This puppeteer is a bit... well...

Chapter 173 Retreat (Please subscribe and add to your favorites)

Boom boom boom boom!!!

The relentless collision between Kurenai and Hiruzen Sarutobi unleashed a violent shockwave, mercilessly destroying everything within a radius of tens of meters.

"kill!!!"

The others, recovering from their shock, turned on each other.

Karura wielded the sea of ​​sand, attempting to engulf everyone in Konoha.

Elephant and Linjiao stepped forward and joined forces to use earth magic to create a trench more than 100 meters long, filling it with sand.

Gallo waved his large hand, trying to make the sand fly up.

At this moment, Qing and Zhu joined forces to attack.

One of them used Wind Release and the other used Fire Release, working together to create a massive sea of ​​fire, forcing Garuda to manipulate sand to defend himself.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xiang used a clay raining down move to seal all the sand that had fallen into the trench, and then joined forces with Linjiao to attack.

As the Hokage's ANBU guards, they were all top-tier Jonin, even stronger than the Sunagakure guard captains.

One of them might not be a match for Karura, but they had been on missions together for years and their teamwork was seamless. The four of them continuously unleashed ninjutsu of the five elements: wind, fire, water, lightning, and earth. The various functions and complementary ninjutsu combined to force Karura to defend.

Four Sand Village guard captains led the rest of their men to try to come up and provide support, but they were entangled by an enemy force that outnumbered them several times over.

There was no narrow terrain to capture them all, and no cover to withstand the attack.

Even with the weapons made by Ryuji to increase their firepower, the Sand Village ninjas' own defense was still a problem. Facing the attacks of hundreds or thousands of ninjas, even if it was just the throwing of kunai, shuriken, and explosive tags, they would find it difficult to resist.

Especially the low-ranking ninjas who do odd jobs.

Their attack, combat awareness, reaction, speed, defense, and other aspects are all lacking.

Although the weapons made by Ryuji made up for the lack of offensive capabilities, the other shortcomings still existed.

These flaws may not be apparent in battles where conditions are favorable, but they become immediately apparent in head-on confrontations where the environment is fair or even unfavorable.

They initially used the giant repeating crossbow to kill many Konoha ninja. However, since Konoha knew about this weapon beforehand, their attack formation was very scattered, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the giant repeating crossbow.

However, they were completely wiped out in the enemy's counterattack.

The attacks that everyone else could dodge or even withstand were unavoidable for them. They died before they could even use their other weapons, which made Long Er, who was receiving treatment in the rear, shake his head.

The reason he said in the meeting that he could guarantee 80% of the people would return to Sunagakure, instead of all of them, is because of this.

No matter how powerful his weapons are, they still need someone to operate them.

If a player is too bad, even if you have top-tier gear, it won't help, since the enemy isn't a level 0 character with no gear.

"Lady Ayaki, shall I take you away first?"

Yashamaru, who was treating Ryuji with medical ninjutsu, hesitated for a moment before finally making a suggestion.

The fact that the battle ended with the enemy falling to the bottom indicates a significant disparity in combat strength between the two sides. Without reinforcements, continuing the fight would be futile.

"It's useless. Retreating after engaging in combat can easily turn into a defeat, then a rout and a flight. The Konoha ninjas can then relentlessly slaughter them. Even if we manage to escape Konoha, we can't escape the Land of Fire. The people of Konoha know the terrain of the Land of Fire better than we do."

"..."

Yashamaru opened his mouth, then closed it again.

He wanted to say: Since you know this situation, why did you still choose the unwise choice of fighting Konoha to the death? And why did you confidently say that you could bring 80% of the people back to Sunagakure?

But seeing that Ryuji showed no sign of worry despite the situation, he swallowed back the words he wanted to say.

Lady Ayaki is so amazing, there must be a reason why she made this choice.

"Don't worry, I said I would bring more than 80 percent of the people back, and I definitely will."

Seemingly sensing what Yashamaru was worried about, Ryuji couldn't help but chuckle softly.

His calm and composed demeanor put the two Sand Village ninja guarding him at ease.

Because this is his guarantee for "Ryuji Ayaki".

The reputation built up through various deeds makes enemies tremble with fear and earns the trust of one's own people.

This is the power of prestige.

However, while that's what he says, Ryuji can't guarantee that he can bring back more than 80% of the people.

He was only confident he could bring back fifty percent of it.

The reason for saying this was simply to give confidence to those below.

but.

The specifics will depend on when Yin and Wanlijiang return.

……

Danger, danger, danger...

Hearing the static in her ears, the warning system in Yin Xin was frantically alerting her.

In fact, even without warning, based solely on rational judgment, Yin knew how dangerous the situation was.

The main reason she was able to dominate among so many elite ninja clans was because of her earth spear and her spiritual ocean.

Earth Spear is a B-rank Earth Release technique that hardens the body, yet it can defend against A-rank ninjutsu.

Among ordinary ninjas who can generally only throw kunai, shuriken, and explosive tags, even the elites of various ninja clans can only master C or B-rank ninjutsu at most.

Aside from functional secret techniques like the Shadow Binding Technique, other ninjutsu and offensive methods are almost ineffective against her.

Coupled with her mental ocean that allows her to ignore illusions, Gin is an invincible bug for ordinary ninjas.

But this is only relative to the average ninja. For truly skilled masters, this is nothing.

Ultimately, no matter how powerful the Earth Spear is, it's just a B-rank Earth Release technique. As long as you use Lightning Release, which counters it, you can ignore it.

Having secretly observed and deduced the nature of the ninjutsu that hardened Silver's body, the ANBU chief imbued his weapon with lightning-attribute chakra and launched a sneak attack from behind just as Silver finished her attack.

At this moment, Yin was in the process of exhausting his old strength and not yet generating new strength when someone sneaked up behind him, leaving him no time to react.

She tilted her body with all her might, but with a sound like paper being torn apart, her entire arm was severed.

But Yin did not panic.

Instead, he used the momentum of tilting to dodge to turn around, spraying blood from his severed arm onto his face, and then punched him in the face, sending him flying.

Yin was about to give chase when he heard Wanlijiang's exclamation from the alley. He quickly changed direction and chased into the alley behind.

A female secret agent is chasing Wanlijiang with a knife.

This man's swordsmanship was extremely sharp; the wind he created by swinging his sword could easily blow away the poisonous mist spewed from the Wanli River.

She was also very agile.

Even in this narrow alley, one can easily avoid the corrosive liquid sprayed out by Wanlijiang during his feigned surrender.

Yin frowned immediately after just one glance.

This agile and ruthless swordsman is exactly the kind of fighter who counters her style.

If it were an ordinary person, it wouldn't matter.

But this guy is incredibly skilled, and it would be difficult for me to win with only one arm.

(Don't linger in battle!)

Having quickly formulated a strategy in his mind, Yin strode inside, his crisp footsteps immediately attracting the attention of the two people present.

"Silver Sister!"

Wanlijiang was initially overjoyed, but upon seeing Yin's severed arm, he couldn't help but gasp in shock.

Before she could even cry out, she saw Yin quicken his pace and rush over, leaping over her head as he got close.

"Bang! Bang!"

Yin, while in mid-air, punched each of the two walls, causing them to collapse with a roar.

Various debris and gravel fell, blocking the narrow intersection.

"Walk!"

Yin landed on the ground, grabbed Wanlijiang, turned around, and charged out.

The highly poisonous salamander, having already heard its master's call, had already rushed to the street outside the alley. As soon as the two came out, it opened its mouth and swallowed them, then burrowed underground to escape.

……

Ding ding ding!!!

bang bang bang! ! !

Boom boom boom!!!

On the battlefield, smoke filled the air, and the sounds of explosions and fighting mingled together, creating a scene of utter devastation.

Facing an enemy several times their size, the steel fortress unleashed its full firepower, with giant scythes, crossbow bolts, shuriken, and kunai launchers raining down fire from all directions on its house-sized steel body.

The remaining Sand Village ninja followed behind, killing any who managed to escape.

But even with such a powerful weapon, it was difficult to reverse the disadvantage in combat strength.

Initially, Konoha was indeed subjected to a massive massacre.

But they quickly found a solution.

Several members of the Oil Women clan manipulated swarms of insects to crawl into the gaps and crevices of the parts, destroying the structure from the inside.

After emitting a plume of black smoke, the steel fortress exploded.

This wave of self-destruction, while taking away many Konoha ninjas, also took away many Sunagakure ninjas.

Most importantly, the situation on the battlefield became even more unfavorable after losing this firepower suppression.

Sunagakure suffered almost a complete defeat.

"You damned old bastard, die!"

The situation on the battlefield made Kurenai anxious. She punched the golden cudgel, knocking Sarutobi back, and formed a hand seal with her left hand, spitting out a thunderous roar.

Hiruzen Sarutobi nimbly flipped to dodge, then returned the attack with a fire jutsu.

Red opened the Netherworld Void Hole, absorbing all the flames, and then returned with even greater power.

(Absorbing chakra again!)

Sarutobi felt helpless, so he jumped to dodge and then ran continuously to avoid the barrage of ninjutsu.

Along the way, he created four shadow clones.

Five people, wielding sticks, charged in from four directions.

Red raised a sea of ​​sand, launching an overwhelming attack, but the Third Hokage pierced through it with a single, powerful blow, and continued his assault.

The two clashed again, but this time the fighting became even more intense and violent. They used various ninjutsu techniques in conjunction with the gaps in their taijutsu exchanges, making the battle area much wider.

……

"That's about it."

After realizing that he could barely stand up and move around, Ryuji stopped Yashamaru.

Medical ninjutsu can only do so much. To achieve further recovery, one still needs to rely on medication and recuperation step by step.

"Yashamaru, send the signal to retreat."

Yashamaru, who was about to object, was stunned when he heard this.

Didn't you say before that retreat was not an option?

Why have you changed your mind now?

Immediately, he instinctively asked, "Where do we retreat to?"

"Back to our base outside Konoha!"

"Start Phase Two!"

Many books have raised questions about the strength of the Third Hokage.

But all I can say is that what I'm describing here is the strength shown by the Third Hokage in the original manga.

When he was 59 years old, he yanked the Nine-Tails out of the village from near the Hokage Rock with a single blow, and was even prepared to withstand the Tailed Beast Ball, but was taken away by the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique.

An analysis of a single exchange during the Fourth Shinobi World War reveals the true nature of the Truth-Seeking Balls.

The five Kage, Sakura, and a group of Zetsu Uzumaki, who couldn't defeat the Nine-Tails' chakra, were evenly matched with the Third Hokage.

He displayed explosive power far exceeding that of the Second and Fourth Hokage when saving Naruto.

During the Chunin Exams, at 69 years old, he faced three peak Kage-level opponents, took down two of them, and sealed Orochimaru's hands.

Orochimaru claimed that being ten years younger would allow him to instantly kill him.

These are undeniable achievements, so you're saying he wasn't at the level of a movie star in his prime?

Many people think the Third Hokage was weak, but that's because the scale of his battles in the early stages was small, and the Chunin Exams were fought on rooftops.

Later, the title of God of Shinobi was given to the First Hokage.

However, the scale of the battles has been constantly increasing in the manga, as Kishimoto has made it very clear, and it's to show the protagonist's growth in strength.

Many people use the scale of the fight to criticize the First and Second Hokage, who were resurrected using Edo Tensei, as being only Jonin level.

Is he serious when he says that?

The First and Second Hokage were the main forces in that battle, with Orochimaru providing support.

These two performed much better than Orochimaru did at the time.

If they were all just Jonin level, then Orochimaru, whose hands weren't sealed and who was at his peak in the entire series, wasn't even a Jonin level.

There were also four ANBU members watching from the outside, like they were waiting for someone. Later, when they fought the split dogs, their ninjutsu range was far superior to that of the four at the time.

Are they stronger than the Third Hokage and Orochimaru?

(End of this chapter)