Friction with Iwagakure

Qingcheng, leading a large group of Konoha Ninja, along with members of the Police Force, Tsunade, and Kakashi, had almost reached the border camp after a day and a night of trekking.

On the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth, there's a cliff. There used to be a suspension bridge there, but it was destroyed by the Hidden Stone Ninja. To attack the other side, they'd have to take a long detour, bypassing a large Land of Earth and forests!

The border ninjas of Konoha and Hidden Stone Village were separated by a cliff. When friction occurred, they would pull out megaphones and hurl insults at each other. The insults would escalate into throwing Explosive Tag, followed by a barrage of Ninjutsu.

When both sides ran out of Chakra, it devolved into a simple war of words. Thus, the Konoha Ninja and Hidden Stone Ninja faced off for over ten days. The Konoha Ninja suffered zero losses, but they consumed over 100,000 Explosive Tag daily, and several hundred megaphones were worn out.

The border ninjas of Konoha! Because they live in a wealthy village, they have an abundance of Explosive Tag. In every Explosive Tag exchange, they can suppress the Hidden Stone Village ninjas. Furthermore, Konoha's loudspeakers are louder, giving them a slight advantage in verbal sparring with the Stone Ninja.

The Stone Ninja commander, Tsuchikawa, having lost the day's Explosive Tag throwing contest and the verbal battle, and hearing the Konoha Ninja constantly insulting Ōnoki through loudspeakers, gritted his teeth and angrily cursed, "These damned Konoha Ninja! I didn't even attack you, and you treated us like practice subjects!"

Then, Tsuchikawa waved his hand and shouted to the Stone Ninja behind him, "Take out our Chakra Bomb and throw them all onto the Konoha positions to kill these Konoha Ninja!"

A large Stone Ninja, looking embarrassed, said, "Tsuchikawa! We've already taken out our bombs, but after being bombarded by Konoha Ninja with Explosive Tag, the turret exploded, killing dozens of Stone Ninja. We're too far from the Konoha Ninja; even if we use Chakra, we can't throw them over there. The shells will explode in mid-air."

Upon hearing this, Tsuchikawa fell into deep thought again. Looking at the distance of the cliff, which was about a thousand meters away, he said with a serious expression, "Use Ninjutsu to launch cannonballs. I really can't stand being bombarded with Explosive Tag by Konoha Ninja every time."

Immediately, a large number of Stone Ninja, seeing piles of Explosive Tag Shuriken landing on their position, shouted, "Everyone, get out of the way! Konoha Ninja are launching Explosive Tag again, bombarding our position!"

Seeing the piles of Explosive Tag Shuriken aimed directly at him, Tsuchikawa quickly Hand Seals and shouted, "Earth Release: Earth Release: Earth Flow Mountain Wall Technique!"

Immediately, stone walls, resembling tortoise shells, appeared on the Hidden Stone Village's position, connecting together to protect Tsuchikawa and a portion of the Stone Ninja.

Some of the Stone Ninja immediately began Hand Seals and shouted, "Earth Release: Earth Release: Earth Flow Connecting Wall!" Countless earthen walls rose from the ground, protecting the Stone Ninja's position.

But when the Explosive Tag Shuriken fell, they erupted like hailstones, bursting into Kakkō and followed by deafening explosions! The numerous Explosive Tag detonated like cannonballs, instantly creating billowing smoke and thick black smoke.

Even with the numerous earthen walls erected by the Stone Ninja such a massive explosion. Large numbers of them Stone Ninja to the ground, and some, less fortunate, were simply engulfed by the blast, disappearing like a meteor shower!

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Tsuchikawa looked on with resentment. On the opposite Konoha side, someone shouted, "Retreat! When Lord Tsuchikage arrives, we'll make the Konoha Ninja pay!"

As soon as Dodai spoke, the Stone Ninja immediately started running away, none of them wanting to be bombarded by the Explosive Tag.

There was also a female Stone Ninja, a medical ninja from Hidden Stone Village. Seeing the Hidden Stone Ninja running so fast, she shouted, "When you run away, can you take me with you? I'm a medical ninja, don't you understand?"

Meanwhile, on Konoha's side, seeing that the Stone Ninja had scattered, all the Konoha Ninja cheered, "The bandits of Hidden Stone Village have escaped again! Your Hidden Stone Village's Ōnoki is just as vulnerable as you!"

Nara Shikadai, watching the Stone Ninja flee again, shouted, "Today's Explosive Tag Shuriken throwing event is over! Let's take stock of how many Explosive Tag Shuriken we threw. We only brought two million Explosive Tag from the village. It would be a real waste if we used too many."

Akimichi Choza and dozens of fat men were still flexing their wrists when he said with a serious expression, "Throwing Explosive Tag Shuriken this time was so much fun! I'm going to develop a new technique for throwing Explosive Tag, called the Super Expansion Jutsu, the Shuriken Explosive Tag All-Throw Technique!"

The other fat members of the Akimichi Clan, upon hearing Choza's words, chimed in, "Clan head! The name of your Ninjutsu is awful. Why not change it to Expansion Arm, Shuriken Throwing Technique '?"

Most of those piles of Explosive Tag were thrown by the Akimichi Clan. These Akimichi Clan had just used the Expansion Jutsu to enlarge their right hands more than thirty times, then grabbed a large number of Explosive Tag Shuriken and hurled them at the Stone Ninja like a hail of bullets. The Akimichi Clan were strong, threw them a great distance, and carried a large number, creating a terrifying barrage of firepower for the Stone Ninja.

A Konoha Ninja, after counting the Explosive Tag and Shuriken, ran directly to the Nara Shikadai and said with a serious expression, "Reporting to Lord Shikadai, we have lost more than 300,000 Explosive Tag this time, more than 100,000 more than last time. We now have only 570,000 Explosive Tag left."

Upon hearing his subordinate's report, Shikadai spoke again, "You all stay here and watch. The Hokage will be arriving soon. I'll take a group of men to greet Hokage."

Nara Shikadai pulled out another pair of binoculars, glanced at the Stone Ninja's position, and seeing that Stone Ninja had fled, he said to Choza, "If they dare to cause trouble again, throw all the Explosive Tag from your Shuriken at them. Let these guys know that Konoha is not to be trifled with."

Looking at the Stone Ninja opposite him, Yamanaka Inoichi said with a serious expression, "If there were a bridge here, we could just storm into the Land of Earth and fight a war of attrition with them. It would be such a waste of resources."

Upon hearing his friend's words, Shikamaru Nara said with a serious expression, "These Explosive Tag were manufactured by Konoha's Black Factory. It's all thanks to those spies who worked day and night to produce Explosive Tag, otherwise we wouldn't have needed Explosive Tag of this quality."

After saying that, Shikamaru Nara led a group of Konoha Ninja directly towards the interior of the Land of Fire, preparing to greet the Hokage.