Because a series of explosions had erupted behind the Sand Ninja formation, the Third Hokage temporarily halted his assault.
At first, the Hokage instinctively assumed that the Sand Ninja were preparing some large-scale attack. Such continuous explosions could not possibly be some small trick, so they naturally warranted caution.
But after a while, he realized that did not seem to be the case. Once the explosions began, he sharply noticed that the Sand Ninja's command had become somewhat stiff and ineffective.
Had they botched the preparation of some large-scale forbidden technique?
That seemed unlikely as well. After all, on a battlefield, no one would use such a dangerous ninjutsu without absolute confidence.
Then the remaining possibility... it was not the enemy preparing an attack, but an attack launched against them from their own side?
But who could have done such a thing? Konoha did not have any ninja capable of launching such a massive attack from that far away, did it? There were still countless Sand Ninja in between. Striking the enemy through barriers was not something anyone could easily pull off.
Take Minato Namikaze, for example. His attack range was quite extensive because of the Flying Thunder God, but he could not be classified as a long-range ninja. Fundamentally, his method of moving his own body in order to attack was still that of a close-combat ninja.
Just as the Third Hokage was continuously speculating about the explosions that had just occurred, Minato appeared behind him.
"Third Hokage-sama, that was probably Kamishiro Hagoromo's aerial attack."
"Hagoromo? He has that kind of attack method?"
Hagoromo had given the Third Hokage another surprise. If it was an aerial assault, then that was indeed possible.
But if Hagoromo knew such a ninjutsu, why had he not reported it during the previous battle