The battle on the right flank had descended into a mire of chaos under the One-Tail Shukaku's terrifying, overwhelming power.
Towering waves of sand surged skyward, each crash claiming several lives, whether they belonged to Konoha or to Sunagakure shinobi who had failed to retreat in time.
Amid this scene of natural disaster, the fragile yet tenacious defensive line formed by Shinji Uchiha, Hizashi Hyuga, and Miwa Kato stood like a lone boat tossed in a storm, stubbornly holding its ground to buy the collapsing right flank a moment to breathe.
And at the edge of this maelstrom, another duel, even more perilous and deadly, had never ceased.
Hatake Sakumo's blade remained as swift as lightning, as keen as ice.
He darted between Wenshu and Huxia's remaining puppets, every swing of the White Fang Short Blade precisely targeting a puppet's joints, chakra threads, or core mechanisms.
Broken puppet parts flew around him. The Father puppet's sole remaining arm was severed, and Ibuse's poison sac was sliced open, its venom eating into the sand.
But Wenshu and Huxia, the married couple ranked among Sunagakure's finest puppeteers, displayed resilience and coordination worthy of their infamy.
Though their puppets were badly damaged, though Sakumo's increasingly fierce onslaught left them scrambling to defend themselves and hovering on the brink of disaster, they stubbornly held on.
Wenshu controlled Crow, the least damaged and swiftest of the puppets, harrying Sakumo from bizarre angles like a festering wound that would not heal, forcing him to defend or dodge.
Huxia concentrated on controlling the remains of Mother, their strongest defensive puppet, and the bladed puppet that had lost an arm. She kept them planted in front of Wenshu, using their bodies to take Sakumo's blade head-on and give Wenshu opportunities to maneuver and attack.
**"Huxia! Feint on the