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

Chapter 190 The Pursuit (Please subscribe and vote with monthly tickets)

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were indeed powerful; Suigetsu Hozuki and Jinpachi Murashi destroyed dozens of knight puppets in the blink of an eye.

But they were facing a number of bodies that obscured their view; a mere few dozen were hardly worth mentioning.

Furthermore, apart from them and a few captain-level characters, most of the Hidden Mist Ninjas are unable to pose a threat to the Knight Puppet.

Whether it's the five great ninja villages or other small and medium-sized ninja villages, most ninjas only know how to use kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, and taijutsu to kill enemies.

Faced with puppets with bodies of steel, they had no means of threatening them other than explosive tags and heavy weapons.

If the enemy is a regular puppeteer, they can bypass the puppets to kill the puppeteer or sever the puppet strings. But against autonomous puppets, they have no choice but to fight the puppets head-on.

Furthermore, the knight puppets can fly and rely on mechanisms for power, making them far more mobile and powerful than ordinary ninjas.

Moreover, the two groups are on completely different levels in terms of numbers, and the Hidden Mist ninja can only put up a difficult fight.

However, although the battle was overwhelmingly won, the knight puppets suffered losses several times greater than the enemy.

While puppets have an overwhelming advantage against ordinary ninjas, they also have an overwhelming disadvantage against elite ninjas.

While an artificial soul paired with a mechanical body possesses a robust defense and immense strength surpassing that of humans, it lacks human sensory organs for transmitting information and a brain responsible for receiving and transmitting information. Although Ryuji has sophisticated instruments that can achieve similar effects, they are still insignificant compared to the most complex and compatible information receiving system of humans.

The result of this situation is that although it can fly and has a high speed, it appears very clumsy, often making mistakes in turning in time, and being outmaneuvered by the enemy, resulting in accidents such as crashes.

Furthermore, since elite ninjas have mastered powerful ninjutsu capable of damaging the puppets, killing an elite Chunin requires the sacrifice of several puppets. Killing a Special Jonin or Jonin, on the other hand, would require dozens of puppets.

It is precisely because of this situation that the Hidden Mist ninjas are still struggling to hold on even when the situation is absolutely unfavorable.

If they can hold out until the captains eliminate all the puppets, they will win.

but.

Just as the number of puppets dwindled and the view of the sky became clearer, several bolts of purple lightning struck down.

Everyone felt the immense chakra contained within the lightning.

At first, they thought it was an enemy attack tactic.

But when the lightning struck, no one was hit.

Purple lightning struck the sea and spread in all directions. The remains of the puppets that had been destroyed and fallen into the sea were visibly restored. In less than a few seconds, complete knight puppets rushed out of the sea and charged at the enemy again.

"What?! It actually recovered!?"

"The puppet we destroyed at great cost has been restored!"

"My chakra was almost depleted just from destroying a puppet, but now it's all restored. How am I supposed to fight now?"

"There's no chance of winning!"

Faced with the suddenly resurrected puppet, the Hidden Mist ninja, who were already struggling, were plunged into despair, and the already unfavorable battle situation suddenly turned into a one-sided one.

After wielding Samehada and annihilating two attacking puppets, the Watermelon Pufferfish Demon shouted to Yagura, "We have to find out who's behind this!"

"Of course I know!"

Yagura replied while brandishing his coral staff, "The key issue is that the enemies are all in the sky, and we can't fly. How are we supposed to catch the person controlling them?"

"Shoot that thing down!" Muli Shenba roared, his explosive blade sweeping across, creating a series of explosions and clearing a blank area.

Yagura understood what Murashi Jinpachi meant, but still asked to confirm, "What do you mean?"

"Let the Three-Tails and Six-Tails go; aren't they there precisely to deal with situations like this?"

Upon hearing this, Yagura frowned.

The Three-Tails and Six-Tails mentioned by Mushishi Jinpachi refer to two Jinchūriki from Kirigakure.

The Third Mizukage personally led the charge, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were all deployed, and six thousand elite troops... It's no wonder that Kirigakure sent out such a lineup just to destroy the Land of Whirlpools.

If the goal was simply to destroy the Land of Whirlpools, there was absolutely no need to send out such a force; not even half of it would be necessary.

Their real goal was to attack Konoha; destroying Uzushiogakure was just a side effect. They wanted to eliminate Konoha's allies beforehand to prevent the people of Uzushiogakure from attacking from behind after the battle began.

To prevent Konoha from discovering Kirigakure's plans in advance, the Six-Tails and Three-Tails Jinchuriki, these battlefield nuclear weapons, were naturally hidden within the military and carried along.

If we use it now to deal with the Mechanical City, then...

shhhhhh! ! !

Before Yagura could think further, several more puppets appeared from the horizon.

"Coral Palm!"

Yagura leaped into the air, unleashing a barrage of palm strikes with both hands, weaving through the gaps between several puppets.

The parts of the puppet that he struck turned into coral and continued to grow, soon engulfing its entire body and shattering it into dust.

He glanced at the battlefield, where scenes of Hidden Mist ninja being slaughtered were everywhere.

"withdraw!"

Yagura ordered everyone to evacuate to the island.

Both the Three-Tails and the Six-Tails were in the army accompanying the Third Mizukage. Even if they wanted to use the power of a Jinchuriki, they needed to notify him in advance and request support.

But even if they could successfully send someone to inform the Mizukage, given the enemy's firepower, the round trip would take too long, and by then it would be too late.

It would be better to retreat directly and join up with the Mizukage's army.

Furthermore, given the sheer size of the castle, the Mizukage who is currently attacking Uzushio Village on the island must have already discovered it and may have sent reinforcements.

Meeting up there at this time is the most time-efficient option.

……

The city of government offices.

Temporary meeting room.

Ryuji Ayaki, Ebizo, Akane, Gin, Kuroi, Marie, Iwata, Tsuchiya, and others were all present.

The messenger reported, "Lady Ayaki, the enemy has retreated back to the island."

Ryuji pondered for a moment: "How's the situation at Uzushio Village?"

"The noise has subsided."

"It's shrunk..." Ryuji pondered slightly. "I don't know if Kirigakure breached Uzushio Village, or if they stopped their attack after seeing us arrive. But whatever the case, our goal is the same: to pursue!"

"yes!"

As the order was given, the mechanical city began to fly inwards into the island, escorted by a large army of puppets.

Ninjas are fast, but their normal travel speed (non-combat speed) is not as fast as one might imagine.

The reason why ninjas can reach their destination in a shorter time than people can imagine is because they have the ability to ignore the terrain and travel in a straight line.

But the mechanical city always flies in the sky, making it even more resistant to terrain than ninjas.

Therefore, even though the people of the Hidden Mist Village escaped first, they were quickly caught up by the Mechanical City.

Looking at the shadow that had been looming over the sky, a sense of gloom settled over the hearts of every Kirigakure ninja, including Yagura.

I was planning to add an extra chapter yesterday, but the desk I ordered arrived in the afternoon, so I've been assembling it and it's still not done.

Also, there will be a power outage for maintenance in town tomorrow (postponed due to rain), so the big update will start the day after tomorrow!

(End of this chapter)