barren as the Land of Wind, but it is far from fertile either.

The stable succession of the three Tsuchikage in Iwagakure, and the absence of powerful factions like Danzo, Kinkaku, Ginkaku, and the Second Mizukage threatening the Kage's position and power, made Iwagakure the most stable and united village, but also the least dynamic.

Aside from the Jinchuriki of the Tailed Beasts, the ninjutsu lineages that can produce Kage-level ninjas are only passed down within the Tsuchikage's lineage. The lack of internal competition and the monopoly of resources and knowledge have led to a situation where, after Onoki, the Tsuchikage Village seems to have fallen into a state of having no successors.

Various factors have made Iwagakure more capable of defending its internal territory than of making any significant external moves.

After the two tailed beasts fell into the hands of Sunagakure, Iwagakure struggled to even maintain its status as a top-tier ninja village.

"The mission quota of the Land of Stone has been almost entirely taken over by Sunagakure. With the Land of Rain blocking the way, the village is also unable to receive resource assistance from Konoha. If the wealth of the daimyo and nobles had not already been obtained, the village would be in an even more difficult situation now."

Inside the Tsuchikage's office, Onoki sat in a high chair, anxiously reviewing documents.

"Huang Tu's skill level in Fire Release is still far too lacking. It seems we can't expect him to learn Dust Release. The youngest of this batch of newly promoted Jonin is already nineteen years old. Although there's still room for improvement at this age, his remaining potential is also running out. Sigh..."

Why do talented individuals always seem to emerge from Konoha and Sunagakure?

Looking at the bright sky outside the window, Onoki felt a sense of gloom in his heart.

He didn't know how much more time the enemy would give his village to develop.

In the last Shinobi World War, Iwagakure, Konoha, and Kirigakure suffered heavy losses, but Kumogakure and Sunagakure, which he was most worried about, had their main forces intact. After nearly two years of recuperation, they would probably be even stronger.

Onoki feared that one day Sunagakure would besiege the city and destroy Iwagakure.

However, with the Hidden Stone Village and the natural defenses of mountains and rivers, no matter how strong the Hidden Sand Village is, it will take them quite a while to break in. At that time, the Hidden Leaf Village and other ninja villages will not stand idly by. Although Onoki was worried, he still had some confidence.

until……

"boom!"

A tall and precipitous mountain, which served as a natural defense for Iwagakure, was suddenly wiped out by an attack.

Like a giant god, wielding a massive sword, he flattened the mountain in an instant, leaving behind a flat land covered with rubble, which, together with the surrounding mountains, formed a wide canyon.

"What...what's going on?!"

Ohnoki was horrified. He used the Light-Heavy Rock Technique to send his small body flying through the window into the sky.

Behind the canyon, amidst the billowing smoke and dust, a fully equipped Sand Village army, led by two Jinchuriki clad in the complete forms of Tailed Beasts, marched in a mighty procession towards Iwagakure.

The giant ape with four tails was one that Ohnoki was all too familiar with.

Just two years ago, the Four-Tailed Goku was on their side.

"Sunagakure, why did they suddenly attack?!"

Onoki's eyes widened in disbelief, then his gaze slowly moved upwards, filled with apprehension and fear. He quickly hardened his expression and looked at Shimizu, who was wearing the Ivan the Great Puppet Armor.

He didn't know how Sunagakure had so quickly trained the Tailed Beasts, which they had only acquired less than two years ago, into qualified Jinchuriki weapons, nor did he know how the Fourth Kazekage had brought an army of several thousand people here.

But Onoki knew very well that the other party was an enemy!
Even if the opponent is incredibly powerful, for Onoki, who firmly believes in the Will of Stone, no matter how strong the enemy is, as long as there is a sliver of hope, he will continue to fight.

As the Tsuchikage, no matter how powerful the enemy, as long as Iwagakure is behind him, he will stand firm like a rock and never back down.

"Come on, Sunagakure."

Onoki's face was as still as water, his palms outstretched facing each other, emitting a dazzling white light.

"Iwagakure ninja, prepare to engage the enemy!"

A powerful voice rang out in Iwagakure.

Under Huang Tu's organization, the panicked Iwagakure ninja quickly regrouped and prepared for battle in the shortest possible time.

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

"Whoosh!"

Missiles trailing brilliant plumes flew out from the Sand Village army, continuously crashing into the sky above the Iwagakure village.

Earth Escape Technique: Earth Prison Rock Wall!

Led by Huang Tu, the Iwagakure ninjas formed hand seals, pressed their hands to the ground, and released their chakra.

Centered on the Earth Shadow Building and with the surrounding mountain cliffs as nodes, a series of jagged and intersecting stone pillars rapidly grow out, like a cage that encircles the vast main body of the Rock Hidden Village.

With the input of chakra, transparent crystals, as clear as diamonds, grew rapidly within the stone pillar network, transforming into a barrier that protected Iwagakure.

Missiles bombarded the barrier, blackening its surface and creating cracks, but the barrier was quickly repaired thanks to the concerted efforts of the Iwagakure ninja.

"A decent defensive barrier. It seems that Iwagakure inherited a lot of sealing techniques when the Uzumaki clan was wiped out. No wonder the Four-Tails and Five-Tails Jinchuriki can stably control the power of the Tailed Beasts."

Shimizu calmly looked at the rising barrier below and commented.

Apart from the newly established Amegakure, the other five great ninja villages all have sufficient resources to build barriers to protect their villages, but most of the time they are not very useful.

In the original timeline, everyone, including Itachi Uchiha, Obito Uchiha, and Orochimaru, knew about the loopholes in Konoha's barrier and could freely enter and exit. Even when Pain invaded, it didn't play a significant role.

Sunagakure was even more straightforward. Yura, the high-ranking official in charge of the village's defenses, was actually Sasori's spy. His presence was practically meaningless; he didn't even show up before Deidara captured Gaara.

The other three major ninja villages were not shown much in the original work, but that doesn't mean they weren't there.

These are, after all, the five great ninja villages, the five strongest forces in the ninja world. The protective barriers that defend these villages vary in strength; some might be terrible, but they are not nonexistent.

"Without the support of the Tailed Beast's massive chakra as an energy source, the chakra of these Iwagakure ninjas alone cannot exert the strength that this barrier should have. Miss Ayane, let's use the Tailed Beast Ball to add fuel to the fire of this barrier."

Maki's figure emerged from the head of the massive One-Tailed Beast and addressed the massive Four-Tailed Beast beside him.

"can."

A crisp, cold voice rang out as Ayane Uzumaki's gaze pierced through the Four-Tails' chakra cloak, fixed on Iwagakure with hatred. In her youth, she had personally witnessed the destruction of the Land of Whirlpools, the disintegration of the Uzumaki clan, and the near extinction of the clan in a war.

Konoha was preoccupied with dealing with other countries, and Hiruzen Sarutobi had his own agenda, so he didn't offer any help to the Uzumaki clan, but he also didn't join other countries in taking action.

Sunagakure was the furthest away and the slowest to react. It was also the crucial time when the Second Kazekage died and the Third Kazekage took over. They couldn't even make a move if they wanted to, and they didn't even get a chance to eat shit.

In addition, the three major ninja villages all took action in order to control the seals of the tailed beasts.

Therefore, these survivors of the vortex harbor an indelible and deep hatred for Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure.

Two deep purple chakra balls rapidly converged at the front of the mouths of the two tailed beasts.

After a massive surge of energy, it shot out like a cannonball, following closely behind the missiles in the sky, and crashed into the protective barrier of Iwagakure.

"Dust Escape·The Art of Original Realm Peeling!"

At that moment, a bright white beam of light flew out from Onoki's palm, shooting out in a straight line and accurately piercing through the two Tailed Beast Balls.

He had long been prepared to deal with Shimizu and the two tailed beast jinchūriki.

Dust Release has the ability to decompose almost everything into atoms, making it extremely destructive, but ultimately it is a ninjutsu performed using chakra.

The two Tailed Beast Balls were also pure energy bodies condensed from chakra. When the two collided, the decomposition properties of Dust Release could not be fully utilized.

But it did work after all.

A deafening explosion rang out from outside the barrier.

At the epicenter of the explosion, the dazzling light almost transformed into a small sun.

As the light gradually dimmed.

Onoki did not retract his hands. His eyes were solemn as he looked at the two tailed beasts in the distance who were still charging up their tailed beast ball. He then formed hand seals again and gathered dust release energy.

Dust Release is extremely powerful, but it has a long wind-up because it requires a huge amount of chakra. Even Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage, couldn't gather enough chakra to use it.

He couldn't hold out for long against the Tailed Beasts, whose chakra could be replenished almost infinitely.

So Onoki is just stalling for time to buy time for the Iwagakure ninja below.

"The Ninja Academy is currently in session. We have gathered all the top-performing ninja students from the six grades. Once the barrier closes, Hidden Dead, Hiruzen, and Hikari, the three of you will use the secret passage to take the future of these villages with you as far as possible."

"The other secret passages leading out of the village will also be used by Jonin leading young Genin, as well as key figures from the village."

As the crisis loomed, Huang Tu suppressed his inner turmoil and urgently assigned tasks.

He and Onoki were the backbone of the Iwagakure ninja. Only they had enough prestige and ability to make reasonable arrangements at this moment, unite most of the forces, and leave behind a spark of hope.

"Have all the civilians been evacuated to shelters? Good. If we can successfully defend the village, they will be safe. If not, we can only hope that the Sand Village ninjas will not indiscriminately kill ordinary people."

"Have the ninja units not assembled yet? Forget it, it's too late. Notify the barrier team to prepare to remove the defensive barrier. With the enemy having tailed beasts and us not having them, we can't outlast Sunagakure through passive defense. We must immediately gather our forces for an attack to stop the Tailed Beast Ball and the long-range enemy artillery from being launched."

Huang Tu spoke in a hurried voice.

The attack by Sunagakure was too sudden. Iwagakure was caught off guard and it was impossible for them to gather all their strength to resist and counterattack in such a short time.

However, regardless of the circumstances, Iwagakure is a well-established and powerful ninja village with a strong mobilization capacity. The overall quality of its ninjas is also quite good. With the cooperation of Onoki and the protective barrier, they have already assembled a team that includes most of the strength of Iwagakure.

As the Iwagakure ninjas ceased their chakra output, the defensive barrier finally crumbled on the verge of collapse.

Tens of thousands of Iwagakure ninja, gathered in the yellow earth, formed a battle formation and unleashed combined ninjutsu to defend against the incoming attacks as they charged toward the Sunagakure army.

"coming soon."

Miyajo En pushed up his glasses, closed the mask covering his enhanced puppet armor, and began to direct the Sand Village army to react.

This was a training exercise, the main purpose of which was to test the strength of the two tailed beast jinchūriki and to give the young ninjas some training.

Therefore, those charging at the forefront were two Jinchuriki whose bodies were imbued with the power of fully-formed Tailed Beasts.

When tailed beasts charge head-on into a ninja army, the destructive power and assault capabilities they unleash surpass even those of most Kage-level ninjas.

The assault capabilities of turret-type ninjas are not as strong as those of the thick-skinned tailed beasts, and the killing range of speed-type ninjas is not as large as that of tailed beasts.

The Iwagakure ninja were horrified to discover that the Sunagakure was about to confront them!
Even though Iwagakure suffered heavy losses and thousands of casualties under Shimizu's command during the last Shinobi World War, they were still able to gather over ten thousand ninjas to defend their headquarters.

On the Sunagakure side, there are only three or four thousand people. Even with two powerful tailed beasts clearing the way, doing so would inevitably result in heavy losses.

How dare they?

A thought quickly flashed through the minds of many Iwagakure ninja.

But they no longer had time to think about it.

With a long-range puppet army controlled by puppeteers in the front and ninjutsu-type ninjas in the rear, they launched a comprehensive attack on the Iwagakure ninjas.

One by one, the Sand Village ninjas clad in puppet armor served as the spearhead, leading the Sand Village ninjas straight into the enemy formation.

Most of the elite Jonin equipped with the enhanced puppet armor remained in the village, preparing to follow Sasori in intercepting Konoha.

There are only two here in Qingshui.

Regardless, this is a powerful combat unit with near-Kage-level strength.

In addition, there were nearly a hundred Jonin and Special Jonin wearing advanced versions of puppet armor, and more than a thousand Chunin and Special Jonin equipped with ordinary versions of puppet armor.

Their equipment was enough to elevate their strength to a whole new level.

This is equivalent to nearly a hundred elite Jonin, several hundred Jonin, and nearly a thousand special Jonin.

Those ordinary ninjas and the young ninjas used as training subjects were really just there for experience.

Faced with such a powerful Sunagakure army, the Iwagakure army's formation collapsed at the first touch!
(End of this chapter)