But although with Amegakure's full-scale retreat, the main battlefield suddenly dropped sharply from a three-way battle to one-on-one, the situation did not become simpler—instead, it grew more complex.
Centered on the original Suna vs. Konoha battlefield, the troops from both sides that had been fighting Amegakure frequently encountered each other while converging on this location, sparking small-scale conflicts each time.
If it were a one-sided victory, that would be one thing. But once a stalemate developed and reinforcements arrived from both sides, small-scale conflicts rapidly expanded, and the entire frontline further lengthened.
Konoha was, after all, Konoha. Their deep heritage was undeniable. Even though they needed to guard against attacks from other villages and couldn't pour most of their assets onto the battlefield like Suna, whose homeland no one wanted to bother with, they still had far more abundant high-end combat capabilities than Suna, and their functionality was far richer.
The Hyūga Clan, even at just chūnin level, could maintain the Byakugan for considerable periods. On the battlefield, the value of their beyond-horizon clairvoyance capable of penetrating terrain obstacles and observing chakra flow was simply too immense.
Combined with the Inuzuka Clan's ninja hounds and the Aburame Clan's insects, Konoha had virtually no blind spots in scouting.
In terms of combat, the tactical space created by the endless variety of secret techniques and diverse nature transformation combinations was also deeper and broader than Suna's, where, due to geographical factors, the vast majority of ninja were more inclined toward Wind Release, with other nature transformations requiring acquired learning.
In this regard, however, Rasa's Magnet Release and Pakura's Scorch Release did somewhat reclaim board advantage for Suna.
Actually, when he first learned Magnet Release, Rasa had still been habitually manipulating large amounts of gold dust for flexible mass attacks, based on the experience he accumulated from using Sand Manipulation Techniques.
Hii Kōri's comment of this was rigid, too rigid. Why keep obsessing over that pile of gold dust? If you like gold that much, go be a Gold Miner!
Can't you just use that Magnet Release to grab the enemy's ninja tools and stab them?
Leaving aside ninja who wield special tools, for convenience, the vast majority of ordinary ninja carried their tool pouches on their waists, thighs, or arms.
These three locations were either close to internal organs or near major arteries. You didn't need meticulous control, just yank a kunai or shuriken from the tool pouch and give it a go, and there was a high probability the injured party would quit combat entirely.
Insidious, vicious, and efficient. It sounded very Ninja enough to make even the Buddha close his eyes.
After all, no matter what, ninja couldn't go without kunai and shuriken. For the chūnin who made up the majority of ninja forces, ninjutsu wasn't something you could just freely spam either.
And someone like Rasa, who could influence the battlefield on a large scale, should be in the thick of it, slaughtering those ordinary chūnin. Haven't you seen Hanzō, that super old man, spreading poison all over the battlefield?
Ninja... don't blame me for being mean.
Moreover, besides this tactic of manipulating enemy tools, Rasa seemed to have awakened some strange quirks from his experiences in the Country of Rivers.
Simply put, bombing.
As one of the very few ninja in the world who had mastered flight capability, although he was somewhat afraid of getting struck by lightning in Amegakure's core areas and didn't dare ascend much, in the edge areas of the Country of Rain, where the weather was much better, he had far fewer concerns.
High ground beats low ground beat them stupid. Crude as the saying was, it held true.
Look, people are just like trash!·
As for Pakura's Scorch Release, although she had only developed one move so far, "Steam Kill," the flexibility of this technique was simply too high.
That "fireball," which could evaporate all moisture on contact, could freely divide and expand to various sizes. Its trajectory was exceptionally flexible, acceleration, deceleration, sudden stops, and turns all at will.
Combined with the taijutsu level that Hii Kōri had single-handedly trained out of Pakura, although she lacked means of mass destruction, her performance in squad assaults was outstanding to the extreme.
Meanwhile, the large summoning animals from Konoha's side that could have a huge impact on the battlefield were driven out of the main battlefield by Hii Kōri, piloting his large puppet under the alias "Yorozu Kōkichi."
When that theory validation prototype, modeled after Shukaku's form, debuted, it caused quite The dramatic impact was felt by both enemy and ally alike.
The various new equipment that Suna had kept hidden while fighting Amegakure was now fully unleashed.
Leaving aside the standardized armaments with multiplied firepower on puppets, the biggest enhancement for puppeteers was actually the new type of chakra threads that Hii Kōri had mass-produced using degraded technology, based on the large puppet's neural connection system.
Not only were they tougher, more stealthy, and finer, but they also brought an even better control method—pre-embedding neural connection interfaces in the body, then directly manipulating puppets through neural reactions.
For the vast majority of puppeteers, this control method not only improved their operation accuracy by several notches but also allowed simultaneous control of multiple puppets. The only defect was that connecting too many puppets could easily lead to thinking overload and burn out the brain.
The stimulant bandages—reverse products derived from chakra suppression bandages that kept the body in a highly active state, played a significant role in life-or-death situations.
Smoke bombs producing large amounts of pungent, colored smoke, and flashbangs releasing noise and intense light in extremely short periods, could in turn suppress Konoha's sense-type ninja, who relied on the five senses, in close combat.
The mechanical bracers, capable of releasing ninjutsu by switching between different modes and loading corresponding "ammunition," also compensate to some extent Suna ninja's relative lack of nature transformation options.
The "ammunition" came in three types: Fire, Water, and Lightning, with release modes roughly divided into diffuse, focused, and standard modes.
Not much, but enough.
Brother, this was truly a transcendent product.
The great thing about firearms was how simple they were to use; even a child who'd just learned to walk could slaughter fully armed adults with a gun. For ninja who had fought through blood and storm, the value of equipment that could broaden their tactical space needed no explanation.
Although limited by materials and production capacity, the performance of the latter equipment had been compromised to some extent, and quantities weren't particularly large, basically only capable of limited deployment at squad or even battalion level.
But it was precisely with the assistance of this equipment that Suna's strategic flexibility became abundant enough to fight a prolonged war of attrition with Konoha.
After all, Suna's supply lines were far more difficult to attack than Konoha's.
Adhering to the philosophy of "not pursuing kills, only causing trauma," Suna's forces are already skilled in using toxins, abandoning lethal poisons in favor of mixed toxins that cause various adverse effects.
People about to die weren't worth saving; they'd instead inspired the enemy's hatred. But wounded and poisoned comrades couldn't be ignored.
From top to bottom, Suna was clear that even fighting with all their might, they couldn't beat Konoha.
But so what?
There had never been a rule in this world that you had to surrender just because you couldn't win. Even if they lost, Suna wouldn't let Konoha off easy.
And then, in this bloody, restless atmosphere, a falling leaf brought news.
"Mataza and Shūko have fallen in battle."