"Is this… is this the Kazekage-sama's power?"
The Sand shinobi's shocked cries erupted from a concealed hollow outside the canyon, after a brief stretch of dead silence.
This was where Suna's true elite were lying in wait.
Every Sand shinobi held their breath, pressed flat inside pre-dug fighting pits, their bodies covered in camouflage sand dyed the exact same color as the Gobi.
From start to finish, they had kept themselves hidden.
And now, after witnessing that reality-shattering "miracle," the last line of rational restraint in everyone's minds finally snapped.
"S-so strong…"
A young Sand shinobi's voice trembled.
It was not fear. It was a kind of fervor, like faith forced into being on the spot.
"The mountains… two whole mountains… just like…"
He could not finish a single sentence.
He only stared, eyes locked on the distance.
There, the canyon's once-familiar terrain was gone.
In its place stood a jagged hill, still shedding loose rock.
Moonlight struggled through the dust haze that had not yet fully settled, illuminating that figure suspended in midair, cloak whipping in the wind.
"As expected of the Kazekage-sama!"
A middle-aged shinobi slammed his fist into the ground, eyes red-rimmed.
"Only power like this… only a Kazekage-sama like this can lead Sunagakure to become truly strong!"
"Kazekage-sama…"
"Long live Suna…"
Cheers rose and fell in waves across the hollow.
Many of them shouted until tears streamed down their faces.
Not from grief.
From release, after being pressed down for too long.
Suna had been weak for too long, always stuck at the bottom among the Five Great Nations.
No resources. Missions stolen.
That bone-deep humiliation.
In this moment, it was ripped open by that figure who could move mountains and overturn seas.
So it turns out…
Sunagakure can be dominant too.
But at the very front of the crowd, Kankuro was shaking so hard he could not stop.
His trembling was different from the others.
Not excitement.
A shiver of awe mixed with fear.
As a puppeteer, he understood "control" better than anyone.
How much precision of mind did it take to manipulate a human puppet?
How vast did your chakra reserves have to be to control an entire field of sand?
Then…
What about flipping two mountain ridges?
"This isn't just Jiton (Magnet Release) anymore…"
Kankuro muttered, fingers unconsciously digging into the sand.
"This kind of power… Teizawa… just how strong is he?"
He remembered three days ago.
The calm way Teizawa had ordered him to preserve every attacker's corpse.
He remembered the sight of bodies being dragged, one by one, into the depths of the camp.
The eerie image of them being soaked in a specially prepared solution.
He remembered late at night.
Teizawa alone in his tent, controlling those "human puppets," the cold light in his eyes steady and composed.
From the very beginning, it had all been a trap.
From choosing to camp in the canyon, to deliberately feeding the bonfires until they burned too bright.
To making the "Sand shinobi" relax, eat, joke, and talk.
It was all theater.
The real Suna elite, the moment camp was established, had already split into groups and used Sand Release to slip out beyond the canyon's perimeter without anyone noticing.
And those "Sand shinobi" inside the canyon…
The ones eating, patrolling, standing watch.
Even the ones who got "assassinated."
All of them were "human puppets" controlled by Teizawa through Jiton (Magnet Release).
Real ninja flesh as the base, Magnet Release as the tether.
In the darkness, convincing enough to pass for the real thing.
That was the true reason Teizawa had made Kankuro preserve the attackers' bodies.
Sand clones were too fragile. Shadow clones were too empty.
Only real flesh, real blood, and the stench of real death…
Could fool Iwagakure's seasoned hunters.
Add in the atmosphere of forced relaxation, the visual disruption of overbright fires, and Iwa's absolute confidence in their own Earth Release infiltration, and the deception became flawless.
Kankuro took a deep breath.
He forced the surging thoughts down.
Then he sprang to his feet, sand sliding off his camo in sheets.
"All units…"
His voice exploded out with chakra reinforcement, instantly crushing the cheering beneath it.
"Follow the plan. Encircle the remnants. Leave none alive!"
"Kill them!"
The Sand shinobi surged up like a revenge flood bursting from beneath the earth.
Their eyes burned with fanatic heat and murderous intent.
Kunai, wind blades, puppets, poisoned sand…
Every Suna specialty, every ninja tool and technique, poured out without restraint.
Their target was the Iwa survivors who had crawled out of the catastrophe by sheer luck.
…
The aftershocks of the collapse had not fully faded.
Between cracks in the boulders, a few Iwagakure shinobi struggled free.
Most of them were badly wounded.
Missing limbs, internal bleeding, chakra drained to nothing…
But more importantly…
their will had been shattered by that "divine punishment."
"C-captain…"
An Iwa shinobi dragged a right leg that was clearly broken, and crawled onto a slanted rock, staring blankly around him.
No comrades. No enemies.
Only endless rubble and corpses.
"Are we… are we still alive…?"
His question went unanswered.
Because the next second, three wind blades crossed through the air.
They carved him apart along with the rock beneath his feet.
Suna's encirclement had begun.
This was a one-sided slaughter.
The remaining Iwa had long since lost the will to fight.
Many did not even have time to draw their weapons before senbon shot from the shadows and pierced their throats… before sand hands erupted from the ground and dragged them under… before shrieking puppets tore them into pieces…
"D-don't kill me! I surrender… Aah!"
"Doton (Earth Release)! Somebody use Doton… ugh!"
"Run… run!"
Desperate wails rang out from all across the rubble, then cut off just as quickly.
The Sand shinobi moved cleanly and efficiently.
Teams of three, squads of five.
They swept every corner with crushing coordination.
They did not need to interrogate. They did not need prisoners.
Teizawa's order was clear and cold: total extermination.
And out of the original thousand-plus Iwa, fewer than two hundred were still breathing.
This was a slaughter with no suspense.
At the edge of the battlefield, a deep-brown figure suddenly burst out from under a pile of rocks and tried to sprint for the canyon's exit.
Bunmatsu.
This Iwa jōnin was still alive.
He was drenched in blood, his left arm twisted at an unnatural angle.
But his eyes were still feral.
The ferocity of a cornered beast.
"Doton: Iwa Sessenkon (Earth Release: Rock Thief Batons)!"
He formed seals. Several rock batons speared up from the ground, sweeping toward the approaching Sand shinobi.
At the same time, his body sank again, trying to dive back into the earth.
Bang.
A wall of sand rose precisely in front of him, cutting off his path.
Kankuro dropped from above.
"Where do you think you're going, Iwa jōnin?"
Behind him, more than ten Sand jōnin fanned out, closing the net.
Bunmatsu stopped and slowly turned around.
He swept his gaze across the encirclement.
Then fixed it on Kankuro and suddenly bared his teeth, mouth full of blood.
"You know we're Iwa, and you still dare to go for the kill. Aren't you afraid you'll start a war?"
"Heh."
Kankuro grinned.
"Kazekage-sama said we only killed a bunch of wandering bandits. What does that have to do with Iwagakure?"
"Kazekage…"
Bitterness flooded Bunmatsu's chest.
That young Kazekage he had never taken seriously.
He had known their identities from the beginning.
He had even planned to wipe them out.
This guy really was completely unrestrained.
Someone like that had to be eliminated as early as possible.
The information had to be sent back to Iwa, had to reach the Tsuchikage-sama.
Without leaving a trace, Bunmatsu's eyes flicked toward a small earthen mound.
In his heart, he muttered, Kurotsuchi, you have to survive and bring the intel back to the village.
In a heartbeat, he had already decided.
He would sacrifice himself to buy Kurotsuchi a way out.
He raised his voice to draw the Sand shinobi's attention.
"You Suna brat… you think you've already won?"
Kankuro's eyes turned cold.
"You're at death's door and still…"
Before he could finish, Bunmatsu slammed both hands down onto the ground.
"Doton: Chikaku Baku (Earth Release: Earth Core Blast)!!!"
Not an attack.
A self-detonation style chakra eruption.
Using his own body as the fuse, he poured every last drop of chakra into the earth beneath him, triggering a small-range but extremely violent strata explosion.
Not to kill the enemy.
To create chaos.
To carve out a sliver of life for any comrades who might still be alive.
Boom…
The ground split. Shards of rock sprayed outward. Dust swallowed everything.
Kankuro reacted instantly, snapping his hand out.
The puppet on his back raised itself to shield him from the flying debris.
But in the instant his vision was cut off,
Bunmatsu's figure vanished into the dust.
"Chase!"
Kankuro ground his teeth.
"No need."
A calm voice drifted down from above.
Everyone looked up.
Teizawa was already standing atop a towering stone pillar, as if he had been there the entire time.
His cloak did not move, even in the blast's turbulence.
He looked down on the dust-choked battlefield.
His right hand lifted casually, fingers curling into an invisible grip.
"Jiton: Satetsu Sō (Magnet Release: Iron Sand Burial)."
Humm…
The ground began to tremble.
Not from an explosion.
From the resonance of metal veins deep underground.
Countless grains of black sand seeped out of rock cracks.
They gathered in the air, compressed, condensed… forming a colossal black sand spear, ten meters long.
Its tip locked onto a figure sprinting madly through the dust.
Teizawa flicked his wrist.
The black spear shot forward.
There was no sound, because it was too fast.
All anyone saw was a black line slicing through the dust.
Then… the dull, wet impact of flesh being pierced.
Bunmatsu's running motion froze.
He lowered his head, staring at the jet-black spear tip protruding from his chest.
This… is that young Kazekage's iron sand?
S-so strong…
Blood dripped along the iron sand's grooves.
Each drop carried away a fragment of life.
He parted his lips, trying to say something.
Only froth and blood spilled out.
The black spear dissolved, turning back into iron sand and sinking into the earth.
Bunmatsu's body pitched forward and went still.
Teizawa leapt down from the pillar and landed lightly in front of Kankuro.
"Clean the battlefield. Count casualties."
His voice was as calm as ever.
"Yes."
Kankuro lowered his head and accepted the order.
When he raised it again, Teizawa had already turned and walked away.
Kankuro watched that retreating back.
Then he looked at Bunmatsu's corpse.
Then at the rocky hill that had buried hundreds of Iwa.
After tonight, the name "Kazekage Teizawa" would no longer be a title spoken only inside Sunagakure.
It would carry blood and terror, spreading across the entire shinobi world.
And Suna…
Kankuro gripped his puppet tighter, flames burning in his eyes.
Everything really was going to change.
(End of Chapter)
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