The Two Armies Clash Again!
After a fierce battle on the first day, Konoha and Sand Ninja temporarily ceased fighting and took a break for various reasons.
Konoha urgently needed to rebuild its paralyzed intelligence system and repair its damaged defensive barriers, while Sand Ninja was simultaneously reorganizing its army and waiting for Uchiha Kyosho's poison to take effect. Another point was that both sides needed to treat their wounded.
Three days later.
The two armies returned to the front lines to face each other.
"What?" Rasa's expression instantly turned grim as he saw Uchiha Kyosho standing calmly before the enemy formation. "Chiyo, what exactly is going on?"
Chiyo's aged gaze was fixed on Jusho's empty right arm. She immediately understood and said in a deep voice, "The Uchiha clan of Konoha truly lives up to their reputation."
"I see... Suppress the poison in the arm with Chakra, then cut it off." Rasa's eyes gleamed as he continued, "Although it didn't achieve the desired effect, crippling an arm will greatly weaken Uchiha Kyosho's fighting power."
For ninjas, hands are very important because hand Hand Seals are necessary to perform Ninjutsu. Although there are top-notch masters who can perform hand Hand Seals with one hand, most advanced techniques still require both hands to be used.
"As expected, even after severely damaging their siege and puppeteer forces on the first day, the Sand Ninja aren't going to retreat so easily." Looking around at the neatly arrayed Sand Ninja army below the mountain, Fugaku's eyes gleamed with a strange excitement and fervor. The longer this war lasted, the greater his battle achievements would be through his kills! Furthermore, with Kyosho having lost an arm, he would likely choose to retire after the war, and the heavily decorated Fugaku would surely ascend to the position of Uchiha clan leader!
Kyosho glanced at Fugaku indifferently. How could the shrewd and calculating Jusho not know Fugaku's ambition? But now that he was old, he was no longer obsessed with the power in his hands. What he was considering was how to obtain the greatest benefit for the Uchiha Clan in this war.
At this time, Shunren was assigned to an important defensive line. At the second operational meeting, it was Fugaku nominated Shunren to be in charge of the defense of this area. This proposal caused some controversy at the meeting because the high ground was located at a very important fork in the northern section of the Kikyo Mountain defense line, and the slope of the mountain was relatively gentle. If it were breached, the enemy could advance directly to the Kikyo Mountain headquarters.
Despite opposition, Fugaku decided to vigorously support Shunren.
Shunren himself wanted to participate in the frontline battle. After the Sand Ninja's previous raid on the rear, he realized that once a war begins, no unit is safe. Even Intelligence Division and medical units located in the rear can easily become targets of enemy attacks.
Furthermore, Shunren needed to rapidly improve his strength through actual combat while accumulating military merits in order to obtain various advanced techniques from the Uchiha leadership. Among these, the "Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique" and the "Kagami-Style Body Flicker Technique" were techniques Shunren was determined to acquire.
The former is a high-level secret Dōjutsu of the Sharingan, which Uchiha Itachi used to force Orochimaru to retreat in the original work. The latter is the unique Body Flicker Technique created by Kagami Uchiha, whose descendant Shisui Uchiha became famous in the Shinobi World and earned the title "Body Flicker Shisui" because of this technique.
"So they're finally launching a full-scale attack." Shunren's eyes flickered. Now, he no longer needed to use the Stone of Insight to "eye" anyone; he could directly look down from his high vantage point at the massive, dark mass of Sand Ninja troops surging below the mountain.
The ninjas' advance needed no shouts. As the army marched forward, the earth began to tremble. The vast sea of people, stretching as far as the eye could see, continued to surge like waves towards the various mountain paths of Kikyo Mountain.
With the superhuman speed of ninjas, thousands of people simultaneously took rapid strides.
It gave people the feeling of ten thousand horses galloping, and it resounded like muffled thunder in this sky, bringing an extremely heavy pressure to the mind, both visually and aurally! At first glance, Shunren felt that the number of Sand Ninja was a bit wrong, but then he opened his Mind's Eye and found that a considerable number of Sand Ninja had their Chakra evenly distributed.
"This is... Shadow Clone?" Shunren's mind raced, and he immediately understood the meaning behind the Sand Ninja's actions. First, they used Shadow Clone to further amplify the Sand Ninja's numerical advantage. Second, by creating multiple targets with Shadow Clone, they could deceive the Sand Ninja's senses and prevent them from locking onto the movements of the Sand Ninja Jonin force.
Uchiha Kyosho, who was in command on Konoha's side, immediately saw through the Sand Ninja's tactical intentions and ordered, "All Jonin, disperse to various defensive lines, equip each squad with a sensory-type ninja, and be on high alert against the enemy's Jonin!"
At Kyosho's command, the Konoha Jonin standing behind him immediately shot out like lightning, scattering in all directions.
"Fellow countrymen! For the glory of the Uchiha Clan, take up your weapons and fight!" Fugaku commanded an elite force composed of the Uchiha Clan ninjas.
As the Konoha Ninja of Kikyo Mountain entered a state of readiness for combat, the dark sea of Sand Ninja below the mountain also surged forward amidst a dense Shuriken cutting through the wind!
"Swish swish swish~"
A series of streaks of light flashed by, and the first to climb the mountain were the Chunin of the Sand Ninja. They were the vanguard of the Sand Ninja Village forces and the backbone of the Sand Ninja's offensive.
The Sand Ninja used a barrage of Shuriken to launch a rapid advance. Konoha, holding the high ground advantage, was naturally no less capable of suppressing the Sand Ninja with firepower.
With almost identical movements, the Konoha Ninja on the mountain threw out a large number of Shuriken, while Chunin were dispatched to meet them head-on.
One side has a numerical advantage, while the other has a geographical advantage, so it's not clear which side has the upper hand at the moment.
Konoha: Kyosho, Fugaku, Yashiro
Sand Ninja: Rasa, Chiyo, Pakura
Both sides tacitly refrained from deploying their core combat forces, knowing that if one side made a move, the other would too, thus creating a state of mutual restraint.
Both sides are currently awaiting the outcome of the battle between the two armies below.
Yes, both Konoha and Sand Ninja are waiting to see who can't hold back and strike first. The one who strikes first proves that their army is already at a disadvantage, which is why their commander has no choice but to intervene on the battlefield.
However, once someone strikes first, the momentum on the battlefield inevitably shifts. Because at that point, you already believe your army is no match for the other.
Bluster is useless, because if the commander-in-chief finds his army at a disadvantage and doesn't intervene to save it, the gap between the two sides will only widen over time.