White Yaksha's Advent (I)

Without the Sharingan, why was Hagoromo so adept at using the Lightning Blade?

First, his dynamic vision was exceptional. It was an acquired ability honed through childhood training. While it could not be as absurdly overpowered as the Sharingan, it was undeniably quite practical. In the ninja world, it was not as though nothing could be done without the Sharingan.

Second, his physical reaction speed was extraordinarily high. This was related to his innate advantages, an accompanying benefit of the powers he had been granted.

Third, he rarely used the Lightning Blade for simple, long-range, straight-line thrusts. No matter how fast such a single-pattern attack was, it was always easy to spot its flaws.

But he was about to make one such thrust.

Hagoromo was currently using weak Lightning Release to stimulate his body, maintaining his endurance while increasing his speed as much as possible as he rushed back to Konoha's command headquarters.

Many Konoha ninja were doing the same thing as him—returning to reinforce the headquarters as quickly as possible.

This time, Konoha's Intelligence Department had made a mistake. Or rather, Sunagakure had finally done something truly clever.

The thousand Sand Ninja directly opposing Konoha's command headquarters had indeed been transferred to the Land of Wind's front against the Land of Earth. Konoha's intelligence regarding something happening right under its nose had not been wrong.

However, this had not been an isolated action, but part of a chain of operations. While those thousand men moved toward the Land of Earth, the Sand Ninja simultaneously pulled two thousand men from the Land of Earth's defensive line. To conceal this from Konoha, they moved along the border of the Land of Rain. After obtaining the Land of Rain's permission, they ultimately entered the Land of Rain, then broke through from there into the Land of Rivers and launched an attack on Konoha's command headquarters.

More than that, for this operation, they had deployed a thousand men on the main battlefield as sacrifices, launching a feint against Konoha's first defensive line.

They attacked without breaking through, their purpose being to wait for the mobile forces from Konoha's second defensive line to come reinforce them!

Once Konoha's core forces had been drawn away, the Sand Ninja's main force launched a thunderous strike against Konoha's command headquarters!

After the headquarters sent out its distress signal, the Konoha ninja on the main battlefield reacted swiftly as well. The mobile forces began disengaging and attempting to rush back, but it was not that simple. Though Sunagakure did not have many men left, they had already resolved to die. No matter what, they would delay the Konoha ninja.

As a result, some Konoha ninja were still entangled with the Sand Ninja, unable to quickly resolve the fighting on that front.

Of course, that had little to do with Hagoromo. He simply ran swiftly toward the headquarters. Though he was conserving Chakra, he continuously used Lightning Release in order to maintain his maximum steady speed. After roughly forty minutes of such reckless sprinting, the headquarters was already visible in the distance, and the Chakra in his body was nearly exhausted...

He should have been among the fastest group of ninja to return with reinforcements.

The faint sounds of battle had already reached Hagoromo's ears.

But that was not the important part.

The important part was that he heard a beast-like roar.

Then, a colossal creature appeared before his eyes.

Even the night could not conceal its enormous body. Its massive tail swept back and forth, its body was made of sand, strange patterns covered it, and it looked like an oversized tanuki. Then there was that unmistakable, ocean-like mass of Chakra.

Chakra that was wicked, corrosive, and impossible for ordinary people to withstand!

"The One-Tail Shukaku!"

Hagoromo stopped unconsciously and spoke the name aloud.

The Sand Ninja had truly gone all out this time. Not only had they used a thousand men as sacrifices, they had even deployed a tailed beast. Their objective was clear: to remove Konoha's command headquarters. As long as they destroyed the headquarters, they were confident they could turn around and swallow the remaining leaderless Konoha ninja. After winning this battle, Sunagakure could demand a ceasefire from Konoha as the victor. With the entire defensive line having collapsed, the Land of Fire and Konoha would have no way to refuse!

After all, Konoha had enemies other than the Sand Ninja. They had no strength left to rebuild such a defensive line.

For Sunagakure, once this battlefield was stabilized, they could turn their full attention to dealing with Iwagakure.

Hagoromo paused only briefly. Once he understood the situation, he resumed running forward.

Most ninja were like him. None turned and fled at the sight of a tailed beast. Tailed beasts were certainly terrifying, but for ninja who had fought on the front lines for so long, death was commonplace. Being killed by a tailed beast or by a tiny Shuriken made no difference.

From this distance, Hagoromo could see where Kushina was. It was not because he and Kushina shared some mutual understanding—it was simply because Kushina was far too conspicuous!

She was restraining the tailed beast.

Dozens of silvery-white chains stood out sharply in the night, especially as they bound Shukaku tightly in place.

This was Kushina's Adamantine Sealing Chains, and Kushina stood at the point where the chains began.

The Uzumaki Clan's unique Chakra possessed a strange power capable of suppressing tailed beasts. On this battlefield, there might have been people stronger than Kushina in combat, but no one was more suited than her to dealing with a tailed beast.

But that also meant her identity had been exposed.

Hagoromo seemed to already see countless Sand Ninja swarming toward Kushina.

Shukaku's shrill roars rang out continuously. It had been sealed within the altar all this time, and after finally being released, it had been about to begin wreaking havoc—only to be restrained once more!

Then Hagoromo spotted the commander here as well: Tsunade.

At this moment, her Strength of a Hundred Sealings Technique had already been released. A pile of puppet wreckage lay before her feet, and she looked somewhat disheveled.

Fighting her now was her old opponent, Granny Chiyo of Sunagakure, along with Chikamatsu's Ten Puppets.

Such powerful fighters were restraining one another. If they broke into the ranks of ordinary ninja, someone like Tsunade could essentially take them out one punch at a time.

Hagoromo had reached the edge of the battlefield. Looking down from a tree branch, he saw Shukaku in the center of the battlefield, Kushina by Shukaku's feet, and Tsunade on the other side of the field.

He let out a soft breath. There was barely any Chakra left in his body now—only enough to use Chidori Current once.

With a light push from his feet, Hagoromo leaped from the tree into the battlefield. While still in midair, bright Lightning Glow had already flared around his body!

Then he charged toward Kushina without hesitation.

Viewed from above:

A mass of Lightning Glow was attempting to pierce through the battlefield.

Very soon, it would pierce through the battlefield.