Cleanup

Soon, most of the ninjas on the battlefield left, either chasing after the Mist ninja Cloud ninja or returning to the Kirigakure.

Only a few small squads remained, still cleaning up the battlefield.

Not long after, a blue figure carrying someone on its back rushed over from the direction of the Mist ninja Exam Grounds.

It was Yotsuki A and Shia who went to meet him.

Shia had just unexpectedly broken the Mist ninja's blockade of Yotsuki A and rescued Yotsuki A from Kisame's Water World.

After emerging, Yotsuki A did not engage in the slaughter that the Kirigakure Mist ninja anticipated. Instead, she picked up Shia and ran away.

Clearly, Yotsuki A had also expended a great deal of energy in the previous battle.

Kisame didn't give chase either; he also needed rest. His condition was even worse than Yotsuki A's.

If Shia hadn't interfered, he would have had to absorb the chakra of other Chakra Mist ninja through Samehada to replenish his own.

Fortunately, he managed to hold on. This First Shinobi War was a huge test for Kisame.

Whether or not they can stop Yotsuki A is not only a matter of life and death for Kirigakure, but also a matter of whether the newly appointed Mizukage can establish his authority.

Now things are fine. As long as the losses of the army fighting on the front lines are not too great, he will be a hero, and his position as Mizukage will be secure.

Shia's Sage Mode has now ended, greatly reducing his combat power. More importantly, without Sage Mode, his sensory abilities have been significantly weakened.

Yotsuki A carried Shia across the mountains, deliberately avoiding the Mist ninja who were cleaning up the battlefield.

The Mist ninja didn't dare to directly block her, but instead threw some hidden weapons from a distance. However, these attacks Kakuzu of Yotsuki A's clothes.

Ikura and four Shadow Clones, Tomoko, and six Genin, hid in the shadows, each trying their best to conceal their Chakra fluctuations.

Suddenly, Tomoko had been using her Sensory Ninjutsu, said, "It's here! It's moving very fast, in that direction, and it's been moving at high speed."

Upon hearing this, the others immediately held their breath. Ikura and and his Shadow Clone, on the other hand, immediately began Hand Seals to unleash their Ninjutsu.

Yotsuki A, moving at high speed, was taken aback. Such a strong Chakra fluctuation—was there an ambush?!

"Water Release, Lightning Release, Earth Release, Wind Release, Fire Release. The Great Five Elemental Bullet Technique."

Ikura slightly anticipated Yotsuki A's path and then unleashed her strongest attack.

Boom~

Yotsuki A changed direction in advance and did not enter the center of the explosion, but the blast radius of the Five Release Great Combo Technique was large enough to still encompass him.

Protected by his Lightning Armor, he was naturally unharmed, but Shia, whom he was carrying, was in a terrible state.

Such a massive explosion, powerful enough to revert even fully-formed Tailed Beast to their original forms, would have been enough to kill her with the shockwave alone.

After the explosion subsided, Yotsuki A glanced at Shia's corpse, hesitated for a moment, and then continued rushing in the direction the army had retreated.

He was also greatly exhausted; the person who just launched the sneak attack was clearly a Kage Level.

He was confident that even in his current poor condition, he could still kill that man.

But time is not on his side now, and his men are still in danger.

Moreover, if he were to expend a large amount of Chakra to kill the Kage Level who launched the sneak attack, he himself might be in danger.

After the sneak attack, Ikura didn't rest. Instead, he and Tomoko began to build earthen Earth Wall for defense.

Like Kisame before him, he adopted a posture of fighting a war of attrition.

Yotsuki A's lips twitched, and without looking back, she sped away.

The coastline of the Land of Earth is scarred and riddled with potholes and rubble.

The most striking feature is the deep circular pit, several kilometers in circumference, located right in the center.

Clearly, a major battle has just taken place here.

If Yichen were here, he would definitely say that this was a battle of Gundam level.

At this moment, there was only one person in the arena: Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B of the Cloud ninja.

Killer B did not maintain his Tailed Beast form, but instead remained in his Jinchuriki form, which clearly indicated that he had also expended a considerable amount of energy.

Killer B, slightly out of breath, said to the Eight-Tails inside him, "Hachi, where's that guy named Han?"

Killer B heard the Eight-Tails' voice in his mind. "He escaped. He's not in as good condition as you, and the Five-Tails is exhausted. If we catch up, we should be able to kill him."

Killer B hesitated for a moment, then sighed and said, "Let's retreat. There's no time. It won't be good if we're targeted by the Third Tsuchikage or Fourth Tsuchikage."

"We underestimated the Iwa ninja. One Han man held us off, and the other threats the Iwa ninja have probably already been dealt with."

"Even if we had a chance to kill Han, it would be difficult to escape the Third Tsuchikage and his reinforcements."

"This raid on the Iwagakure has failed. I wonder how Yugito and Big Brother are doing."

The Eight-Tails continued speaking in Killer B's mind, "Don't worry, with Matatabi here, everything will be fine. Didn't you say Kirigakure didn't have any high-level combat power?"

"Unless a Kage Level Kirigakure appears in Kirigakure, or Saiken is still alive, nothing unexpected is possible."

Killer B said, "Let's hope so."

After saying that, Killer B turned and headed back towards the sea.

In the heart of the Land of Earth, a weak voice suddenly echoed in Han's mind as he fled, "Han, the Gyūki hasn't caught up."

Upon hearing this, Han collapsed to the ground, immediately spitting out a mouthful of blood, and began to gasp for breath.

After a while, Han said, "Let's rest for a bit. The Gyūki hasn't caught up, so we should be safe."

After catching his breath, Han continued, "I didn't expect the Gyūki to be so powerful, Killer B to be so powerful too."

Kokuō said, "Han, the Gyūki and the Kurama are the strongest Tailed Beast, far stronger than us."

"Killer B has been Kage Level for quite some time now, while you're only a quasi-Kage. It's normal that we can't beat you."

Han nodded, then asked with some curiosity, "If the Gyūki is this powerful, then what about the most powerful Kurama?"

Kokuō thought for a moment and said, "The Kurama are probably about the same number as the other eight combined."

Han clicked his tongue in amazement and said, "Really? That's incredible. I'll have to talk to Lord Tsuchikage about this later and tell him to be very careful."

Kokuō curled his lip and said, "Your Tsuchikage probably already knew all this, you didn't need to tell him at all. He knows far more than you think."

Kokuō had always found this very strange: why did Yichen even know about the Ten-Tails, and know that all nine Tailed Beasts were derived from the Ten-Tails?

Furthermore, Yichen seems to have a clear understanding of the relationship between the Rinnegan and the Ten-Tails.

Han thought for a moment and said, "It seems so. Even the fact that you have a name was told to me by Lord Tsuchikage."

After chatting for a while, the human One-Tail beast stopped talking and began to rest.

Before long, several Anbu Squad quickly approached from the direction of Iwagakure.

Upon seeing Han, the newcomers breathed a sigh of relief. The leader said, "Lord Han, are you alright?"

"The village couldn't contact you, so they sent us to come and bring you back to the village."

Han shook his head and said, "I'm fine, just a bit exhausted, but the Anbu who came with me have all been killed."

The speaker nodded, having already guessed this, and was not surprised. He said, "Senior Han, where is the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki?"

Han said, "I couldn't beat them, so I ran back. But they didn't chase after me. They probably thought that after so much time, the village might be prepared, so they didn't dare to pursue me."

The Anbu said, "That's right, Lord Ming asked me to tell you that Lord Kitsuchi has already returned with his army. Senior Han, let us escort you back to the village."

Han had rested for a while, so he got up and nodded.

One Anbu continued reconnaissance towards the coast, while the others escorted Han back to Iwagakure.

When the scouting Anbu saw the massive crater, thousands of meters wide, created by the clash of the two Tailed Beast Bomb, they were utterly shocked and broke out in a cold sweat.

Thankfully, this was in a deserted area by the sea. If this battle had taken place in a village, the consequences would have been...

The four Anbu looked at each other, then quickly returned to the village to report to their superiors.

In the southern part of the Land of Earth, within the Land of Bears, Ōnoki and his group continued their pursuit of Pakura and Chiyo.

At this point, the number of Sunagakure around them was not many, only about a thousand.

Most of the Sunagakure had already scattered and fled, but fortunately Chiyo was cautious and gave the order to retreat in time.

The actual number of Sunagakure died in battle was less than a thousand.

Ōnoki and his group chased after the Sunagakure, but they didn't actually kill many. Most of the Sunagakure were killed by the Iwa Ninja Army.

Ōnoki is keeping Pakura and the others hanging on, and his goal is very clear: he's not after the Sand Ninja Army, but Pakura and Chiyo.

"Grandma Chiyo, you should go first. I'll hold off the Third Tsuchikage. Otherwise, we might not be able to hold out until the Land of Wind," Pakura said.

Chiyo didn't answer. Instead, she shoved Pakura aside and quickly dodged to the other side, shouting, "Watch out!"

Sure enough, the next moment, a white light flashed and struck the spot where the two had been standing.

After the white light flashed, a huge crater was left in the spot.

Chiyo's expression was very unpleasant.

Besides not expecting Kawakita to also become Kage Level, there was one other thing Chiyo didn't expect.

That is the speed at which Ōnoki uses Dust Release and the speed at which he flies using Light -Ōnoki Light-Weight Rock Technique.

Sunagakure naturally has detailed information about Ōnoki, but the strength Ōnoki displayed today is far from what was described in the intelligence.

It was this difference that kept her and Pakura from Ōnoki's pursuit.

Ōnoki could quickly fly in front of them and then easily slow them down with Dust Release or Earth Release.

This wasn't the most distressing thing for Chiyo. Since Ōnoki was in the air, he didn't pose much of a threat to the Sunagakure who were prepared on the ground.

The Sunagakure formation was scattered, so using Dust Release to attack Sunagakure was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

However, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi, would quickly close the distance between them.

If the Sunagakure don't want to be entangled with Jinchuriki, they must send some of their members to buy time.

Besides Roshi, there's also Kawakita who wields a longsword; that person is the most terrifying.

No matter which Sunagakure he is, once he gets close, it's over in just one move.

Throughout the entire journey, the number of Sunagakure who died at that person's hands was the highest.

To avoid the wide-area damage of Dust Release, the Sunagakure were scattered. Therefore, they were unable to mount an effective resistance against Kawakita's close combat.

As expected, after being delayed by Ōnoki, he was about to come up again.

Sure enough, a scream came from the side, and a Sunagakure Jonin before he could react.

After letting out a barely audible sigh, Chiyo said, "Pakura, you guys go first, this old woman will cover you."

Upon hearing this, Pakura was about to take on the task of covering for the rear, but Chiyo preemptively shouted, "Hurry up! This old woman doesn't have many days left to live anyway. You're still young. Go and assist the Fourth Kazekage properly. He's a good Kazekage."

"The future of the village rests on the shoulders of you young people."

Upon hearing this, Chiyo did not retreat hastily as she had done before, but instead took out her Ten Puppet Masters puppets and charged towards Kawakita.

Pakura streaming down her face, Yecang led the other Sunagakure back quickly towards the Land of Wind.

As expected, neither Ōnoki nor Kawakita paid any attention to the other Sunagakure, and instead set their sights directly on Chiyo.