Starting with the Uchiha clan, they began cultivating demonic arts.

Chapter 40 The New Situation

Sakumo Hatake's White Fang Sword Technique inherently incorporates techniques of both wind and lightning chakra nature transformation, with lightning chakra nature transformation being the primary focus. In the past, Touya Uchiha also specialized in lightning nature transformation.

It wasn't until this period, with the possession training of Hatake Sakumo and the dedicated contributions of more than 20 Sand Ninja souls, that Uchiha Tou's Wind Release Chakra Nature Transformation caught up with the Lightning Release level, allowing him to unleash the White Fang Blade Technique at its peak.

In the White Fang Blade Technique, the wind-style chakra nature transformation has two uses. One is to wrap around the body to form an airflow, eliminating air resistance, reducing sound and increasing speed. The other is the long-range sword aura attack that Uchiha Hiu just used, which is almost like a flying slash.

This long-range sword aura attack is no less powerful than the B-rank Wind Slicer Technique, but it does not require hand seals in battle. It can be used simply by swinging the sword lightly. It is precisely because of the sword aura that the shortcomings of long-range attacks are made up for, which is why Hatake Sakumo's White Fang Sword Technique has truly reached its peak and become invincible.

The Iwa ninja squad leader on the opposite side was first bewildered by Uchiha Touyu's greatly improved Sharingan genjutsu, and was stunned for a second or two before being directly cut in half by the sword energy.

On the contrary, the other three injured ninjas, because they did not look directly at the Sharingan, were forced to scramble their hands by the sword energy that Hiyu used without hand seals, but they still managed to barely dodge the attack.

"Captain! Damn it!"

The tall Iwa ninja roared, but his two other Iwa ninja brothers grabbed his left and right arms:

"Don't be impulsive, we have no chance of winning! Besides, this mission has already failed, and Konoha's reinforcements will be here soon!"

"Damn Uchiha... just you wait!"

The tall Iwa ninja, his expression filled with resentment, issued a threat that sounded like "Don't run away after school," before finally retreating with the two Iwa ninja brothers.

Uchiha Touyu glanced at the chasm on the ground and ultimately did not continue the pursuit. However, the entire perimeter of Konoha was in chaos at this moment, and his keen senses even detected a number of battles taking place.

"It seems that the Iwa ninja sent more than just this one team for this raid, but with my signal, I don't think they'll gain much advantage."

While speculating about the situation, Uchiha Touyu reached out and took the soul of the Iwa ninja squad leader into his pocket.

Indeed, after a brief period of commotion, the battle near the Konoha camp subsided, and Uchiha Touyu soon met Orochimaru.

"Feiyu-kun, we really owe you a lot this time."

Orochimaru, with a hint of anger in his expression, thanked Uchiha Touyu.

"It's nothing, it's just a coincidence. These guys happen to be very close to my training ground... What's going on? Have the Iwa ninja declared war on us too?"

Orochimaru's expression turned cold, and a hint of anger flashed in his eyes:

"I just received an urgent summoning jutsu—a declaration of war from Iwagakure, delivered to Konoha. Heh, that old man Onoki really knows how to play the game, launching a surprise attack and declaring war at the same time. That old devil loves playing these underhanded tricks!"

"How many people did they send? What is their strength?"

Uchiha Touyu ignored Onoki's tricks. To be honest, breaking contracts and launching wars without declaration is commonplace in the entire ninja world. Onoki's combination of a surprise attack and a declaration of war is child's play. The Sand Village will play even more elaborate tricks during the Chunin Exams. Touyu is only concerned about the strength of the Iwagakure Village right now.

"We don't know the exact size of the main force, but the raiding team consisted of five groups, totaling twenty people, all of whom were at least at the Special Jonin level!"

"These ninjas are either proficient in earth-movement techniques or possess extensive camouflage techniques, which allows them to infiltrate such close locations. If a surprise attack succeeds, the losses will certainly be substantial."

A 20-person team raiding a camp of several thousand people sounds like a joke, but if each person is at least a Special Jonin, then it's not something to be underestimated.

Ninjas are like glass cannons with high attack and paper defense. Jonin-level ninjas almost all have wide-range destructive ninjutsu. In a sudden outburst, a set of combined ninjutsu can take away thousands of lives in a large camp.

While the Konoha camp might not be severely weakened, it would certainly be seriously injured.

Uchiha Touyu wasn't too concerned about Iwagakure's failed scheme; he was more concerned that Iwagakure had now directly declared war on Konoha.

"Are the Iwa ninja also preparing to go to war with Konoha? So now we're fighting two against one?"

"That's right... However, the battlefield in the Land of Rivers should only be a secondary battlefield for the Iwa ninja; they won't commit too many ninjas here."

Uchiha Touyu nodded to indicate that he understood. The Land of Rivers already had a large number of ninjas from Konoha and Sand Village. If the Iwa Village also sent a large army, it would probably be a repeat of the events that occurred in the Land of Rain during World War II.

During the Second Shinobi World War, Konoha, Iwagakure, Sunagakure, and Amegakure all gathered in the small Land of Rain. They fought to the death, and in the end, none of the four sides came out on top. All of them suffered heavy losses or even near annihilation.

This is because no ninja village trusts the other ninja villages. Iwa and Sunagakure are unlikely to truly join forces to attack Konoha. Instead, they will treat each other as hostile targets, at most with a slightly lower priority than Konoha in battle. Therefore, the sum of the two sides is actually less than the sum of its parts.

In this situation, dividing the battlefield and attacking Konoha simultaneously is actually the best option for these ninja villages that want to cut off Konoha's resources.

That being said, while things were alright in the early stages of each Shinobi World War's siege of Konoha, the strategy always turned into chaos in the later stages, turning into a chaotic war. The hatred between the various ninja villages, their suspicion of other ninja villages, their greed to weaken other ninja villages and monopolize the fruits of victory, and the scheming and sowing of discord between ninja villages would always cause other ninja villages to fight each other to the death.

"The Iwagakure ninjas sent shouldn't number more than a thousand. Their main objective is probably to put pressure on us, launch attacks from multiple directions, and tie down Konoha's forces."

"Unfortunately, even knowing this, we still need to increase our reinforcements and make sure we are absolutely prepared."

Orochimaru calmly analyzed the situation, but he still needed to request reinforcements. As long as the Iwa ninja maintained their forces on the battlefield in the Land of Rivers, they could not afford to underestimate them.

Ninjas are inherently skilled at deception. While these guys may have a terrible strategic plan, their tactics should not be underestimated. They might just switch from a defensive posture to a main offensive, bringing in a large number of elite troops to crush our lines.

(End of this chapter)