XX-level Hokage

"Don't even think about it!" Kushina's expression turned cold upon hearing Orochimaru's words.

"Now's the time! I'll hold them in place, you guys grab them! Water Strike: Water Horn!" Kurotsuchi seized the opportunity and unleashed Water Strike. A large amount of water fell onto the lime residue left from her previous attack, causing the lime to spread and flow to Orochimaru and Itachi's feet. The lime quickly solidified, firmly fixing Orochimaru and Itachi in place.

"I see." Orochimaru glanced at the limestone formation beneath his feet and immediately understood. "Idiot, now you can't move." Kurotsuchi pointed at Orochimaru and said smugly.

The lime-setting technique that Kurotsuchi just used produces fast-acting cement that can spread through water and solidify rapidly upon reaction. "Kai, Izumi, Motoi, be careful not to step in this water," Yamashiro Aoba quickly reassured the three beside him.

At this moment, Kurotsuchi spat out several more clumps of lime, covering Orochimaru and Itachi's bodies and securing them even more firmly. "Just to be safe," Kurotsuchi said in unison.

"Great! Now we've got victory in our grasp!" Motoi exclaimed excitedly. "I'll gather the intelligence," Yamashiro Aoba said with a smile.

"Itachi, are you going to keep watching?" Orochimaru asked Itachi beside him without any sign of nervousness. "Amaterasu."

Black flames appeared out of nowhere, burning the lime on the ground to ashes. "This is bad."

Just as Kurotsuchi was about to continue her attack, Itachi vanished from his spot, kicked Kurotsuchi to the ground, and then used the Water Prison Technique to bind her tightly.

Seeing this, Akatsuchi was about to use the Rock Giant to attack when Itachi glanced at him and black flames engulfed the Rock Giant. Akatsuchi himself was also controlled by Itachi's genjutsu.

Kushina and the others sensed something was wrong.

Kushina summoned the sealing chains to firmly bind Orochimaru, saying, "I'll control Orochimaru first, you guys go help quickly."

Without hesitation, Yamashiro Aoba, Guy, and Motoi rushed towards Itachi. Looking back at them, his eyes instantly transformed into the Mangekyou Sharingan. "Tsukuyomi!"

The three of them collapsed to the ground instantly.

At this point, if Guy had opened the Sixth Gate, along with Yamashiro Aoba and Motoi, they could have easily defeated Itachi. However, they didn't understand the Mangekyou Sharingan or Tsukuyomi.

So they were instantly defeated.

Seeing the three of them fall so easily, Kushina was greatly shocked. She looked at Itachi and asked, "What did you do to them?" Ryou didn't speak, but walked closer to Kushina step by step.

"Don't come any closer. Otherwise, I'll take Orochimaru down with me," Kushina said coldly.

"Still struggling, Kushina?" Orochimaru suddenly spoke. "How did you..." Kushina hadn't finished speaking when Itachi approached.

“Aunt Kushina, we have no intention of being your enemy,” Itachi said, looking at Kushina.

Orochimaru's body became soft and then transformed into dozens of snakes, which emerged from the gaps in the sealing chains and then reassembled into Orochimaru.

Orochimaru looked at Kushina and said, "I originally wanted to find Naruto, but since I've met you, there's no need for that now. If you agree to do one thing for me, I can take Itachi and leave Naruto behind."

"What is it?" Kushina asked calmly.

"Help me write a letter and give it to my 'junior sister,' now the Sixth Hokage, Hyuga Mashiro." Orochimaru summoned a snake, which opened its mouth and spat out a scroll.

"You mean, you came here to deliver a letter to Mashiro?" Kushina didn't believe Orochimaru's words. "Of course, you can refuse. We'll go back into the turtle shell and find Naruto to help us," Orochimaru said calmly. Kushina pondered for a moment and said, "I understand."

Orochimaru laughed upon hearing this, and then threw the scroll at Kushina.

Kushina reached out and caught the scroll, but in an instant, the scroll turned into a small white snake that surged into her arm, forming a black line.

"What's this?!" Kushina asked, clutching her arm and her eyes icy cold.

"This is to prevent anyone from peeping. When she sees the Sixth Hokage, she has her own way of taking it out." After Orochimaru finished speaking, he turned and left with Itachi.

Kushina was left watching their retreating figures with a puzzled expression.

Meanwhile, Onoki and Deidara were engaged in a fierce battle in the air.

"He's even faster than in his prime, that old bastard," Deidara thought to himself.

“You always loved to keep your distance, sneaking around and fighting as you went. I hated that the most,” Onoki said with a laugh. “Shut up!” Deidara said impatiently.

“Give up, Deidara. Come back to Iwagakure with me, and I might spare your life,” Onoki said.

"Die, you old bastard! I'll show you which is art: my explosion or your Dust Release!" Deidara quickly changed direction, and then a dozen sticky bees appeared out of thin air, scattering and attacking Onoki.

Facing Deidara's attack, Onoki formed hand seals. "Earth Release: Rock Arm"

A giant rock hand appeared out of thin air and enveloped Onoki.

The clay bees kept exploding, but ultimately failed to break the giant rock hand.

Seeing this, Deidara continued to throw more clay bombs, eventually blasting a crack in the giant rock hand, revealing Ōnoki inside. "Deidara, give up, your explosions can't hurt me," Ōnoki said from within the giant rock hand.

At this moment, Onoki's entire face was visible through the gap in the giant rock hand. "Alright, now's the time, C4 Garuda."

The explosion originated from the giant rock slab and continued to spread. The sound was incredibly loud.

"Hahaha, you old codger, have you grasped the essence of my art yet?" Deidara said confidently.

But when the smoke cleared, Onoki wasn't in the giant hand; instead, there was a pile of dirt. "A Rock Clone?! Oh no, when did this happen?" Deidara hadn't even reacted yet.

Just then, a voice came from behind him. "Dust Release: Particle Style Detachment Technique"

Chapter 182: Gathering

"Oh no!" Deidara sensed something was wrong and tried to dodge, but it was too late.

A beam of white light pierced through the clay bird beneath Deidara's feet, causing it to vanish instantly, and Deidara plummeted downwards as a result.

"Damn old man, I'll show you what ultimate art is." During his fall, Dida reached out and touched his chest, intending to unleash "CO: self-destruct".

But Onoki seemed to have anticipated Deidara's move. A beam of white light pierced through Deidara's left hand in an instant, then flew behind Deidara, caught him, knocked him unconscious, and threw him onto the island turtle's stomach.

In the end, he couldn't bring himself to kill Deidara directly. After dealing with Deidara, Amanoki flew into the shell.

After Orochimaru and Itachi disappeared, Kushina helped Yamashiro Aoba and the other three to their feet. By this time, the four of them had woken up, but they were very weak.

Then Kushina helped Kurotsuchi break free of the water prison and helped Akatsuchi break free of the illusion. It was at this moment that Onoki arrived.

"You're too slow, you old geezer," Heitu said irritably, her recent crushing defeat leaving her extremely frustrated.

“Deidara flew too fast, and I had to lure him off that turtle before I could use Dust Release, so it took some time,” Onoki replied.

Then, looking at the others, Onoki frowned and asked, "Has the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki been captured?"

"No, they didn't intend to capture Naruto. After defeating us, they turned and left," Kushina said. She omitted the fact that Orochimaru had asked her to deliver a message to Mashiro.

"Such a thing has happened, so what exactly is their purpose?" Onoki asked, puzzled. Kushina shook her head and remained silent.

"In any case, let's inform the Allied Forces about the situation here first. Judging from the condition of these individuals, they have undoubtedly suffered severe psychological damage. According to the information about Akatsuki shared by the Hokage, this should be caused by Itachi Uchiha's Tsukuyomi. We'll need to have Tsunade come over later," Onoki said, still somewhat puzzled.

In the sky, a giant tortoise is flying slowly, but upon closer inspection, there are three small black dots below the tortoise.

Perched atop the island turtle's spikes, Yamashiro Aoba and Motoi looked around. "Unbelievable," Kushina exclaimed in surprise.

"I never expected the Tsuchikage to have such a whimsical idea," a female ninja from the island turtle said with a smile. Onoki, who was supporting himself on the island turtle, said with dissatisfaction, "Seriously, this is putting even more strain on my back."

"Are you alright? It's better to go to sea, and there's no need to fly that high." Akatsuchi looked at Onoki and said with concern. "Don't talk nonsense, Akatsuchi. Be careful not to be sensed by that giant snake at sea." Kurotsuchi said.

Onoki ignored their conversation and looked ahead, where he could vaguely see rocks and land. "We're almost there," Onoki muttered to himself.

In Kumogakure, the headquarters of the Allied Shinobi Forces, an eagle carrying a box with the character "封" (seal) written on it was rapidly approaching. "It was Konoha's..." said a member of the scout team on duty, who had just spotted the approaching eagle.

"New intelligence, intercept them quickly!" Next to him, another ninja from the reconnaissance team on duty also reacted quickly.

"The X mark confirms it's the enemy's lair, a place known as the Graveyard of Mountains. It's accessible by land to both Yugakure and Shimogakure, so we should send evacuation advisories to those villages. According to intelligence gathered by the infiltrating investigation team, the enemy numbers around 100,000. Considering the main force's movement, we can foresee only a small number will travel by sea, fearing encirclement," Shikaku said, pointing to a specially made map of the ninja world at the round table where the five Kage sat.

“In that case, it will be a matter of who strikes first,” Mifune said.

"First, gather the raiding force and order the assembled companies to form battle formations and confirm their respective formations. Also, inform Tsunade to direct the rear medical support troops to bring their medical ninja tools," Mashiro said to Shikaku.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Shikaku nodded in response.

"Mabuyi, go and cooperate with the intelligence unit to confirm the intelligence route," Ai said. "Understood," Mabuyi nodded in response.

"Notify the Qing unit of the Sensing Force, tell them to hurry up too." Mei Terumi turned to Chojuro and said. "Yes." Chojuro replied hastily.

The three then quickly left the meeting room.

"Tsuchikage, you finished this while you were gone." Gaara said, taking out a headband with the character "Shinobi" written on it. "Oh, it's already finished?" Onoki said, taking the headband.

After examining it carefully for a while, Onoki smiled and said, "So this is the Allied Shinobi Forces' headband? Quite nice."

"This is my design. Those of you who used to argue endlessly have now united as one [Ninja]. Not only that, the ninjas have also joined forces with the samurai. This moment has finally arrived," Mifune said proudly.

Outside the meeting room, in the Hidden Cloud Village, the Allied Shinobi Forces were distributing headbands to their respective squads.

Sabin and Omoi also put on new headbands. At this moment, Kankuro walked over and said to the two of them, "I am Kankuro, a Sand Ninja who serves as the captain of the surprise attack force."

"Kankuro, what nickname should I give you?" Sai asked thoughtfully. "?" Kankuro was quite puzzled by Sai's question.

Meanwhile, Omoi was carefully scrutinizing Kankuro, thinking to himself, "Is this alright? What if such a young person messes up the mission because of his youthful impetuosity, and in his extreme distress, he suddenly shifts the responsibility to me? What then...?"

Thinking this, Omoi became nervous.

Kankuro, seeing Omoi's sudden change in expression, was puzzled once more. "The headbands have been distributed."

"Medical supplies inspection complete." "Ninja tools inspection complete."

“Food inspection…” An Iwa ninja was counting the food when he suddenly felt something rubbing against his calf. Looking down, he saw a little pig wearing red clothes.

"Who's in charge of managing the livestock? The pigs have all escaped." The Iwa ninja said helplessly, then reached out to pick up the pig, but a pair of arms quickly pulled the pig into his arms.

The ninja looked over and saw a girl with short black hair. Just as he was about to ask something, a shout came from over.

"The captain is here! All troops, line up!" Upon hearing this, the Iwa ninja rushed over.

The girl walked over unhurriedly to the front of the line and said to the group, "I have been appointed as the deputy commander of the medical logistics unit."

The captain is mute. Everyone, please take care of me. First, I want everyone to remember one thing.

“This little guy is nothing,” Shizune said, lifting up Tonton.

In addition, there were some points to note regarding this unit… and that concludes the dismissal. After saying this, Shizune turned and left. She went to a nearby restaurant, went up to the second floor, and pushed open the door to a private room.

Izumi, Shiro, Sakura, and Karin all looked at her with smiles. "That's well said, Shizune-senpai," Sakura said with a smile.

"It's because Lady Tsunade doesn't participate in management at all, and neither of you comes to help," Shizune said angrily. "That's really well said, very cool," Haku said with a smile.

"Really? It took me a long time to memorize these words," Shizune said, touching her head.

Other units also began to assemble.

"You must be Inoichi." A man dressed in Kumogakure (Cloud Village) attire approached Inoichi and asked. "Who are you?" Inoichi asked, somewhat puzzled.

"My name is Tianhua. I've long admired you. Please allow me to record this for you," Tianhua said excitedly.

Chapter 183: Before the War

Just then, Yamashiro Aoba rushed over in two.

"I'm sorry, I'm late." Yamashiro Aoba said affectionately.

"It's nothing, thank you for your hard work this time, Aoba." Inoichi looked at Aoba, nodded, and said.