Difficult Retreat

The battlefield beneath Kikyō Mountain had already become a burning, blood-red hell. The initial fervor and zeal of Sunagakure's army had been utterly crushed beneath Konoha's carefully planned counterattack and overwhelming strength, leaving behind only desperate resistance and mounting casualties.

High in the sky, Fourth Kazekage Rasa's expression was so grim it seemed as though water could drip from it. He controlled towering waves of Gold Dust that swirled around him like a golden tempest, yet he was hard-pressed at every turn. His opponent, that golden flash, was simply impossible to deal with. Minato Namikaze's Flying Thunder God had no conventional movement pattern at all. Every flicker placed him at the weakest instant and most critical point in the Gold Dust's defenses. Rasa could only rely on the astonishing reactions of a Kage-level powerhouse and the wide-ranging properties of Gold Dust to desperately build defenses, block, and compress, forcing Minato to forgo devastatingly harvesting the Sunagakure forces below.

He possessed destructive power, yet was completely countered by speed. He could only defend passively, with no room left to attack. Each time a Gold Dust barrier barely stopped that lethal kunai, his heart grew heavier. He watched helplessly as his men below fell one after another beneath Konoha's counteroffensive, unable to spare himself to rescue them. The sense of powerlessness nearly drove him mad.

On the flank, Elder Chiyo and Ebizo were in equally dire straits. Three of the Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets had already been torn apart by Manda's terrifying brute strength or corroded and dismantled by Orochimaru's insidious ninjutsu. Ebizo's genjutsu and traps had limited effect against opponents of Orochimaru and Manda's caliber. The siblings were drenched in blood, their chakra severely depleted. They could only rely on their years of coordination and experience to desperately maneuver, barely