They're promoting the "Konoha threat" theory, and spouting nonsense about the Hidden

Chapter 261 The Final Battle Begins!

Outside Konoha Village, the sun blazed fiercely.

It was May, and although summer had not yet arrived, the world seemed to feel the intense heat outside Konoha Village. The blazing sun made all the ninjas present sweat profusely.

Even so, no one dared to wipe the sweat from their foreheads; they remained in perfect military formation, looking at each other with serious expressions.

The elites of the five great ninja villages have gathered here today to decide, in one fell swoop, whether Konoha will still have a place among the five great ninja villages in the ninja world.

Before the Konoha army formation, standing from front to back were a series of Konoha's elite high-ranking officials, including Danzo Shimura, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Michiko Uzumaki (the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki), Hachiro Uchiha (the new head of the Uchiha clan), Hiashi Hyuga, and the Ino-Shika-Cho clan leaders.

Aside from these elite ninjas, there was nothing particularly flashy; behind and to the sides were large numbers of Konoha ninjas.

With Hozuki Shingetsu present at the front lines of the anti-Konoha alliance, there was no shortage of fancy tricks.

Before the anti-Konoha alliance's army formation, two flags stood tall on the left and right sides.

On the left flag were the words "Mourning the People" in large characters, and on the right flag were the words "Punishment for Crimes" in large characters.

Behind the banner were even bundles of explosive tags made into "salutes." After nine salutes, the leaders of the four ninja villages finally arrived, standing under the "Mourning the People and Punishing the Wrongdoers" banner, quietly watching the Konoha army.

Looking at Hozuki Shingetsu's elaborate setup, Tsunade couldn't help but twitch her eyebrows. She wished she could just use a ninjutsu to shoot down those two flags right now, but after thinking about it, she ultimately maintained her elegant image in front of the two armies.

"Konoha truly lives up to its name... Even in this situation, with someone like Danzo Shimura in power, they can still maintain this level of skill among their ninja... The last great war was definitely not a bad loss!"

After taking in the Konoha army's formation, Onoki felt a deep sense of bitterness that was hard to describe.

People say that the land of Iwagakure has no soil for individual heroism, and especially love to promote various collectivist tactics among ninjas, but is that what Onoki wants?

There's really no other way, you know?

Everyone knows that the best way to train ninjas, who possess extraordinary powers, is to make them elites. But Iwagakure simply doesn't have that ability, you know?

Do you think everyone is like Konoha, with countless bloodline limit holders, secret ninja clans, and the Land of Fire's abundant military support?

If Iwagakure hadn't used this collectivism to deceive and build, it's hard to say whether Iwagakure would have achieved its current status!

Therefore, when he saw that Konoha was still able to put up such a formation even under these circumstances, his heart felt like it was being scratched by a cat, and he wanted to take all of this to Iwagakure.

The other village leaders naturally shared the same idea, so under everyone's watchful eyes, Hozuki Shingetsu, the alliance leader, took the lead and stepped forward.

"Based on the principles of peace in the ninja world and respect for our close friendship, if Konoha allows our allied forces to enter the village to search for the missing Kumo ninja, then we might as well lay down our weapons."

"Rest assured, once our allied forces enter Konoha Village, we guarantee we will not commit any offenses; we will only search for people, not cause any damage!"

"Personally, I think this is a very good choice for Konoha."

Faced with Hozuki Shingetsu's attempt to persuade them to surrender, the people of Konoha naturally couldn't possibly believe his lies.

Before Shimura Danzo could speak, Jiraiya stepped forward and began to refute Hozuki Shingetsu's words.

"Shut up, you inherently evil Hozuki brat!"

"It has been more than two months since you started this war without provocation. In this short period of time, the war has spread to more than ten countries and involved nearly ten million people. With such a mouth, do you have the right to talk about 'for the peace of the ninja world, for the friendship of the five ninja villages separated only by a strip of water'?..."

"...In my opinion, you've come for the many ninjutsu techniques passed down in Konoha, and for the many bloodline clans that exist within Konoha! You claim to be searching for people, but your real purpose is plunder!"

"...I have never seen such a shameless person!"

Jiraiya's words were characterized by righteous indignation and passionate rhetoric, which boosted the morale of the Konoha ninjas and left the remaining conscience-holding ninjas of the Four Ninja Villages with shifty eyes and flushed faces.

However, the four leaders standing in front of the Four Ninja Villages Alliance at this moment were not Wang Lang. They were all seasoned veterans, thick-skinned and ruthless.

Such words are nothing to them; they don't even flinch, let alone vomit blood, yell, or fall off their horses.

On the contrary, hearing Jiraiya's insults only fueled a strange sense of excitement within Hozuki Shingetsu.

After all, it has always been the weak who criticize the strong, and the harsher the criticism, the more it proves the huge difference between them.

For Hozuki Shingetsu, such despicable and shameless insults only made him realize one thing more clearly:

So, the great powers were actually myself?

However, given Hozuki Shingetsu's current status and position, it's naturally not his place to personally engage in such shrewish behavior.

So after a brief moment of pleasure, Hozuki Shingetsu tilted his head to indicate that a diplomat he had carefully trained was about to step forward and greet the other party in his place.

After a series of diplomatic exchanges in accordance with ninja traditions and demonstrating the demeanor of a great power, the conversation finally moved into formality.

"Alright, enough talk. From now on, we'll have to let our strength speak for itself."

Danzo Shimura waved to stop the people around him and looked at Shinju Hozuki.

"Since we're going to fight, why not make it simple and decide the winner with a ninja duel? Best two out of three. If you win, then Konoha will, as you said before, allow you to send people freely in and out of Konoha to search for the so-called 'missing Cloud Ninja'... And if you lose, then you'll withdraw, and we'll avert war. How about that?"

From the positions of the people opposite him, he could sense that Hozuki Shingetsu was the one in charge of the alliance, and that Hozuki Shingetsu's strength was worthy of his attention. Therefore, the above words were spoken to Hozuki Shingetsu.

He had a beautiful plan. The only opponent he wasn't confident he could defeat was Hozuki Shingetsu. If he could just miss that opponent, then whether it was Onoki, the Fourth Raikage, or Chiyo, he or Nagato Uzumaki would be guaranteed to win a match.

Even if we take a step back and adopt a best-of-five format, there is still a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. With the Nine-Tails within him, he is invincible in this situation.

For Konoha at this point, this ending could be considered the most perfect ending.

However, Hozuki Shingetsu wasn't stupid, so naturally he wouldn't give up using his power to intimidate others and agreed to the proposal.

After all, someone as righteous as him would naturally believe that "evil and heretical people don't need to talk about chivalry, everyone should stand shoulder to shoulder with them."

Faced with Hozuki Shingetsu's rejection, Shimura Danzo sighed a few times and could only wave his hand helplessly.

boom!

In an instant, the earth shook and flames rose everywhere. A sudden roar came from the place where the allied forces of the four ninja villages had been standing.

With this violent roar, the ground where the Four Ninja Villages' allied forces stood suddenly collapsed, and the earth abruptly cracked open, revealing long, narrow, and bottomless fissures.

Although many ninjas were on high alert, they were still shocked by the sudden turn of events, and either lost their lives or were seriously injured in the man-eating rift and explosion.

This was clearly due to Shimura Danzo's familiarity with the surrounding terrain; he had planted a large number of explosive tags in several potential battlegrounds long before the arrival of the major ninja villages.

To ensure that the buried explosive tags would not be discovered by the four ninja villages, Danzo Shimura specifically ordered them to be hidden 20 meters underground.

Konan alone was able to gather 600 billion explosive tags. Konoha had been preparing for this battle for nearly ten years, and with the support of the Land of Fire, the richest country in the ninja world, the explosive tags they had prepared were well over a trillion.

Even if those numerous explosive tags were hidden twenty meters underground, their power would be enough to blast this place apart.

Although this was just one of several battlegrounds prepared by Shimura Danzo, the number of explosive tags here far exceeded Konan's six hundred billion. Furthermore, in pursuit of maximum destructive power, Shimura Danzo chose to detonate all the tags in a short period, causing even greater chaos and disarray among the Allied Shinobi Forces.

This unexpected turn of events immediately disrupted the plans of the Four Ninja Villages' allied forces. Then, as if the explosion was a signal, the Konoha villagers, energized by the sound, rushed towards the Four Ninja Villages' allied forces.

The Four Ninja Villages' allied forces, with their superior numbers and vast territory, still outnumbered the Leaf Village ninjas, even though some suffered heavy losses in Shimura Danzo's "minefield."

After a brief moment of surprise, this group of people immediately regained their composure upon seeing the Konoha ninjas charging forward, and under the command of their respective squad leaders, launched a counter-charge against the enemy.

This applies to both ordinary troops and elite ninjas.

King against king, general against general, ninjas of all ranks found enemies of similar level with great tacit understanding and began to fight one-on-one.

Meanwhile, the Fourth Raikage wanted to seek revenge on Danzo Shimura for killing his father, but Danzo Shimura had no intention of getting entangled with him.

With his "Susanoo," a powerful spatial confinement artifact, he is the best candidate to deal with Onoki, who can fly.

Orochimaru then very consciously took over his position and began fighting the Fourth Raikage.

Under Orochimaru's endless stream of tricks, even the Fourth Raikage had to restrain his mind and focus his main energy on fighting Orochimaru.

Because Tsunade was suffering from hemophobia at the time, the seasoned and warm-hearted Jiraiya naturally took the lead and, under Tsunade's guidance, engaged in combat with Chiyo and Ebizo.

The rest of the group included the Eighth Hokage of Uchiha facing off against Moody (the Third Raikage's sworn brother), the heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans facing off against Rasa and Pakura, and Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado practicing against Yagura Karatachi, among others.

Meanwhile, the more troublesome Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Michiko Uzumaki, was held back by the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Killer Bee.

The remaining elite ninjas from the other villages were held off by Konoha's corresponding Jonin. It can only be said that Konoha truly deserves its reputation as the ninja village with the largest number of bloodline clans in the ninja world. In times of crisis, they were able to unleash their full power and fight the combined forces of the four ninja villages to a standstill in a short period of time. They are truly formidable.

However, this scenario is not expected to last long. The combined forces of the four ninja villages will ultimately have the upper hand. While reckless courage may maintain the situation in the short term, it will not be long before some of Konoha's ninjas will be defeated by the enemy. At that time, the chain reaction will inevitably lead to the collapse of Konoha's defenses.

Hozuki Shingetsu, wanting to end the war as soon as possible, naturally hoped that such an opening would appear quickly. Therefore, he decided to disregard his dignity and personally launch a sneak attack on these ordinary ninjas.

"Universal Guidance!"

Just as Hozuki Shingetsu was thinking of sneakily stabbing someone, a buzzing sound suddenly came, and he suddenly felt a powerful suction force coming from a distance.

The suction force was so strong that even with his current physical condition, where both lightning and water chakra were fully activated, he could only barely withstand it.

As he stomped his foot hard, carving two deep furrows in the ground, Hozuki Shingetsu looked up and saw Nagato Uzumaki, who was pointing one hand at him in the classic Er Kang pose not far away.

Konoha, of course, wouldn't forget Hozuki Shingetsu, the one who defeated two Hokage in a row and "killed" Uchiha Fugaku.

Nagato Uzumaki was Konoha's ultimate weapon specifically prepared to target Shingetsu Hozuki.

Nagato Uzumaki looked at Hozuki Shingetsu, who was able to resist the gravity, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

"You must be Hozuki Shingetsu, the ruler of Kirigakure?"

He quickly concealed his surprise and announced in a calm tone, "So it was you who spread the news of the Rinnegan? Do you know that because of your foolish actions, Yahiko will never see the world he hoped for?"

"...While I don't know how you obtained information related to the Rinnegan, it doesn't matter anymore... Now, given your reckless dissemination of information and your unauthorized instigation of the Shinobi World War, God declares you guilty!"

Looking at Nagato Uzumaki's classic mosquito coil eyes across from him, Shingetsu Hozuki struggled to control his movements under the suction of the Rinnegan, a smile playing on his lips.

"Actually... according to seniority, you should call me uncle."

Kushina Uzumaki and Nagato Uzumaki's mother addressed each other as sisters, so according to their seniority, what Shingetsu Hozuki said was certainly not unfounded.

However, Nagato was unaware of the connection behind this and thought that Shingetsu Hozuki was deliberately trying to humiliate him, and by extension, his mother.

So, in his extreme rage, Nagato Uzumaki stretched out his hands and aimed them at Shingetsu Hozuki, who was not far away, resisting the gravity of the Rinnegan.

"Spicy Tian Sen!"

(End of this chapter)