Kill Half First

For Sand Ninja deep behind enemy lines on sabotage missions, they naturally knew they had to maintain high vigilance at all times to counter potential retaliation from Konoha.

Personnel capable of participating in military operations of this caliber were surely highly professional; it was impossible for them to make the mistake of underestimating the enemy at such a critical juncture.

However, so-called caution and focus are, like "tall and short" or "long and short," merely "comparative states" that cannot exist independently.

The intruders, who had braved countless dangers to cross the border, were not lacking in caution, as they routinely assigned one-third of their effective strength to guard duty, maintaining a three-shift rotation around the clock to ensure the safety of their camp.

Yet, the strategic design of "luring the enemy into the trap" had fundamentally exceeded the calculations of the enemy's mission planners...

The series of patient, concessionary measures taken by the Third Hokage in the early stages had caused them to misjudge Konoha's resolve regarding the war!

Thus, through the combined effect of more refined procedural design and a greater volume of human resources, the Sand Ninja's "trembling caution" was forcibly twisted by Konoha into "careless negligence"!

...Those visible and hidden sentries were marked one by one by the vanguard unit responsible for reconnaissance, eventually becoming nothing more than self-deceiving blind spots!

The modified ninja tools provided by Erina even used three rounds of unreasonable, ultra-long-range artillery strikes to seize the initiative, completely disrupting the operational plans the Sand Ninja had prepared in advance!

--Timing, location, personnel.

Every factor that could influence the progress of the battle unfolded according to Konoha's design, yet it was timed to detonate completely just before the final strike!

Encountering such a critical moment, where the pants were already down and only the final push remained, let alone this group of Sand Ninja who had become the prey instead of the ambushers—even if a celestial being descended, they would still stumble into the mud just the same...

Therefore, no matter how miraculous the elites of the Sand Ninja might be, they had ultimately fallen into a disadvantageous position in this life-or-death gamble from the very start!

And as everyone knows.

In tactical contests between top-tier experts, any single mistake can lead to fatal consequences.

Furthermore, since Nara Motonari, who had designed the layers of the trap, had decided to break the silence and take the initiative, he must have been fully prepared!

Sure enough, as operational orders were passed down layer by layer, before the Sand Ninja could recover from the head-on artillery barrage and decide whether to resist step-by-step or immediately break through and retreat, the vanguard unit that had crossed the ruins of Rock-Pipit City had already begun their work.

"Kill all enemies! Leave no survivors!"

The situation was favorable, and the orders were clear.

The Konoha ninja who first entered the city launched their attack according to orders. But beyond throwing shuriken and kunai to strike at the Sand Ninja who had no time to find cover, this group also threw palm-sized, simple clay pots into the burning camp throughout Rock-Pipit City.

How could fragile earthenware withstand such treatment?

After the bottles shattered, the pale yellow, pungent smoke immediately alerted the Sand Ninja on the scene!

The lead enemy ninja, wearing a face mask, reacted quickly and immediately formed hand seals. A powerful Wind Style jutsu instantly whipped up a dragon of smoke, surging toward Nara Motonari and his men who were following up!

The massive wind vortex kicked up sand and dust, snapping all the vegetation along its path.

However, Nara Motonari was well-prepared. Two team members beside him, skilled in defensive ninjutsu, pressed their hands to the ground before the Wind Style jutsu could hit them, injecting pre-channeled chakra into the earth.

"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"

In an instant, a nearly four-meter-high earthen wall rose from the ground!

Although for ninja with astonishing mobility, this temporary terrain could not completely divide the battlefield, it successfully intercepted all those lethal wind blades.

At the same time, dazzling flash grenades ignited from behind the rock wall!

They not only shattered the dim night sky illuminated by the firelight but also utilized the previously erected earth wall to cast even deeper shadows directly ahead!

The shadows extended rapidly with the light, and under the influence of the Nara clan's secret technique, they finally transformed into a powerful, thick giant python, lunging fiercely toward the scattered Sand Ninja.

At this point, the killing intent cultivated by Master Motonari had fully manifested.

...The fame of Ino-Shika-Cho had spread throughout the ninja world since the Warring States period, and in the last great war, they had left an extremely deep impression on ninja from other villages as the backbone of Konoha.

Seeing the black shadow spreading rapidly, the Sand Ninja who had just released the Wind Style immediately changed color!

Knowing full well that they must not enter the range of the opponent's secret technique, the Sand Ninja immediately leaped backward repeatedly, attempting to avoid the surprise attack...

Yet the shadow snake pressed on step by step, unexpectedly splitting into dozens of branches mid-way, like iron chains the thickness of a thumb, continuing to attack all the Sand Ninja in the desolate city simultaneously along the ground!

Constrained by the environment, the space available for the Sand Ninja to dodge was now extremely limited.

Seeing the shadow chains about to hit their targets, the masked Sand Ninja finally formed hand seals again, attempting to follow suit and use Earth Style to block Nara Motonari's secret technique.

Who would have expected that just as the chakra in his various acupoints gathered in his palms, an unexpected wave of dizziness would strike his mind.

"Earth Style: Earth... cough, cough, cough... what... is... happening..."

Before the mental fog could dissipate, numbness in his limbs had already eroded his nerves.

Unaware, the shadows that were just moments ago as thin as iron chains suddenly transformed into a giant ink-colored flower, blotting out the sky!

--In the eyes of the Sand Ninja, the dragon-claw-like petals opened like an inverted paper umbrella, or scattered like chaotic bamboo strips, with each cluster extending layers of gnarled palms, chilling one to the bone...

The afflicted Sand Ninja was horrified, immediately realizing he had been affected by a genjutsu!

Though he, who had been active on the front lines of missions for years, did not understand why he had been struck, he immediately began to save himself, driven by combat instinct!

The Sand Ninja immediately disrupted the chakra flow pattern within his body, attempting to counter the effects of the illusion.

Yet he did not expect that in these few seconds of delay, the Nara clan's secret technique had already followed up to deliver the finishing blow, locking onto the six Sand Ninja closest to the earth wall.

And once the shadow secret technique was activated, these Sand Ninja were effectively sitting ducks on the battlefield, with no hope of survival left...

"Shadow Secret Technique: Manjusaka..."

"Shadow Neck-Binding Technique..."

Nara Motonari chanted in a low voice, his ruthless double-tap immediately reaping the battlefield!

Shadow hands extended from the chests of the six men, seizing their targets by the throat one after another before snapping their cervical vertebrae with a sharp twist.

Until the moment of their deaths, they never realized that the yellow smoke spewing from the clay pots earlier was merely a smokescreen deliberately released by Nara Motonari.

The mechanism that truly played the decisive role was actually the thin wires connected to the shards of the clay pots and the arms of the other Konoha ninjas!

Thus, after the Sand Ninja used Wind Style to disperse the smoke, they lowered their guard, allowing Nara Motonari to hide behind the cover of an earthen wall and, using the shadows of the wires as a medium, unleash his self-created trigger-based illusion on a massive scale!

In this way, the enemy immediately misjudged the situation on the battlefield.

Whenever they approached the shadows cast by the wires while dodging, the magnificent sight of swaying Spider Lily Illusions would instantly appear before their eyes, and their fated deaths would bloom in tandem...

Looking back at the progression of the battle, the well-trained Sand Ninja had been busy dealing with the fierce onslaught from Konoha since the start of the artillery barrage, and until they fell on the battlefield, they never had the chance to employ their own equally unfathomable methods.

The characteristic of ninjas having high attack power but paper-thin defenses was verified once again, and the balance of the confrontation tilted irrevocably due to the calculations made before the battle!

The remaining Sand Ninja knew they were powerless to continue the fight.

And so, following a whistle, the invaders scattered and fled, officially beginning a desperate journey of survival where death was all but certain!

Meanwhile, having consumed a portion of his chakra, Nara Motonari signaled with a timely tactical gesture.

Excluding himself, all the Konoha ninjas formed temporary two-man squads and split up to pursue the enemy!

They would transform into reapers, escorting the cornered Sand Ninja through the final leg of their lives...