IUTT: Ch. 276

For nearly a month, the major hidden villages had been mobilizing their forces and preparing for war.

What they never expected, even in their wildest dreams, was that on the very first day of battle, the Kage of the Four Great Villages, along with the leaders of six smaller villages, would all become captives of Konoha.

Among them, Madara captured Ōnoki, Minato captured the Raikage, Fukuyama subdued the Mizukage with just a glance, and Fugaku caught Pakura.

As for the strongest leader among the six smaller villages, Hanzō, he was beaten senseless by Kushina and ultimately sealed on the spot.

Not only the Kage and leaders, the Allied Shinobi Forces lost over ten thousand men on the first day alone.

The vast majority died under bombing runs and the bombardment of chakra cannons, which left the Allied Shinobi Forces utterly stunned.

And it wasn't just the Allied Shinobi Forces, Isshiki was stunned too, and even Orochimaru showed a token amount of shock.

An hour earlier, they had still been discussing how to stir up trouble for Konoha.

An hour later, news came that the Kage and leaders of the major villages had been captured, without even giving them time to react.

"What's going on?" Isshiki asked unwillingly.

"I truly didn't expect it, Shin fooled even me," Orochimaru said angrily. "Many of the weapons they used, I've never even seen before."

"It seems Tsunade and Shin had been guarding against me for a long time."

"I guessed Konoha had some trump cards I didn't know about, but I never imagined they'd be hiding them this deep, defending against me from the very start."

Seeing Orochimaru like this, Isshiki didn't know what to say.

He didn't doubt Orochimaru, because ever since Orochimaru had come to them, under their constant secret surveillance, he had never shown any suspicious behavior, only devoting himself fully to his research.

The only explanation was that Tsunade and Shin had sensed Orochimaru's unusual behavior long ago and had prepared against him early.

"Do you think our plan should continue?" Isshiki asked.

Orochimaru frowned in thought for a while before finally saying, "Forget about Shin, this guy is extremely cautious. Maybe... we can try something with Minato."

"Unless the implantation process gets interrupted, and if he uses the Flying Thunder God Technique..."

"I've never contacted Minato before. He'll be much easier to deal with than Shin, and his weaknesses are obvious. All we need to do is this... and that..."

---

In the Allied Shinobi Forces' camp, the mood was bleak and heavy.

In the Konoha frontline camp, however, everyone was full of fighting spirit.

They had expected this war to be easy, but they hadn't expected that in just one day, it would be nearly over.

Of course, it was still possible that some village might ignore the life or death of its Kage or leader and insist on continuing the fight.

But the Hokage had already issued orders, those who stubbornly resisted would be killed without mercy.

After visiting the captured Kage and leaders in the prisoner camp, Minato walked lightly out of the camp.

Just moments ago, he had received a radio message from Kushina, inviting him for a walk.

Although he found the request a little strange, he didn't think much of it.

After all, whatever Kushina said went, women, after all, are always unpredictable.

"Kushina." Minato spotted her from afar, and hurried over with a simple, honest smile, scratching his head.

"What took you so long?" Kushina complained with a hint of dissatisfaction.

"Uh..." Just as Minato was about to explain, she suddenly turned and hugged him tightly.

He froze on the spot, completely stunned, and at that moment, he suddenly sensed a special energy being poured into his body.

"Don't move!" Kushina's voice sounded in his ear as he tried to pull away.

"Kushina, this is..."

"Don't worry about it. You don't think I'd hurt you, do you?"

The two of them stayed in that embrace for over ten seconds before Kushina finally released Minato, flashing him a strange smile that felt completely unfamiliar to him.

Startled, Minato instantly used the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport ten meters away, staring at Kushina in disbelief.

"You're not Kushina... Who are you? What did you do to me?"

But Kushina replied in a man's voice, "You truly are the perfect vessel. Don't worry, we'll meet again."

As soon as he finished speaking, a dark red portal appeared behind Kushina. She stepped into it, and both she and the portal vanished from sight.

For a long moment, Minato just stood there in a daze. Then he looked down at the diamond-shaped mark in his palm and suddenly grinned. "That easy, huh?"

Acting as if nothing had happened, he returned to Konoha with ten prisoners after receiving orders from Shin.

---

Inside Konoha's prison, Shin paced as he looked over the ten captives and said with a smile, "So, gentlemen, still want to keep fighting?"

"If you want to continue, I'll let you go right now, no take-backs."

"You expect us to believe you'd be so generous?" the Raikage said coldly.

"Generous? I think you misunderstand me. I'm not doing this out of kindness, it's because my goal of making an example out of you hasn't been achieved yet. If anyone wants to keep fighting, Konoha will gladly oblige. But in the next round of war, you won't even have the chance to surrender. We'll keep fighting, and keep fighting, until your villages are completely erased from the map. So, who's going to walk out of here?" Shin opened the cell door, pointed outside, and smiled. "If I say I won't stop you, then I won't. I keep my word."

That devilish smile made every single one of them shudder. None of them doubted that he meant exactly what he said.

This war had completely overturned their understanding of conflict.

They had worked hard to break through Konoha's intelligence warfare, learned the mass-production method for explosive tags, and planned to use them for bombardment, thinking they could wipe away their previous shame with this tactic.

They hadn't expected Konoha to respond with airstrikes and chakra cannons, stunning them into submission before they could even begin. And on top of that, Konoha's top fighters were terrifying beyond belief.

Not only were people like Sakumo and Fukuyama stronger than ever, but Minato's four-man team was utterly invincible.

Hadn't Fugaku taken out Pakura with a single jutsu?

Hadn't Kushina beaten Hanzō into submission?

Hadn't Hizashi, furious at not capturing a Kage-level prisoner, single-handedly subdued the leader of a smaller hidden village?

Hadn't the Raikage himself failed to last even one round against Minato?

Sure, Minato's methods might've been a little underhanded, but his strength was real, so real that even without using Samehada, he could have crushed the Raikage without suspense. Why waste the extra time?

And worst of all, Konoha had even brought out the legendary Madara, a man on par with Hashirama himself.

Back in the day, why hadn't any hidden village tried to start a war while Hashirama was alive?

Because one Hashirama was enough to wipe out an entire village singlehandedly. What could you possibly fight him with?

Even someone as strong as Ōnoki had been defeated in a single move. To this day, Ōnoki still didn't know what had happened, just that a black rod had suddenly pierced him from behind.

And to think... neither Tsunade nor Shin had even needed to make a move yet.

At that moment, even though every one of them was bitterly resentful, none had the courage to continue fighting.

Because this could no longer be called a "war."

If they kept going, it would only become a one-sided massacre.