The Defeat Was Set in Stone

The last path to survival had been ruthlessly severed.

When the elite Konoha command troops led by Torifu Akimichi crashed down like an iron gate, precisely wedging themselves into the middle of Sunagakure's retreating main force, the battle's outcome was completely decided.

Hope, like a dying candle in the wind, was snuffed out in an instant.

Sunagakure's army, this elite force that bore the village's final ambitions and strength, was now completely encircled on the burning ground beneath Kikyō Mountain City.

To the right lay a realm of death formed by the cold-blooded Orochimaru and his summoned beast, Manda. Hisses rang out as poisonous mist spread everywhere, and every sweep of the giant snake's tail shook the earth. Elder Chiyo and Ebizo were drenched in blood, their chakra nearly exhausted and the puppets under their control battered beyond recognition. They could only struggle on through sheer willpower and experience; their defeat was merely a matter of time. A mocking, cruel gleam had already appeared in Orochimaru's icy snake eyes, as though he were savoring his prey's final struggles.

To the left, Torifu Akimichi stood like a mountain, the Konoha elite troops under his command arranged in perfect formation and brimming with morale. The Nara Clan's Shadow Secret Technique bound and strangled like phantoms, the Yamanaka Clan's mental assaults constantly disrupted Sunagakure's command and coordination, while the Akimichi Clan's Expansion Jutsu crushed every attempt at a breakout with irresistible force. Like a red-hot branding iron, they had welded themselves firmly across Sunagakure's retreat route, sealing it off completely.

Ahead, the Konoha defenders atop Kikyō Mountain City's walls counterattacked with ever-increasing ferocity. Beneath the walls, that golden figure—the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze—remained the deepest nightmare in every Sunagakure ninja's heart. His teleportation-like slaughter had never ceased. Even though Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage,