"Lord Commander!" A ninja came before Onoki. "Should we advance?"
Onoki looked toward the Land of Rain, then back at the Allied Shinobi Forces behind him, unable to make a decision.
"Old man, can you even handle this? You're dragging your feet, if you can't do it, hand command over to me." Seeing Onoki silent for a long while, Kurotsuchi started shouting beside him. "Let me have a taste of being the Allied Forces Supreme Commander too."
A massive, pulsing vein marked Onoki's forehead in his mounting frustration. "You fool, this isn't a joke."
Thanks to Kurotsuchi's interruption, Onoki snapped out of it. He spoke toward the Kirigakure ninja's position. "Kirigakure, your ninjas are best at Hidden Mist Combat. Send your Kiri Hunter-Nin Unit to scout ahead."
The Kirigakure ninjas exchanged glances, clearly unwilling.
But before the Kiri Hunter-Nin Unit could react, the thick fog covering the Land of Rain began drifting slowly toward the Allied Shinobi Forces.
Deva Path Pain, standing on the tallest building in Amegakure, slowly extended both hands toward the Allied Shinobi Forces' location.
"Rain Tiger at Will Jutsu!"
A drizzling rain, accompanied by the fog, instantly enveloped the entire Allied Shinobi Forces.
Though the fog drastically reduced visibility, most ninjas managed to hold their ground.
"What's that? It's huge." One of the Allied ninjas pointed to a spot in the fog.
In the thick fog and drizzle, the figure of a giant seemed to materialize.
Nearby ninjas immediately went to check, but they found it wasn't a real giant, it was a giant made of clay.
With a pudgy body, it looked harmless.
'A Clay Giant?!' Only Onoki seemed to realize something, but by the time he wanted to warn them, it was too late.
Before the surrounding ninjas could examine it closely, a voice came from directly above: "Experience my art!"
A thunderous roar echoed from the sky!
The world went bright.
Like mushrooms sprouting from the ground, giants of the same size kept materializing near the Allied Shinobi Forces.
"Katsu!"
The Clay Giants exploded one after another. The Allied Shinobi Forces were like a target being bombed, just that one round caused heavy casualties.
'Ambushed?'
That was Onoki's first thought.
'There's a traitor among them!'
That was Onoki's second thought. Every move seen through, no one passing info would be strange.
"That, that sounded like Deidara Senpai's voice." Kurotsuchi tugged Onoki's sleeve.
"Don't worry about that punk," Onoki said irritably, quickly directing the troops. "Use Lightning Release, hurry up. These bombs are weak to Lightning Release."
The chain of explosions stunned the Allied Shinobi Forces, but they managed to organize. Hearing that the Clay Bombs were weak to Lightning Release, many Lightning Release ninjas spontaneously grouped up and fired Lightning Release jutsu at the Clay Bombs.
Result-
*Boom!*
This time, Deidara didn't even need to control them. The Clay Bombs exploded on contact with Lightning Release, and the power was several times greater than before.
"Hahaha, Idiot Old Geezer Onoki, my new 'Art' isn't afraid of Lightning Release. Lightning Release only makes them stronger!"
"Got you good?! Hahaha!"
Deidara's merciless taunt came from above Onoki, making him so mad his beard flew up.
No one noticed that in this chaos, a few people had vanished from the massive Allied Shinobi Forces: the Six-Tails Jinchuriki Utakata, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki Han, and the illegitimate son of the Land of Fire.
Deidara's taunt brought clay giants sprouting like weeds.
'When did that brat Deidara get this good?' Onoki thought, blasting apart clay giants with Particle Release. He'd remembered Deidara's clay bombs being strong, but not this ridiculous.
But even with Particle Release cutting through the clay giants, he was one man against bombs everywhere.
Now things were a mess. The ninja forces who'd been following orders were ignoring Onoki's commands completely, scattering and fleeing in every direction.
No Fourth Raikage. No Gaara. No Tsunade. Mei Terumi wasn't the Mizukage. They didn't even have Naruto, Killer Bee, Nara Shikaku, none of the elites. Onoki alone couldn't hold things together.
Even with the Daimyo's added strength, the current Allied Shinobi Forces was just a severely weakened version of the original.
To put it in Madara's words: a motley crew with numbers, nothing more.
Northeast Corner.
"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!" A swarm of puppets filled the sky like a dark cloud, densely packed.
Standing directly beneath them was Sasori, controlling Hiruko.
Worth noting: none of those hundreds of puppets in the sky had chakra threads attached.
These were all built from data Sasori obtained at Isshiki's base, modified into android puppets based on Nagato's technique for controlling the Six Paths of Pain.
No longer limited to traditional chakra thread control, they used remote control instead, with even greater flexibility than before.
Sasori called them, the Strongest Puppet Army.
The Puppet Army charged into the Allied Shinobi Forces like wolves into a flock of sheep, hundreds of them chasing tens of thousands of allied ninjas all over the place. Even the occasional resistance was instantly buried under a sea of puppets.
Northwest Corner.
"Sorry, this road is closed," Sasuke spoke coldly, his eyes shifting into the Mangekyo pattern.
"Susanoo!"
A true giant stood there, over a hundred meters tall, clad in samurai armor, holding the Yata Mirror in his left hand and the Totsuka Blade in his right.
*Slash*
Just one slash. One single slash from Sasuke's Susanoo easily tore the ground apart, killing countless ninjas on the spot.
The Allied Shinobi Forces immediately turned around and ran elsewhere.
Southeast Corner.
"Small nations have their dignity too." The speaker was the Land of Snow Daimyo, Doto Kazahana. He stood at the front wearing the latest Chakra Armor, the Land of Snow Forces behind him.
"Everyone, charge with me!"
Small nation ninjas were indeed no match for great nation ninjas, but their superior equipment made up for it. Even the improved Chakra Armor alone couldn't fully bridge the gap.
But.
"ROAR!" Matatabi's massive, burning body appeared on the battlefield.
Then came the One-Tail and the Seven-Tails.
In conventional ninja warfare, a single Tailed Beast could decide the outcome of a battle. Now three were fighting together.
Then came the Shiromari Lizard, as huge as a small mountain. Even ignoring the chakra surge it gave off, rivaling a Tailed Beast, simply shifting its body caused massive casualties.
And it didn't end there. Appearing alongside it was Satori, the Destroyer of the World!
Fourth Stage Satori!
Southwest Corner.
"Starting today, my prison will be getting more inmates." Standing beside Doto Kazahana was Hozuki Castle's City Lord, Mui, with the Fuma Clan ninjas behind him.
Then came the Land of Demons, the Land of Waterfall, and many other small nations.
If all this was still within acceptable limits and the Allied Forces could still organize a counterattack, then the Sunagakure defection was the final blow that shattered the Allied Shinobi Forces' defense line.
"Sunagakure!"
Rasa shouted as he ripped the Allied Shinobi Forces forehead protector off his head, then attacked the ninjas beside him.
"Magnet Release. Gold Dust Wave!"
Golden sand instantly engulfed the Allied ninjas in front of him.
"Follow me. Kill!"
"Yes!"
The Sunagakure ninjas behind him had been ready for this all along. At Rasa's command, they tore off their Allied Shinobi forehead protectors and turned their weapons on the Allied Forces.
One blow after another collapsed the front lines. The rear began to destabilize as well.
In terms of basic combat strength, the Allied Shinobi Forces held an absolute advantage, but their elite power was severely lacking. With the Suna's betrayal, only the three great villages of Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri remained. Kiri was half-crippled. Kumo was even worse off than the Kiri. And while Iwa had been beaten down by Nagato, at least their losses weren't heavy.
If the Allied Shinobi Forces had been united in heart, they could theoretically have won using a human wave tactic.
After all, many ants can bite an elephant to death.
As long as there was no out-of-spec existence like Madara Uchiha, Hashirama Senju, or someone at the Six Paths level, even the strongest ninja would be worn down by an endless tide of ordinary ninjas.
But that was all just theory.
Right now, there was no scene like in the original storyline during the Fourth Great Ninja War, where Naruto in his Golden Form applied buffs and boosted morale for everyone.
They were scared out of their wits. Don't expect ninjas to have that high a standard. These guys are human at their core.
And humans get scared.
There's strength in numbers, but sometimes too many people isn't necessarily a good thing.
A person is smart, but a group is stupid. When things get dangerous, they turn into panicked animals.
That's human nature.
"Grandpa, what are you doing?" Kurotsuchi asked in surprise, looking at Onoki who had run to the rear. "Not fighting on the front lines, but searching for something here?"
'Fight? Fight with what?'
Did she expect him to throw her at the enemy so she could use a honey trap to make them surrender?
"What am I doing?" Onoki pulled out a sealing scroll and released the seal. Inside were a large number of Iwa headbands.
Then, just like Rasa, he tore off the Allied Shinobi Forces headband from his head and put on an Iwa headband instead. "Changing sides, of course."
Next, Onoki floated into the air, pointed at the lost Allied ninjas all around, and shouted loudly, "All Iwagakure ninjas, hear me! Follow me and slaughter these evil scoundrels trying to start a war."
'Changing sides right here?'
"I already prepared for this," Onoki muttered under his breath, turning a vicious gaze toward the direction of the Samurais, Nobles and Daimyos headquarters.
"Those damned bastards never intended to support us. Where are the promised armies? Where are the promised samurai?"
The only ones who came here were the ninja forces. As for the soldiers and samurai, they were nothing but an empty promise.
Not to mention that if they sent everyone out, who would protect their safety? Ninjas are consumables, it doesn't matter how many die, and it's best if they all die.
"Even at this point, they're still thinking about eliminating dissidents. If you show no mercy, don't blame me for showing no loyalty."
"Huh? Grandpa, we're not fighting anymore?" Kurotsuchi blinked at Onoki, tilting her head innocently.
"Not fighting!"
'What the hell were they even supposed to fight? Could they even win?'
"Okay! Hehehe." Kurotsuchi giggled, then shouted over her shoulder, "Then I'm going to find Deidara Senpai!"
"Damn it! Don't go looking for that brat!" Onoki's beard bristled with rage as his granddaughter chased after his worthless disciple again. He barked after her, "Get back here! Get back!"
But Kurotsuchi had already darted off toward Deidara's position.
"Damn you!"
===============
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