"Kill!"
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
With a wave of Hanzo of the Salamander's arm, the Rain ninjas behind him erupted in guttural roars. They drew kunai, shuriken, and other ranged weapons from their pouches and charged towards the border of the Land of Fire.
"Go!"
On the Konoha side, seeing the Rain ninjas begin their charge, Tsunade also felt the urge to wave her hand and lead her own subordinates into the fray.
However, she quickly caught herself. Her mission in this war was not to lead her troops into battle against the Rain.
Instantly, she turned her head and looked at Danzo Shimura.
This was his mission!
"Hmph!"
Seeing her gaze, Danzo snorted coldly with a flicker of disappointment in his heart. At the same time, his wariness of her grew considerably.
As a battlefield commander who had led troops into battle against other villages, Danzo deeply understood the impulse to be swept up by the tide of the moment. For Tsunade to restrain herself from giving the order at the first opportunity under the current circumstances, her mental fortitude was admirable.
At the very least, Danzo felt he could not have done the same. Otherwise, during the First Great Ninja War, the battlefield he had commanded would not have ended in such a disastrous defeat.
The earlier verbal exchange between Hanzo and Tsunade had been the opening trumpet for the war, a way for both sides to proclaim their ideologies to the world, attempting to stand on the side of "justice."
Of course, in the ninja world, strength reigned supreme. But those who stood at the top always had to be mindful of their image. A plausible reason allowed them to stand firm when making certain decisions.
Mentally upgrading Tsunade's threat level, Danzo wasted no more time. With a wave of his hand, the expressionless Root ninjas began to disperse, charging towards the oncoming attackers.
The distance between the two forces was no more than three hundred meters. In less than thirty seconds, they clashed.
"Fire Style—Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Water Style—Water Shockwave!"
"Wind Style—Great Breakthrough!"
Before the ninjas on either side had even made contact, they began preparing their ninjutsu from a dozen meters away. The most basic elemental jutsus materialized into fireballs, streams of water, and bullets of wind, hurtling towards the enemy.
From the very first exchange, the Rain ninjas were taught a harsh lesson by the ninjas of Root.
Although Hanzo had bought the Rain Village more than a year to digest the ninjutsu resources obtained from the Cloud and Stone, unless one was a genius, how many jutsus could an ordinary ninja master in that time?
So-called "mastery" was not just about learning the technique. It also required judging the casting speed and timing in battle.
Compared to the Rain ninjas, who had trained for less than two years, the ninjas of Root, under Danzo's high-intensity training, had at least five years of experience. The elite among them had trained for more than ten.
In a ninja village, while the ANBU did not represent the highest combat power, they did represent the strongest combat unit. And the ninjas of Root, in some respects, were all ANBU candidates. It could be said that, besides the ANBU, Root was Konoha's most elite force. The others, even the Uchiha clan, were not their equal in this regard.
Of course, this was not to say that the individual strength of a Root ninja was greater than that of an Uchiha. Rather, Root operated like an army, with strict discipline, making them suitable for large-scale coordinated combat. The Uchiha, on the other hand, were individualistic and more suited for solo or small-team battles.
The ninjutsu unleashed by the Rain ninjas as they charged was chaotic and disorganized. In contrast, the Root ninjas, coordinating in groups of three to five, were able to release their own jutsu with speed and power that far surpassed the Rain's.
Boom, boom, boom
Swish, swish, swish
A massive fireball crushed the ninjutsu released by the Rain, exploding in their midst and killing three of them instantly. A ten-meter-high wave of water swept through, breaking parts of their formation. Dozens of wind bullets shattered the defense of an Earth-style wall, punching fist-sized holes through the bodies of the ninjas behind it.
With just their opening salvo, the ninjas of Root had inflicted dozens of casualties on the Rain. This was followed by a perfectly synchronized volley of kunai and shuriken that rained down like a storm, felling another dozen of the foremost attackers in pools of their own blood.
Seeing this scene, the corners of Danzo's mouth curled up slightly.
As expected, a small village was still a small village. Even if their numbers were several times his own, so what? For ninjas, numbers could indeed be a form of strength. But when one side's strength could form a crushing advantage, numbers became meaningless.
If they had been fighting against the motley crew of ordinary ninjas under that woman Tsunade's command, these Rain ninjas might have had some resistance. But who told them to pick the wrong opponent? Root was Konoha's strongest ninja unit!
In Danzo's view, even the Third Hokage's ANBU was a step weaker than his Root. It was true that Root was the training ground for the ANBU, and its members were those who had failed to be promoted. In terms of individual strength or the ability to carry out solo missions, they were indeed inferior.
However, ANBU ninjas had their own thoughts. On a mission, they might, due to their own personal ideas, deliberately overlook certain things, leading to mission failure or incomplete success. Root was different.
If Danzo gave them a mission to kill all the chickens in a certain village, they wouldn't just kill the chickens; they wouldn't even leave a single egg, shaking them all until they broke! In fact, if, in order to prevent information from leaking, Danzo ordered the ninjas who had completed a mission to commit suicide, they would not hesitate in the slightest.
In contrast to Danzo, Hanzo's expression was grim.
Although he knew that the ninjas of a great village were different from those of a small one, in the ninja world, there were only three ranks: Genin, Chunin, and Jonin. In the five great villages, their leaders called themselves "Kage." Therefore, it was universally acknowledged that the "Kage" was the highest combat power.
Other small villages had also adopted this ranking system. However, because the difference in strength was too great, their leaders could not be called "Kage." Similarly, they also had the ranks of Genin, Chunin, and Jonin. But compared to a great village, the strongest leader of a small village probably had the strength of a jonin. Their jonin probably had the strength of an elite chunin or a chunin. As for their genin, they were probably on par with the students in a great village's academy.
In a word, the ninjas of the great villages had a crushing advantage when facing those of the small villages. The gap between them was like an insurmountable chasm, much like the one between clan ninjas and commoner ninjas within a great village.
When Hanzo had previously led the Rain to attack other small villages, perhaps it was because he had always led the charge, killing the enemy's powerhouses first, causing their forces to collapse and be easily defeated.
This time, in the battle against Konoha, on one hand, the enemy had a ninja who could match him. Although Tsunade looked like a teenage girl, in the clash of their auras earlier, he had not been able to gain any advantage.
A strong aura did not necessarily mean great strength, but a strong person's aura would certainly not be weak!
Coupled with her title of "Number One Master of Medical Ninjutsu in the Ninja World," Hanzo knew that she was not an opponent he could defeat in a short time.
If he were to enter the battle, she would surely do the same. And if he couldn't defeat her quickly, he couldn't change the current tide of the battle. Unless he summoned his salamander and used its poisonous mist to deal with these Konoha ninjas.
But that was also impossible. The two sides were now engaged in close-quarters combat, intertwined. If he were to summon his salamander now, not only the Konoha ninjas, but also the Rain ninjas within a certain range would be poisoned to death. More importantly, if a Konoha ninja was poisoned, they could use an antidote. But if a Rain ninja was poisoned, he himself had no good way to cure them.
There was no other choice. The Rain Village had no medical ninjas to speak of, let alone one who could concoct an antidote for a top-tier poison like the salamander's. He had transplanted the salamander's poison sac and his own breath produced toxins, so he had an antibody to the poison. But he himself had no way to deal with it. If he could create an antidote, he wouldn't be wearing a gas mask all day. As a normal person, who would want to wear this thing all the time?
Under the attack of the Root ninjas, although the Rain had the advantage in numbers, their casualties were much greater.
Although they had received some ninjutsu resources from the Cloud and the Stone, allowing each of them to learn at least one or two offensive or defensive jutsus, their lack of foundation meant that even with the jutsus, and with no one to guide them, their strength improvement was limited.
A ninja could not become a powerhouse by relying on ninjutsu alone. With the exception of those with a Kekkei Genkai, other ordinary ninjas could only be considered to have entered the hall of mastery after completing the training of chakra nature and shape transformation.
One who had completed one type of chakra nature transformation, if recognized by the village, could be nominated as a "Special Jonin."
Although their status was a step lower than that of a true jonin, they still bore the title of "jonin." In some respects, it was not wrong to consider a "Special Jonin" a jonin.
After all, the reason they were called "special" was because in a certain area, they had reached or even surpassed the jonin level.
Although the Cloud and the Stone had supported the Rain with some ninjutsu to enhance their strength, they were not so foolish as to hand over the most core things of a great village.
Without the hard-won training methods for nature transformation, even if the ninjas of the Rain learned all of this batch of jutsus, at most they could only reach the level of a "chunin" in a great village.
And with the Rain's current size, even if they were all chunin, they would not be taken seriously by the great villages.
This battle had also shown Hanzo the gap between his village and Konoha. It had been less than ten minutes since the battle began, but the Rain's casualties were almost seven or eight times that of Konoha's. It took the death of about seven Rain ninjas to injure one Root ninja. A few dozen Root ninjas were actually suppressing several hundred Rain ninjas, slaughtering them at will.
It was only that the will of the Rain ninjas was extremely firm. Even with so many casualties, the ninjas behind them continued to surge forward, wanting to sacrifice their lives for the rise of their village.
With every Rain ninja that fell, the corner of Hanzo's eye, hidden beneath his gas mask, would twitch.
These were all the good sons of the Rain Village! In order to let them survive this war and gain the power to protect themselves in these chaotic times, he had swallowed his pride and obtained things from the Cloud and the Stone that could enhance their strength. And he had dragged things out for nearly two years to let them digest these things and improve themselves.
But even so, there was still a huge gap between them and the ninjas of Konoha.
Taking a deep breath, Hanzo finally couldn't hold back any longer. These were his beloved subordinates. How could he let them die here like this?
Instantly, he let out a furious roar. The scythe in his hand bloomed into several flashes of light on the battlefield, taking the lives of Root ninjas one by one.
"Hanzo of the Salamander, you dare!"
Seeing him so shamelessly enter the battle early, Tsunade let out a furious roar. Chakra exploded from under her feet, and she charged towards the rampaging Hanzo at her top speed. A green flame of chakra enveloped her body.
Closing in on him, Tsunade unleashed her Monstrous Strength, throwing a punch.
After entering the battle himself, Hanzo had known that Tsunade would surely follow. But her speed still shocked him. Faced with her sudden attack, he had no time to use a Body Flicker Technique to dodge. He could only grip the handle of his scythe with both hands and hold it horizontally in front of him.
Boom!