[Iwagakure Battlefield]
It took two days for Onoki's side to rendezvous with Kurotsuchi's troops. After resting for one day, and then traveling for another half day, the Four-Tails' host, Roshi, finally woke up.
When Onoki went over, Roshi was eating like crazy, his beard covered in rice grains and crumbs.
Just then, Onoki slowly floated into the room.
Roshi's originally fast and fluid movements seemed to be suddenly paused, instantly slowing down.
He frowned deeply, glared fiercely at Onoki, snorted coldly, and said, "Hmph! You bastard, did you come here on purpose to laugh at me?"
You had to know that the relationship between Roshi and Onoki had never been very good. It could be said that they were like fire and water.
Even though Onoki held very high prestige within Iwagakure, he was still completely helpless against Roshi's stubborn and explosive temperament, unable to truly rein him in.
At this moment, Onoki was still the same as always, relying on the Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique to float lightly in the air as he leisurely entered the room.
On his wrinkled face hung a trace of undisguised mocking amusement, "Haha! You really didn't guess wrong. I did come specifically to laugh at you."
"Usually you always look so arrogant and full of yourself. Who would've thought that this time you'd be taken down so easily by a single eye technique."
Hearing this ridicule, Roshi's expression instantly darkened like the bottom of a black pot, a chilling low pressure spreading out from his body.
Right now, they still needed to rely on the jinchuriki to deal with the potential crises ahead.
Onoki knew very well that this was not the time to push Roshi too far, so he slightly restrained his arrogant attitude and asked in a somewhat calmer tone, "What kind of genjutsu did that guy called Itachi use exactly?"
"I heard from the people in the unit that you fell without any ability to fight back in the blink of an eye."
After pausing for a moment, Onoki added, "And to rescue you, our village lost a full three elite squads."
Although Roshi's temper was usually extremely violent, when he realized that his moment of carelessness had led to so many comrades in the village being sacrificed, a trace of guilt could not help but well up in his heart.
After a brief silence, he clenched his teeth and answered resentfully, "What do you mean an instant! You idiots don't know a damn thing!"
"At the time, I was forcibly dragged by Uchiha Itachi's strange eye technique into an alternate dimension."
"There, I suffered torture for a full seventy-two hours!"
"Seventy-two hours?", Onoki's expression turned serious. He knew exactly what it meant to have perception stretched to such a length of time.
That was bound to be extreme erosion of the mind.
A genjutsu lasting a full seventy-two hours like this was something even the well-traveled Onoki had never heard of before.
"No wonder you collapsed instantly."
At this moment, Onoki no longer had any intention of blaming him. After all, faced with such a powerful genjutsu, anyone would find it hard to withstand.
"Did you get caught in the genjutsu when you looked into his eyes?", Onoki pressed.
"Mm, yes."
Roshi replied somewhat awkwardly. He had originally been full of confidence, thinking that with the Lava Binding Seal he could do whatever he wanted.
Who would have thought that this time he had lifted a rock only to smash his own foot, completely his own fault.
"So how's your recovery now? When can you rejoin the fight?"
Onoki asked, since a jinchuriki was the biggest mobile cannon and the thickest shield.
And also a key factor that determined the direction of the battlefield.
Roshi gently shook his head. Even though, as a powerful jinchuriki, his mental strength far surpassed that of ordinary people,
at this very moment, he could still feel faint waves of pain coming from inside his head.
"With my current condition, dealing with low- to mid-intensity battles is fine, but if I go all out, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up."
"And… right now I can't casually fully transform into a tailed beast anymore. It's easy to lose control and lose my sense of self," Roshi answered honestly.
Hearing this, Onoki could not help but frown. The battle situation was urgent right now.
Yet Roshi was restricted because of this genjutsu, which was truly worrying.
But since things had already come to this, and there was temporarily no effective treatment for mental trauma, they could only accept this reality.
"While you were unconscious, Akimichi Choza's unit has already joined up with the force led by Uchiha Fugaku. They're now about five thousand strong and are retreating toward the Land of Fire."
"According to the latest intelligence from Sunagakure, the shadow clones used by Rengoku can also activate Susanoo."
"And in their second clash with Rengoku, they were heavily wounded again, losing several hundred people."
"However, they should have already successfully rendezvoused with the reinforcement force led by Rasa."
"Konoha's people probably won't dare to clash head-on with Sunagakure anymore."
Hearing this, Roshi could not help but widen his eyes, his face full of disbelief, and he exclaimed, "What? Didn't the force led by Uchiha Rengoku only have about a thousand people?"
"Chiyo was leading a full four thousand troops. How could they lose so badly, even losing several hundred people?"
Onoki knew that Roshi would have a hard time accepting this fact right away.
Because when he himself had first heard it without knowing the details, his reaction had been exactly the same.
After pausing briefly, Onoki continued explaining, "That's because the Susanoo manifested by Rengoku is a massive THIRTY meters tall!"
"And he can simultaneously control FOUR Susanoo at once to advance forward."
"Sunagakure naturally had no ability to fight back at all. They simply couldn't withstand it."
When he said this last part, Onoki deliberately emphasized his tone.
At this point, Roshi finally understood why Sunagakure had suffered such a crushing defeat.
He said anxiously, "If that's the case, then we must defeat the force led by Fugaku as quickly as possible."
Right now, Konoha was stuck in a predicament of fighting on multiple fronts, and its manpower was clearly already stretched thin.
There even seemed to be no Konoha forces going to the Kumogakure front.
Messages had been coming in one after another saying that the Akatsuki organization was delaying Kumogakure's advance.
If this side allowed Rengoku to successfully link up with Fugaku's forces, then they would run into a very awkward situation.
If both Sunagakure and Iwagakure were unwilling to clash head-on with Rengoku, then whoever fought Konoha's external forces, the other side would simply choose to attack Konoha directly.
After all, Konoha only has so many people.
Whether to avoid greater losses on their own side, or to maximize benefits, the best method was to defeat Fugaku's force as early as possible.
"Our troops will catch up with Konoha by tomorrow at the latest. This time, we attack together."
Onoki felt the same way. This was already a critical moment, and the faster they defeated Fugaku's force, the easier victory would be.
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