HSU: Ch. 296

On the other side of the forest, the Kumo ninjas army appeared calm and composed... Not really.

This was their main force, nearly twenty thousand strong, spread throughout the opposite side of the river valley.

Though their situation wasn't much better than that of the foreign ninja mercenaries, they had begun their march much earlier. With more time to prepare, they had steadily advanced and even mobilized their engineering corps.

After the Konoha Crush Plan, which was launched during the Chunin Exams, ended in failure, Darui, facing no internal competition in Kumo, smoothly ascended to the position of Fifth Raikage. He immediately began preparing for Konoha's inevitable retaliation.

After all, with someone like Masashi in Konoha, revenge was a certainty.

Upon learning that Masashi had been appointed as the commander, Darui ordered the activation of the Poison Route and poured in resources without hesitation. He hoped that one of the Kumo's main forces could bypass Konoha's army stationed in front of the fortress and invade the Land of Fire directly.

Another unit would advance by sea.

The core strategy was simple: as long as either force could penetrate the Land of Fire, they could force a peace negotiation with Konoha using a mutually destructive threat.

As for allies? They were no longer a concern.

He had already mentally prepared for one of the two units being discovered and wiped out by Masashi. These two forces were essentially sacrificial pawns for each other.

This was Kumo's last hope.

If the fighting could just be stopped, he was willing to have Kumo join Konoha in battling Iwa or Kiri.

Wasn't Masashi known for solving problems off the battlefield? Darui believed he had thought this through, so long as the current generation of Kumo didn't provoke Konoha, they could still thrive.

As for the next generation... well, that would be someone else's problem.

From the very beginning, Darui had opposed the Konoha Crush Plan. He swore, this time, the hostility toward Konoha wasn't started by Kumo.

It was led by Ōnoki, and Iwa hadn't betrayed Kumo either. After all, Ōnoki himself fell in Konoha. But the Kazekage had been utterly shameless, betraying everyone at the last moment.

Those two idiots sent to Konoha? Given such a perfect opportunity, and they didn't betray anyone.

At this moment, the Kumo ninjas in the Poison Route had no idea what their new Raikage was thinking. Having only just arrived after an exhausting march, they stopped here to make war preparations based on intel received from an advance squad.

The enemy was only mercenaries, not even Konoha ninjas.

What was there to be afraid of?

But soon, the Kumo ninjas waiting on the other side of the forest began to feel the ground tremble. Those who had climbed trees saw smoke rising in the distance.

At first, the Kumo ninjas were happy, thinking the explosions were the result of landmines or explosive tags. But the tremors grew stronger, closer and closer.

Finally, the scouts saw clearly. That was no dust cloud from an explosion.

"Get out of the way! Move! It's an attack!"

One by one, the lookouts leapt down, shouting in panic. Cold sweat poured down their faces.

No way could those mercenaries produce an attack like this. Nor could it be a composite jutsu from Konoha, Konoha simply didn't have that many Wind Release users. The number of Konoha ninjas proficient in Wind Release could be counted on one hand.

That overwhelming sandstorm, vast like a monstrous beast, if it wasn't a composite jutsu... Then it could only mean one thing: Masashi had arrived.

The sandstorm was incredibly fast, and the Kumo ninjas were spread too thin and too wide in the narrow valley due to their battle preparations. To the ninjas in the rear, all they saw was the distant blue sky suddenly turning gray, blocking out the sunlight, smothering the sky.

The scent of sand filled the air. Some felt something fall on them, when they reached up and wiped it off, it was nothing but sand.

Then, the sandstorm conjured by chakra officially struck.

It rolled through the forest. Before this jutsu, the trees were fragile and useless as windbreaks, easily flattened, shattered. The forest seemed like nothing more than a patch of low grass, and the people and animals within it were reduced to mere dust. Among the things it destroyed were also human flesh and blood.

Dust, splinters, chunks of flesh, and various shattered remnants swirled through the air. Faced with this sudden onslaught, the Kumo ninjas could only hope they had something nearby to take cover behind. But even the cliffs on both sides of the valley let out harsh, grating sounds in the storm.

After the rampage ended, the forest where the Kumo forces had camped was almost completely stripped bare. Only the occasional dead tree stood stubbornly in the wreckage, crooked and swaying.

Many Kumo ninjas perished in this attack. Their mangled remains hung everywhere. However, this sandstorm wasn't powerful enough to wipe out all 20,000 Kumo ninjas. In fact, even with the terrain's help, it had killed at most two to three thousand.

Still, the battle formations they had carefully arranged were completely destroyed. The units at the front were thrown into chaos, while the ones in the rear still didn't know what had happened.

Meanwhile, the foreign mercenary forces took advantage of the wind to march forward in large strides. The sandstorm hadn't just destroyed the forest and Kumo's vanguard, it had swept away every obstacle in their path.

The foreign ninjas quickened their pace. They had already spotted the figures of Kumo ninjas ahead.

In that region, Kumo forces were scattered in pieces, corpses littering the ground, barely one in ten still alive, completely disorganized.

Behind the charging foreign army, Masashi stood atop Kuro's head. From his vantage point, this ragtag group surged forward like a swarm of insects, spreading toward the Kumo ninjas, who now appeared as scattered, lonely dots.

His eyes had transformed into the Rinnegan.

Just moments ago, while continuously using jutsu, it seemed he had triggered the tailed beast chakra sealed in his curse mark. Something unknown had happened on the tailed beasts' end, and they actively channeled chakra to him.

For the first time, he hadn't activated the curse mark, but the chakra had come to him anyway.

Matatabi, did they all take the wrong medicine or something?

Masashi asked this because even Kurama and Gyūki had lent him chakra.

No idea. Just now, we all suddenly sensed extreme danger from your side. It felt dangerous to us, too.

Matatabi's reply left Masashi puzzled. He himself didn't feel he was in danger.

In this world, apart from Madara, the only people who could truly threaten his safety were that mother and son.

If even the faint chakra link through the curse mark was enough to make the tailed beasts feel danger, then it could only be because of that pair.

To be precise, it wasn't just danger.

Tailed beasts were the embodiment of chakra, and the only thing that could influence them was chakra.

Is it you…

Masashi silently recalled.

He had indeed spent a very long time accumulating strength before he was able to meet Hagoromo. Even though, when that moment truly arrived, it still caught him off guard. But without all his previous efforts, he wouldn't even have had the chance to be caught off guard.

Others might not know, but he knew full well, Hagoromo was an extremely stubborn person. He believed wholeheartedly that his younger son, Asura, represented the absolute truth. From the very beginning, the Child of Prophecy could only be the reincarnation of Asura's chakra. All of his preparations were made for the "main role" of Asura.

Of course, that included Indra, but only if he stood on Asura's side.

To acknowledge Asura was to acknowledge Hagoromo himself. On this point, he would never compromise. But something didn't add up, he wouldn't make the tailed beasts feel threatened. The only person they would place their full trust in was him.

Masashi hadn't received much favor from Hagoromo. Strictly speaking, aside from some distant blood connection spanning who knows how many generations, he'd actually benefited more from the Ten-Tails in terms of bloodline.

But would that make him want to release Kaguya?

Better to focus on fighting the Kumo ninjas. War demands concentration.

He stopped dwelling on the matter and shifted his attention back to the battlefield in front of him. The remaining scattered Kumo ninjas had already been cleared out by the foreign mercenary forces.

As mercenaries surviving in the cracks between the major hidden villages, these foreign ninja might lack in strength, but they were often more resilient under pressure than regular village-trained ninjas. At least on the battlefield, they were a competent force.

Setting aside the size of their organization, the real difference between them and a hidden village was in the number of jonin.

But with Masashi present, that weakness no longer existed.

Not only could he personally take on top-tier Kumo ninjas one by one, he had also made a summoning pact with the giant snakes of Ryūchi Cave. These snakes were now coordinating with the mercenary forces.

As a result, the morale of the foreign forces was sky-high.

Faced with a Kumo ninja army far larger in number, they charged forward without fear.

The giant snakes served as the spearhead for breaking enemy lines. They chose to follow the Oto ninjas, with whom they had at least some familiarity, as their "navigators."

He lightly stomped the ground, and Kuro beneath him slithered forward, quickly catching up with and surpassing its kin ahead.

In front of Masashi, the Kumo ninjas had regrouped.

From their eyes, he saw fear, but they had no way to escape.

From the enemy's side, a laser-like attack came shooting toward him.

But Susanoo's armor had already enveloped Kuro's body, wrapping it tightly. The either bounced off or scattered like rain on stone.

Kuro let out an excited hiss.

It had been a long time since she fought alongside Masashi.

Sasuke was fun, and the snake liked him, but after all, it was a creature of Ryūchi Cave, and in her bones, she thirsted for blood.

The same could be said for the other giant snakes.

Now shielded by Masashi's technique, she charged straight into the ranks of the Kumo ninjas, crushing who knows how many along the way.

Large summoning beasts were a nightmare for all mid- to low-level ninjas.

Over a decade ago, when Orochimaru was still one of the Sannin, he had used the same method to block the Suna ninja army.

Now, the giant snakes rushed in one after another, and the makeshift defenses quickly crumbled under their assault.

The tide of defeat was obvious, there was no turning it back.

Under Masashi's command, Kuro lunged straight toward the cluster of Storm Release users in the Kumo ninja ranks. In a battle like this, he truly couldn't be bothered to go all out anymore.

The Susanoo "helm" was more than enough.

This wasn't arrogance, he had spent lifetimes acquiring this level of power. This kind of ease was something he had earned.

The Storm Release users watched the black snake charge at them like it was on drugs. They reflexively launched another volley of Storm Release techniques, only to find, again, that it was utterly useless. Without a word, they retreated.

Masashi responded by using Intelligent Hard Work.

In this terrain, Intelligent Hard Work was far more effective than Great Fire Annihilation.

The red flames didn't just consume a group of Storm Release users, thanks to the abundant fuel in the environment, they dragged even more Kumo ninjas into a sea of fire.

They screamed and howled in agony within the blaze. Compared to burning to death, they would've rather been crushed by the giant snakes.

The burning ninjas, now like human torches, ran around wildly, sparking even greater flames, so much so that they briefly disrupted the rhythm of the foreign mercenary forces' assault.

But this was only temporary.

The Intelligent Hard Work wasn't like the Great Fire Annihilation, which relied on continuous chakra output. Its advantage was that it was chakra-efficient, it started strong, but had little follow-through.

The foreign ninjas began using Water Release techniques to deal with the sea of fire.

Not to save anyone, they couldn't even get through themselves if the fire wasn't put out.

But then, the giant snakes surged forward all at once, demonstrating what true physical fire suppression looked like.

When Masashi had first launched the technique, the snakes didn't dare charge in, doing so would've just turned them into grilled snake.

But now, it was fine.

The foreign ninjas were stunned at first, then overjoyed. They followed the paths the snakes had plowed through the flames and pressed their attack.

With momentum on their side, the victory was exhilarating.

The Kumo ninja army had collapsed into a disorganized rout.

This was what it meant to be one of the Five Kage, to single-handedly shift the balance of the battlefield.

Masashi sat atop Kuro's head. The battle was decided. With no more high-level fighters to stop him, the Kumo forces could no longer prevent him from cutting through this ancient path into the heart of the Land of Lightning.

A shadow clone appeared beside him.

The clone gave the original a glance, then vanished in a flash using the Flying Thunder God Technique.

He had placed Flying Thunder God marks along the path. The shadow clone would now return at top speed to deliver intel and coordinate a coordinated assault by the Konoha forces stationed at the fortress.

He rolled up his sleeve, revealing a curse mark. He had actually thought carefully about where to place the curse mark.

At first, he subconsciously put it on his neck, but later realized that was stupid. Using the curse mark like that made it look like he had a stiff neck.

Which was an insult, he slept perfectly fine at night, thank you very much.

So later, he moved it to his arm. Much more reasonable to use it that way.

Right now, he wasn't trying to use tailed beast chakra, but instead to activate the second function of the curse mark.

Every channel was bidirectional.

The curse mark allowed him to draw chakra from the tailed beasts, but conversely, he could also send his own chakra back through the mark, establishing a link of consciousness.

A curse mark that could transmit consciousness could basically be used like a group chat. Fundamentally, his previous encounter with Hagoromo had also used a similar principle, a chakra-based connection.

If he didn't want to affect himself during battle, he could also simply send chakra like with a shadow clone, and then understand everything once it returned to him.

He patted Kuro's head, signaling it to slow down and not hog all the fun from its fellow snakes. Then Masashi began an immersive mental connection. It wasn't that he was being careless, the Kumo ninjas weren't even capable of breaking through his defenses.

He was just very curious. Excluding Matatabi, who he was already quite familiar with, what would it be like to meet the other three tailed beasts again?

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a familiar place.

"We meet again." A familiar voice, a familiar figure.

"Yeah," Masashi glanced around. This time, he didn't feel constrained at all, this space was entirely under his control.

This time, he was the uninvited guest.