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

Chapter 522 The Fall of Konoha
For those over fifty, the target audience is already quite clear.

When the old generation of Konoha's strongest members, such as Shimura Danzo, Mitokado Homura, and Akimichi Torifu, come together, they can still unleash a great deal of power.

As for the other ninjas over fifty years old, none of them were simpletons who could survive to this age in the war-torn ninja world. Their strength was not much different, enough to hold off a considerable portion of Sunagakure's forces and create an opportunity for the others to retreat.

The enemy is so strong that Konoha can no longer hold out.

Only by breaking up into smaller groups, like Yunyin, can they preserve their strength, lie low, and perhaps find a chance of victory in the future.

At this point, even Shimura Danzo, who wanted to escape, was held up and had no choice but to rush forward with his old classmates, silently hanging at the back while having a group of Root subordinates guard him around, looking for an opportunity to escape.

He wouldn't mind dying for Konoha, but he didn't want to die even more.

He hasn't even become Hokage yet!

Orochimaru, as the Fourth Hokage, is the biggest target and will most likely die. If Konoha is then leaderless, who else but him would be the rightful Hokage if he could return alive?

Tsunade has never had any ambition to become Hokage. Although Fugaku Uchiha is also in his prime, his Uchiha identity prevents him from becoming Hokage. Koharu Utatane is even less likely to become Hokage. She has the qualifications and status, and has been a high-ranking official for so long, so her prestige is barely enough. However, her strength and ability are a major weakness. She is only fit to be a deputy and cannot be the number one person.

Who else besides Danzo Shimura could be the Fifth Hokage?

Danzo deliberately stayed behind, joining the Root ninja in the attack. His Wind Release technique looked impressive, but he remained on the outermost edge, ready to escape at any moment.

Orochimaru also had a backup plan. Knowing he wouldn't die, he charged to the front. Akimichi Torifu, Mitokado Homura, and the other Konoha elders, seeing the current Hokage fearlessly leading the charge to cover the rear and inheriting the glorious tradition of the previous two Hokage, were also greatly encouraged and managed to temporarily hold off the Sunagakure army.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Danzo fought Rasa for several rounds. Then, under the cover of the falling gold dust, he had a Root Jonin sacrifice himself, and then escaped with several strong subordinates in a thrilling escape.

Shimizu didn't pay much attention to the Konoha ninjas. He personally killed Orochimaru with several sword strikes, making sure no small snakes or anything like that escaped. Then he used the Soul Binding Technique to capture Orochimaru's soul.

"This soul is incomplete."

Looking at the wisp of soul floating erratically in his palm, Shimizu frowned slightly. He scanned the area and, finding no other fragments of Orochimaru's soul, realized that Orochimaru, without Jugo's help, had likely used the vast resources and talent available to him as the Hokage of Konoha to complete a technique similar to a cursed seal, separating a portion of his soul and leaving a contingency plan for resurrection.

After all, even without Jugo, Orochimaru had two powerful individuals, Jiraiya and Hashirama Senju, who had mastered Sage Mode, who could serve as test subjects.

Hashirama Senju was a resurrected dead man, so his body tissues were of little use. However, Jiraiya was alive. Without a complete break like in the original timeline, it wouldn't be difficult for Orochimaru to obtain some Sage Chakra and Jiraiya's body samples. He might even be able to obtain some body tissues from the two great sages of Mount Myōboku.

As the sages of Mount Myōboku who can reliably use Sage Techniques in battle without being affected by their temperament, their Sage Technique chakra is even more stable than Jugo's, and the effects they research might even be better.

A few minutes later.

After Sasori blasted Hashirama Senju's body apart again with his Scorched Core, Shimizu, before Sasori could seal him with Blood Burial, waved his hand and used Spirit Binding to capture Hashirama's soul as well.

The quality of Da Sha Zhu's soul was very high, far superior to the souls of other ninjas he had seen in the Pure Land, and it also faintly exuded a sense of purity.

Hashirama Senju was wise beyond his years, seemingly not very bright and often incredibly stubborn, but he was indeed pure of heart and impeccable in his personal character. It is not surprising that his soul possessed such characteristics.

If the souls of his younger brother Tobirama Senju and his disciple Danzo Shimura were taken out, they would most likely be black and greasy, clearly indicating that they were utterly wicked.

"If such a soul fell into the hands of those dimensional demons, it would probably be very expensive."

Shimizu probed his divine sense into Hashirama Senju's soul, carefully searching for that wisp of Ashura chakra, and thought to himself.

Souls have many uses. Even the demon lords of hell sometimes crave to eat souls, especially those that possess remarkable qualities in a particular aspect. In the hands of dimensional demons, souls are often treated as a common equivalent.

With its large quantity, high value, and the ability to differentiate denominations based on the quality and characteristics of the souls, it was naturally the most suitable thing to be used as currency in the hands of those great gods.

Sensing the characteristics of the hidden Yang power within that wisp of Ashura chakra, Shimizu stopped trying to perceive it in detail. Instead, he took two magical bottles from the Devouring Beast and put away the souls of Hashirama Senju and Orochimaru.

The great battle is drawing to a close.

With Scorpion present, those Kage-level powerhouses could only hold them off for a short time. With the assistance of Rasa, Karyu, and other experts, they quickly perished along with the others who were covering the rear.

Because Konoha was right behind them, this battle mobilized almost all the ninjas they could muster.

Although Konoha suffered heavy losses and lost the Third Hokage in the last Shinobi World War, it did not lose its vitality. After seizing the wealth and power of the Daimyo, the number of ninjas did not decline significantly compared to before.

According to official estimates from the Sunagakure intelligence department, Konoha has approximately 13,000 active ninjas, no fewer than 2,000 retired ninjas, and nearly 2,000 ninja trainees.

Previously, Sasori led the Sand Village army in a major battle against Konoha, resulting in the deaths of many active Konoha ninja.

Now that the fighting has escalated to this point, with only Mount Kikyo separating them from Konoha's homeland, retired ninjas have long been recalled and deployed to the battlefield, including ninjas like Uchiha Mikoto who had retired to become housewives. Senior students from the Ninja Academy have also been sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder, bringing the total to around 11,000 to 12,000 people.

In this battle, because Minato and his wife died early, and Jiraiya and two allies from Kumogakure died at the hands of Shimizu, the Konoha army suffered another heavy blow. At most, only six or seven thousand people were able to escape alive.

With veteran Konoha fighters like Mitokado Homura and Akimichi Torifu dying one after another, even those few who remain are far less powerful than before.

Rasa and Karyura, led by Sasori, continued their pursuit of Konoha ninja, doing their utmost to eliminate Konoha's remaining forces.

The ninja village system is deeply rooted. Although Konoha's Will of Fire is a hollow slogan, it does indeed give most Konoha ninjas a very high degree of loyalty. There may be some who become rogue ninjas and surrender, but they are only a minority.

Rather than leaving them to cause trouble, it's better to kill them all.

These remnants of the old regime, these old guards and their descendants, will be quite troublesome and destabilizing factors in the future.

Ying Zheng's several eastern tours during his lifetime appeared on the surface to be about celebrating his achievements and boasting about his accomplishments, but at a deeper level, they were probably aimed at suppressing the remnants of the nobility left over from the conquest of the six states in Shandong.

When he was alive, Zhang Liang dared to lead the strongmen of Yan to attack Bolangsha. In the first year after his death, the former nobles of the six states emerged in droves.

After Chen Sheng and Wu Guang ignited the first fire in Xiang Yan's name, the uprisings across the land were primarily supported by the former nobles of the six former states. Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu supported King Xiong Xin of Chu, King Wei Jiu of Wei in Wei, and King Tian Dan of Qi in Qi—almost all following the pattern of former nobles supporting their former royal families. Shimizu didn't want the ninja world, later ruled by Sunagakure, to have to deal with these ninjas all the time, so it was best to kill them all while they were still alive.

Those who surrendered and submitted, whether their submission was genuine or feigned, were all moved to the Land of Wind and placed under their own control in their own base camp, provided they were capable of causing trouble.

Liu Bang has proven that this tactic works.

Two days later.

Just as the entire Land of Fire was conquered by the Sand Village army, causing an uproar in the ninja world, the most fearful village besides Amegakure was Kirigakure.

Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Konoha have all been destroyed. If another ninja village is to be destroyed next, it should be Kirigakure.

Shockingly, just three days after Konoha was destroyed, the Fourth Mizukage announced an alliance with Amegakure and merged into the village.

This certainly caused some turmoil within Kirigakure, but it was quickly quelled by the Fourth Mizukage's execution and the reassurance of Elder Genji, and Kirigakure began to merge with Amegakure.

The situation in the ninja world is already quite clear. Seventy percent of the entire continent belongs to Sunagakure, which dominates the three great nations of wind, fire, and earth, while the remaining three-tenths belong to Amegakure, which owns the territories of the two great nations of rain and light.

Although the Hidden Mist is isolated overseas, it faces two behemoths with super-Kage-level combat power. It will either be destroyed and swallowed up, or choose one side and be incorporated into them.

The latter option would actually preserve Kirigakure, only losing its reputation.

The Sand Village is too powerful and its strength is too obvious. It is the strongest village. Even if the Mist Village submits, it will be impossible for it to enter the core.

On the contrary, Amegakure is inferior to Sunagakure in every aspect, and its foundation is unstable. However, if Kirigakure, with its considerable foundation, were to join, it would be able to make up for this shortcoming to a great extent.

Hanzo readily agreed to this.

Without Nagato, it's uncertain who would have merged with whom, but with Nagato present, Amegakure would definitely have held the dominant position.

With the addition of Kirigakure's power, Amegakure will finally have the potential to fight Sunagakure from all angles.

The so-called Storm Alliance has become defunct in name only after the entire ninja world was divided up by the two major forces within the alliance.

In the absence of other forces, the biggest threat to both sides is actually each other.

From the perspective of those in the ninja world, the future ninja world will likely evolve into a situation of north-south confrontation between the two super powers, Sunagakure and Amegakure.

As for how long this confrontation will last, it depends on whether Amegakure has the ability to withstand Sunagakure's onslaught. If they can, this situation will likely last for a considerable period of time, similar to the period when the five great ninja villages coexisted.

However, although that day is not far away, it will still take some time.

Sunagakure needs to concentrate its efforts on quelling the remnants of Konoha. With Shimizu and two super-large war puppets, this is not a difficult task. However, to avoid leaving any future troubles, they need to be more meticulous, which will take some time.

The Amegakure was initially slow in eliminating the remnants of the Kumogakure, and was on the verge of being dragged into a quagmire of war. However, with the addition of the Kirigakure's forces, the elimination speed has greatly accelerated, and it is expected that the internal situation will be stabilized in a short time.

At that very moment, in the Land of Fire, in a vast, uninhabited forest on its northeastern border.

Large numbers of Konoha ninja hid in this remote and dense forest in batches.

And deep within the dense forest, beside a large mountain.

Fugaku Uchiha, Koharu Utatane, Tsunade, Tobirama Senju, and Danzo Shimura, who was heavily injured, gathered here with hundreds of their remaining soldiers.

Logically, Tobirama Senju should have been forced to undo the Impure World Reincarnation the moment Orochimaru, the caster of the technique, died. However, as the creator of the Impure World Reincarnation, he knew the method of undoing it and removed the Impure World Reincarnation's restrictions on him in advance by performing the hand seals backwards.

As for this place, it is a secret stronghold of Konoha. In the deep mountain caves nearby, a considerable amount of war supplies are stored.

Originally intended for use in preparation for defending against the Hidden Cloud Village from the rear, this has now become Konoha's hope for a comeback.

"Impossible. I personally witnessed Orochimaru being killed by the Fourth Kazekage with his sword. Unless it's the Impure World Reincarnation technique, how could there be any other way to revive him?"

Danzo, his body bandaged, questioned him.

"The Fourth Hokage has already given instructions, and Tobirama-sensei is also aware of this matter. If Elder Danzo has any doubts, he can ask the Second Hokage."

Xiaochun, with her hands behind her back, turned to her room.

She knew that Danzo had returned and wanted to seize the Hokage position, but she was also worried that Danzo would deliberately stop her because he knew Orochimaru's backup plan. So she specially summoned Danzo and a group of Konoha's strongmen to witness Orochimaru's resurrection.

Danzo was capable of doing something like that.

Among the high-ranking officials of Konoha, Danzo was the most clueless and the most overconfident.

"Danzo, I am very disappointed in you."

Tobirama Senju said in a low voice, without looking at Danzo.

No matter how much Danzo described himself as risking his life and fighting bravely, most people knew the truth about how he returned.

"Tobirama-sensei, I did all this for Konoha!"

Danzo looked at Tobirama Senju, speaking righteously on the surface, but in his heart he once again thought of how Tobirama Senju had covered the retreat, and how his hesitation had led to the Hokage position falling into the hands of Hiruzen Sarutobi.

(End of this chapter)