The world I hear is completely different from yours.

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PS: Second update, please continue to add to your favorites and recommend!

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The First Encounter Between Ninjas and Hydralisks

In a war, having reserves is extremely important. Napoleon the Great lost his throne as Emperor of France because he failed to prepare sufficient fresh troops as reserves during a crucial battle.

The lack of logistical support is also a significant problem. Just like in a certain ship girl game from Tianqing's previous life, if the admiral didn't leave enough logistical troops to guard the base during an expedition, then if the enemy attacked and the base was raided, causing the supply lines to break, the expeditionary ship girls would fail due to insufficient supplies. The admiral, already burdened with cuckoldry, could only watch as his ship girls were captured one by one, returning in a disheveled and heavily damaged state, making his cuckoldry even more glaring.

Therefore, the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki's, deliberate decision to leave behind a strong force as logistics and reserves for the Iwa ninja army was undoubtedly a shrewd move by a commander, earning praise from almost all the Iwa ninja staff officers. However, most of the lower-ranking Iwa ninja commanders harbored some dissatisfaction with the Tsuchikage's somewhat insecure approach. After all, with the current battle situation looking very favorable, leaving behind a significant portion of the force would undoubtedly reduce the number of troops participating in combat, thus affecting the combat effectiveness of the vanguard assault units.

As the captain of the Iwa ninja's vanguard assault force, Oki also harbored this view. Especially after he led the Iwa ninja's vanguard assault force unimpeded through the Kannabi Bridge and into the Land of Fire, his confidence grew even stronger: "I didn't expect Konoha to be so weak that they couldn't even send anyone to guard the border bridge. They only left a few weak puppets to make a show of it. What's so scary about such a weak village? The Tsuchikage is really getting old!"

Thinking of this, Daiki became even more excited. He pushed off with both feet and increased his speed again, rushing forward like an arrow. The Iwa ninja behind him followed suit and increased their speed, advancing rapidly towards the location of Konoha Village until a vast expanse of dense forest appeared before them.

The Land of Fire boasts fertile soil, with over 90% of its territory covered in abundant vegetation, including numerous forests teeming with towering giant trees. In the original story, even a training ground near Konoha Village is surrounded by incredibly dense forests, filled with trees so thick that several people couldn't encircle them, demonstrating the lushness of the forest vegetation within the Land of Fire.

Standing at the edge of the dense forest, Oki carefully considered his next route of advance. If Oki led his thousands of Iwa ninja into this thick forest rashly, they would be easily attacked by Konoha if there were any ambushes within. However, if they chose not to enter the forest and instead bypassed it, the Iwa ninja would likely have to spend several times more time.

"How long will it take for the orders from the rear command to come down?" Daiki turned around and asked the communications officer in the assault team, intending to seek the opinion of the rear command.

"We've now traveled quite a distance into the Land of Fire, so it will probably take at least half an hour to receive a reply from command!"

"Do we need half an hour?" Oki hesitated. As the saying goes, speed is of the essence in war, especially for a surprise attack like the Iwa ninja army. If it takes too long, Konoha may be able to react in time and prepare to defend against the Iwa ninja's attack.

After much deliberation, Daiki gritted his teeth and made up his mind: "Launch the attack! Leave a hundred-man squad behind as backup, the rest of you follow me in! Everyone, adopt combat formation and be ready to fight Konoha at any time!" In the end, Daiki's contempt for Konoha prevailed, leading him to decide to take this gamble!

"Yes!!"

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Soon after entering the forest, the lead Iwa ninja signaled that they had encountered enemies, so Oki led his men to rush over.

Swish!Swish!Swish!

Oki, leading several Iwa ninja, rushed over at lightning speed, then scattered and hid behind several large trees. Oki then poked his head out from behind a tree, looking at the strange puppet standing motionless in the distance.

"Hydra 0001, is that the code name for this puppet?" Da Mu looked at the sign on the puppet from afar and read out the words on it. He had never seen such a strange-looking puppet before.

The puppet resembles a large, upright snake, about the height of a person. It has no feet or hands, but instead has a pair of curved claws where the arms would have been. It has a massive snake head, with numerous tubular cannons mounted on either side of the enormous head, presumably the puppet's weapons.

"Are they Konoha puppets? So there are Konoha puppeteers nearby?" Ōki looked around suspiciously. Then, the Iwa ninjas responsible for scouting the area sent signals, indicating they hadn't found any Konoha ninjas. They only saw an empty iron tower on the nearby mountainside; the Konoha ninjas stationed inside had probably abandoned it and fled when they discovered the Iwa ninjas.

"Hmph! What a bunch of cowards! They actually left the puppet behind and ran away!" Ōki immediately made a judgment: the iron tower on the mountainside must be a Konoha sentry tower, and the Konoha sentry who originally controlled the puppet had already fled beforehand, abandoning the Hydralisk puppet in the process.

Having understood the whole story, Daiki smiled contemptuously and stepped out of his hiding place. After all, no puppeteer was found around the puppets, and without a puppeteer to control them, the puppets were nothing more than a pile of scrap metal! Therefore, Daiki had nothing to fear.

Suddenly, the Hydralisk turned around without warning and stared coldly at Dawood with lifeless eyes!

laugh!

An arrow shot out from the cannon barrel on the head of the snake-shaped puppet! It flew straight towards Oki! This unmanned puppet had launched an attack before the Iwa ninjas could react!

In the blink of an eye, before any of the Iwa ninja could react, Oki instinctively reached out his hand. As the captain of the Iwa ninja assault team, Oki was a battle-hardened Jonin. Even in this state of relaxed vigilance and sudden ambush, his body reacted instinctively, managing to grab the deadly arrow that flew right in front of him in that instant!

"Amazing!!" "Captain is awesome!!" "Bro, 666!!" The surrounding Iwa ninjas finally reacted and cheered for Oki's superb skills.

"A petty trick! Do you think you can ambush me by setting a trap among the puppets? These Konoha ninjas underestimate me!" Oki smiled contemptuously, glancing at the arrow in his hand out of the corner of his eye. He felt that the tail of the arrow seemed a bit heavy, as if there was something inside.

Boom! The arrow suddenly exploded, and a huge fireball engulfed everything around it!

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P.S. First update! Please continue to add to your favorites and recommend! O(∩_∩)O~

Chapter Forty: Do You Dare to Look Down?

Just as the Iwa ninja encountered the Hydralisk puppets, in the huge cave directly below the Konoha's position, Little Red Riding Hood, who had been standing quietly, suddenly opened her tightly closed eyes. Her black armor creaked faintly, and the azure light in her eyes shone brightly in the dark cave.

Then, Little Red Riding Hood's mechanical electronic female voice rang in Tian Qing and the others' ears: "Alert! Hydralisk No. 0001 has detected the enemy, located near the furthest signal tower! Combat has commenced!"

Jiraiya, who had been silently observing Little Red Riding Hood, widened his eyes in surprise: "This giant puppet can actually talk?!"

These past few days, Jiraiya had frequently made excuses to visit the underground cave. Partly, he wanted to catch up with Orochimaru, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, and partly, he was fascinated by the countless worker bee puppets tirelessly working within the cave. Watching these worker bee puppets endlessly assemble piles of puppet parts into finished puppets, Jiraiya was quite astonished. After all, controlling so many puppets simultaneously required a puppeteer with exceptionally high skill. However, he looked left and right but couldn't find any other puppeteers in the cave.

Only now did Jiraiya vaguely realize that the giant female puppet standing quietly in the huge cave, wearing black armor, was likely the true controller of those constantly working worker bee puppets.

"A giant puppet capable of manipulating other puppets, and an intelligent puppet that can speak and has its own consciousness?!" Jiraiya suddenly turned around and looked at Tensei. "Is this the village's latest achievement? Is this the source of your confidence in bringing so few people to deal with the Land of Earth?"

"Although I have a lot of confidence in them, they haven't been tested in actual combat yet!" Tian Qing replied calmly, then turned to Little Red Riding Hood and said, "Now that the enemy has appeared, let's send out all the Zerg puppets that are buried there! It's time to properly test their combat capabilities!"

In the short period prior, Little Red Riding Hood, following Tian Qing's orders, had deployed all the Zerg golems produced, burying them near every signal tower. And around the furthest signal tower, nearly five thousand Hydralisk golems were buried underground!

If any of those Iwa ninjas had a Byakugan-wielding sensory ninja, they would have only needed to look down at the ground to see that the soil beneath their feet was almost densely packed with Hydralisk golems! These Iwa ninjas moving through the forest had no idea that they were walking freely inside the mouths of countless Hydralisk golems, like a group of Indians dancing awkwardly on the crater of a volcano about to erupt, completely unaware of the impending danger of death.

This is one of the reasons why various countries highly value the Byakugan, a dojutsu with significant strategic importance. If the Sharingan before its advancement is an invincible one-on-one hero, then the Byakugan before its advancement is a team-oriented hero. Both have their strengths, which is the source of the Hyuga clan's confidence in challenging the Uchiha clan.

Upon receiving Tian Qing's command, Little Red Riding Hood's blue eyes gradually began to glow red: "Command received, switch from construction mode to combat mode! Increase APM by tenfold!" Instantly, Little Red Riding Hood's massive body emitted a huge wave of chakra, which spread far and wide through the signal towers on the ground!

Under the influence of that chakra surge, countless hydra golems that had been slumbering underground simultaneously opened their lifeless eyes, their thick tails thrashing back and forth as they rapidly burrowed into the ground. Instantly, the entire forest floor trembled violently as if an earthquake had struck, and countless cracks appeared!

"What's going on? What happened here?!" One of the Iwa ninjas with the keenest senses was the first to notice the anomaly, and he exclaimed in surprise as he looked at the countless cracks on the ground.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

His response was a barrage of explosive arrows that flew from the nearby bushes! The arrows instantly pierced the Iwa ninja, who had no time to react, turning him into a pincushion. Then, a violent explosion engulfed several other Iwa ninja in the fireball, turning them all into human torches!

Boom! Boom! Boom! More explosive arrows flew from all directions, triggering a series of explosions. Amidst the screams of many Iwa ninja, countless Hydralisk puppets surged out of the ground, firing indiscriminately at the Iwa ninja, howling to the sky amidst their terrified screams!

The roar of the swarm of insects echoed through the air, accompanied by explosions and death, appearing before the world for the first time!

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" The new recruits, going to the battlefield for the first time, shouted in panic.

"It's an explosive arrow! Scatter, everyone!" The veteran with some battlefield experience reacted quickly.

"Underground! They're coming up from underground! Watch your step!" The battle-hardened squad leader had already begun directing operations on the battlefield.

Faced with the sudden attack of the insectoid puppets, many Iwa ninjas panicked and fell like wheat being harvested under the barrage of explosive arrows. However, the well-trained veterans and squad leaders quickly regained their composure, directing the disoriented recruits to reorganize their defenses and engage the insectoid puppets in battle.

"Damn Konoha puppets, die!!" An Iwa ninja swung his long sword heavily, delivering a fierce slash that split a Hydralisk puppet in two, sending countless broken parts flying everywhere! But then, more Hydralisk puppets surged forward, using their numerical advantage to overwhelm their opponent!

Although a single Hydralisk puppet is far less powerful than a chakra-wielding ninja, the Iwa ninja, relying on the strategic advantage of a surprise underground attack and the confined space of a dense forest, were unable to evade the Hydralisk's attacks. Forced to abandon ranged ninjutsu and engage in close-quarters combat, they were further outnumbered by the puppets. Finally, after a fierce struggle, the Iwa ninja were defeated, fleeing in disarray towards the edge of the forest, leaving behind piles of corpses and pools of blood staining the trees.

The first small-scale probing between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth ended in a victory for Konoha.

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PS: Second update, please continue to add to your favorites and recommend!

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There seemed to be a problem with the bookstore this morning, so some readers couldn't see the previous chapter, but it should be back to normal now.

Chapter 41 Words spoken are like water spilled; they cannot be taken back.

Inside the massive cave beneath the Leaf Village's battle lines, Jiraiya stared wide-eyed at the images transmitted from the eyes of the Hydralisk golems on the battlefield, his eyes darting across the screen. He could hardly believe his eyes: "We...we won just like that? Our Leaf Village won just like that?!"

No wonder Jiraiya couldn't believe it. This battle completely overturned all his previous war experience. He had never imagined that Konoha could fight a war without needing any of its own ninjas on the battlefield! Although this method of warfare, where only the enemy died and there were no casualties on their side, was very advantageous to Konoha, this peculiar method of warfare gave Jiraiya a strange premonition that "ninjas are about to be replaced by these insectoid puppets!"

Orochimaru, standing to the side, appeared much calmer. As a genius, he possessed a much sharper observational ability than Jiraiya, and easily discerned many things hidden beneath the victory in the recent battle, thus realizing that the current insectoid puppets could not replace ninjas at all.

For example, one of the biggest weaknesses of the current Zerg puppet forces is that they rely on a large number of signal towers to allow Little Red Riding Hood, who lives deep in the cave, to remotely control them. If the Iwa ninja discover this secret and prioritize destroying the Konoha signal towers, then all the Zerg puppets near the signal towers will immediately lose their combat effectiveness.

In other words, the current Zerg golems can only engage in defensive warfare and cannot leave the signal tower to launch an attack on the enemy! How can such a weapon with such a major flaw replace the ninja class, which can both attack and defend?

Tian Qing ignored the two men with different expressions beside her and instead looked up to ask, "Little Red Riding Hood, have the specific casualty and loss statistics been compiled yet?"

"Beep... Data statistics complete. Based on the enemy's corpses, the estimated number of enemy deaths is 862. Our army lost 1526 Hydralisk Golems, and there are 867 other damaged Hydralisk Golems that need repair." Little Red Riding Hood's mechanical female electronic voice echoed in the cave, causing Tian Qing to frown.

The Zerg golems suffered heavy losses in this battle.

Even though the Iwa ninja were first lured into the encirclement of the Zerg puppets, and then gained a strategic advantage through a surprise attack from underground, and the narrow geographical space was used to force the battle into close-quarters combat, which was more favorable to the Zerg puppets, the casualty ratio between the Zerg puppets and the Iwa ninjas was still ridiculously high.

Judging from the final results, Konoha's five thousand insectoid puppets suffered almost twice the casualties of the Iwa ninja in order to defeat this Iwa ninja vanguard force of less than a thousand men.

"As expected, the individual combat power of the Zerg puppets is still far inferior to that of ninjas!" Tian Qing sighed. This is one of the weaknesses of the Zerg puppet army. Because the Zerg puppet troops are all remotely controlled by Little Red Riding Hood, when Little Red Riding Hood remotely controls a large number of Zerg puppets, the precision and sensitivity of controlling each individual Zerg puppet will be greatly reduced. Even if all the puppets are made into easily controllable Zerg forms, they still cannot defeat a well-trained ninja in a one-on-one fight.

"If the next battle is a direct confrontation between the Iwa ninja army and the Zerg puppet army, the Zerg puppet army will probably have to suffer at least ten times the casualties of the enemy in order to barely defeat the Iwa ninja forces, right?" Tianqing roughly estimated the comparison of the two sides' combat strength in his mind and deduced a general outcome.

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything!" Jiraiya exclaimed excitedly after hearing Tensei's deduction. "If simply consuming a large number of insectoid puppets can completely deplete the Land of Earth's manpower, then even if all the insectoid puppets here are wiped out, it will still be a victory for Konoha!"

Given enough puppet parts and enough time, the Zerg could produce as many puppets as they wanted, since Konoha Village could continuously produce countless puppet parts. In contrast, if the elite ninjas of the Land of Earth died, it would take at least a decade to barely replace them! Not to mention the experienced veterans who would require even more training time.

Therefore, using these lifeless insectoid puppets to wear down the Land of Earth's ninjas, regardless of the casualty ratio, would be a victory for Konoha.

"The key issue is that we don't have enough parts and time!" Orochimaru interjected. He had been in charge of managing the various materials in the warehouse these past few days, so he was very clear about the army's parts reserves: "Tianqing had already stored almost all the puppet parts in Konoha Village in scrolls and brought them over. At most, we can only manufacture 100,000 insectoid puppets. And at our current production rate, I'm afraid we won't even have time to finish manufacturing these 100,000 insectoid puppets before the insectoid puppets we have available for combat are already used up in the war!"

“That’s right!” Tian Qing continued, “This time, we only crippled one thousand-man squad of Iwa ninja. It’s nothing compared to the 30,000-strong Iwa ninja army. The next wave of attacks from the Iwa ninja army will arrive soon, and it will be much more ferocious than this one! Therefore, it is very likely that after the next war, we will have used up all our insectoid puppets and will not have enough time to create new ones!”

"So it seems we don't have much of a chance of winning!" Jiraiya looked at Tensei and Orochimaru, and subconsciously continued to ask, "Then what's your plan?"

Something's not right! Jiraiya instantly sensed something was amiss. The way Tensei and Orochimaru had been explaining things in unison made him feel like "these two had planned this all along to trick me." Were they deliberately highlighting the current crisis in order to force him to do something strange?

Unfortunately, words spoken cannot be taken back. Just as Jiraiya subconsciously asked the question, Tensei and Orochimaru quickly exchanged a glance, a smile appearing on their lips, as if two old foxes had seen their prey fall into a trap, revealing expressions of having a well-thought-out plan!

Then, both Ame and Orochimaru looked at Jiraiya with serious expressions: "Since you asked, we happen to have a plan here, but we need your personal contribution..."

Damn it, Jiraiya immediately wanted to slap himself hard. How could he not control his mouth?

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P.S. First update! Please continue to add to your favorites and recommend! O(∩_∩)O haha~

Chapter 42 Unfortunately, that beautiful woman was herself.

The atmosphere in the command post of the main force of the Iwa ninja in the Land of Grass, after receiving reports of defeats at the front, was unusually heavy.

The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, floated in mid-air, glancing at the Iwa ninja advisors around him who were looking down at the ground, afraid to even breathe loudly. He remained silent. Just a few hours ago, Onoki had been full of confidence, discussing future plans with all the Iwa ninja advisors, but now no one dared to utter a sound.

Then, Onoki looked down at the intelligence report that had just returned from the front lines on the table: "The advance assault team was ambushed by a large number of Konoha puppets in the forest and was almost completely wiped out, including the assault team leader Onoki and a large number of elite Iwa ninja who lost their lives?!"

In his hand was another urgent letter of appeal that had just arrived from the rear of the Land of Earth: "Two members of the Akatsuki broke into the Daimyo's residence, killed all the guarding ninjas, and kidnapped the Daimyo. The Jonin who was protecting the Daimyo, Huangtu, is seriously injured and has not yet woken up!"

The defeat of his troops on the front lines, the sudden invasion of his homeland, and the serious injury and unconsciousness of his only son—these bad news, which came to him almost simultaneously, struck Onoki's heart like several heavy hammers, causing even a resilient ninja like Onoki to feel somewhat frustrated.

Misfortunes never come singly, as a certain Shadow Isles heroine often said. When people are down on their luck, other bad news tends to follow, almost simultaneously, catching them off guard. Just a short while ago, the room was filled with laughter, happiness, and hope, but in an instant, the air is thick with bad news and misfortune, leaving everyone feeling downcast.

From being confident of victory to receiving a series of bad news, it's only been a short period of time, just like a stock in someone's hand going from limit up to limit down in an instant. Life's ups and downs are nothing more than this!

However, Onoki was Onoki after all, and he quickly adjusted his mindset and raised his head again. At all times, the commander-in-chief of an army must be the most optimistic person in the entire force. If Onoki, as the commander-in-chief, appeared so dejected, how could his subordinates maintain hope for victory?

"Send a message to the elders who remain in the village, telling them to stop sending people to search for the daimyo and instead issue a bounty to hire other mercenaries to reclaim him. If necessary, the daimyo can be made to 'sacrifice' for the Land of Earth! The village's main task now is to ensure the village's safety while keeping a close eye on those nobles. We must prioritize the stability of the country! If all else fails, we can just replace the daimyo!"

Although Onoki didn't know why the enemy wanted to kidnap the daimyo, he knew that with his army away, he absolutely could not allow any problems to arise in the Land of Earth's rear, otherwise the Iwa ninja army at the front would immediately collapse. Therefore, he issued an order to ensure the safety of Iwa ninja village while also sending people to keep a close watch on the nobles of the Land of Earth to maintain stability in the Land of Earth.

As for the kidnapped daimyo, I'm sorry, but Iwagakure is short-handed right now and can't spare any extra manpower. We can only resort to issuing bounties to hire mercenaries to rescue you. If necessary, for the stability of the Land of Earth and to appease the nobles, Iwagakure will appoint another daimyo, as if the previous daimyo had "sacrificed himself for the country."

"Yes, I understand!" A staff officer from Iwagakure bowed his head and ran out of the command post tent to prepare a reply to Iwagakure.