HGBW: Ch. 132

"The Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets!"

Chiyo took the lead, unrolling a scroll and summoning ten formidable puppets that once shook the ninja world.

Her fingers danced swiftly, chakra threads connecting to all ten puppets that shot into the sky. With just her alone, she controlled ten puppets, slicing through lightning-infused torrents of water, breaking them apart.

She cleared the path for the Suna ninjas' swift advance, carving out a direct route forward. And Ebizō moved like a shadow, keeping pace with Chiyo.

However, unlike her, he was no puppet master. He was a Kage-level ninja specializing in Wind Release.

A technique that wasn't even classified as an A-rank jutsu, when performed by him, tore through the battlefield like a passing storm. With the force of an autumn wind scattering fallen leaves, he dispersed the raging waters and severed the lightning.

Swish, swish, swish—

As the two elders made their move, thousands of Suna ninjas also burst forward. They weaved through the kunai rain thrown by the Konoha ninjas, evading the explosive tags scattered across the ground, and charged toward their enemies.

As the distance between both sides closed, before the Konoha ninjas could form hand seals to launch another wave of jutsu, the Suna ninjas all threw the poison bombs they had been holding in their hands.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Thousands of poison bombs hit the ground, erupting into thick, purple toxic mist that rapidly spread in all directions. Not even the wind and rain could dispel it; instead, they carried the poison further, turning it into a deadly shroud that engulfed the Konoha ninjas.

The proximity was so close that even some Suna ninjas were swallowed by the expanding poison mist.

However, they remained unfazed.

A ninja who uses poison was naturally adept at countering it.

Before the battle, every Suna ninja had placed an antidote pill under their tongue. As they breathed in the toxic mist, their bodies remained unaffected.

"Something's not right." Seeing the rolling poison fog envelop nearly all the Konoha ninjas, Chiyo didn't feel the joy of victory—her brows furrowed instead.

Both she and Tsunade had fought numerous times before. They understood each other well. Just as she knew Konoha, Tsunade was equally familiar with the Suna.

Though the Suna ninjas selected for this battle were all skilled in Wind Body Flicker, allowing them to move as swiftly as the wind, the Konoha ninjas were not weaklings either.

While civilian ninjas might be overwhelmed in an instant, clan-born Konoha ninjas would not be so easily caught. Against a ninja clan's elite, even a Suna jonin would struggle to close the distance without a prolonged back-and-forth chase.

Some of Konoha's strongest could even outrun Suna jonin in speed. Otherwise, how could Konoha have defeated multiple great ninja villages in the past?

Not only that, but in every previous war, Konoha had managed to crush its enemies despite being outnumbered.

This is going too smoothly. It feels like they are just standing there, waiting for us to get close. A bad premonition crept into Ebizō's heart.

His strategy had been straightforward—first, a rapid advance to break through Konoha's long-range jutsu formation, then using poison mist to cripple them on a large scale before carving through their ranks.

There should have been nothing wrong with this plan.

Without the White Fang, he believed Konoha's only logical move should be to keep their distance from Suna's forces.

However, Tsunade hadn't done that. Instead, she allowed them to get dangerously close. The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.

Could it be that after losing the White Fang, Konoha has forged an even sharper blade? It seemed that Chiyo had the same thought.

Boom!

A deafening thunderclap roared from within the rolling poison mist, shaking the battlefield. A blade crackling with brilliant lightning emerged, its edge dazzlingly sharp, illuminating the entire warzone.

The thick, purple, foul-smelling poison mist was suddenly sliced apart by the blade that had been unsheathed in a flash, radiating a brilliant white light.

The vast, torrential rain that covered the sky was torn apart by a thunder beast, its gaping maw lined with lightning-forged fangs of gleaming white.

A sudden, thunderous blade cry.

A white lightning blade descending from the heavens.

In an instant, it became the center of attention for both Konoha and Suna.

"White Fang!"

Every Suna ninja who had participated in the Second Great Ninja War, and every Konoha ninja who had fought in the same era, instantly froze at the sound of that resounding thunderous blade. When they saw the blade cutting through the battlefield, they all gasped in shock.

"White Fang!"

Chiyo, who was controlling ten puppets with chakra threads, stood across from Tsunade.

The moment her peripheral vision caught sight of that all-too-familiar sword, once again pointed at Suna, her heart trembled despite the hatred she bore for Sakumo.

Her spirit wavered, and her battle aura weakened in an instant.

If even Suna's greatest puppet master was affected like this, there was no need to mention the others.

A person's name carried its own shadow.

Had more years passed, perhaps by the time of the Third Great Ninja War, the ninja world would have gradually forgotten about the Second War and the legend of the White Fang that once dominated the battlefield.

But now, aside from Konoha, the other villages had only just learned that Sakumo had taken his own life.

There was no way they could have forgotten about the white fang that once loomed over their throats during the Second War.

Especially Suna.

More than half of the Suna ninjas on this battlefield had fought in the previous war. They had personally witnessed the white-haired man wielding a blade that gleamed like white lightning, rampaging like a ferocious thunder beast, tearing through Suna's ranks with his fangs.

It had not been long enough for them to forget the fear that Konoha's White Fang had once instilled in them.

Especially now.

Before the battle, Chiyo had repeatedly emphasized that Sakumo was dead, temporarily suppressing Suna's fear. Yet now, the White Fang that was supposed to have been broken by Konoha itself was once again gleaming on the battlefield.

How could Suna not be shaken?

How could their morale not waver?

Swish, swish, swish—

At this moment, a battlefield that should have been filled with the roars of jutsu, the clashing of blades, and the cries of ninjas, suddenly fell into an eerie silence. Nearly all the Suna ninjas made the same instinctive decision in an instant.

They retreated.

On the surface, it looked like they were pulling back to create distance from their Konoha adversaries.

But in reality, that distance was meant for the nightmare-like figure they remembered all too well.

And it wasn't just the Suna ninjas who were shaken. Even the Konoha ninjas were stunned.

It's exactly the same. Aside from the shape and length of the blade, everything else is identical.

It didn't matter whether they were from the Uchiha, the Ino-Shika-Chō trio, the Hyūga clan, or just ordinary civilian-born Konoha ninjas.

Aside from Tsunade and Hizashi, who had already known the truth, every Konoha ninja's eyes were locked onto the battlefield, staring in shock at the White Fang that had just run a Suna jonin through.

This scene—it was far too familiar.

Among the Konoha jonin, there was almost no one who didn't recognize this blade. But they all knew, without a doubt, that Sakumo had truly taken his own life.

Which meant that their shock came from something else. Someone in Konoha had inherited Sakumo's swordsmanship. And that person was someone they all knew very well.