Battle at Sea

Ikura readily agreed to Killer B's challenge to a two-on-one battle, and promptly sent the Four-Tails and Five-Tails off to catch up with the Eight-Tails.

Furthermore, Ikura himself also engaged in First Shinobi War with Darui.

Regarding the Cloud ninja's desire to transfer their top combat forces to engage in a Ninja Army, Ikura responded, "We would be more than happy to do so."

Ikura himself was wondering how to lure Killer B and Darui out, but unexpectedly, the Cloud ninja took the initiative to ask.

Darui pinned his hopes on the Cloud Ninja Army, while Ikura had the same confidence in the Iwa Ninja Army; the current Iwa ninja, with equal numbers, were in no way inferior to Konoha.

As for the Cloud ninja, they're alright in one-on-one fights, and the Iwa ninja say they have a Fifty-Fifty chance. But when it comes to group battles, the Cloud ninja are no match.

As expected, after the Kage Level from both sides left, the difference in skill between the Iwa ninja and the Cloud ninja became obvious in their first clash.

Because Yichen went out to have fun time and time again, the Iwa ninja not only completed their Ninjutsu of various attributes, but also particularly liked to use various attributes in combination.

For example, this time, while the Cloud ninja were still using their usual tactics, employing Lightning Release and hidden weapons, the Iwa ninja were using all sorts of Combination Ninjutsu.

"Wind Release - Wind Release: Breakthrough." "Fire Release - Phoenix Fire Technique." These are the most common Combination Ninjutsu.

"Earth Release - Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall, Earth Release - Rock-Scattering Jutsu." "Water Release - Water Style: Raging Waves." Yichen created this technique to instantly transform the defensive Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall into offensive rock shards.

Then, using Earth Release combined with Water Release, the water flow disrupts the enemy's formation, and the falling rocks deliver a fatal blow.

"Wind Release - Wind Style: Wind Tornado" and "Earth Release - Earth Style: Earth Flow Rock Crumble" are also common combinations of Yichen's Combination Ninjutsu. It was with this move that Yichen wiped out the Monkey Clan.

"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet." "Lightning Release: Lightning Conduction." This Water-Lightning Combination is quite common.

Since there are many Lightning Release ninjas in the Cloud ninja, this technique is mainly aimed at those Sword Technique Ninja who do not have Lightning Release.

In addition to various dual-attribute Combination Ninjutsu, the Iwa ninja also used a variety of tri-attribute Combination Ninjutsu.

"Water Release - Water Prison Pillar." "Earth Release - Earth Style: Earth Spike Jutsu." "Lightning Release - Lightning Vine." The combination of water, earth, and lightning attributes provides control, damage, and can disrupt the enemy's formation.

"Fire Release - Great Dragon Fire Technique." "Earth Release - Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet." "Wind Release - Flowing Air Dance."

Fire Release is both a source of damage and a means of obscuring vision. Earth Release a single-target attack, and its power is amplified when enveloped in flames. Wind Release expands the range of the flames, increases their power, and also accelerates Earth Release.

In what was initially a probing ranged exchange, the Cloud ninja found themselves completely outmatched.

The Cloud Ninja Commander was shocked and blurted out, "How come the Iwa ninja can use the Five-Attribute Ninjutsu so smoothly?"

"How can their Five-Attribute Ninjutsu be so balanced? Are we facing Konoha or Iwa ninja?"

In the past, only Konoha was able to achieve victory against overwhelming odds by using a balanced combination of the Five-Attribute Ninjutsu.

There is a common practice among the Great Ninja Village that when calculating the number of people involved in a large-scale battle, Konoha ninja cannot be counted as just one person.

Therefore, when Konoha confronts an enemy, its numbers are usually fewer than the enemy's. If they were equal, Konoha would have already launched an attack.

The Cloud Ninja Commander now feels that the Iwa ninja should also be treated as Konoha ninja.

But it's too late to know this information now; five thousand Iwa ninja are fighting five thousand Cloud ninja, and the battle has already begun.

What the Cloud ninja didn't know was that although the Iwa ninja had made great progress in the four attributes other than Earth Release in recent years, their numbers were still far fewer than those of the Earth Release.

The reason why this army appears to be well-proportioned is because Ōnoki had made prior adjustments, and the army sent to the Land of Wind consisted mostly of Earth Release ninjas.

The situation was urgent, and the Cloud Ninja Commander couldn't afford to be distracted. The Iwa ninja had gained the upper hand after their initial attack.

The Iwa ninja immediately seized this initiative and unleashed a combined Ninjutsu.

"Water Release: Mist Village Technique." "Wind Release: Gale Palm."

Within the Iwa Ninja Army, all the Water Release ninjas quickly moved to the front and unleashed the Kirigakure's signature Ninjutsu, the Mist Village Technique.

Yichen had visited Kirigakure, and Kirigakure's Ninjutsu was no longer a secret to Iwa ninja.

The wind -Wind Release ninja in the back row immediately unleashed the Gale Palm, a Ninjutsu that Yichen had obtained from Nagato.

As a result, a large amount of mist was blown to the Cloud ninja's side by the fierce wind. The Gale Palm also had an attack effect, disrupting the enemy's defenses.

"Earth Release - Rock-Scattering Jutsu, Earth Release - Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet." All the Earth Release ninjas took advantage of the Cloud ninja' obstructed vision to unleash their attack Ninjutsu.

"Lightning Release - Lightning Pillar." After a short pause, the Lightning Release ninja stepped forward and unleashed the Kumogakure's signature Ninjutsu, Lightning Pillar.

This Ninjutsu is the result of the Lightning Release Research Group. Because its principle is simple, it was developed very early on.

At the same time, Fire Release ninjas joined in, unleashing their own Fire Release.

Fire Release don't need to be standardized; as long as they can hit the opponent, that's fine.

What are those Great Fireball, Great Fireball Jutsu, Phoenix Flower Fire, Fire Dragon Bullet? Which one are you best at using?

The combined Ninjutsu of the Iwa ninja came too suddenly. They had just suffered a setback in the first round of fighting when the Iwa ninja suddenly unleashed their power.

The Cloud Ninja Commander reacted quickly, warning the Cloud ninja to be wary of a sneak attack from the Iwa ninja.

However, he thought the Iwa ninja would take the opportunity to attack, or launch another probing attack like in the first round, killing some of the Cloud ninja who were in a panic.

Who knew that the Iwa ninja would launch a full-scale attack?

When their vision was obscured by the Mist Village Technique, most of the Cloud ninja realized something was wrong. They tried to organize a defense, but it was too late; the obstructed vision slowed their actions.

Before the Cloud ninja could organize an attack or defense, a large number of Earth Release attacks arrived.

After a round of Earth Release attacks, the mist had mostly dissipated. Before the Cloud ninja could even check on their companions, beams of blue light shot towards them.

Temporary blindness is fatal, so much so that most Cloud ninja were unable to effectively counter the barrage of Fire Release attacks.

They were all unaware that the Iwa ninja's attack was imminent.

Two rounds of intense attacks resulted in the loss of over a thousand Cloud ninja soldiers. More importantly, the Cloud Ninja Army's formation was thrown into chaos.

Just then, the Iwa ninja broke out of their position.

Taijutsu Ninja and Sword Technique Ninja come first, followed by Ninjutsu Ninja and Genjutsu. Medical Ninja come last.

Five thousand Iwa ninja charged into the Cloud ninja ranks in a tight and orderly formation.

The Cloud ninja, still reeling from the chaos, were almost all fighting alone. At the same time, each Cloud ninja faced an attack from at least three Iwa ninja.

In the brief exchange, the Cloud Ninja Army suffered heavy losses at the front.

Fortunately, ninjas are not ordinary people. The ninjas in the rear did not panic too much. They immediately moved forward in small teams to engage the Iwa ninja.

But at that moment, a series of exclamations suddenly rang out from the Cloud ninja: "There's something underwater! It's a shark!"

"Be careful, there's an ambush by Iwa ninja."

Sharks burst from the water, completely disrupting the Cloud ninja's formation.

Besieged on all sides!

The Cloud Ninja Commander sighed. They'd lost; lost too quickly.

The Cloud ninja are no longer able to organize a systematic resistance.

"Retreat! Retreat immediately!" the Cloud Ninja Commander shouted.

But retreating at this point was far from simple. Countless Iwa ninja squads had already completely penetrated the Cloud Ninja Army.

The price the Cloud ninja would have to pay to retreat is unimaginable.

Behind you, a large Iwa Ninja Army is charging forward, and there might be a fast-moving Iwa ninja watching you from the side. Every now and then, a shark or two will leap out of the sea ahead.

In the end, of the nearly four thousand Cloud ninja, only a little over seventeen hundred escaped.

The battle between two large-scale ninja armies, without the participation of high-level combatants, ended so quickly that one side suffered a crushing defeat.

The Iwa ninja can be said to have set a record for the fastest victory.

Darui, watching from afar, was dumbfounded; his battle with Ikura was still in its warm-up.

Killer B was even further away; if it weren't for the Eight-Tails reminding him, he wouldn't have realized that his main force had already been defeated.

"Bee, run! The Iwa Ninja Army has won! Don't let them seal you away!" The voice of the Eight-Tails Ox-Demon echoed in Killer B's mind.

Killer B was clearly stunned. What was going on?

"Hachi? The Kitsuchi of Iwa ninja has arrived?" This was the only answer Killer B could think of.

"No, it's a normal battle between two armies. Your Cloud ninja has lost. Run!" The Eight-Tails directly refuted Killer B's guess.

Killer B abandoned Han and Roshi and ran away, catching up with Darui was equally bewildered, halfway there.

"Darui, what happened?" Killer B was in no mood for rapping at this point.

Darui shook his head and said, "I don't know what happened either."

The two quickly caught up with the fleeing thousand- Cloud ninja. Darui wanted to ask the commander, but was told that the commander hadn't escaped and had been killed by Iwa ninja during the final breakout.

They ran all the way back to the Land of Lightning. Once everyone stopped, Darui learned every detail of the battle from the Cloud ninja, and only then did he understand where the problem lay.

Darui said to Killer B, "The Iwa ninja not the same as they used to be. They're not much different from Konoha now."

"To deal with five thousand Iwa ninja, we would need to deploy at least seven thousand men. It's a pity we realized this too late."

"If we were facing a 5,000 -Konoha Army, we wouldn't have chosen to fight so easily. We were careless."

"The Iwa ninja have changed so much, yet we're still using the Iwa ninja methods we used against them before. So we lost from the very beginning."

"Over the years, we've only focused on the Senjutsu of Iwa ninja and the number of Kage -Kage Level in Iwa ninja, but we never expected that the changes in ordinary Iwa ninja would be so significant."

"I really can't understand how the Tsuchikage did that."

Killer B asked, "What do we do next?"

Darui remained silent for a moment, then looked at the demoralized Cloud ninja and said, " With First Shinobi War defeat, we have no chance to win this battle again."

"In the Land of Wind, the Sunagakure can only manage a draw at best, while the Iwa ninja have already won."

"I just hope things go smoothly with Lord Raikage."

Killer B nodded; this First Shinobi War was incredibly frustrating for him. "I didn't even get a feel for it, and it's over already?"