After dealing with a group of Grass Ninja Village higher-ups, including the village leader himself, Uzumaki Kasui stopped her continued assault.
She looked at the Grass ninja corpses lying all around, a complicated expression appearing on her face.
The pain and hatred that had once filled her chest, washed away by blood and water, gradually turned into calm at this very moment.
She turned around and looked at Aoba, who was also watching her. After a flash of surprise, she broke into a brilliant smile.
'Is he worried about how I am feeling after taking my revenge?'
'Aoba really is a very gentle person.'
Aoba was slightly stunned by Uzumaki Kasui's sudden smile. Right after that, he jumped down from above, with Tsunade following closely behind.
"Aunt Kasui, is it enough now?"
"Yes, it's enough," Uzumaki Kasui nodded with a gentle smile.
Now that her revenge was complete, from here on, she… and Karin would really have to think carefully about how to repay Aoba.
As she thought that, her gaze couldn't help but drift to Karin beside her, who had also stopped moving and was looking at her.
She didn't know what she thought of, but the tips of her ears couldn't help turning a little red.
"Then what do you and Karin think about the remaining Grass ninja?"
Aoba continued asking. He had noticed the slightly unnatural look on Uzumaki Kasui's face when she looked at Karin, but without mind-reading, how could he know what she was thinking.
He simply assumed she was considering Karin's feelings.
"Everything will be according to your arrangements, Aoba," Uzumaki Kasui answered softly.
It wasn't like the three of them could just kill all these people. The Grass Ninja Village might not be big, but with ninja plus civilians, there were still several thousand people. Even if it were several thousand pigs, killing them all would be exhausting.
"Me too, I'll listen to Aoba-nii's arrangements."
Karin also spoke up.
"Then what about Kushina-nee?"
Aoba looked toward Kushina, who seemed a bit depressed.
"This body is really too useless."
Kushina complained gloomily. Earlier, when they were fighting, Karin and Uzumaki Kasui could take down one enemy per move, while she had to struggle for ages.
"Since Karin and Kasui-nee both agree, let's leave it like this for now."
Aoba respected their wishes and continued, "Then let's head to Hozuki Castle now. The pressure over there should be pretty heavy."
"Huh? Then there are still so many Grass ninja here. We're just not going to deal with them?", Tsunade asked in confusion.
She had seen earlier that Aoba hadn't killed everyone directly, but had instead used Wood Release to restrain them.
"Yeah. Taking out one batch as a warning example is enough. I'll leave two Wood clones behind to maintain stability. We didn't bring many people, so we can't directly control the entire Land of Grass all at once. It's better to temporarily maintain the original system."
Even though Uzumaki Kasui and Karin had let go, Aoba had no intention of simply letting the Grass Ninja Village off.
After all, most of the Grass ninja were a restless bunch. The high-end combat power couldn't be kept and could be used as a warning. The remaining mid and low-level ninja and civilians could be used as labor to develop the original regions of the Land of Grass.
"As long as you know what you're doing," After hearing Aoba's explanation, Tsunade didn't ask any more questions.
Aoba immediately used Wood Clone, then sensed the Flying Thunder God marks on Naruto, Sasuke, and the others, and vanished from the spot together with Tsunade and the rest.
After they disappeared, the two remaining Wood clones exchanged a glance. One of them immediately formed hand seals.
The sea of trees that had bound the entire Grass Ninja Village gradually loosened its control, allowing the people who had been restrained to move freely again.
Then the other clone used chakra, causing its voice to echo through the forest of trees.
It ordered everyone in the Grass Ninja Village to gather in the central area.
Most of the civilians, recalling the despair they had felt while being restrained earlier, hesitated briefly. When they saw the surrounding trees start to move again, they hurriedly scrambled and crawled toward the central area.
Of course, a small number of people who thought their strength was decent didn't take it seriously and tried to escape outward, only to be impaled by suddenly growing trees, turning into hedgehogs.
After that warning, no one dared make any more small moves.
As for that clueless, fat-faced envoy of the Land of Grass's daimyo, after being released, he immediately ran out to question Konoha's actions.
He kept going on about relations between the two nations' daimyo and the like, and was promptly strangled to death by the Wood clone together with the few remaining Grass jonin.
Seeing this, the remaining people of the Grass Ninja Village dared not say anything more.
The Wood clone then began arranging for this group to carry out the reconstruction of the Grass Ninja Village.
———
On the other side, inside Hozuki Castle, it was complete chaos.
Kakashi, Might Guy, and Naruto and Sasuke weren't weak, but it was clearly impossible for them to end the battle as quickly as Aoba's group.
Although Yamato could also use Wood Release, he couldn't reach Aoba's level.
So Hozuki Castle fell into a prolonged battle. Although the situation was one-sided, it couldn't be resolved immediately.
Naruto, Lee, and Might Guy, who had opened the first two Gates of the Eight Gates, could wipe out large groups of fodder enemies with every punch and kick. Yamato's Wood Release and Aburame Torune's Rinkaichu could also deal with quite a few, but the problem was that Hozuki Castle had too much fodder.
Not only had they entered a state of preparation after learning about the declaration of war, they were also driving the prisoners held here to attack the group. For a time, the stream of enemies really was endless.
The group kept clearing wave after wave of cannon fodder, like they were playing some kind of musou-style mowing game.
On the other side, Sasuke and Kakashi were exchanging techniques with Hozuki Castle's warden, Mui, and several masked elders.
The two of them unleashed Fire Release together, violent, blazing flames turning into fire dragons that crushed toward Mui and the others.
Meanwhile, the ninjutsu used by Mui's side was far more chaotic.
The animal-masked elders used Water Release, Earth Release, Wind Release, and Fire Release. In short, it was a complete mess.
They would even negatively interfere with their own allies' techniques.
After all, the Grass Ninja Village was a ninja village without its own original ninjutsu. They basically absorbed techniques from other villages and made them their own.
The only reason they could barely hold on against the Fire Release of Kakashi and Sasuke was because Mui, the warden, was carrying the fight.
Mui's strength was clearly in the top tier within the Land of Grass, far surpassing the Grass Ninja Village leader by more than one level.
It was only because of factional differences that he had ended up as the warden of Hozuki Castle.
And the technique he was using was his proudest one—
Fire Release: Great Fire Heavenly Prison!
Crimson chakra turned into chains, flying out from his palm along his five fingers.
They tangled with the fire dragons released by Kakashi and Sasuke.
This could be considered a low-end version of Adamantine Sealing Chains. When this technique was implanted into another person's body, it could restrain the target's internal chakra, preventing them from using ninjutsu.
If they tried to escape, the Heavenly Prison curse would turn into flaming chains, burning the offender's body.
Moreover, straying too far from the caster would also result in death by burning. It was ineffective in water, and became invalid if the caster died.
This was also why the various nations of the ninja world had commissioned the Grass Ninja Village to establish such a specialized prison for detaining criminal ninja.
In the movie, even Naruto couldn't break this restriction.
Later on, it was even used to restrain the out-of-control monster "Satori" that emerged from the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
But now, with the arrival of Aoba and the others, the situation on the scene was clearly broken.
Tsunade, who had had no chance to act back in the Grass Ninja Village, immediately noticed Mui as the key figure.
Taking advantage of the fact that he was in the middle of using a technique and hadn't noticed their sudden appearance, she directly used Body Flicker to appear behind him.
Boom!
"Ah!"
Mui was struck by her fist, and his scream rang out together with the sound of bones shattering.
His body flew like a cannonball, slamming into the ground and rolling more than ten times before stopping, lying in a pool of blood, his entire body covered in gore.
His face was deathly pale as he struggled painfully a couple of times, but the severity of his injuries left him unable to move for the moment.
The only reason he hadn't died on the spot was purely because Tsunade had held back.
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