Great Kai Shen Ōnoki: The Advantage Is Ours!

Rock Ninja Front.

After receiving the news, Shimura Danzō immediately rushed to the forward position and met with the jōnin in charge.

"Lord Danzō, the Rock Ninja on the other side still haven't launched any large-scale attacks, only small-scale harassment."

"They seem to be setting a trap for us, trying to lure us into attacking!"

As he listened to the jōnin's report, Shimura Danzō could not stop smiling.

"Then that's right. It looks like Ōnoki still hasn't received news from the other fronts and is still putting on an act of strength!"

"Heaven truly favors me!"

"All troops, prepare for battle. Follow me and wipe them out!"

Shimura Danzō was high-spirited as he spoke, thoroughly exhilarated.

Over the past few days, he had been wary of Stone Village's substantial troop strength. Faced with these harassment units numbering in the hundreds, he could not afford to ignore them out of caution.

So he had been constantly pursuing them, constantly putting out fires.

The past few days had nearly given him a nervous breakdown. Now, he was going to hit these Rock Ninja hard!

"Commander, news has come back from our spy!"

At that moment, a ninja from the intelligence unit approached.

"Intelligence from Stone Village says that the Rock Ninja forces are still stationed where they were, with no signs of battle."

"However, the Rock Ninja higher-ups appear to be discussing combat plans, and members of each jōnin unit are gathering."

"During this time, our spy personally saw that all their higher-ups looked extremely troubled."

Shimura Danzō's expression shifted slightly when he heard that the Tsuchikage was gathering the higher-ups.

"Where is the original intelligence report?"

"Here."

The intelligence ninja handed a note to an accompanying Root member, then returned to his post.

After reading it, Shimura Danzō fell into thought. It seemed that Ōnoki had already received the news!

"Gather the troops immediately. Advance at full speed!"

"Take down every Rock Ninja who has come to invade!"

Leaving aside Shimura Danzō, who was still charging across the battlefield, the atmosphere inside the Rock Ninja command tent was incomparably oppressive.

After receiving consecutive reports from the Mist Ninja and Sand Ninja fronts, Ōnoki immediately gathered Stone Village's higher-ups to discuss their subsequent strategic plans.

Even Stone Village, known for having "the greatest number of ninja in the shinobi world" and for its long-standing militarism, had many higher-ups whose hearts ached as they looked at the nearly two thousand elite ninja who had been killed or wounded on the Mist Ninja front.

They had all started out as veteran chūnin. They were the backbone of the village!

Especially after they received the survivors' descriptions of Uchiha Makoto's strength and that battle, they could not help drawing sharp breaths as cold sweat poured down their bodies.

That strength was far too powerful!

Was this the power brought by awakening the same eyes as Madara Uchiha?

No wonder Ōnoki had gone to such lengths to push for the encirclement and extermination of Uchiha Makoto!

Before this, they had already obtained intelligence records of Madara Uchiha's actions during the Warring States period. But they had only found those artistic descriptions of him splitting mountains and overturning seas, cleaving through mountains to forge paths, laughable.

Who added artistic embellishment when recording intelligence?

Was this an intelligence report or a made-up story?

Hardly anyone believed it was real!

Now, they believed it!

There really was such a monster in this world, someone who could suppress an entire nation alone!

If that were all, then the Stone Village higher-ups, whose faces had been thoroughly slapped, would not have been so dejected during the meeting.

The key was the second intelligence report in their hands, delivered just as they were discussing "the feasibility of using Dust Release to strike Uchiha Makoto."

Another Minato Namikaze had appeared on the Sand Ninja front!

A second Senju Tobirama!

The appearance of a "second Madara Uchiha" had barely been within their capacity to bear. But when they learned that a "second Senju Tobirama" had emerged, their mentalities completely collapsed!

Did you Konoha people even know how to fight a shinobi world war?!

Why were you using cheats?

At this rate, was a "second Senju Hashirama" going to appear too?

Then why was anyone still fighting the Third Shinobi World War?!

They might as well go home, wash up, and sleep!

Who could possibly beat you?!

Thus, under these successive blows, the atmosphere among Stone Village's higher-ups plunged straight to rock bottom.

They truly did not think they could defeat Konoha, which possessed a "second Senju Tobirama" and a "second Madara Uchiha."

The gap was simply too great!

It was so vast that they could not see its end at a glance!

For that very reason, as Ōnoki sat at the head of the table seeking opinions on the war's subsequent strategic planning, every higher-up in Stone Village's command tent remained silent. The atmosphere was frighteningly bleak.

Bang!

Seeing the village higher-ups before him so utterly dispirited, Ōnoki was furious. He slammed the table and rose to his feet, making quite a few of them involuntarily shudder.

"I don't understand!"

"Why is everyone talking as if Konoha is invincible!"

"As if this ancient battlefield of the Warring States period is destined to bring us nothing but disaster!"

The moment Ōnoki spoke, he drew the attention of everyone present and became the center of the room.

"Ten years ago, the Second Tsuchikage, Lord Mū, perished here. I embarked on my journey here, became the Third Tsuchikage, and began the Second Shinobi World War!"

"The Land of Earth was thus united once more!"

"It was truly a case of having every advantage of timing!"

Ōnoki rose and paced as his emotions grew increasingly impassioned.

"Wherever I and my army went, the people welcomed us with wholehearted sincerity!"

"That flourishing vitality, that realm where all things competed to thrive, still stands vividly before my eyes!"

As he spoke, Ōnoki pointed at the map behind him.

"This place has been contested by military forces since ancient times! There have been more than fifty battles, large and small."

"The rights and wrongs behind them are difficult to explain."

"But every generation that came after took note that it was precisely on this ancient battlefield that the rise and fall, prosperity and ruin, of so many shinobi heroes were decided!"

"And because of its terrain, there has been talk since ancient times of contending for the Land of Fire."

Noticing that the mood had improved somewhat, Ōnoki secretly nodded and continued.

"Back then, the First Tsuchikage led ten thousand ninja troops, gathering here in three separate columns before marching north."

"On the second day after departure, the heroes of the former Land of Earth saw that the tide had turned and surrendered one after another. The Land of Earth was thus united!"

As they listened to Ōnoki's words, quite a few higher-ups quietly straightened their backs. They were descendants of the ninja who had followed the First Tsuchikage in founding Stone Village.

"Later, the First Tsuchikage also entered the Land of Fire from here, attended the Five Kage Summit, and laid the foundation for the structure of the five great nations that remains unchanged to this day!"

As Ōnoki spoke, his tone gradually shifted.

"Only forty short years later, has this place actually become our burial ground?"

"In any case, the forces in this decisive battle are seventeen thousand against six thousand. The advantage is ours!"