At this moment, the Cloud Village encampment was shrouded in a thick haze of gloom.
Although their losses in the battle were not particularly great, their hearts were filled with boundless frustration and indignation.
After all, these Cloud shinobi were all tall, powerfully built warriors, the kind whose brains seemed to be made of muscle as well.
The style of combat they loved most had always been direct, head on clashes with the enemy, relying purely on brute force and hard collisions.
Yet the enemies they had encountered recently completely refused to play by the rules.
First came battlefields covered in exploding tag trap arrays, then poison, and what was worse, enemies who could even throw bombs flexibly from the air.
All kinds of bizarre and ever changing tactics like these left the Cloud forces battered, miserable, and utterly overwhelmed.
Especially today's attack. Although the final number of casualties was relatively small, the kind of poison Sasori released before leaving was simply too sinister and vicious.
More than a thousand Cloud shinobi were struck with nonstop vomiting and diarrhea.
The scene was so "spectacular" that it was impossible to look at directly.
Large numbers of Cloud shinobi lay collapsed on stretchers, still spraying from both ends. It was truly miserable.
Although this level of poison was not enough to directly take a person's life, the extreme weakness it caused was something ordinary people could hardly endure.
Those Cloud shinobi suffering constant diarrhea had their poor chrysanthemums thoroughly ravaged.
Every time the cramps hit, they could only clutch their own butts and let out miserable, agonized wails.
But even so, when it was time to go, they still had to go.
After this battle, the originally high morale of the Cloud forces was dealt a heavy blow.
Faced with such harsh circumstances, they had no choice but to helplessly halt their advance once again.
Fortunately, since this attack by the Akatsuki, they had not shown themselves again to harass the Cloud encampment.
According to the conclusions reached after discussions among several high level figures of the Cloud Village, they deduced that the Akatsuki side must also have suffered fairly serious damage, especially in terms of resource consumption.
Just looking at the puppets controlled by Sasori alone, once those puppets were destroyed, the time required to remake them was by no means something that could be completed in just a day or two.
As for the fact that Deidara was actually able to use Dust Release, it truly shocked everyone in the Cloud Village.
As everyone knew, Dust Release was the signature technique of the Third Tsuchikage of the Land of Earth, Onoki of Iwagakure, and was one of the extremely rare kekkei touta techniques in the ninja world.
Such a powerful technique, without Onoki personally and carefully teaching it, would be almost pure fantasy for anyone else to learn.
So once it was discovered that Deidara had mastered Dust Release, the hidden implications behind it became extraordinarily complex and deep.
If it were not for the fact that the force led by Onoki had just lost more than two thousand ninja, even the Raikage might not have been able to stop himself from suspecting that this entire battle was a trap secretly laid by Onoki.
However, no matter what, Deidara himself had also been severely injured in this fierce battle, and whether he would ultimately survive was still unknown.
All the Cloud Village could do for now was to devote themselves fully to treating their own wounded, striving to let more injured recover as soon as possible.
———
[Land of Rivers]
While the Cloud Village and the Akatsuki were locked in fierce battle on this side, on the other side, Itachi and the others, led by Rengoku's clone at the front, had already successfully regrouped with his true body.
In order to protect the intelligence, Rengoku dismissed the massive wings on everyone in advance and descended to the ground.
Not long after, the group smoothly arrived at Konoha's encampment.
At this moment, sharp eyed Sasuke immediately spotted Itachi walking toward him and burst into cheers.
"Nii-san, you're here?"
Just as he excitedly rushed toward Itachi, Sasuke's steps suddenly came to a halt.
His entire body froze in place, as if struck by a paralysis technique.
Because he suddenly realized that the person standing beside Itachi was actually—
Uchiha Shisui!
"Shi… Shisui-nii?"
Sasuke's eyes widened, his face full of shock.
Ever since Shisui had mysteriously disappeared back then, Sasuke had always believed he had already met with misfortune.
The entire clan had also tacitly accepted this result.
Although it was officially announced that Shisui had committed suicide, most people did not believe it, and some even thought that Itachi had killed Shisui. The matter of the suicide note was known only to a few.
Now, seeing with his own eyes Shisui, who should have been dead for a long time, standing alive right in front of him, how could he not be utterly shocked?
Shisui, on the other hand, wore a gentle smile and looked warmly at Sasuke as he said, "Sasuke, in the blink of an eye, you've grown this big already."
In fact, Shisui had actually seen Sasuke earlier, but at that time Sasuke did not know it.
During this period, Shisui had been hiding within the ANBU, never showing his face in public.
So aside from a small number of high level figures, no one else had any way of knowing his true situation.
At this moment, many members of the Uchiha clan in the encampment also noticed Shisui's figure.
One by one, they showed astonished expressions and began whispering among themselves.
"It's Shisui!", someone cried out in disbelief.
"Shisui is actually still alive?", another exclaimed in equal shock.
"I told you so. With Shisui's level of strength, the fact that no body was found back then proves he had to be alive."
Someone else chimed in confidently.
For a time, the entire encampment fell into an uproar.
"Shisui!"
"Shisui…"
Shisui had many friends, and everyone rushed to greet him.
Rengoku's true body stepped forward.
"Alright. I've been waiting for you for a long time. Come with me. We'll continue pursuing Sunagakure."
"Yes! Clan head! (Senpai!)"
———
At the border of the Land of Rivers, wind and sand filled the sky, forming what seemed like a natural barrier.
Rasa led the remaining six thousand plus Sunagakure shinobi and slowly came to a halt.
After two full days and nights of nonstop frantic retreat, they were already completely exhausted.
But at this moment, seeing that familiar, vast, endless stretch of yellow sand, an indescribable sense of closeness surged in their hearts.
This desert, which had once made them feel endlessly weary, had now become their refuge of life.
Once they stepped into it, the combat strength of the Sunagakure forces would instantly increase by more than thirty percent.
This meant that even if they were attacked again by enemies, their chances of survival would greatly increase.
More importantly, the various harsh natural climate conditions within the desert were simply a nightmare for enemies from other villages, something they could not adapt to at all.
"We're saved…"
Rasa let out a long breath of relief.
In this operation, he had borne tremendous pressure, bringing out almost the majority of Sunagakure's forces.
Originally, he had been determined to finish everything in one decisive strike and completely crush Konoha.
Yet reality went against his wishes. Rengoku's strength far exceeded his expectations.
At this moment, whether they could successfully invade Konoha was no longer important. The urgent priority was how to preserve the lives of the subordinates who had followed him into battle.
If they did not retreat now, everyone would likely die here.
Thinking this, Rasa decisively gave the order, "Call all the reconnaissance teams back. From the looks of it, Konoha probably isn't continuing the pursuit."
Over the past few days, the Sunagakure reconnaissance teams had been the most exhausted group of all.
They had constantly rotated shifts guarding the rear of the formation, closely monitoring what was behind them, afraid that Uchiha Rengoku might catch up.
Fortunately, a full two days had already passed, and they still had not seen even the slightest trace of Konoha.
Even the always cautious Rasa could not help but gradually relax his guard.
At this moment, Maki, who had been following at Rasa's side, spoke up, "Kazekage sama, the reconnaissance team we sent out is expected to report back in about half an hour. Should we wait a little longer?"
Hearing this, Rasa turned his head and swept his gaze over the surrounding Sunagakure shinobi, whose faces were filled with exhaustion. After a brief moment of thought, he decisively issued the order, "Very well. Everyone rest in place. After you recover some strength, we'll enter the territory of the Land of Wind."
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