The world I hear is completely different from yours.

At the same time, the barrier masters lying in ambush all around completed their final hand seals: "Barrier Technique - Four Corner Seal!"

A massive black barrier enveloped the area, like a black coffin completely sealing off the Raikage's residence.

"Golden Horn! Silver Horn!" The Second Raikage's face was contorted with rage as he stared at the figures emerging from the room. "Are you betraying the village?"

"We're saving the village!" Jinjiao retorted loudly, determined to prove himself right.

Several muffled thuds came from the surrounding area; those were the last sounds made by the Raikage's guards before they died.

The Second Raikage remained silent, tensing his entire body, ready for battle.

"Nine-Tails Mode!!" A large amount of ominous chakra surged from the bodies of Kinkaku and Ginkaku. They raised their divine weapons and charged forward.

"Boom boom boom!!" The collision of massive amounts of chakra produced a tremendous sound, which was then completely absorbed by the barrier, with not a trace reaching the outside world.

An hour and a half later, the barrier-wielding troops dispelled the barrier on time. Only Golden Horn and Silver Horn emerged covered in blood; none of the Golden Horn troops who had remained inside the barrier survived.

Silverhorn spat out a mouthful of blood: "As expected of the Raikage, he actually killed so many of us before he died!"

Kinkaku was in much better condition than Ginkaku, and his voice was still loud: "Send a signal to the other ninja clans immediately. An assassin has just killed the Second Raikage, and we found Konoha's headband on the assassin!"

Silverhorn was somewhat puzzled: "Big brother, can you really frame Konoha with just a few headbands?"

"Of course not now, but what if we kill the Second Hokage?" Kinkaku countered. "Once the Second Hokage dies in the Land of Lightning, the war will restart. In order to gain the initiative in the war, the village will have to take the initiative to start the war. Therefore, even if the village doesn't believe us, it will still have to accept the excuse we've put forward!"

"Send the signal immediately to have the ambushing mercenaries take action and hold off the Konoha people. We'll be there soon!!"

"Yes!!"

Chapter Twenty-Six: Drills Can Pierce the Sky and Depths into the Earth

Somewhere within the Land of Lightning.

Tobirama Senju raised his hand, signaling the group to stop.

"What's wrong, Master?" Hiruzen Sarutobi asked.

"The Lightning Ninja leading the way have given the signal to stay put," Tobirama Senju said.

Kage-level shinobi possess extremely high destructive power, so the Raikage naturally couldn't allow the Konoha group to wander alone in the Land of Lightning. Therefore, on the way back to Konoha, the Raikage arranged for some people within the Land of Lightning to guide the Konoha delegation. This ensured that the Konoha delegation wouldn't be unnecessarily disturbed before leaving the Land of Lightning, and also allowed him to monitor the Konoha delegation's every move.

However, what Raikage didn't expect was that all the navigators he had assigned to this area had been replaced by Golden Horn's mercenaries.

"Captain, Konoha has signaled how long we need to wait. How should we reply to them?" a mercenary carrying twin swords asked.

"In about an hour, Lord Kinkaku has sent a signal. If we can delay them for just one hour, they will arrive with reinforcements!" the leader sneered. "Killing the Hokage of Konoha, that's a big deal!"

At the Konoha camp.

"Wait an hour?" Hiruzen Sarutobi was puzzled after receiving the reply. "That long? What does the Raikage mean by this?"

"Maybe the Raikage has changed his mind again. These guys can't be trusted!" Shimura Danzo shouted. The young man was already a typical fighter. Although he obeyed the Hokage's orders and supported peace talks with the Land of Lightning, he had long been holding back his anger.

Tobirama Senju thought for a moment: "Let's wait an hour and see. We just signed a ceasefire agreement with the Raikage, so we can't risk breaking it first. But we can't just sit here and wait either. Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, and Homura Mitokado, you three will be in a group and take charge of the left side; Koharu Utatane, Torimitsu Akimichi, and Kagami Uchiha, you three will be in charge of the right side. Use the triangle formation and be ready to fight at any time!"

"Yes!" *6

Tian Qing realized she had made a small mistake in her calculations. It seemed she hadn't applied enough heat-resistant agent to the front of the Sky Drill No. 1; the cabin was unbearably hot. It was definitely a mistake to put the Puppet Unit 1 into service without a test launch. Frustrated, Tian Qing fanned herself, considering the feasibility of taking off her clothes inside the cabin. Then, she suddenly realized with dismay that she had also miscalculated the amount of fuel in Sky Drill No. 1; the drill probably wouldn't last much longer.

"Looks like we'll have to make an emergency landing." Tian Qing channeled his chakra into the puppet's core, "Prepare to launch the deceleration parachute!"

The Heaven and Earth Drill No. 1 was quite fast, crossing the border of the Land of Lightning in just over half a day. Although its speed was slowed down due to insufficient fuel, it still forged ahead towards the boundary between heaven and earth!

"Huh? Why isn't the deceleration parachute deploying??? Good heavens! Heaven and Earth Drill No. 1, you're such a useless piece of junk!"

The drill puppet immediately retorted, "You're the useless one! You clearly miscalculated!"

"I won't listen! I won't listen!"

Konoha Camp.

The long wait was wearing down everyone's patience. At this moment, even Tobirama Senju began to have doubts: "It's been an hour already, why is the navigator still asking us to wait? This is clearly inconsistent with the previous itinerary. I can vaguely sense a team with considerable chakra levels rapidly approaching from further away. Raikage, are you about to break the agreement?"

Just as the Konoha group was preparing for battle, a shooting star streaked across the sky.

A gigantic drill descended from the sky with an unstoppable force, heading straight for the lead mercenaries. Unstoppable! Its target wasn't these mere ants before it, but the vast earth itself; it intended to pierce through it!

"Boom boom boom!!" To the astonishment of the Konoha group, a mushroom cloud slowly rose.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Dividing the Troops and Meeting

The enormous explosion shook everyone's eardrums, and the shockwave made the trees rustle.

What was that just now? The Konoha group was a little confused. Should they go and take a look?

The mercenaries and their makeshift camp had vanished into thin air, leaving only a large crater. In the center of the crater, a tattered drill bit lay crookedly stuck upside down, faintly emitting wisps of black smoke.

Tian Qing kicked open the hatch and crawled out of the drill bit in a disheveled state, looking terrified. She had almost died! If she hadn't activated her superhuman mode at that moment, she probably would be dead by now.

"Luckily, we made it in time!" Tianqing stood up and waved to the approaching Konoha group. "Hokage-sama, it's me."

"How did you get here?" Tobirama Senju didn't doubt Tensei's identity. As a ninja with innate sensory abilities, Tobirama could sense and distinguish the chakra fluctuations of people in his surroundings without forming hand seals. In the original story, young Tobirama could sense Hashirama Senju's chakra from a great distance and track him. Therefore, by sensing Tensei's chakra fluctuations, Tobirama could easily determine whether Tensei was an imposter.

Tian Qing took out a quest scroll: "I'm here to do a quest."

Tobirama Senju remained noncommittal about Ameharu's reason: "Follow us and prepare for battle."

The timing of this mission was too coincidental, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Tobirama Senju could already sense that the pursuers were fast approaching. Every single one of the pursuers possessed the chakra level of an elite Jonin, and two of them even had chakra levels comparable to his own. He had sensed the chakra of these two—Golden Horn and Silver Horn—when he signed the agreement with the Raikage. At that time, the Raikage had called them two beams of light from the Land of Lightning.

"The pursuers behind us are the Golden Horn Army; I've heard of them before," Uchiha Kagami said, his Sharingan gleaming. The pursuers were getting closer and closer, their massive chakra fluctuations announcing death's approach to everyone in Konoha.

"The Golden Horn Force? According to intelligence, this 20-man force held off a thousand-man army from the Land of Earth in World War I. The Raikage actually sent them to hunt us down?" Koharu Utatane exclaimed in surprise.

Tobirama Senju knew very well that with his space-time ninjutsu and the newly developed Impure World Reincarnation technique, he was fully confident he could fight the Kinkaku Squad. Even if he was defeated, he could retreat calmly. But what about the others? Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, Torimitsu Akimichi, and Kagami Uchiha were only Jonin. How could they possibly fight against the Kinkaku Squad, who were all elite Jonin with extensive battlefield experience and perfect teamwork? These six were the seeds of Konoha's future that he had carefully nurtured. How could he let them be lost here?

Therefore, in the original work, under these circumstances, Tobirama Senju made the decision to retreat while he stayed behind to cover the rear. Before Tobirama Senju made this decision, he asked the question that enabled Hiruzen Sarutobi to achieve his goal and that made Danzo Shimura regret it for the rest of his life.

"Who among you is willing to stay behind as bait to cover the retreat of the others?"

Silence fell over the crowd. In a life-or-death situation, how many people could make a decision immediately?

Then Tian Qing raised her hands and waved them happily: "Me, me, me!" Her voice was so cheerful that it was as if she were signing up for a supermarket sale.

Tobirama Senju glared at Tensei, annoyed by her ruining the atmosphere. He had sensed the residual Sage Chakra on Tensei the moment they met, and having witnessed Hashirama Senju's Sage Mode, he knew perfectly well the combat prowess of a ninja possessing Sage Chakra.

Therefore, Tobirama Senju added, "Of course, I'll be the bait. The enemy is attacking from three directions. I'll hold off the six people in front, including Kinkaku and Ginkaku. You, Utsuro, will take care of the ten on the left, and the rest of you will take care of the four on the right."

"Master!" Hiruzen Sarutobi objected, "How can we send a single ANBU member to hold off so many people?"

It must be said that Tobirama Senju had a very accurate eye for choosing people. Hiruzen Sarutobi truly treated every Konoha ninja as his comrade. Even after the Hokage had made his decision, Hiruzen Sarutobi still questioned it.

"Thanks a lot." Tian Qing waved her hand, her Sage Chakra flashing by. "But I'm very strong, you know."

After sensing the essence of the chakra, Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, but there was a hint of doubt in his eyes. This ANBU member named Hollow, his voice sounded quite familiar.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Battle (Part One)

On the battlefield where life and death are at stake, there is no such thing as preserving strength. Especially in a situation where the enemy outnumbers you, you must go all out from the start and try to eliminate as many enemy personnel as possible in the shortest amount of time in order to ensure that you have the highest chance of survival.

So, when the weather is clear, I usually unleash my ultimate move right from the start. I'll kill you instantly from the beginning, then let's see how you fight in team battles!

Unrolling the scroll, Tian Qing released her second combat puppet: Serpent Sword No. 1, a 10-meter-long skeletal serpent puppet. The serpent had no skin; its body was made up of numerous bone rings connected together, with sharp spikes extending from the joints gleaming with a poisonous green light.

Tian Qing grabbed the snake's tail by the handle and lifted it up like a soft sword. He remembered the Indian hero he met in his past life, known as Breakdancing Man, who could play a snake like a flute, which amazed everyone present. Now that he was using a snake as a sword, he should also become famous, right?

Looking at the enemy in the distance, Tian Qing activated Sage Mode, pointed the snake-shaped sword at the enemy, and straightened the originally coiled snake body, opening its huge mouth.

"Sage Art - Baboon Bone Cannon!" A continuous stream of Sage Chakra surged into the serpentine sword. The bone rings on the serpent's tail instantly emitted a dazzling light. A massive amount of Sage Chakra compressed into a sphere within the bone rings, then rapidly moved towards the next ring. Each time it passed a ring, the sphere was accelerated, and this cycle continued until, finally, when the chakra sphere burst forth from the serpent's mouth, Ameyoshi only had time to see a single beam of light. In that instant, that incomparably dazzling light cleaved the heavens and earth in two.

Half a breath after the light faded, a massive explosion followed, the sound of a distant mountain collapsing as if it had been severed in half. The principle behind this move was actually similar to the Railgun, but since Ameyo had visited Academy City in her previous life and had some connection with that Level 5, she didn't want to plagiarize her friend's move name.

"What was that just now?" an elite Jonin murmured, before plummeting from the sky, his lower body vanishing without a trace. The moment he was struck by the baboon bone cannon, his lower body, along with an elite Jonin standing behind him, evaporated.

Two seconds after the battle began, the enemy had 8 remaining members, with 2 dead.

"Damn it!!" Rongdi Biandu shouted angrily. As a squad leader of the Golden Horn Army, he had fought on the battlefield for many years, but this was the first time he had ever seen a spell with such a long range. Moreover, its speed was so fast that he was hit the moment he saw it, and there was no way to dodge it. "Full attack! There is only one person on the other side. He can't use such a powerful spell again for a while!"

Suddenly, all the enemies' sprinting speed increased significantly. Previously, in order to conserve their stamina before entering effective combat range, they had only been running at a normal pace. At this moment, the Golden Horn Army's well-trained nature became apparent. Even at this high speed, several elite Jonin continued to form hand seals, preparing to use ninjutsu.

Seeing that she was about to enter the enemy's ranged ninjutsu attack range, Tianqing remained motionless. The enormous recoil of the baboon bone cannon caused her whole body to tremble uncontrollably, and it was only now slowly subsiding, but she still couldn't move quickly. So Tianqing simply stood still, continuously drawing natural energy from the scroll to replenish her Sage Chakra.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Battle (Part Two)

The serpentine sword spoke: "Hiss hiss hiss, Master, do you still have the strength to use my Bankai?"

Ignoring it, Tianqing replenished her lost chakra and shouted, "Serpent Sword - Shield Form!" The long snake-like body of the Serpent Sword folded up, coiling into a shield in front of Tianqing. The inscriptions on the snake's body began to glow. This was a special barrier for chakra. Tianqing was betting that the opponent's ranged attack ninjutsu was all created from her own chakra!

There are generally two types of ninjutsu. One type uses chakra to manipulate natural objects for attack, such as Kirin, which uses Chidori to attract naturally generated lightning. Another example is Gaara's sand, which uses chakra to drive natural sand for attack. Therefore, these are essentially physical attacks and cannot be blocked by barriers. In the original story, Madara's absorption ninjutsu ability couldn't stop these attacks. This type of ninjutsu consumes little chakra but has great power. The other type directly transforms chakra into objects for attack, such as typical fire ninjutsu, where the flames are actually chakra-manifested flames. Therefore, this type of fire ninjutsu is a chakra attack and can be absorbed by barriers. Because this type of ninjutsu relies entirely on the user's chakra to create the object, it consumes more chakra and is less powerful than the former.

Fire Release: Head-Carving!

Fire Release: Fire Chain Ball!

Fire Release: Fire Vortex!

Tenqing was right. There were no natural objects on the battlefield that could be attracted by the enemy, so the three ninjas responsible for long-range suppression all used their own chakra to launch ninjutsu! However, although his shield barrier could absorb the attack, Tenqing still underestimated the power of the enemy's ninjutsu.

"Bang bang bang!" Three ninjutsu strikes the snake-shaped sword almost simultaneously. The spell on the snake-shaped sword collapses in less than a second, and the entire snake body explodes. The snake-shaped sword falls apart and disintegrates, leaving only the handle in Tian Qing's hand. Large and small bone rings fly everywhere. The huge impact sends Tian Qing flying. Fortunately, the snake-shaped sword absorbed a lot of energy, so Tian Qing was not injured.

"Chakra Threads!" Tianqing stuck the chakra threads to the boulder next to him to steady himself, then pulled hard, sending him flying like a cannonball. He raised his kunai high and slashed it down hard at the front of the charge, Lava Edge!

"Clang!" The two kunai clashed together, sparks flying!

The power of Ame in Sage Mode is immense. Junji felt as if his hand holding the kunai had been struck by a heavy hammer, and his hand bones broke, leaving his chest wide open!

However, Tian Qing didn't have a chance to stab the kunai in. Instead, she turned around and blocked another kunai thrust at her by an elite Jonin. At the same time, she raised her foot to block the long sword of a third elite Jonin. "Clang!" A white mark was cut into her iron shoe!

"As expected of the Golden Horn Unit!" Tian Qing couldn't help but be secretly surprised. The two enemies' rescue attack was completed in one go, and their speed and ruthlessness showed how elite the enemy was.

However, the enemy was even more alarmed. Their combined close-combat attack was actually at a disadvantage in the battle. Back in the battle against the Land of Earth, each combined attack could instantly kill an elite Jonin. This Anbu member in front of them definitely had close-combat ability at the quasi-Kage level!

"Illusion - Black Eye!"

"Illusion - Body Binding!"

"Illusion—powerless!"

To avoid their melee comrades being affected by ranged ninjutsu, the three ranged ninjas unanimously switched to using genjutsu!

Chapter Thirty: Battle (Part Three)

After being struck by the illusion, Tian Qing stopped moving, staring blankly ahead, motionless.

"Now's the time!" Seizing the opportunity, the elite Jonin with the long sword rushed forward, while Lava Land and another ninja flanked from both sides.

Suddenly, the longsword ninja stumbled and lost his balance. A tremendous force pulled on his legs, sending him flying into the air!

"Chakra threads!" Tianqing looked at his opponent with a sarcastic expression. "This level of genjutsu has no effect on me. You'd need at least a pair of Sharingan!" Then, Tianqing flicked his right hand, and the long-sword Jonin's body flew out and crashed heavily into the edge of the lava field!