The Allied Forces' Tragedy

Han left, dragging two extremely unwilling ninjas with him.

Without hesitation, Rōshi continued to issue the order.

"Jonin Tsuchikawa, Jonin Gray Stone, you are responsible for selecting Iwagakure Ninja are good at infiltration and have no ties to them, and secretly leading them to the Land of Snow, to the sea, to countries that have not joined the Shinobi Alliance. The village will list you as missing-nin. Run, run with all your might!"

With Han's name at the beginning, Tsuchikawa and Gray Stone stopped hesitating and immediately agreed.

"Yes, Lord Tsuchikage!" ×2

Tsuchikawa and Gray Stone forcibly dragged three more people away from the field.

The office, which had been somewhat crowded with more than ten people, now had only six people left, including Rōshi.

Looking at the five people present, Rōshi spoke to them.

"Gentlemen, until the allied forces arrive at Iwagakure, I will send you all to your deaths one by one. Are you afraid?"

Of the five, three were originally in the die-hard faction, while one each remained from the surrender and escape factions.

Faced with Rōshi's question, the five remained silent, but their resolute faces and fearless eyes spoke volumes.

"Very good, our mission is simple: buy time for Han and Tsuchikawa!"

By the time the meeting ended, news of Rōshi becoming the new Tsuchikage had already spread Iwagakure.

The once fragmented Iwagakure has once again become united.

The sense of helplessness and despair that the ordinary Iwagakure had felt when the sky fell down had vanished.

The gloom in my heart hasn't completely disappeared, but at least I've regained my fighting spirit.

The sky may still fall, but everyone knows that they won't be the first one crushed to death.

The Kage is not only the actual leader of the ninjas, but also the pillar of their inner world.

On the surface, Iwagakure has returned to peace, but beneath the surface, undercurrents are surging.

Leaving aside the actions of Han, Tsuchikawa, and others, Rōshi also secretly began to act.

Many people who had avoided eye contact at the conference were secretly taken away, interrogated, and subsequently dealt with.

Previously, the split within Iwagakure, with its daily infighting, brought the Iwagakure's espionage and counter-espionage efforts to a near standstill.

Now that Iwagakure has once again gained a single, unified will, its counter-espionage operations have finally officially begun.

Rōshi knew perfectly well that spies could never be completely eliminated, but the purpose of the counter-espionage work was not to completely eradicate the spies in the village.

Instead, it increases the difficulty for spies from other villages to obtain and transmit intelligence, thus minimizing the leakage of village intelligence.

The Allied Shinobi Forces.

The command center had received news that Rōshi had been urgently appointed as the new Tsuchikage, but the intelligence gathered was becoming increasingly scarce.

The command headquarters and the captains of the various village troops all understood that the good days were coming to an end, and that they would soon truly face off against the Iwagakure Ninja.

However, everyone remained optimistic, believing that the ninja force they brought was there specifically for this purpose, not to actually become bandits in the Land of Earth.

The location of the Hidden Sand Village troops.

As the Sunagakure was advancing at the fastest pace.

While the other ninja villages were still slowly gathering supplies, Hidden Sand Village had already completely finished its work, with its puppet army being the key factor.

Unlike other ninja villages where ores can only be used to make various ninja tools, Hidden Sand Village has a major resource drain: puppeteers.

Whether it's metal or wood, as long as it meets the requirements, the puppeteers don't hesitate to attach it directly to their puppets.

Now, all the puppets in the puppet army have undergone tremendous changes compared to when they set out.

Several large puppets were hastily made during the march and used as large logistics devices.

The Hidden Sand Village's troops, not just the puppeteers, were all beaming with joy, including the older veterans who had experienced several Shinobi World Wars.

I've never been this wealthy since the day I was born.

At the beginning of the raids, many newcomers who had never participated in wars had some psychological burden, but this was overshadowed by the subsequent gains.

As the nobles entered, and all the people of the Land of Earth cheered and jumped for joy, all the Hidden Sand Village were completely free of any psychological burden.

The Sunagakure forces are advancing steadily toward today's goal.

The team structure is a commonly used structure, with squads forming platoons, and platoons forming battalions.

The team uses a classic 3-1 configuration, which consists of three inexperienced newbies paired with one seasoned veteran.

The journey is not yet halfway complete, and the objectives of each ninja village are still uniformly assigned by the command headquarters.

The Hidden Sand Village team has recently gained fame within the Allied Shinobi Forces for their lightning-fast operations, always being the first to leave work each day.

"Tongmaru, let's have another match today. I was careless yesterday and let you take the lead for a while. You definitely can't beat me this time."

A boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old in the squad spoke to a teammate next to him who had a deathly pale face.

"You've been saying 'boring' since the beginning. You need to understand, I'm a puppeteer, how could I lose to an ordinary ninja like you!"

The puppeteer named Tongmaru couldn't muster any enthusiasm for the boring competition proposed by his companion.

"Quiet down! The higher-ups said we might encounter Iwagakure Ninja starting today, so be careful!"

The middle-aged ninja walking ahead was helpless against these lively kids, which reminded him of his original teammates, back when he was also a very lively guy.

Unfortunately, he became increasingly silent after his teammates left one by one.

"Captain, don't worry, with my [Sand Tiger] here, no matter how many Iwagakure Ninjas come, it won't make a difference!"

Tongmaru patted the puppet, whose appearance had changed drastically, and said confidently.

The middle-aged captain shook his head and said nothing, while the last girl in the group smiled slightly as she watched this familiar scene.

[Earth Release: Earth Flow Spear!]

Spikes of earth bloomed among the Hidden Sand Village troops, taking the lives of Hidden Sand Village one by one.

The young ninja stared in disbelief as the body of Tongmaru, who had just been chatting and laughing with him, was pierced by earth spikes.

"Take my... my Sand Tiger away and give it to Tiemaru, please... please."

The boy mechanically hugged the metal lump standing to the side, then stood there doing nothing.

"Captain, what should we do?"

The girl's clear voice rang out, and the boy then realized that another teammate had lost a leg, while the captain was looking up at the sky.

"Eat everything you can, and die a full-bodied ghost!"

After the middle-aged captain finished speaking, he opened his ninja tool pouch and frantically stuffed Military Rations Pill and a mixed grain biscuit into his mouth.

The boy followed the captain's gaze and looked up at the sky, where he saw pure white, egg-like objects raining down.

The entire squad was then frozen in time, engulfed by flames.