"Everyone, introduce yourselves to our new friend."
Kitsuchi spoke up.
"I'm the Tsuchikage's son. My name is Kitsuchi. You can just call me Kitsuchi!"
Kitsuchi held out his hand, inviting Didaze to shake it.
Didaze reached out and shook Kitsuchi's hand.
"This is Han, our Iwagakure's Five-Tails Jinchuriki. He may be big, but he's a good guy!"
Kitsuchi pointed at Han, who stood beside him in red armor.
Han gave a slight nod, then held out his hand to Didaze as well.
His hand is much bigger than mine.
Didaze thought to himself.
When Didaze shook Han's hand, he could clearly feel how thick and strong it was, nearly twice the size of his own.
"This is Kari from the Explosion Release Corps!"
Kitsuchi turned his gaze to the man, who stood 1.7 meters tall, and introduced him.
"Hello, I'm Kari!"
Although Kari did not think Didaze was particularly capable, he still shook his hand politely.
After all, Kitsuchi had said it himself, so Kari could hardly refuse to show him respect.
"Now that you're here, Kōdo, we'll launch a surprise attack on Konoha tonight!"
Kitsuchi made the final decision.
The reason he had not wanted to launch a surprise attack was that he feared they could not win. After all, the enemy had Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, as well as the veteran powerhouse Shimura Danzō.
As for the ninja clans under them, there were the Uchiha, Hyūga, Ino-Shika-Cho, Aburame, Inuzuka Clan, and others.
On their side, Kitsuchi could only just hold Orochimaru off, while Han could fight Shimura Danzō to a draw.
But beyond that, they had no answer. Although they had the Explosion Release Corps, the enemy had both the Byakugan and Sharingan, along with many secret technique clans. They were simply beyond what the Explosion Release Corps could handle.
That was how formidable Konoha was. Unless your top-tier fighters overwhelmed theirs, your mid-tier fighters stood absolutely no chance against Konoha's.
With Konoha's many kekkei genkai and secret technique clans working together, practically no other village's mid-tier ninja could stand against them.
And that was with Konoha splitting its forces to fight Iwagakure and Sunagakure at the same time.
In a one-on-one war, Konoha's sheer number of ninja alone could overwhelm everything.
"Sigh..."
Kōdo glanced helplessly at Kitsuchi but said nothing more.
After all, words alone were useless. Didaze had to produce results with his own hands before these people would be convinced.
Soon, night fell.
"Everyone, follow me in a surprise attack!"
Kitsuchi addressed the Iwagakure ninja below.
"What is that?!"
The members of the Explosion Release Corps were somewhat stunned as a giant clay bird appeared with a few movements of Didaze's hands.
They could sense the Explosion Release chakra contained within the giant bird.
"How could something as unstable as Explosion Release chakra..."
Almost every member of the Explosion Release Corps was lost in a daze. They could not understand how clay could serve as a medium for Explosion Release.
But Didaze gave them no time to think further. The giant clay bird carried him and Kōdo straight into the sky!
"So that's it?"
Watching Didaze fly into the sky, Kitsuchi seemed to understand the important reason in an instant.
"So it's air superiority? That certainly is important."
Kitsuchi merely assumed Didaze wanted to fly to Konoha's position to gather intelligence.
"Everyone, advance!"
Since he knew Didaze was going to gather intelligence, Kitsuchi could hardly sit back at camp and wait. He planned to advance a little closer.
That would also make it easier for Didaze to send intelligence back.
But he could never have imagined that Didaze intended to attack Konoha single-handedly.
That was right. Didaze planned to launch a sneak attack alone first!
After all, the Explosion Release ninjutsu Didaze had mastered all covered enormous areas. If he waited until Iwagakure and Konoha had engaged before attacking, he would be hamstrung.
Soon, Didaze's giant bird flew above Konoha's tents.
Ninja patrolled below. Most were ordinary ninja, but a few had activated their Byakugan and were vigilantly watching their surroundings.
Unfortunately, not one of those Byakugan ninja looked up.
That meant they were destined not to see Didaze.
And unless they deliberately tried to sense him, the sensory ninja could not possibly detect Didaze several hundred meters in the air either.
"Kōdo, hold on tight!"
Didaze warned Kōdo, then began making clay bombs.
"Explosive Clay: Spider!"
Didaze molded hundreds of spiders and tossed them from the sky toward the ground.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!!!"
A sensory ninja suddenly sensed a large amount of chakra and immediately roared a warning!
"Detonate!"
Didaze formed a hand sign in the sky.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
But clearly, the sensory ninja's warning had come too late. The Explosive Clay: Spiders had already exploded.
Hundreds of Explosive Clay: Spiders blasted a large swath of Konoha ninja, killing or injuring them!
"He's in the sky!"
The sensory ninja closed his eyes to sense the enemy, then detected Didaze overhead!
"What happened?!"
Shimura Danzō and Orochimaru came out.
"Captain Orochimaru! Vice-Captain Danzo!"
"We've been ambushed! The enemy is several hundred meters in the air. We can't attack him at all!"
The ninja guarding outside spoke.
An altitude of several hundred meters was indeed beyond the attack range of the vast majority of ninja. They simply could not attack Didaze while he flew so high!
"Summoning Technique!"
Hearing this, Shimura Danzō immediately bit his finger and summoned the enormous Baku!
"Baku, use a great windstorm on the sky!"
Shimura Danzō wanted to use Baku's suction to pull Didaze down, but would Didaze be that stupid?
"C2: Dragon!"
Feeling Baku's suction, Didaze immediately used a third of his chakra to mold an enormous flying dragon!
The enormous flying dragon swooped down from the sky, crashing straight toward Baku!
BOOM!!!
While Baku was unleashing its great windstorm into the sky with abandon, an enormous white flying dragon was sucked into its mouth.
With an earth-shaking explosion, Baku was left at death's door and immediately vanished in a puff of white smoke.
"Damn it!"
Shimura Danzō's expression darkened. He had not expected the Baku he had just summoned to be bombed into dispersing by the enemy.
"Secret Technique: Flying Kikaichū!"
Very few ninja had anti-air capabilities, but Konoha's Aburame Clan happened to have them.
Almost all the Aburame Clan's insects could fly. Reaching several hundred meters might be difficult, but they could still make it up there.
However, some Aburame ninja had specifically bred Flying Kikaichū, insects that could fly several hundred meters up without any difficulty.
"Good. Bring him down!"
Shimura Danzō had been completely at a loss as to how to deal with Didaze, but seeing the Aburame Clan's Flying Kikaichū rekindled his hope.
"Explosive Clay: Two-Winged Bird!"
Didaze quickly molded a dozen or so clay two-winged birds, which flew toward the Konoha ninja at tremendous speed.
Boom, boom, boom!
Another series of explosions rang out, and once again, over a hundred Konoha ninja were killed or injured.
Together with the previous wave of Explosive Clay: Spiders, Didaze had taken out nearly three hundred of Konoha's people in just one surprise attack!
There were fewer wounded than dead. After all, not everyone could survive the power of Explosion Release.
Of the two thousand ninja Konoha had sent to fight Iwagakure, nearly one-seventh had been taken out by Didaze's furious bombardment alone!