Time ticked by, minute by minute, until finally, the agreed-upon time with Hidden Stone Village arrived. Mugen and Xiang Yan's shadow clones immediately directed the Hidden Grass Village army to attack another defense line of Konoha from the flank.
In reality, Hidden Grass Village did not conceal its movements, so Konoha had already begun to reallocate manpower to this side in advance to strengthen their defenses.
This was because the Hidden Stone Village's forces were still within the Land of Grass at this time, and their current direction of advance was not this way. Ōnoki did this to mislead Konoha's ninjas, preventing them from finding the specific attack target of Hidden Stone Village.
Then, once they reached the agreed time with Hidden Grass Village, Ōnoki would select a small number of fast-moving ninjas to act as vanguards. After Konoha's ninjas on this side were attracted by the Hidden Grass Village's forces, Hidden Stone would leverage their superior military strength, targeting weak points in Konoha's defenses to seize their strongholds!
Then, they would cooperate with the follow-up troops to drive Konoha's ninjas out of this battle line, seizing a foothold for Hidden Stone Village within the Land of Fire!
In this process, Hidden Grass Village's mission was the most important. Their existence could both conceal Hidden Stone Village's movements and attract Konoha's ninjas. That's why Ōnoki so readily handed over those two secret techniques.
At this time, the ninjas of Hidden Grass Village had already lined up, charging with full force at Konoha's defense line.
Konoha's manpower on this side seemed somewhat insufficient in both quantity and quality, so they could only continuously reallocate personnel from the rear to this side to reinforce their defenses when facing the charge of the Hidden Grass Village army. The result of doing so was that gaps appeared in their defense lines elsewhere.
Because this time it wasn't about directly killing Konoha's ninjas like before, the Hidden Grass ninjas were divided into six combat units. Each unit fought for one hour, then retreated to rest, and another unit would replace them. These six units alternated like waves, continuously impacting Konoha's defenses.
Under normal circumstances, even if they were attacked on this side, Konoha's ninjas could only continuously draw manpower from the rear. After all, their side was not the main battlefield and was not equipped with too much manpower at the beginning.
In the assault, on the main battlefield, which was Shino Aburame's side, support would arrive in time.
However, in the previous battles, Shino Aburame's losses were too great, and their energy was also drawn by their comrades trapped on the front lines. This prevented them from discovering Hidden Grass Village's movements in time.
Although Konoha's ninjas on this side had already sent out intelligence after discovering Hidden Grass Village's movements, they still needed some time for support to arrive. They could only continuously add manpower to avoid their defense line being completely destroyed before reinforcements arrived.
High-intensity battle roughly lasted for about twenty hours. Both Hidden Grass and Konoha were already utterly exhausted.
Even if Hidden Grass had six units that could take turns attacking, Konoha could still rely on strongholds for defense. On the battlefield, if they didn't resort to desperate measures and in the absence of siege weapons, the result of a strong attack on a stronghold would only be a continuous stalemate.
It was like the previous battle where Mugen almost sacrificed all of Hidden Grass Village's siege weapons to lure out Konoha's ninjas and turn the battlefield into a meat grinder.
Fortunately, their mission was almost complete at this time.
Under the rapid assault, the vanguard of Hidden Stone Village had already reached the battlefield. They accurately found Konoha's weak defensive points and directly launched an attack!
The sudden intrusion caught Konoha off guard. The average number of people they had left in their rear strongholds was only a dozen or twenty. This small force of reserve ninjas could still play some role, but when they faced several hundred elite vanguard troops, it became quite difficult for them.
Ōnoki was not among the vanguard of Hidden Stone Village. He was still in the rear stronghold, and as a Kage, he naturally wouldn't appear so easily on the battlefield. After the information of his appearance on the battlefield had been sent out, if he still acted arbitrarily and loudly, what awaited him would surely be the full force of enemy ninja villages trying to kill him!
Several hundred vanguard troops from Hidden Stone Village targeted the smallest stronghold with the fewest people. This stronghold only had about ten defenders, and it didn't have any large defensive barriers. The Hidden Stone ninjas spent a little time and took it down, gaining the first foothold for their village.
But this speed was actually very common compared to Hidden Stone Village's past. Before the Third Great Ninja War, Hidden Stone Village's most擅长 type of battle was a siege against large strongholds. Their unique Explosion Release Bloodline Limit could easily destroy sturdy city walls and break through any obstacles. No matter how solid a fortress stronghold was, it could not withstand the attack of Explosion Release ninjas!
It's just that with the passage of time, the Hidden Stone Village's Explosion Release Bloodline has slowly disappeared from history. Their proud Explosion Release unit has also vanished into the long river of time. Perhaps Deidara, who has now joined Akatsuki, is the only remaining bloodline of Explosion Release.
But no matter what, even without Explosion Release, the ninjas of Hidden Stone Village are still very skilled at siege warfare. They quickly launched an attack on Konoha's strongholds and, relying on their rich experience, captured another stronghold.
With Hidden Grass's attack from the front and Hidden Stone's sneak attack from the rear, Konoha's ninjas, caught between two enemies, quickly determined that this battle would inevitably end in failure. This led the Jonin in charge of this defense line to quickly decide to abandon it.
He evacuated all remaining Konoha ninjas to the defense line behind the rear stronghold, preserving their living forces to the maximum extent. Of course, this was also because the Land of Fire's territory was very vast, enough to support their method of exchanging space for time.
As Konoha's ninjas withdrew, the bulk of Hidden Grass Village's army, arriving before Hidden Stone Village's ninjas, stormed the stronghold and looted it thoroughly. Under Mugen's command, they dismantled everything that could be taken away.
Mere fear alone was not enough to make Hidden Grass continuously obedient. Only by letting them see the benefits, under the dual pressures of fear and profit, could this group of people completely transform into wild beasts, disregarding death appearing around them and fighting until their last drop of blood was shed on the battlefield.
Later, the Hidden Stone Village ninjas who arrived had some minor conflicts with Hidden Grass due to the spoils of war. Fortunately, neither side continued to escalate the conflict, meaning they quickly separated and returned to their respective positions.
Mugen very generously distributed all the spoils that Hidden Grass had plundered to them, which was met with a cheer. At this point, Ōnoki's commission was completely fulfilled.
Mugen then checked the intelligence secretly sent by Hidden Grass Village, which showed that...
The ninjas of Hidden Sand Village had already established a firm foothold in Kikyo Mountain Castle. They were relying on this sturdy fortress to play a game of attrition against Kakashi and the Konoha ninjas he led. However, if Konoha did not continue to invest manpower there and drive them out as quickly as possible, then after Kikyo Mountain Castle was fully repaired by the Hidden Sand ninjas, it would not be so easy for Konoha to drive them away.
The Hidden Stone Village's troops, with Mugen's help, had successfully entered the Land of Fire's territory. Although there were no large defensive strongholds here, Mugen believed that as masters of Earth Style, they would soon transform this place into something that would give Konoha an immense headache.
Especially since Ōnoki was also here. As a Tsuchikage, in addition to providing combat support, he could also provide many intangible things, such as morale, supplies, and command. All the good things would prioritize this side.
Hidden Cloud Village was still playing the old-fashioned ninja war game with Asuma. They fought a whole day without a single death.
Hidden Mist Village, on the other hand, had completely stopped moving. They and Hyuga Hinata's small unit had abandoned the game of attrition and were just waiting there.
Mugen wasn't too concerned whether Hidden Mist and Konoha fought or not; after all, he wasn't there to destroy Konoha.
But it wasn't good for Hidden Mist to just stand by and watch. The same applied to Hidden Cloud and Hidden Sand. They would eventually have to find someone to fight.
After Ōnoki's commission was completed, Mugen and Xiang Yan's main bodies also returned to this side, taking over the command from their shadow clones.
Hidden Grass had sacrificed nearly a hundred people in this operation. After all, if the pressure they applied wasn't great enough, Konoha wouldn't have diverted personnel for support.
However, this loss was insignificant to Mugen.
Mugen was contemplating his next move. Ōnoki had already entered the Land of Fire. As the Tsuchikage, he would put great pressure on Konoha. Jiraiya, who was right next to him, surely couldn't just stand by and watch either. If things went wrong, he would have to directly confront Ōnoki.
No, it should be said that Jiraiya would certainly come to this side to defend against Ōnoki.
Given this, Mugen pondered for a moment, then decided to have the Hidden Grass ninjas avoid Jiraiya.
If his predictions were correct, Konoha had received intelligence reports of the sneak attack and Hidden Stone's entry into the Land of Fire. His mood would certainly not be good right now. If this group of Hidden Grass ninjas ran into him, Jiraiya might just wipe them all out.
The lives of the Hidden Grass ninjas were irrelevant, but after that, Mugen would have no one to use.
It wasn't yet time for Hidden Grass Village to withdraw from the field. He naturally couldn't let such a thing happen. So, he led the large army of Hidden Grass Village to bypass the possible routes Jiraiya might take, returning to the territory of the Land of Grass, then from the Land of Grass back to their original direction of attack, which was Shino Aburame's location.
And indeed, it did not exceed Mugen's expectations. Jiraiya had indeed already left the area. To prevent Ōnoki from advancing further, he had no choice but to lead his troops to stand in front of the opponent.
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