There was no telling how many shinobi would die in this battle.
Training each shinobi took enormous amounts of time and resources.
Several years at the Ninja Academy, another several years to advance from Genin to Chunin, and Jonin were rarer still.
Countless buildings had also been damaged, and rebuilding after the battle would consume tremendous manpower and money.
All those resources were simply being wasted within Konoha.
They would do nothing to secure more advantages in the Shinobi World.
Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to kill both Zhou Cheng and Jiraiya right now.
Back in the forest.
No, it should have been called a wasteland now.
The entire forest had vanished. Even in the few places spared from the destruction, only a handful of scattered trees remained.
Jiraiya looked toward Konoha, the corner of his eye twitching.
The ninjutsu was too powerful!
We weren't far enough from Konoha. That was a mistake!
"Kid, lure him a little farther away!"
"Otherwise, we'll destroy Konoha ourselves!"
Jiraiya looked at Zhou Cheng with admiration in his eyes.
Immense chakra reserves and extraordinarily powerful ninjutsu.
He had actually evolved the Rasengan another step.
It had become an S-Rank ninjutsu.
Adding Nature Transformation to Shape Transformation-even I couldn't do that!
Just how monstrous was his chakra control?
Then he remembered something, and excitement appeared in his eyes.
"Could he be the Child of Prophecy the Toad Sage spoke of?"
"No, I need to spend more time with him!"
Zhou Cheng also saw Konoha's miserable state and instinctively ducked his head.
Damn, I think I went overboard!
I hope Haku and the others are all right.
Then he looked at Shukaku and continued his verbal assault:
"Hey, ugly tanuki, is that all you've got?"
"Weren't you going to kill me? Come on, then!"
Then he leaped rapidly