"Jiraiya!!!! You ugly bastard, go to hell!!!"
"Hehe... Yagura, I am the legendary Sannin, the Toad Sage, undefeated across the lands. Do you think mere elemental advantage can defeat me? Witness my Fire Release: Great Flame Bullet!"
"Damn you, Jiraiya, you wretched scum, don't look down on the Ninjas of Kirigakure! Water Release... Water Pillar!!!"
Amidst the violent roars, scorching Fire Release and piercingly cold Water Release slammed together fiercely.
Boom!
Boom!
Water and fire intertwined, triggering a sky-shaking explosion.
The next moment, the scalding water vapor produced by the explosion swept across the entire battlefield like a hurricane.
Instantly, within a radius of several hundred meters, numerous Ninjas were caught in the scalding vapor, their skin blistering from the high temperature. Yet, even so, those Ninjas did not retreat half a step, enduring the intense pain, gritting their teeth as they drove their kunai into the enemy's chest.
"Die! Konoha scum!"
"Waste from the Bloody Mist, kill me if you can!"
"Kill!"
"You ugly freak!"
"So what if I'm ugly, you scum!!!"
Different from the one-sided crushing battlefield at Tenfu Gorge, the fierce battle between Kirigakure and Konoha at Mount Fukyu had descended into the most brutal meat grinder.
Thousands of Ninjas had been locked in combat within the positions for a long time, leaving the Chakra of many Chunin almost depleted.
They could only grit their teeth, pick up their kunai or sword, and engage in the bloodiest close-quarters combat.
Judging by the number of corpses on the ground, the casualty ratio between the two sides was approaching 2:1, and Konoha, with its stronger individual Ninja strength, was undoubtedly the side with the advantage.
Without a doubt, if this battle continued, it would be a major victory for Konoha.
Yagura, the supreme commander of this battle, naturally realized this as well. At this point, he could no longer afford any gentlemanly demeanor. To turn the tide of the battle, or at least salvage some honor, he charged towards Jiraiya with a ferocious expression.
"Water Release: Water Fang Blade!!!"
The high-speed rotating water blade came crashing down towards Jiraiya's head.
Yagura's thinking was simple: Since the casualty count among ordinary Ninjas was too high to explain away, he would go all out to kill Konoha's main commander to recoup the village's losses.
Thump!
In an instant, the Water Fang Blade pierced through Jiraiya's forehead. However, the Jiraiya whose head seemingly burst apart in a spray of blood and brain matter directly exploded into a puff of white smoke.
Squelch!
The next moment, a sword pierced through Yagura's lower abdomen from behind.
"Yagura..."
"As the main commander of Kirigakure, if you panic like this, you will only lead the Bloody Mist into the abyss!"
Jiraiya's cold laugh came from behind.
Instantly, Yagura was greatly alarmed.
Enduring the intense pain, his face contorted as he pulled his body off the sword, then used the Body Flicker Technique to stumble and stagger back into the Kirigakure's positions.
Heavily wounded again!
By now, one could see many shocking wounds on Yagura's body, flesh torn open, bones exposed in many places.
Of course, Jiraiya wasn't unscathed either, but his injuries were far less severe compared to Yagura's.
This was a crushing defeat!
The Kirigakure's forces, which had initially been able to hold their own against Konoha at Mount Fukyu, had been pressed back layer by layer to the foot of the mountain, into a small, fan-shaped area.
The death toll for Kirigakure had already exceeded forty percent. Those still alive were all wounded.
With the commander Yagura injured to that extent, the condition of the other Kirigakure's Ninjas could be imagined.
Yagura ground his teeth, his face a mask of ferocity. He simply couldn't understand why the frontline battle had collapsed to this state.
The enemy commander, Jiraiya, had been pinned down by him and hadn't been able to unleash the destructive power expected of a Konoha's Sannin on the battlefield.
And the Kirigakure's Ninja force, both in terms of strength and numbers, shouldn't have been inferior to Konoha's!
Then...
Why were they losing so badly!?
In his fury, Yagura's gaze suddenly fell upon a group of Ninjas on the battlefield with black hair, wearing black combat attire, and with a fan pattern embroidered on their backs.
'Uchiha...'
'Is it because of these damned Uchiha Ninjas!???'
At this moment, in Yagura's line of sight, he could clearly see that group of Uchiha Ninjas moving like a swarm of locusts, leaving nothing intact in their path.
Even some Kirigakure's Jonin performed quite clumsily when encountering Uchiha Ninjas, easily falling under the Genjutsu of the Sharingan and then being cut down by the Uchiha.
'Uchiha! Uchiha! Uchiha!'
'So it was!'
'It was because of that damned Kekkei Genkai, the Sharingan, again!!!'
Yagura was so angry he felt like vomiting blood, 'That damned Mizukage, knowing full well that Konoha had the strongest Kekkei Genkai Clan, the Uchiha, here, why did he still transfer Kirigakure's war weapon, the Kaguya Clan, to the front line against Kumogakure!???'
'Are you a spy, you damned Mizukage!!!!'
"Yagura-sama!"
"Find a way to retreat!"
A Kirigakure's Jonin, half of whose face was burned away, ran to Yagura's side, his expression ghastly as he said, "If this continues, the Ninjas of our Kirigakure will be completely annihilated by Konoha. You are the Deputy Commander of the Combat Division, you must not die here! I will cover your retreat, you must find a way to escape!"
"Escape?"
Yagura said through gritted teeth, "Fighting has reached this state, and I, the commander, can still escape? Don't joke around, Jakura. Notify the troops to retreat. I will cover the rear! This time I'm staking my life, I don't believe I can't kill Jiraiya!"
"Cover the rear? Yagura-sama, you are a man of great importance, how can you..."
"Get out!!!! This is an order!!!!"
Yagura slapped that Jakura to the ground.
"...Yes!"
That Jonin struggled to his feet. Reluctantly, he squeezed out the word through his teeth, then quickly ran off to issue the retreat order to the battered Kirigakure's Ninjas.
"Come on!"
"Today, I will carve my name onto the village's memorial stone!"
Yagura, dragging his exhausted body, stood at the very front of the Kirigakure's positions. His gaze was fearless, yet tinged with some regret, as he looked towards the oncoming wave of Konoha's Ninjas in the distance.
'What a pity...'
'Sora!'
'It seems we are fated not to meet again. Not being able to join hands with you to make Kirigakure great again is truly the regret of my life!'
In the midst of his stirring lament, perhaps due to extreme fatigue causing an illusion, Yagura noticed a visible wave of confusion spreading through the Konoha's forces.
"What? Minato suffered a crushing defeat? Kushina is severely wounded, near death? The village's forces at Tenfu Gorge have collapsed!???"
Jiraiya, who was just about to deliver the final blow to Kirigakure, suddenly heard the report from the Jonin beside him.
"Yes, Jiraiya-sama!"
That Yamanaka clan Jonin said with a trembling voice, "And according to the intelligence from there, the Kirigakure's forces, after their great victory, are moving towards Mount Fukyu. Their objective is likely to surround and annihilate us in one fell swoop. Especially that monster, Yuki Sora..."
"Is also coming!"
"Yuki Sora!??"
Upon hearing this name, Jiraiya's face couldn't help but twitch a few times, 'How long has it been? That guy has become even stronger?'
'To the point that even Minato and Kushina joining forces are no match for him!??'
He looked up.
Surveying the exhausted state of the Konoha's Ninjas after the bloody battle, Jiraiya took a deep breath. He could no longer afford to deliver the final blow to Yagura. With a wave of his hand, he directly issued the command.
"Retreat!"
"Withdraw in the direction away from Tenpu Gorge! Don't worry about the Kirigakure's Ninjas anymore! Shed all burdens, retreat immediately!"
After speaking, he cast a somewhat regretful glance at the mere few hundred Kirigakure's remnants pinned down at the mountain foot.
'What a shame!'
'We were so close to wiping out Kirigakure's main force!'
Soon.
The equally reluctant Konoha's Ninja Army also obeyed the order, turning away without a second glance and fleeing the Mount Fukyu battlefield in the direction away from Tenpu Gorge.
"They fled..."
"They fled?"
Yagura looked on with a dumbfounded expression as the Konoha's forces surged forward like a tide, then receded just as quickly.
After a brief moment of stupefaction, he suddenly shuddered, turned his head to look in the direction of Tenpu Gorge, and muttered to himself:
"Did something happen on Sora's battlefield?"
"Could it be..."
"The Konoha's forces were routed, and the Yellow Flash was killed!??"
…
On the other hand,
At another Kirigakure's camp, 30 kilometers away from Tenfu Gorge.
"What? The Konoha's forces outside the gorge were routed?"
"Yes, Fuguki-sama... It's unbelievable. Sora-sama, by himself, suppressed Konoha's Namikaze Minato and the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki. He even nearly killed the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki. In this battle, Sora-sama personally killed over five hundred enemy Ninjas."
A Ninja from the Kirigakure's Intelligence Division knelt on one knee, his face filled with excitement and fanaticism as he reported, "Konoha was routed by Sora-sama alone. With Sora-sama dominating the battlefield, our side's losses are almost negligible compared to Konoha's. This... this is a god-like battle record!!!"
"A great victory!"
"This is a great victory!"
The Ninja said tremulously, "According to reliable intelligence, if the Konoha's Yellow Flash hadn't reacted quickly enough, Sora-sama even had a chance to kill both Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina!!!"
These words, falling into the ears of Kisame nearby, caused his body to tremble violently.
'The Yellow Flash!'
'The Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki!'
As one of the high-ranking members of the Kirigakure's Intelligence Division, Kisame deeply understood the terrifying strength possessed by these two Konoha's aces.
To put it bluntly, if he encountered either one of them, he would be easily killed.
'And now…'
'These two Konoha's aces, plus an elite thousand-strong Konoha force, were actually routed before Yuki Sora!??'
'This, this, this...'
'It's too insane!!!'
"How is it possible for someone to accomplish such a thing!???"
Kisame took a deep breath, his shark-like, ugly face already full of shock and terror.
"Yuki..."
"How did he do it?"
Fuguki beside him also seemed somewhat unbelieving.
"Sir, according to frontline intelligence, not only did Konoha have Namikaze Minato participating in the battle, but the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki even went berserk, eventually entering a fully transformed state. The Nine-Tails descended upon the battlefield!"
"Yet even so, Sora-sama still used his Ice Release to completely freeze the entire battlefield. While the Nine-Tails was heavily injured, over five hundred Konoha's Ninjas were also caught in the ice and died instantly. Then, th... then..."
The intelligence Ninja took a deep breath, fanatically saying, "Then the Konoha's forces collapsed!"
Although this Ninja's description of the battle situation was halting, both Fuguki and Kisame could feel the unbelievable sense of awe and terror. Their backs were even soaked with cold sweat from the shock.
'The Nine-Tails?'
'Even the Nine-Tails appeared?'
'And even so, Yuki Sora still won!??'
'He...'
'Is he stronger than the Nine-Tails!!'
Stupefaction.
Petrification.
Terror.
After the stormy waves in their hearts raged for a long time, Fuguki finally snapped out of his shock. A look of joy appeared on his face as he said loudly:
"Pass down the order! The troops will set out immediately to reinforce the Mount Fukyu battlefield!"
"Since Yuki has handled things so brilliantly, we no longer need to guard against Konoha's flanking forces. We will directly reinforce Yagura's side. Yagura has been asking for reinforcements for a long time, so now is the time!"
"Yes, Fuguki-sama!"
The Ninja withdrew excitedly, his steps even seeming much lighter.
"Kisame..."
"Now do you still think that our Kirigakure's ace, Yuki, is just a war doll created by the Third?"
Fuguki looked at his subordinate with an ambiguous, half-smiling expression.
"I..."
"Dare not!!!"
"I beg for your forgiveness, sir!"
Kisame knelt on one knee fearfully, cold sweat continuously dripping from his forehead onto the ground, splashing into trembling droplets.