Across the vast expanse of Kikyo Pass, Konoha and Sunagakure clashed without pause, weaving a battle destined to be recorded in the annals of the Third Shinobi World War.
At the heart of the battlefield, Ebizō and Orochimaru were locked in a brutal exchange. Both men bore numerous wounds—the fight between two peak-tier powerhouses had long since descended into sheer carnage.
Serpents surged wildly.
Orochimaru twisted through the wind, his body gliding as he activated Fierce Serpent Step. Poisonous snakes flooded forward. Ebizō rapidly formed hand seals, erecting an Earth Release barrier—only for Orochimaru to tear it apart in an instant, the Kusanagi Sword slashing straight toward Ebizō.
"Ebizō," Orochimaru laughed madly, "are you getting anxious?"
Chakra threads burst from Ebizō's hands, transforming into invisible weapons that tangled with the razor-sharp Kusanagi. On the other side, Yamaji Jushin drove a massive sand technique forward, only to be intercepted by a giant snake Orochimaru summoned to block her advance.
Ebizō and Yamaji jushin held Orochimaru in place.
Meanwhile, Pakura was being jointly suppressed by multiple Konoha clans. At the forefront was a powerful Hyūga shinobi whose Gentle Fist carried specialized defensive techniques, compressing and limiting Yakura's offensive output.
Pakura and Ebizō were both tied down.
Elsewhere, after his prolonged chase with Tsunade, Shiraishi was riddled with fractures. Simply standing was already a struggle.
"Captain!"
Kitajima's weak voice reached him. Looking up, Shiraishi saw the Sunagakure mobile squads retreating successfully and regrouping around him.
Aside from Shiraishi's own unit, there were roughly seven other squads—more than thirty chūnin in total, all specializing in high-speed, close-combat assault styles.
"Do we pull back to Kikyo Pass and reinforce the defenses?" one squad leader asked.
Kikyo Pass itself had suffered airborne infiltration by Konoha forces, cutting it off from the main command. Although the other captains were also chūnin like Shiraishi, the sight of him provoking Tsunade—and surviving—had left too strong an impression. They instinctively deferred to his judgment.
"No," Shiraishi said calmly.
"We attack the Sensory Division directly."
The answer shocked everyone.
At this stage of the war, he still intended to strike the Sensory Division. As expected of someone who dared mock Tsunade to her face.
Shiraishi quickly took out Ebizō's specially prepared medicine and swallowed it. His chakra frequency immediately contracted to an abnormally low level.
"We move using pure physical ability. Head toward the most likely location of the Sensory Division. Reduce the chance of detection."
Once the full-scale battle began, the Sensory Division constantly relocated. Several captains frowned—charging in blindly risked walking straight into an encirclement.
"Then how do you know where they are?" someone asked.
"I was hunted earlier by several Konoha ANBU," Shiraishi replied evenly.
"I left marks on them. By tracing those marks in reverse, I can locate where the Sensory Division is concentrated."
That explanation sounded reasonable.
ANBU clusters often overlapped with sensory hubs.
But it was a lie.
What truly allowed Shiraishi to pinpoint their position was his glasses system.
From the beginning of the war until now, there had been one region inside Konoha's formation where multiple cards were densely concentrated—and never moved. With Orochimaru and other top figures already deployed elsewhere, that location almost certainly housed the wartime Sensory Division. The cards were defensive tools assigned to them.
The Konoha Sensory Division.
As Sunagakure fell into a pincer situation, the Sensory Division was stationed in a concealed command chamber at the rear, processing intelligence from every front. To prevent infiltration, a detachment of elite ANBU guarded the area.
Shiraishi knew this operation carried an enormous risk.
Even with Tsunade pulled away, the forces left behind could very well be stronger than his own.
Elite ANBU—possibly several jōnin-level combatants.
But it no longer mattered.
If they did nothing more, the comrades still fighting at Kikyo Pass would truly be finished.
I said I wasn't like him…
So why does it still hurt the same?
Shiraishi tightened his grip on the silver blade, his expression heavy.
"Captain, don't worry," Kitajima said quietly.
"They'll live."
As he spoke, Kitajima wrapped explosive tags around his body like bandages. Many of the other chūnin did the same.
This was never going to be a clean assassination.
No—
Why was the smell of blood so strong?
The stench ahead was thicker than anywhere else on the battlefield. Everyone's expressions changed.
With a dull thud, a corpse collapsed before them.
The twisted face and frozen terror in the eyes spoke volumes about what the victim had experienced before death.
"It's Konoha ANBU… what happened here?"
The further they went, the more bodies they found.
The killers had used methods so strange and precise that even seasoned shinobi felt a chill crawl up their spines.
"Someone else attacked Konoha."
"That's… possible? And with methods like this…?"
This was Konoha—the strongest of the Five Great Villages.
Who would dare, in the midst of a Konoha–Sunagakure war, to silently butcher Konoha's Sensory Division?
As the bloodstench grew overwhelming, Shiraishi and the others forced themselves forward.
Inside the command chamber, sensory ninja and ANBU lay dead in every conceivable posture. From the wounds alone, it was impossible to determine who—or what—had done this.
Shiraishi's expression turned grim.
"This exceeds anything I anticipated," he said quietly.
"Perhaps there exists a force we know nothing about—one capable of striking Konoha directly."
The dead still carried their cards. The attacker hadn't taken them.
That meant cards were never the target.
"Pack everything," Shiraishi ordered immediately.
"This is an intelligence analysis center. The data here is invaluable. Take it all—then we withdraw at once!"
He had no intention of lingering in this hellhole. But the information here could determine the course of the war.
While the others gathered documents and scrolls, Shiraishi moved among the corpses.
He knelt, extended chakra threads, and extracted a card from one body. Then another. And another.
In total—six cards, all recovered from Konoha.
"With the Sensory Division wiped out at a critical moment," Shiraishi said coldly, "Konoha's command and communication will collapse. Their plan to completely crush Sunagakure and flatten the front line is finished."
The original plan of the unseen attacker had likely been imperfect.
After all, Tsunade had been stationed here.
But unexpectedly, she had been drawn away—and forced into a hemophobia breakdown by a certain Sunagakure brat.
That single deviation opened the door.
A meticulously planned massacre of Konoha's Sensory Division unfolded in the shadows, unseen.
With the Sensory Division destroyed, Konoha's coordination fell into chaos.
Soon after, during ongoing clashes, the Hyūga powerhouse restraining Yakura was ambushed by a mysterious masked figure and killed.
Yakura was freed.
She immediately joined forces with Ebizō and Yamaji Orange Aster, launching a three-pronged assault on Orochimaru.
The balance tilted.
Left with no other choice, Orochimaru issued the order to retreat.
As the tide of venomous snakes withdrew and Konoha forces pulled back, those still holding Kikyo Pass—Maki, Shikasa, and the others—finally collapsed from exhaustion.
The sun sank slowly toward the horizon.
Panting, her face pale, Maki stared at the fading light.
Shirai…
Are you safe…
I survived.
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