On the border of the Land of Fire, they stood with the forest at their backs, facing a dark mass of charging Sand Ninja.
Konoha had nowhere left to retreat.
They had come to reclaim the Land of River. If they failed here, the border towns and villages of the Land of Fire would all come under attack from the Sand Ninja.
The daimyo of the Land of Fire would be furious, which would spell trouble for Konoha.
As before, they used a pincer formation with the center forward and the two wings behind. Kawadera Uchiha was still with the right wing.
This time, Tsunade commanded the right wing, Orochimaru commanded the center, and Hatake Sakumo commanded the left.
Gradually, Kawadera Uchiha caught sight of the commander on this side of Sunagakure's forces: Rasa.
If Rasa was on this side, wouldn't the commander on the other side of the Sand Ninja Forces be Chiyo's son, Lanluo?
That meant Hatake Sakumo had encountered the opponents who had made him famous in the original story-Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law.
Off to the rear flank, Ken Aburame was beside himself with anxiety, looking from Kawadera Uchiha to Kureya Inuzuka and back again.
Both his teammates had grown tremendously stronger and earned great merit on the front lines, while he did not even know how to get stronger.
An entire battalion under Kawadera's command stood behind him, every man watching his back.
Kawadera Uchiha raised his hand, then abruptly swept it down.
Everyone hurled their kunai into the sky at a forty-five-degree angle.
That angle gave the kunai the greatest range.
The kunai traced high arcs, sailed past their peaks, then accelerated diagonally downward toward the Sand Ninja.
The Sand Ninja used all sorts of methods to block the kunai launched from afar.
Some of