When Narrow Paths Meet, the Brave Win-Yeah, Right

As the Sun Barrier rose higher, the Konoha troops marched forward in an orderly fashion, but because they were in formation, their marching speed was not very fast.

The towering trees of yesteryear did not hinder the advance of the Konoha Ninja. Although they did not exactly cut through mountains or build bridges over rivers, the group truly marched in a straight line, heading directly towards the Sunagakure Camp.

The entire team was in high spirits. As time went by, some of the ninjas who were initially nervous gradually calmed down under the influence of the overall atmosphere, and then joined everyone in their excitement.

This is understandable. The Southern Front has been winning every battle since before the war began. Even the worst team can be made invincible by such victories, not to mention that Konoha's ninjas are not weak to begin with.

In a corner of the large group, Taiichi, Yohei, Kakashi, and others were all arranged to stay. From the shouts of "Wan Sheng" at the start to the silent march now, the group members had finally calmed down.

"Taiichi, what are you doing here? I just saw Minato-sensei at the front!" Finally, someone broke the silence. Obito looked at Taiichi, who was with them, and asked curiously.

As Obito asked his question, the others also turned their attention to Taiichi. Taiichi's current status and position, he really shouldn't be with them.

Taiichi looked up at Jiraiya and the others, who were now hidden by the trees, then turned back to give Obito a resentful look that gave him goosebumps.

Then he slowly said, "Senior Disciple Brother Minato was worried about you all and asked me to come and take care of you. I happened to have the same idea, so I came!"

"What! Minato-sensei, why are you like this? We're not children anymore. Didn't we get through the last war safely?" Obito was indignant, a thousand times indignant, as if they were all burdens who needed special care.

Taiichi could understand it; after all, he had the same mindset when he let Yohei and Saori carry out the mission alone, but he got used to it over time.

"You talk the most!" Taiichi any politeness. "Don't be ungrateful. The early stages of the battle are the most dangerous and the casualties are the heaviest. I will stay with you during that time to get through this phase of the battle. After that, once the situation stabilizes, you'll have to rely on yourselves."

Yohei and Kakashi nodded, understanding now; this was indeed a well-intentioned effort.

By the time the sun was high in the Sun Barrier, it was around 10 a. m., and Taiichi could see in the distance that Asuka were circling above the trees, reluctant to come down.

Taiichi knew that it was the Sunagakure's forces, and it seemed that the two sides would make contact in an instant.

Sure enough, after only a few minutes, the trees disappeared, and a vast open space appeared before them, with a small river running through the middle, dividing the flat land into north and south sections.

Konoha and Sunagakure are thus separated by a kilometer, facing each other across the river.

As orders came in, the originally well-organized formation quickly shifted, and the troops rearranged themselves according to their pre-assigned roles.

At this moment, several ninjas skilled in Earth Style stepped forward and simultaneously Hand Seals.

Earth Style · Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall.

A row of city walls, each over ten meters high and ten meters long, rose from the ground.

The purpose of erecting this city wall was twofold: firstly, to provide a commanding view of the entire battlefield and facilitate command; and secondly, because its elevated position was advantageous for defense.

As the city walls were erected, Jiraiya and dozens of other ninjas leaped atop them. They were the commanders of this battle and the final line of defense.

It can be said that as long as the opposing Kazekage doesn't make a move, Jiraiya won't either. In other words, whichever side's commander-in-chief can't help but take action, it means that side's battle situation has fallen into an unfavorable state.

This isn't your average squad battle where you can launch a sneak attack. Everyone's combat strength is laid bare, and who is whose target is all pre-arranged.

On the battlefield, in Konoha, a city wall stands tall against the ground, and thousands of ninjas are lined up in an orderly fashion in front of it. Taiichi and his squad are positioned directly in front of the wall.

Meanwhile, on the Sunagakure side, a city wall also rose from the ground, appearing almost exactly the same as the one on the Konoha side.

It's a remarkably well-coordinated arrangement; it's almost become the standard choice for this type of terrain.

However, a closer look reveals that the walls of Konoha are significantly higher than those of Sunagakure.

This is understandable, as Konoha is, after all, the number one ninja village, with a complete range of Ninjutsu and ninjas skilled in a wide variety of Eight Gates.

However, other ninja villages are not like this. Apart from Wind Style, the level of the other five elemental Ninjutsu in Sunagakure is at least one level lower.

This is also the reason for the gap between the two sides.

"To be honest, I really like this battlefield I chose," Taiichi murmured to himself.

The two sides faced each other across the river. Although the river wasn't a major river, it was still about twenty meters wide.

For ninjas, this is naturally not an insurmountable obstacle; they can cross it by Water Walking or even by using two Body Flicker.

But for Taiichi, who is skilled in using Water Style, this is undoubtedly an excellent battlefield. He can confidently say that among all the ninjas present, if he dares to say that his Water Style are second to none, then no one can say that they are first.

It can't be said that either side deliberately chose this place; it's simply fate. They were walking towards each other, neither knowing the other's progress. Amidst so much forest and flat land, they just happened to meet by this small river.

Kakashi turned his head and looked at Taiichi curiously. He usually only saw Taichi use Fire Style, and Taichi's Fire Style were indeed powerful, but he had never seen Taichi use Water Style before.

As if sensing Kakashi's gaze, Taiichi smiled confidently, extended his right hand, pinched a small gap between his thumb and forefinger, and said, "My Water Style is only slightly inferior to Fire Style!"

Kakashi's face stiffened; he didn't want to say anything more—it was just too much of a blow.

However, without saying it, Taiichi still had something to remind him, "Once the battle begins, we, as the attacking force, will definitely advance forward, and the current formation will be distorted. But there is one thing to note: the large formation can be distorted, but our squads must maintain a consistent movement."

If we can't even maintain our squad formation, it means we'll have to fight individually. On such a large battlefield, the chances of death will increase exponentially once we lose the cover and support of our teammates.

In short, no matter how exciting or bloody the battlefield may be, excitement and exhilaration are acceptable, but one must never become overly excited, and even less should one charge headlong into enemy lines in a fit of rage; that is a path to death.

These are valuable words of advice. They might be thrown into battle at any moment, so Taiichi had to pick out the important points and explain them to them. After all, life and death are no small matter, and he hoped that all his companions could survive.

"Taiichi, don't worry, I'll keep an eye on Kakashi and make sure he doesn't run around in a Red Eye frenzy."

Obito, who had once rescued Kakashi, had a big smile on his face, giving off an impression that everyone didn't need to worry because he was there.

Kakashi was speechless, too lazy to even roll his Byakugan, clearly not wanting to acknowledge him. Yohei even gave him a chop to the head, scolding, "Can't you have some self-awareness? Taiichi is telling you this!"

Time ticked by, and both sides waited quietly. Commands were constantly being relayed from the city walls, adjusting the positions of the various squads within the ranks.

The two sides remained in a silent standoff until the Sun Barrier was directly overhead.

"When will the battle begin? What's the point of just dragging this out?" Kakashi leaned close to Taiichi and asked in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but prick up their ears; the wait was simply too agonizing.

Taiichi couldn't help but glance back at the many Jonin on the city wall, his mind filled with questions. However, he still comforted them, saying, "Who knows? Maybe they're waiting for the other side to show a weakness. Can't you see you're already getting impatient?"

Such a standoff is the most exhausting of both sides' patience; once either side becomes agitated, their chances of winning will certainly be diminished.

Everyone understood and waited quietly, but while they quieted down, others still had their own thoughts.

After a while, an urgent voice came from the surroundings.

"When are we finally going to start the fight? This dawdling is so frustrating!"

Hearing this, the speaker had clearly lost patience. Taiichi glanced to his side and saw an unfamiliar middle-aged ninja, who, judging from his clothes, was only a Genin.

He shook his head helplessly. "Not much skill, but a big temper. He can't even keep his composure on the battlefield. It's hard to say whether he'll survive this battle."

Taiichi ignored the man and looked ahead. There, the Sunagakure ninjas were also ready to go, their imposing aura no less than that of the Konoha Ninja.

Just as Taiichi was gazing at the Sunagakure troops, a series of sharp whistles rang out from the city wall behind him, then echoed from the center to the flanks of the formation.

"Finally—it's starting!"

At that moment, Taiichi felt his blood pressure spike, and his entire body immediately entered a state of excitement. His adrenaline surged rapidly, and without any preheating, his whole body was covered in a light sweat.

Guided by the whistles, the entire ninja team, led by their respective Captain, advanced in an orderly fashion towards Sunagakure. After all, they were still nearly a kilometer away from the Sunagakure forces and had not yet entered the ninjas' attack range.

As the two sides drew closer, the originally orderly formation began to slowly break apart.

Behind them, ninja squads broke away from the original formation and began to circle around from both flanks. They were special attack squads on the battlefield, responsible for hunting down some troublesome opponents on the outer perimeter, as well as harassing the outer perimeter and dealing with similar squads from Sunagakure.

In the middle of the group, Taiichi led his team members and started jogging, but he kept his speed down while also reaching out to stop Kakashi and Obito, who wanted to speed up.

"Don't be impulsive, it's not time yet!"

As the group approached the riverbank, smoke bombs were launched from behind by the ninjas. In the blink of an eye, these smoke bombs crossed the midline of the river and exploded on the Sunagakure side of the river.

At the same time, smoke bombs from Sunagakure exploded across Konoha's side. The only difference was that Sunagakure's smoke bombs were a ghastly green, clearly containing a large amount of "additives."

"You despicable, shameless bastard from Sunagakure!"

"You filthy, despicable, shameless scoundrel!"

Curses rang out from the Konoha ranks, but were quickly drowned out by commands to "take the Antidote Pill."

The ninjas took out the pills distributed before the battle from their Ninja Tool Pouch, and then swallowed them one by one with a gloomy expression, inwardly cursing the pill's developer: Couldn't they have made the pill taste better?!

This Antidote Pill was naturally the masterpiece of the Taiichi Joint Medical Camp. How could the Konoha people, who knew the nature of Sunagakure well, not be wary of Sunagakure's poison?

As both sides' vision was obscured by the smoke, more than twenty ninjas skilled in Earth Style Release immediately jumped out from Konoha. They leaped to the front of the group, quickly Hand Seals with those on the riverbank, and then the more than twenty people used Earth Style: Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall together.

A city wall hundreds of meters long rose from the ground, and the ninjas behind it leaped onto the wall. With this delay, the Sunagakure had already crossed the center of the river and appeared on the Konoha side.

What they faced were Konoha Ninja had leaped onto the city walls and were looking down from above.

In this round, Konoha clearly had a slight strategic advantage.

"Fire Style ninja, prepare—release!"

At a command, hundreds of ninjas skilled in Fire Style arrived at the city wall and simultaneously Hand Seals. In the next moment, Eight Gates of Fire Release Ninjutsu, such as Great Fireball, Flame Bullet, Fire Dragon Flame Bullet, and Majestic Destroyer Flame, were unleashed at the Sunagakure Ninja below the city wall.

"Wind Style ninja, prepare—release!"

Before the Fire Style could dissipate, a gale carrying the wind Wind Blade swept down, revitalizing the still raging Fire Style. The fire borrowed the wind's momentum, and the wind amplified the fire's power, making this attack even more powerful than the Fire Style alone.

These two Ninjutsu attacks gave the group of ninjas who rushed to Konoha a taste of their own medicine. Putting aside the casualties, their morale was completely shattered.

"Attack troops—Charge!"

Now, it's finally Taiichi and his friends' turn!

That's right, Taiichi, Yohei, Kakashi and the others were assigned to the attack force. With a command, they followed closely behind Taiichi in a two-on-left, three-on-right formation, and charged down the city wall.

Before he even touched the ground, Taiichi Phoenix Sage Fire condensed around Taiyi, pouring down like fire rain onto the Sunagakure below.

Judging from its momentum, it was in no way inferior to the Fire Style released by multiple ninjas together just now.

At this moment, as the Sunagakure's reinforcements arrived, their counterattack followed, unleashing Wind Blade, Fireball, and...

A barrage of lightning and various Ninjutsu rained down, interspersed with Kunai, Shuriken, and Explosive Tag.

Taiichi was able to handle these attacks with ease, his Phoenix Sage Fire accurately meeting the incoming attacks, but he could only defend within a ten-meter radius around himself; he was powerless to do anything beyond that.

"Ah!"

This was the first time screams had been heard from Konoha since the start of the war. It was obvious that such screams in this environment meant that the person was likely in grave danger.

As that scream began, a series of screams followed, and Konoha's casualties gradually increased.

At this moment, Taiichi Short Sword, charged at the forefront of the group, facing the fiercest attack, and officially engaged in close combat with the Sunagakure.