On the northern front against Kumogakure, the Ōnoki father and son faced off against the Third Raikage father and son. With the advantage of flight, Ōnoki could still gain a slight edge. Kitsuchi, who relied purely on Earth Release, was straightforwardly crushed by Fourth Raikage A.
Kitsuchi had already been somewhat weaker than A to begin with, and as a pure Earth Release ninja, he was completely countered by A's pure Lightning Release. If Ōnoki had not kept watch over him so often, he would probably have been reduced to ashes long ago.
Besides A, Kumogakure also had experts such as Dodai, who could use Lava Release, and A's sworn brother Killer B. Iwagakure, meanwhile, had no experts who could match them.
Not to mention that Kumogakure had two Jinchuriki. Blue B had long since matured and controlled the mighty Eight-Tails, the second-strongest Tailed Beast. Compared to Iwagakure, which only had Han, a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old Jinchuriki completely incapable of controlling his Tailed Beast, Kumogakure was vastly stronger.
Then, things went from bad to worse. While Iwagakure was locked in a fierce battle with the Cloud Shinobi, Sunagakure unhesitatingly gave Iwagakure a Thousand Years of Death from behind.
With four Kage-level powerhouses—Chiyo, Ebizo, Rasa, and Kinnara—joining forces, Iwagakure's southern front immediately fell into crisis. It was completely breached in just a few days, and Explosion Release User, the commander of the southern front, died on the spot.
Poor Ōnoki was nearly tearing out what little hair he had left. Facing the combined assault of two great ninja villages, he patched one hole only for another to open, yet he was still driven back again and again.
After all, Iwagakure had only one true powerhouse worth mentioning: himself. No matter how numerous their lower ranks were, without genuine powerhouses at their