Onoki was flying in the sky, and his field of vision was extremely wide.
He could very easily see Choza's unit, which was moving in a pincer formation, wrapping around toward Iwagakure's jinchuriki unit.
Thinking of the earlier report that Roshi was injured and unconscious, he immediately sped up and flew down toward his own troops.
"Lord Tsuchikage, you finally came back!", Sharp-eyed Han was the first to notice Onoki's figure and quickly went up to greet him.
As soon as Onoki landed, he did not even have time to catch his breath before he could not wait to ask, "How is Roshi's condition now? Did the Molten Lock Sealing Technique not work? Why was he actually knocked out by genjutsu?"
A string of questions came out one after another, showing just how anxious he was inside.
Facing Onoki's questioning, Han answered methodically, "Roshi's spirit has suffered an extremely severe trauma and he is currently in a deep coma."
"After a detailed examination by the medical ninja, the initial estimate is that he will need to remain unconscious for at least three full days before he can wake up."
"However, the Molten Lock Sealing Technique did perform its intended function."
"Just during the battle just now, we successfully resisted the pupil suppression unleashed jointly by Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Itachi."
"But, Roshi seems to have been hit by some very special and extremely powerful genjutsu attack."
"As a result, he fell unconscious in an instant, completely losing awareness, and the Molten Lock Seal simply did not get a chance to work."
"As for the details of what happened, we will have to wait until Roshi wakes up to know."
Onoki focused slightly, "Everyone, fall back, all of you, and join up with Kitsuchi's unit."
"Also, send intel to Sunagakure and Kumogakure. Senku, Miroku, they're all dead."
"Send out the information that Mizukage Yagura is currently on the battlefield as well."
"Yes!"
———
Iwagakure's forces moved quickly. After a day of intense fighting, they had actually suffered almost no losses.
At this moment, the members were moving nimbly and busily. In just over ten minutes, all the equipment and supplies had already been packed up, and then they began to retreat in an orderly manner.
Choza, who had been circling around Iwagakure's forces for reconnaissance, suddenly received intel from the Hyuga clan, which made him pause slightly.
"So Lord Hokage really called it, huh."
Right after, Choza gave the order, "Pass down my command. All units immediately tighten the defensive line and move toward Elder Fugaku's unit to converge and join up."
Whether it was Iwagakure's side or Konoha's side, each other's tactical deployments were as clear as day, like pieces on an open chessboard.
Onoki's side had excellent flying reconnaissance soldiers, able to overlook the whole battlefield from the sky.
As for Konoha's side, there were the "far-sight eyes" of the Hyuga clan, famous for their ultra long-distance vision.
Because of this, both sides could be said to have a thorough grasp of the other's movements.
Onoki knew very well that the Uchiha clan's Mangekyo Sharingan was terrifyingly powerful, and he held some fear in his heart.
After careful consideration, he decided to temporarily set aside the battle in front of him and first join up with the troops positioned at the rear.
But what he did not know was that Choza's side was actually only putting on a show of force. The goal was nothing more than to pin down Iwagakure's strength.
So, although both sides looked like they were at daggers drawn, in reality they had not truly clashed. Instead, they tacitly pulled apart from each other, avoiding the outbreak of a direct confrontation.
Just like that, Choza led his unit and pushed on without stopping for half a day.
In the end, they successfully joined up with the unit led by Fugaku.
Up to this point, Konoha currently had only two units left on the field: one was the force of one thousand men personally commanded by Rengoku, which was fighting fiercely against Sunagakure in the Land of Rivers.
The other was this joint unit that had just completed its rendezvous.
The total number of Konoha's deployed forces was only six thousand, but in reality these six thousand were Konoha's backbone.
If you talked about which group had the largest headcount, that would definitely be the genin back in the village.
But on a dangerous battlefield like this, the role they could play would probably only be that of completely worthless cannon fodder.
Unless they encountered something like in the original timeline, when a full one hundred thousand White Zetsu came surging in.
Otherwise, those genin who only knew how to throw a few shuriken definitely would not be sent to the front lines.
After all, only once a ninja had been promoted to chunin would their odds of surviving on the battlefield become higher.
Right now, in terms of Konoha's troop distribution on the battlefield, one side had only one thousand men, while the other side had five thousand.
Such a lopsided ratio of numbers was clearly very unreasonable.
However, do not forget that Iwagakure had always been famous for its expertise in large-scale coordinated group warfare.
And in this battle, Iwagakure's actions all revolved closely around the two jinchuriki it possessed.
So it was indeed necessary for Konoha to commit more manpower and forces in response.
In addition, there was a second special situation at the moment: Iwagakure's Tsuchikage Onoki had personally come to the battlefield.
Rengoku had decisively ordered Choza's unit to rush off and complete the rendezvous with the other forces.
As for the unit here in the Land of Rivers, the shortage of personnel was actually not that big of a problem.
Rengoku had already freed up his own clone, and with the powerful pupil power of the Eternal Mangekyo, he could continuously transmit his own pupil power and massive chakra to that clone.
This way, the range of methods that clone could use became much larger.
———
Inside the Kamui space, there was a deep stillness.
Obito stared expressionlessly at the White Zetsu in front of him.
That White Zetsu's body was trembling slightly, and a strange, chilling purple-black soul aura coiled all around it.
Without a doubt, this was none other than the demon who had just gone through a brutal battle.
For the demon, this fight had been utterly tragic.
He had originally thought victory was already in his grasp, but never expected that he had actually fallen into a trap meticulously set up by the enemy.
For Rengoku, Senku coming over was nothing more than a staged exit, and the fake Miroku was even more fearless of death, ultimately triggering the massive underground energy explosion without reservation.
Even worse, there was also a top expert from the Kaguya clan who forcibly held him down and chose to die together with the demon.
In that instant, the demon watched with his own eyes as his body and that Kaguya expert were blown to pieces together, shattered into countless fragments and scattered into the air.
If Obito had not opened a passage to the Kamui space in time, allowing part of his soul to escape, then by now he would have already been reduced to dust in that series of violent explosions, his soul completely destroyed.
The demon successfully possessed White Zetsu's body. Normally, in such a heavily injured state, he should have been extremely weak, to the point that even speaking would have been very difficult.
However, unexpectedly, he was not comatose or silent at all at this moment, but instead his mind was unusually clear.
"I actually got tricked."
The demon suddenly began to mutter to himself, his tone full of hatred and unwillingness.
"That Miroku was actually just a shadow clone!"
You had to know, only when the shrine maiden's successor was still alive could he maintain such clear awareness.
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