socalfunplaces Chapter 222 When foes meet on a narrow path, the brave will prevail—that would be a strange story.
Chapter 222 When foes meet on a narrow path, the brave will prevail—that would be a strange story.
Chapter 222 When foes meet on a narrow path, the brave shall prevail; no wonder! (First update, please vote with monthly tickets)
As the sun rose higher, the Konoha troops marched forward in an orderly fashion, but because they were in formation, their marching speed was not very fast.
The towering trees of yesteryear did not hinder the advance of the Konoha ninja. Although they did not exactly cut through mountains or build bridges over rivers, the group truly marched in a straight line, heading directly toward the Sunagakure camp.
The team was in high spirits. As time went by, some of the ninjas who were initially nervous gradually calmed down under the influence of the overall atmosphere, and then became excited and enthusiastic along with everyone else.
This is understandable. The southern front has been winning every battle since before the war began. Even the worst team can be made invincible by these victories, not to mention that the ninjas of Konoha are not weak to begin with.
In a corner of the large group, Taichi, Yohei, Kakashi, and others were all arranged to stay. From the shouts of "Wan Sheng" at the start of the march to the silent march now, the group members finally calmed down.
"Taiichi, what are you doing here? I just saw Minato-sensei at the front!" Finally, someone broke the silence. Obito looked at Taiichi, who was with them, and asked curiously.
As Obito asked his question, the others also turned their attention to Taichi. Given Taichi's current status and position, he really shouldn't be with them.
Taiichi looked up at Jiraiya and the others, who were now hidden by the trees, then turned back to give Obito a resentful look that gave him goosebumps.
Then he slowly said, "Senior Brother Shuimen was worried about you all and asked me to come and take care of you. I happened to have the same idea, so I came!"
"What! Minato-sensei, why are you like this? We're not children anymore. Didn't we get through the last war safely?" Obito was indignant, a thousand times indignant, as if they were just burdens who needed special care.
Taiichi could understand, after all, he had the same mindset when he let Yohei and Saori carry out the mission alone, and he got used to it over time.
"You talk the most!" Taiyi reprimanded him without any politeness. "Don't be ungrateful. The early stages of the battle are the most dangerous and the casualties are the heaviest. I will stay with you during that time to get through this phase of the battle. After that, once the situation stabilizes, you will have to rely on yourselves."
Yangping and Kakashi nodded, understanding now; this was indeed a well-intentioned effort.
By the time the sun was high in the sky, it was around 10 a.m., and Taiyi could see the horizon where birds were circling above the trees, reluctant to come down.
Taiichi knew that it was the Sand Village's troops, and it seemed that the two sides would make contact in a short while.
Sure enough, after only a few minutes, the trees disappeared, and a vast open space appeared before them, with a small river running through the middle, dividing the flat land into north and south sections.
Konoha and Sunagakure are separated by a kilometer, facing each other across the river.
As orders came in, the originally well-organized formation quickly shifted, and the troops rearranged themselves according to their pre-assigned roles.
At this moment, several ninjas skilled in Earth Release stepped forward and simultaneously formed hand seals.
Earth Escape: Earth Current City Wall.
A row of city walls, each over ten meters high and ten meters long, rose from the ground.
The purpose of erecting this city wall was twofold: firstly, to provide a commanding view of the entire battlefield and facilitate command; and secondly, because its elevated position was advantageous for defense.
As the city wall was erected, Jiraiya and dozens of other ninjas leaped aboard. They were the commanders of this battle and the final line of defense.
It can be said that as long as the Kazekage of the opposing side does not make a move, Jiraiya will not make a move either. In other words, whichever side's commander-in-chief cannot help but take action, it means that the battle situation of that side has fallen into an unfavorable state.
This isn't your average squad battle where you can launch a sneak attack. Everyone's combat strength is laid bare, and who is whose target is pre-arranged.
On the battlefield, in Konoha, a city wall stands tall against the ground, and thousands of ninjas are lined up in an orderly fashion in front of it. Taiichi and his squad are positioned directly in front of the city wall.
Meanwhile, on the Sunagakure side, a city wall also rose from the ground, appearing almost exactly the same as the one on the Konoha side.
It's a very well-coordinated arrangement; it's almost become the standard choice for this type of terrain.
However, upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that the walls of Konoha are significantly higher than those of Sunagakure.
This is understandable, as Konoha is, after all, the number one ninja village, with a full range of ninjutsu and ninjas skilled in a wide variety of techniques.
However, other ninja villages are not like this. Apart from Wind Release, the level of the other five elemental ninjutsu in Sunagakure is at least one level lower.
This is also the reason for the gap between the two sides.
"To be honest, I really like this battlefield I chose," Taiyi muttered to himself.
The two sides faced each other across the river. Although the river was not a major river, it was still about twenty meters wide.
For ninjas, this is naturally not an insurmountable obstacle; they can cross it by treading water or even by using two instantaneous teleportations.
But for Taiyi, who is skilled in using water-style techniques, this is undoubtedly an excellent battlefield. He can confidently say that among all the ninjas present, if he dares to say that his water-style techniques are second to none, then no one can say that they are first.
It can't be said that either side deliberately chose this place; it's simply fate. They were walking towards each other, neither knowing the other's progress, and amidst all the forests and plains, they just happened to meet by this small river.
Kakashi turned his head and looked at Taichi curiously. He usually only saw Taichi use fire-style techniques, and Taichi's fire-style techniques were indeed powerful, but he had never seen Taichi use water-style techniques before.
As if sensing Kakashi's gaze, Taichi smiled confidently, extended his right hand, pinched a small gap between his thumb and forefinger, and said, "My Water Release is only slightly inferior to Fire Release!"
Kakashi's face stiffened; he didn't want to say anything more—it was just too much of a blow.
However, even though he didn't say it, Taiyi still had something to remind him: "Once the battle begins, we, as the attacking force, will definitely advance forward. At that time, the current formation will be distorted. But there is one thing to note: the large formation can be distorted, but our squad's actions must remain consistent."
If we can't even maintain our squad formation, it means we'll have to fight individually. On such a large battlefield, the chance of death will increase exponentially once we lose the cover and support of our teammates.
In short, no matter how exciting or bloody the battlefield is, excitement and exhilaration are acceptable, but one must never become overly excited, and even less should one charge headlong into enemy lines with a surge of adrenaline—that is a path to death.
These are valuable words of advice. They might be about to go into battle at any moment, so Taiyi had to pick out some important things to tell them. After all, life and death are no small matter, and he hoped that all his companions could survive.
"Taiichi, don't worry, I'll keep an eye on Kakashi and make sure he doesn't run around in a bloodthirsty frenzy."
Obito, who had once rescued Kakashi, had a big smile on his face, giving off an impression that everyone didn't need to worry because he was there.
Kakashi was exasperated, too lazy to even roll his eyes, clearly not wanting to acknowledge him. Yangping even gave him a chop to the head, scolding, "Can't you have some self-awareness? Taiichi is talking to you!"
Time ticked by, and both sides waited quietly. Commands were constantly being relayed from the city walls, adjusting the positions of the various squads within the ranks.
The two sides remained in a silent standoff until the sun was directly overhead.
"When will the battle begin? What's the point of just wasting time like this?" Kakashi leaned close to Taichi and asked in a low voice.
Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but prick up their ears, as the wait was becoming increasingly agonizing.
Taiyi couldn't help but look back at the many Jonin on the city wall. He also had some questions in his mind, but he still comforted them, "Who knows? Maybe they're waiting for the other side to show a weakness. Can't you see that you're already getting impatient?"
Such a standoff is extremely taxing on both sides' patience; once either side becomes agitated, their chances of winning will certainly decrease.
Everyone understood and waited quietly, but while they quieted down, others still had their own thoughts.
After a while, an urgent voice came from the surroundings.
"When are we finally going to start the fight? This dawdling is so frustrating!"
Hearing this, the speaker had clearly lost patience. Taiichi glanced to his side and saw an unfamiliar middle-aged ninja; judging by his clothes, he was only a genin.
He shook his head helplessly. "Not much skill, but a big temper. He can't even keep his composure on the battlefield. It's hard to say whether he can survive this battle."
Taiyi ignored the man and looked ahead. There, the Sand Village ninjas were also ready to go, their imposing aura no less than that of the Leaf Village ninjas.
Just as Taiichi was gazing at the Sand Village troops, a series of sharp whistles rang out from the city wall behind him, then echoed from the center to the flanks of the formation.
"Finally—it's begun!"
At that moment, Tai felt his blood pressure spike, and his whole body immediately entered a state of excitement. His adrenaline surged rapidly, and without any preheating, his entire body was covered in a light sweat.
Guided by the whistles, the entire ninja team, led by their respective captains, advanced in an orderly fashion towards Sunagakure. After all, they were still nearly a kilometer away from the Sunagakure forces and had not yet entered the ninjas' attack range.
As the two sides got closer and closer, the originally orderly formation began to slowly change shape.
Behind them, ninja squads broke away from the original formation and began to circle around from both flanks. They were special attack squads on the battlefield, responsible for hunting down some troublesome opponents on the periphery, as well as harassing the periphery and dealing with similar squads from Sunagakure.
In the middle of the group, Taichi led his team members and started jogging, but he kept his speed down while also reaching out to stop Kakashi and Obito, who wanted to speed up.
"Don't be impulsive, it's not time yet!"
As the group approached the riverbank, smoke bombs were launched from behind by the ninjas. In the blink of an eye, these smoke bombs crossed the midline of the river and exploded on the Sunagakure side of the river.
At the same time, smoke bombs from Sunagakure exploded in large numbers on Konoha's side. The only difference was that Sunagakure's smoke bombs were a ghastly green color, clearly indicating that they contained a large amount of "additives".
"You despicable and shameless bastard from Sunagakure!"
"A filthy, despicable, shameless scoundrel!"
Curses rang out among the Konoha troops, but then the commands to "take the antidote pills" were given, drowning out the meaningless shouts.
The ninjas took out the pills distributed before the battle from their ninja tool bags, and then swallowed them one by one with a gloomy expression, inwardly cursing the pill's developer: Couldn't they have made the pill taste better?
This antidote pill was naturally the masterpiece of the Taiyi Joint Medical Camp. How could the Konoha people, who knew the nature of Sunagakure well, not be wary of Sunagakure's poison?
As both sides' vision was obscured by the smoke, more than twenty ninjas skilled in Earth Release immediately jumped out from Konoha. They leaped to the front of the group, quickly formed hand seals with those on the riverbank, and then the more than twenty people used Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall together.
A city wall hundreds of meters long rose from the ground, and the ninjas behind it leaped onto the wall. With this delay, the Sand Village had already crossed the center of the river and appeared on the Konoha side.
What they faced were Konoha ninjas who had leaped onto the city walls and were looking down from above.
In this round, Konoha clearly had a slight advantage in strategy.
"Fire Release Ninja, prepare—release!"
At a command, hundreds of ninjas skilled in fire-style techniques arrived at the city wall and simultaneously formed hand seals. In the next moment, a variety of fire-style ninjutsu, such as Great Fireball, Flame Bullet, Fire Dragon Flame Bullet, and Great Fire Annihilation, were unleashed at the Sand Ninja below the city wall.
"Wind Release Ninja, prepare—release!"
Before the fire jutsu could dissipate, a gale carrying the wind blade swept down, injecting new life into the still raging fire jutsu. The fire borrowed the wind's momentum, and the wind amplified the fire's power, making this attack even more powerful than the fire jutsu alone.
With these two ninjutsu attacks, the group of ninjas who rushed to Konoha first were given a taste of their own medicine. Putting aside the casualties, their morale was at least completely shattered.
"Attack force—charge!"
Now, it's finally Taiyi and the others' turn!
That's right, Taiichi, Yohei, Kakashi and the others were assigned to the attack force. With a command, they followed closely behind Taiichi in a two-on-left, three-on-right formation, and charged down the city wall.
Before he even touched the ground, countless Phoenix Flames condensed around Taiyi, pouring down like fire rain onto the Sand Village below.
Judging from its momentum, it was in no way inferior to the fire jutsu released by multiple ninjas together just now.
At this moment, as the Sand Village's reinforcements arrived, their counterattack followed, unleashing wind blades, fireballs, and...
A barrage of lightning and various ninjutsu rained down, interspersed with kunai, shuriken, and explosive tags.
Taiyi was able to handle these attacks with ease, accurately deflecting them with clusters of Phoenix Flame, but he could only defend within a ten-meter radius around himself; he was powerless to do anything beyond that.
"what!"
This was the first time screams had been heard from Konoha since the start of the war. It was obvious that such screams in this environment meant that the person was likely in grave danger.
As that scream began, a series of screams followed, and Konoha's casualties gradually increased.
At this moment, Taiichi, wielding a short sword, charged at the forefront of the group, facing the fiercest attack, and officially engaged in close combat with the Sand Village.