The border between the land and the ghost country.

Heavy snow covered the wilderness, and the snowflakes falling today were much lighter than yesterday.

At a glance, the wilderness that connects the border between the two countries has a serious desertification, and although it has not reached the level of desertification, it is not far behind.

Most of the area has no vegetation cover and is full of barrenness.

On the way forward, the strange rocks are craggy, some of the stones are low, you can jump up in three or two strokes, and some of the mountains and rocks are high and steep, overlapping and abrupt, as if going straight into the sky.

On a slightly higher rock, as the leader of the troops, Iwakumi Shinobi, the son of the third generation of Tsuchikage, was lying on this steep rock at this time, motionless.

His clothes and hair were covered with snowflakes, and he held a military telescope in his hand, which he held in front of his eyes to take a closer look at the distance.

Late last night, he took advantage of the fact that the attention of the Oni Country was focused on the Konoha ninjas of the Bear Country, and led the Iwa Ninja Army, which was assembled by thousands of people, and successfully uprooted a stronghold in the eastern part of the Oni Country.

Although he pulled out this stronghold and caused some losses to the troops he led, considering the importance of capturing this stronghold in the next battle, this loss did not make Loess feel distressed.

Unlike the rest of the villages, Iwakure has been recuperating since the Battle of Kannabi Bridge more than a decade ago.

It can be said that Iwain's armed forces are the most well-preserved ninja village in the great country ninja village today.

In terms of the size of the ninja, it even surpasses Konoha and is second only to Yunyin.

In addition, Iwain is good at the technique of earth escape and combined attack, if he opens up the formation to face it head-on, Loess firmly believes that the ninjas of Iwain Village will not lose to anyone.

Even the Konoha Ninja Village, which was invincible at the beginning and was in its heyday, also suffered a lot in this regard.

If it weren't for a yellow flash, the Third Ninja World War would never have ended with Konoha achieving a final victory.

But now Iwakure has become an ally with the once hostile Konoha and has begun to go against his former ally 'Hinata Ayane', and this dramatic change has made Loess lament the impermanence of fate.

He was well aware of his father's intention to intervene in the war.

Unlike Yunyin, the military threat of the Oni Country is imminent, and it is getting worse as time goes by, and if a war breaks out between the two countries, there is no buffer zone and they can directly invade each other's homeland.

With such a 'friendly neighbor', his father Onoki has often suffered from insomnia, headaches, and anxiety over the past few years.

If it weren't for this Quadruple Alliance, then, with his father's cunning style, he would never have ventured into such a dangerous war.

It's easy to say if you win, but if you lose, the land of the land and Iwakuin will not have a good time in the future.

Therefore, this war must not be lost!

Loess carefully stared ahead with military binoculars, observing the movement ahead, and did not relax for a moment.

Behind the huge rock where he was lying on his stomach, there stood a dense group of figures, with serious expressions, in a battle formation, and they only needed to give the loess an order, and they would launch a charge, using the earth escape technique prepared in their hands to bury the enemy.

"Lord Loess, the enemy army is already approaching, and it will soon enter the ambush circle."

A rock ninja who is good at hiding in the earth, he burrows half of his body from the hard rock face and reports the situation ahead to the loess that is still lying on the rock.

"Ah, I saw it, tell me to go down, and get ready to fight."

In the military telescope, the loess also took advantage of the condescending position to see the movement in the distance.

It was a never-before-seen 'steel creation', made entirely of steel, with rolling tracks at the bottom that could grip the ground.

In front of this steel creation, a long cannon barrel was erected, and the muzzle of the cannon was dark and deep, and the bottom could not be seen.

Such a bizarre steel creation, at first glance, conjures up images of a rough and wild aesthetic.

The rolling 'steel' was like a black torrent, crushing the earth and pulling forward.

Around these 'steels' are accompanied by a walking army of Oni no Kuni ninjas, some of whom wear precious and rare chakra armor, and these ninjas are either the best of the Oni no Kuni or the best of the middle ninjas.

The number of this infantry army, according to the loess estimate, should be 500 people, although it is a mechanized army with the army, but their mobility is obviously more flexible than the bulky armored combat vehicles, so they can be well cleaned up close to the mechanized troops' 'rats', so as to ensure that the mechanized troops have sufficient firepower.

Seeing this force mixed with ninjas and steel chariots, Loess frowned.

It was not that he was underestimating the combat capability of this unit, but that he did not see the commander of this force.

Could it be that it was hidden in the rear of the troops, and the view was blocked, so it was not seen?

Moreover, with only such a few people being sent, they want to defend the eastern territory of the Oni Country, are they being underestimated?

It only took a thousand people to attack the eastern stronghold of the Oni Country last night, but with the arrival of reinforcements, the number of Iwakure ninjas gathered here has now reached more than three thousand.

In addition, there are two thousand-strong companies that sit in the rear to ensure that the transportation and supply work can be smoothly connected with the front line.

It's not that I look down on the ninjas and technological weapons of the Oni Country, but it's too reckless to rely on this kind of steel 'toy' to try to smooth out such a huge gap in numbers.

Just as he was thinking this, the walking army of ninja came to a halt in the area visible through the binoculars.

Along with the foot corps stopped, there were several hundred armored artillery vehicles.

The picture seems to freeze for a moment, only the cold wind with snowflakes blows away.

"There's really no way to ambush it, and if that's the case, then-"

Loess saw that the troops of the Oni no Kuni had stopped advancing, and as expected, their men and horses could not hide their bodies in front of the enemy army's sentient ninjas and white-eyed ninjas.

Then, the so-called hiding is meaningless, you can only rush from the front, and use the earth escape ninjutsu to completely disrupt the formation of the Oni no Kuni troops, and then bury those 'steel toys' that seem to have enough firepower deep underground, so that they will be useless.

As long as they stand on the earth, they are invincible.

So, Loess stood up, put away the military binoculars in his hand, put them in his arms, and then stretched out his hand, ready to make an offensive gesture.

"Lord Loess, look at it above, there is a powerful chakra reaction that suddenly appeared!"

The sentient ninja who was following him opened his eyes with reluctance, turned back, and pointed to the sky.

Loess couldn't help but turn around, his gaze following the direction of the sentient ninja's finger, sweeping towards the gray sky of wind and snow.

A small pitch-black dot appears in the gray sky and gradually magnifies as it descends.

It wasn't until close that Loess and the others could see the true face of this black spot - it was a person.

And, judging from that familiar figure, it's still his old acquaintance from the battlefield of the Third Ninja World War in the past-

vertex

Hinata Ayane!

"Everyone retreat!"

Loess realized something, his face changed in shock, and he shouted loudly at the Iwakuin ninja who was still staring blankly at the sky below.

However, by the time he shouted this, it was already too late.

Like a meteorite falling to the earth, the earth, mixed with snowflakes, accompanied by a bang, flew around under the action of the terrifying impact force, and billowed dust and smoke.

This sudden landing attack directly caught the rock ninjas off guard, causing many of them to roll out involuntarily, leaving scars all over their bodies, and they couldn't get up again.

"Don't fight, distance yourself! The middle forbearance and the lower forbearance retreat, and the upper forbearance is responsible for containment! ”

Seeing that there was a brief confusion in the formation, Loess began to command the whole field, allowing the strong upper ninja to stay in place, while the weaker middle ninja and lower ninja only needed to evacuate to safety.

The military order is like a mountain, and in the chaos, the rock ninjas have found the backbone.

According to the arrangement of the loess, they left the upper ninja to break off, and let the middle ninja and the lower ninja quickly evacuate the center of the battlefield.

The tactical arrangement is indeed just right, considering the difference in personal 'quality' between the two sides, such an approach will undoubtedly minimize Iwa's losses.

It's a pity that at the moment when Loess issued this order, a figure rushed out of the dust and smoke.

A ninja costume made from a kimono dances with her long black hair as she leaps, and she has a bright smile on her face that shines like the sun on the cold frozen ground.

While carrying a sweet taste, it also makes people feel that her sweet smile is mixed with biting coldness and blood.

As soon as she rushed out of the dust and smoke, she didn't hesitate, and under the cover of her white eyes, the formation of the Iwa Shinobi troops was unobstructed, all within the 'firing range'.

"It's a good arrangement, but you have to have a spare arrangement!"

Overcoming the resistance of the two Iwakure Shinobi, Ayane gave up fighting them, and directly broke through the defense line of the upper ninja at great speed, jumping into the dense middle ninja and lower ninja area.

I don't know if it's an illusion, but the smile on her face is even brighter.

"Back to heaven!"

The body and long hair swirled, and the chakra flew out of the palm, forming a chakra ball, covering the surrounding twenty or thirty middle and lower ninja.

When the body stopped dancing, the nearby middle ninja and lower ninja were all bounced away, and they fell to the ground either dead or crippled.

A circular crater with a diameter of ten meters, formed at the foot of Ayane.

"Earth Escape, Rock Iron Cannon!"

The Nakashinobi, who were not affected nearby, and the Kashinobi, who quickly came up to support, began to seal, opened their mouths, spat out stones less than the size of a fist, and flew towards Ayane in the pit.

As they fly, the size of these stones rapidly increases, turning into rock shells that are larger than those of an adult.

Smashing on a human body is enough to smash a human flesh and blood.

The huge rock cannonball passed through the afterimage, and Ayane disappeared from the spot, and when it reappeared, it had landed on the head of one of the rock shinobi, raising his right arm to aim.

Rumble!

The earth shattered.

A huge gap in the crowd appeared as the Iwa ninja were catapulted by the impact.

"Okay, so fast!"

Surprised by Ayane's speed, their rock iron cannon had not yet made a contribution, and the gap had been opened.

Even if it is a shinobi, it is difficult to follow her steps, let alone block it from the front.

It's an impossible job.

"Earth Escape, Earth Moving Core!"

One Iwakushiki seized the opportunity to make the land at the place where Ayane landed endlessly, intending to build a cage to trap Ayane underground, and then perform the technique of earth escape and attack to annihilate her.

The idea was good, but as soon as the land began to sink downward, Ayane's figure disappeared from the land.

Rumble!

The familiar sound of an explosion sounded, and it was the sound of Ayane tearing the earth with her flesh palm, and another area of dense Iwa Shinobi appeared.

This kind of chaotic rush stabbing made it impossible for the Iwa ninja to figure out what Ayane was thinking in her heart, and what laws were used to launch the assault on this battlefield.

As a result, the Iwa ninjas were completely confused.

The upper ninjas wanted to contain Ayane, but Ayane didn't entangle with them, but just relied on her swift and unrivaled physical skills to instantly find the weaker middle ninja and lower ninja in the crowd.

The middle ninja and the lower ninja want to evacuate the battlefield, but in front of the white eyes, unless their instantaneous speed can far surpass Ayane's, they can only escape to fate.

For ninjas of Ayane's level, as long as they don't encounter special secret ninjutsu, or middle ninjas and lower ninjas who are good at earth escape stealth techniques, they basically catch one and die another.

Although the efficiency of Ayane's annihilation of the enemy army is not high because of the pure body technique, and most of the time it is necessary to get close to the target to kill, but relying on his own excellent instantaneous body technique, if it continues for a long time, it will still make the rock ninja unbearable and suffer heavy losses.

"Damn!"

The middle ninjas and lower ninjas who were captured and fled also held back a cloud of anger in their stomachs.

Since you can't escape, you naturally have to resist desperately and get valuable fighters for the ninjas.

Aiming at the timing, the two Iwakushi shinobi circled behind Ayane's back, and held the kunai as a thrust.

They naturally knew that in the face of white eyes, such a raid would be useless.

But as long as Ayane's attention is grabbed, it will be enough to get the rest of the attack opportunity.

What's more, two fists are hard to beat with four hands, even if you have an all-round reconnaissance eye, it is impossible to resist attacks from all directions all the time.

It is the most stupid thing to do to break into the enemy line alone.

Just as they were thinking, a dark shadow slashed across their necks.

The heads rolled down, so fast that they didn't react, and their consciousness sank into black smoke first.

The shadow under Ayane's feet transformed from a phantom shadow into a solid protruding plane, and I saw a pitch-black shadow weapon, from which emerged the tips of weapons such as the tip of a sword, a sword, and a spear, ready to attack.

It seems to be telling this group of rock ninjas with a cold and cruel fact that a self-righteous sneak attack is also a dead end!

"What a good boy, no wonder Shiraishi-kun has been reluctant to let you go."

There aren't many times she cooperates with the Shadow Dancer, but as long as she is in an isolated battlefield, the thought of such a terrifying killing weapon hidden in her shadow makes even Ayane feel a sense of security called peace of mind from it.

So, continue to advance.

Shatter the surrounding rocky mountains with flesh and blood, causing large chunks of rock to fall down, constantly tearing apart the passing earth and creating chaos.

"Bastard, don't run!"

Iwakure's upper ninjas chased after him and surrounded him.

However, leaving only one corpse of Iwa Shinobi on the ground, Ayane repeated her old trick and flew to another battlefield, and began to hunt down the middle and lower shinobi who were in a panic, completely ignoring the pursuit of the upper ninja.

The anger of the Iwa ninja is to no avail, they are adept at attacking the earth escape, creating favorable terrain and trapping enemies in the prison formed by the earth escape, but they are not known for their mobility.

Of course, it's not impossible to trap Ayane, as long as you 'sacrifice' those middle and lower ninjas who are entangled by Ayane, you can stop the chaos.

As the commander, Loess naturally noticed this, and just as he was considering whether to do so-

Cannon rang out.

Cannonballs fell from the sky like a burning pop with a distant roar.

Every time a cannonball landed, it would erupt a sky-high flame on the ground, setting off a scorching mist of light, and the terrifying shock wave would spread out in all directions, shaking the earth.

The towering rocky mountains were torn apart by artillery fire, and large rocks seemed to be washed down by a torrential rain, and Iwanin, who had no time to dodge in the future, fell to the ground.

Loess's face turned pale, and he suddenly realized something.

"Retreat! All of you—"

As soon as he finished speaking, a cannonball fell, and the rocky mountain cracked, spewing fire.

When he stood up, half of his body was stained red with blood, a large piece of skin on his forehead was rubbed off, and he coughed violently.

"Captain Loess!"

The accompanying guards rushed up against the danger and built an earthen wall to defend against the cannonballs flying from afar.

The flames scattered the earth and rocks, causing a violent explosion.

"Don't worry about me, hurry up and notify me, after the first to tenth squadrons are left behind, the rest of the squadrons will retreat!"

The loess clutched his blood-stained left arm, unable to move.

If he hadn't used Tu Dun to harden his body in an instant, I'm afraid that the cannonball just now would have killed him immediately.

Even if you don't die, the lightest is a serious injury.

The artillery fire was still roaring, and the sky was full of fire from the nozzle of the barrel of the armored artillery car, and without stopping, one shell flew out, and the next shell immediately followed, directly hitting the enemy forces two kilometers away.

"Attention, there is Iwa Shinobi lurking underground, ready to fight!"

A team of walking ninjas protecting the mechanical troops, one of them, a white-eyed Hinata clan shinobi, summons everyone to the communicator.

Some of the ninjas in the country of Oni who received this news began to seal and escape into the earth to resist the lurking Iwakushi ninjas, fighting the enemy underground and preventing the enemy from disrupting the sneak attack of the mechanized troops.

"Advance the whole army!"

With an order.

The pitch-black steel rolled, accompanied by the snow, forming a dark torrent that rushed forward.

The steel chariot crushed the earth and rock, and at the same time fired artillery fire at the distance, indiscriminately shelling.

The ninjas of the Oni no Kuni on foot, charging at the front, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Iwa Shinobi who rushed to kill after the break.

Fire and fog burned the whole wasteland and the sky was red.

In the area of the mountains covered in fire and gray mist, a figure ignored the roar of the artillery bombardment and the terrible shock wave formed by the shelling, and one person stabbed back and forth among the enemy troops several times like a thousand horses, greatly hindering the retreat of the Iwa ninja.

So, there was such a magical scene -

The flame shock wave formed by the cannonballs on both sides, the deafening roar, was also shaking the heavens and the earth, making the ground tremble, countless rocks fell like raindrops, and a figure galloped past like lightning, turning the black and light shadow blade in the shadow under his feet, and the heads of the rock ninja along the way rolled down, and then the cannon fire covered them, and these headless corpses lost their traces under the cover of the firelight.

And that figure still galloped forward, so that the pursuing cannonballs could only follow her heels and keep eating dirt, leaping and spinning her dusty body, as if in the middle of the battlefield, dancing a gorgeous dance of death, like entering a no-man's land, it was irresistible.

It is the white Grim Reaper who brings despair!

◎

In the fortress-like fortress, which was originally forged by the military of the Oni Country, almost half of the area has been destroyed at this moment, and the golden sea of sand has died down outside the fortress, and countless sand ninjas have poured in, bringing this fortress into the territory of the Land of Wind.

Standing on the high wall of the fortress, the four generations of Wind Shadow Luosha, looking at the boundless yellow sand in the distance, and the sun that is about to sink in the sky, for a while, there is a feeling of raising eyebrows.

Five or six years ago, the Land of the Wind ceded more than half of the northwest region of the Land of the Wind to the Land of Oni because of the disrespectful battle of the Sand Hidden Ninja, which can be said to be the most humiliating foreign war since the founding of the Land of the Wind.

And now, under the leadership of his Kazekage, although he has not completely recovered the lost ground, it has also taken an extremely crucial step.

The country of ghosts, which was surrounded and suppressed by Shikoku Ninja Village at the same time, has reached the point of being a great power.

Next, Sha Yin only needs to add fuel to the fire, not only to get back all the land he has lost, but also to make a monstrous fortune from it.

The splendor of the Land of Sand and Wind is close at hand.

"Kazekage-sama."

His cronie Kaminomaki walked up and looked in the same direction as Rasha.

"How's it going?"

"The deployment has been completed, and the various brigades and squadrons have also been assembled. In addition, the military fortress of the Oni Country in the front area has also been reconnoitred, and it can be advanced with a large army at any time. ”

Markey replied, his face unconcealed with excitement.

In this four-nation alliance, Sand Hidden Village invested 5,000 sand ninjas for this war, and was personally led by the wind shadow, one of the five shadows, and actively participated in the idea of recovering the homeland and entering the country of ghosts.

"Don't rush for the time being, wait for the good news from Konoha and Iwakure. In addition, it is also necessary for the fog to contain the main force of the other side of the Oni Country from the sea, and at that time, it is the best time for us to attack! ”

Luo Sha looked at the beautiful and peaceful sunset in the distance, which is extremely rare in the desert country.

He admired such a beautiful scenery, and a heroic spirit that pointed out the country suddenly came to his heart.

"Kazekage-sama, the battle report between Konoha and Iwakure is coming."

One of the Sand Hidden Shadows jumped up, got down on one knee, and presented Raksha with a battle report from Konoha and Iwakuin.

"Markey, it seems that the day is coming when we will attack the country of ghosts."

Raksha smiled at Markey.

Markey smiled too, as if he felt that victory was within reach.

Luo Sha picked up the two war report letters presented by the shadows.

Opening the first envelope, it was a battle report belonging to Konoha side, he looked at it twice, the smile on his face slowly disappeared, and his brows furrowed.

Without speaking, Luo Sha continued to open the second envelope and scan the battle report of Iwain.

“……”

Ma Ji glanced at Raksha, who had read the two battle reports but did not say a word after that, and suddenly felt that the muscles on the face of the Kazekage-sama he respected were very stiff, and the original high-spirited smile disappeared from his face at some point.

It must be because of the illusion of insomnia and lack of rest in the past few days.

Victory was in sight, how could Kazekage-sama show such a demoralizing expression?

Well, it must be just a delusion.

Markey comforted himself.