The Azure Beast Appears, Troops Retreat

Within the Land of Stone!

"Deidara? Why is he here? Could he have joined Akatsuki?"

Inside a tent, Kitsuchi's brow gradually furrowed after hearing his subordinate's report.

He had already guessed that the reinforcements Ōnoki spoke of were Akatsuki, but he had never expected Deidara to be one of its members.

A complicated expression appeared on Kitsuchi's face. Deidara was nominally the Third Tsuchikage's disciple, which made him Kitsuchi's junior brother. Though they had not spent much time together, he knew that his father, the Third Tsuchikage, had once thought very highly of him.

He had even intended to groom him as the Fourth Kazekage. Although Deidara later defected from the village without cause, Iwagakure had only issued a token wanted notice for him.

Within Iwagakure, nearly all of the upper ranks knew just how much the Third Tsuchikage cherished that disciple.

"Sigh!"

After sighing, Kitsuchi swiftly composed himself. He strode out of the tent and, led by several guards, arrived at the very front of the formation.

They were in the midst of war now, and he did not dare let his guard down in the slightest.

Kitsuchi understood clearly that while Akatsuki's members were currently serving as their vanguard against Konoha, the men under his command would sooner or later have to take the battlefield as well.

No matter how powerful Akatsuki was, they only had a few members, while Konoha had dispatched more than ten thousand shinobi this time. Kitsuchi had a feeling—

Iwagakure and Konoha would soon clash.

Outside the Land of Stone, the ten thousand shinobi led by Fugaku and Hiashi stood ready in tight formation.

At the very front of the force stood a fiery-red barrier spanning nearly a thousand meters. An invisible current seemed to surge around the outside of it—it was