The reason Yōkō hadn't sought a confrontation with Rasa before was precisely because Rasa could use Magnet Release: Gold Dust Imperial Funeral to capture him; he was afraid of being caught.
The snake-shaped puppets specializing in capture posed some threat.
After dodging several times in succession, the snake-shaped puppets kept circling around him.
He chopped one snake puppet in half with a karate chop, but to his surprise, the severed puppet could still move under the control of the chakra strings.
Three snake-shaped puppets entangled Yōkō from different angles.
Chopping them was less effective. Ignoring the puppets, Yōkō quickly formed hand seals.
Before he could be completely restrained, Yōkō had already completed the ninjutsu.
"Water Release: Water Cutting Wave!"
A line of water shot fiercely from his mouth, first cutting through the snake puppet on his chest, then slicing towards Toci's wife not far away.
Toci's wife had been too drained by Hatake Sakumo; her energy was low, her strength insufficient, and she couldn't dodge in time.
Before dying, she began to doubt twenty years of effort. It's too much of a counter... I've never felt so powerless before.
Half of her body was severed, falling in two different directions.
"Ah! Aaaaaah!"
Catching sight of his wife's death in his peripheral vision, Toci fell into a frenzy.
Yōkō quickly retreated to a distance.
Toci took out his final scroll, unsealing his last 20 puppets.
Together with the remaining original puppets, all puppets attacked Hatake Sakumo.
Facing Toci's desperate bluff, Hatake Sakumo showed no fear, charging directly into the puppet swarm.
The white blade auras were like terrifying fangs, shredding puppet after puppet.
Yōkō thought, My Absolute Defense: Copper Light counters puppets, but Hatake Sakumo's White Fang counters them even more.
The strength ceiling of puppets is too low; they are easily shattered by the White Fang.
Even a few all-iron puppets were equally unable to resist the White Fang's crystallized Lightning Release blade aura.
After holding on for one minute, Toci himself was also struck by the blade aura, his body similarly split in two.
Hatake Sakumo waved to his aide. Seeing this, the aide shouted:
"Fire the signal flare! The Sand ninja commander is dead! Charge!"
The Sand ninja Deputy Commander, Toci, died on the banks of the Shirano River.
He was the highest-ranking ninja to die in this war.
The puppet technique genius certified by the Second Kazekage, the son of Sunagakure Elder Chiyo, the nephew of Elder Ebizō, regarded as the village's present and future – Toci – was dead.
Toci's death was a massive blow to Sunagakure, so massive that...converted to Konoha terms, it was almost equivalent to Tsunade dying in this war.
Similarly noble status, similarly powerful strength, similarly young and promising.
Imagine if Tsunade had died at the hands of the Sand ninja; imagine how furious many in Konoha would be.
Yōkō returned to his squad and said:
"Let's go, follow the charging troops to record the battle situation."
Fox Squad arrived at the bank of the Shirano River.
Yōkō saw Hatake Sakumo standing beside a corpse, his expression pained.
It was one of his friends.
After grieving for two seconds, he gripped the White Fang and charged towards areas dense with Sand ninja.
Within the white blade auras, Lightning Release chakra condensed into dazzling white arcs.
Both people and puppets were shattered.
Watching this, Yōkō felt a pang of envy. Why is my primary chakra nature Earth?
If it were Lightning, would I have such fearsome killing power?
The key is it's cool. Compared to the White Fang and the 'Copper Turtle', ten out of ten people would choose the White Fang, right?
But if I were to develop the White Fang blade aura, it would be hard to explain.
I can't very well force Hatake Sakumo to admit he has an illegitimate child, can I?
In his less responsible youth, did Hatake Sakumo also make the mistake all Konoha men make?
Hatake Sakumo seems like a decent guy. It would be more believable to say he's the late-life illegitimate son of Hatake Sakumo's father.
Yōkō pulled his thoughts back and continued observing the battle.
Hatake Sakumo's elite subordinates were responsible for pursuing and gathering the Sand ninja, while he himself harvested Sand ninja lives with the White Fang short sword.
With each swing, at least five Sand ninja were cut in half at the waist.
The Konoha forces pursued relentlessly.
The surface of the Shirano River was covered with floating corpses and puppet fragments.
The banks of the Shirano River were littered with corpses and puppet fragments.
They pursued all the way to the estuary of the Shirano River.
The last few dozen Sand ninja escaped onto a small boat.
They looked back at the shore, where the Konoha ninja stood in two long rows, left and right, extending from the Shirano River estuary in both directions.
The number of Konoha ninja was so vast.
Over 500 elite Sand ninja were nearly all dead or wounded.
Over 600 Konoha ninja had started, and more than 400 remained.
A crushing defeat. Sunagakure's flanking assault was a one-sided, disastrous defeat.
Just as the twenty-plus Sand ninja thought their situation couldn't get worse.
A white blade aura flashed and vanished.
The boat was split in two. Some unfortunate Sand ninja were split in two along with the boat.
The two halves of the corpses fell, their eyes staring at each other, pupils reflecting their other eye.
Watching Hatake Sakumo's brilliant blade aura eliminate the final Sand ninja, Yōkō shook his head repeatedly.
Purple Cat quickly asked, "Captain, is there a problem?"
"No problem," Yōkō said.
"If it were me, I would let those twenty-plus people go back."
"If you kill them all, who will testify to your strength? It's like 'wearing fine clothes but walking at night' – no one gets to see it."
"Better to let them go back, let them live in fear for the rest of their lives, telling everyone they meet about Hatake Sakumo's power."
Purple Cat lowered her head and wrote: "Anbu Fox Squad Leader suggests not killing all, leave a few to spread terror."
"Right, add that sentence. Deputy Commander Hatake Sakumo is very strong, but he doesn't understand people's hearts."
Hatake Sakumo sheathed his short sword on his back, scanned the two rows of Konoha ninja on the shore, found Copper Fox, and appeared beside him with the Body Flicker Technique.
"Copper Fox, I believe I should gather our elites to reinforce the main battlefield. The enemy can no longer threaten our rear."
Yōkō said, "Deputy Commander, the decision is yours to make. I support your decision."
"Good!"
The aide had reported to Hatake Sakumo on the way: in this battle, the Anbu's Copper Fox had intervened twice.
The first time, he helped the Water Release battalion seize the upstream section of the Shirano River, making the flood peak tactic to flush out the puppet masters effective.
The second time, he killed Toci's wife, helping to relieve pressure on Hatake Sakumo.
Both interventions came at the most critical moments, establishing advantages for Konoha.
Copper Fox's strength had earned Hatake Sakumo's recognition.
Of the 400-plus Konoha ninja, Hatake Sakumo selected 100. The remainder were to clean the battlefield, treat, and transport poisoned Konoha ninja.
The 100 soldiers, along with the Anbu Fox Squad, headed straight for the main battlefield.
The journey took two hours. Yōkō saw the distant main battlefield.
The most eye-catching sight on the battlefield was the rampaging forms of the four commanders from both sides.
The Sand ninja Commander, Ebizō, possessed Sunagakure's strongest Wind Release.
On his left and right sides, a hundred-meter-high tornado swirled each. Within dozens of meters around him, no one could approach.
The Sand ninja Deputy Commander, Rasa, stood atop a mass of gold sand, floating in mid-air.
Beneath him were waves of gold sand dozens of meters high.
Beside the Konoha Commander Nara Rokaku was Akimichi Yamashiro, enlarged by the Multi-Size Technique.
Akimichi Yamashiro had lost one arm. Wielding a several-dozen-meter-long iron staff single-handedly, each swing shook the earth.
The Konoha Deputy Commander, Tsunade, stood atop a slug.
The slug spewed acid, countering Rasa's gold sand waves.
After scanning the battlefield, Hatake Sakumo said:
"The left, center, and right flanks are all deadlocked, evenly matched. Follow me, we'll start penetrating from the left flank!"
***
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(Chapter End)