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Chapter 67 - Chapter 67: Amegakure's Defeat

Under pressure beyond his plans, Hanzō still chose to take the initiative.

As Hii Kōri had said, the symbolic meaning created by "order of precedence" was very important. For the Country of Rain at this point, all they could pursue was that one spiritual banner.

Ōnoki, just as Chiyo had predicted, immediately declared after Hanzō stepped down as the first Kage-level powerhouse to personally participate in battle that Iwagakure was only "forced" to set foot in the Country of Rain, had no intention of opposing Amegakure, and then Amegakure retreated back into hiding.

As for whether the "Demigod" who had roamed the ninja world for decades saw through Ōnoki's intentions, that no longer mattered.

Just as he had to rush to act before Konoha's massive offensive, he also had to tacitly accept Ōnoki's explanation.

Launching large-scale offensives against both Konoha and Suna simultaneously had already left Amegakure quite exhausted. Even knowing that Iwagakure was playing the waiting game, Hanzō could only ignore it.

The same was true for Suna. The Countries of Wind and Earth were directly adjacent; they understood each other quite well the temperaments of each other's village leaders.

Anyway, they hadn't expected Iwagakure to play much of a role from the beginning. Whether they retreated or not didn't matter.

At the very least, in terms of acting as agitators, Iwagakure had done quite well.

The only one who might have objected to this was probably Konoha. They had declared war, destroyed the alliance, and then, after just starting to fight, Iwagakure had been fishing in troubled waters, and now just ran away?

How the hell did Iwagakure get all the good deals?

Fight! They had to kick their little asses!

Of course, this was just empty bluster.

Anyone who opened a map could see that attacking Iwagakure, located in the east-central part of the Country of Earth and protected by cascading mountains, was extremely difficult. Neither material transportation nor troop dispatching could be guaranteed.

The Country of Grass did have two large bridges convenient for material transportation, but the Country of Grass was close to the Country of Rain. If Amegakure wanted to cause trouble, Konoha's transport teams wouldn't have a single peaceful day.

As for the Country of Waterfalls, with its terrain full of elevation changes and waterfalls everywhere, it obviously wasn't friendly to large-scale marching. And most importantly, whether passing through the Country of Grass or the Country of Waterfalls, what lay before Konoha were insurmountable mountains.

Konoha's geographical location was convenient for defense when other nations invaded, but not convenient for launching powerful offensives outward.

That was the essence of so-called "overt schemes"—even if everyone knew what you planned to do, they had to act according to your wishes.

In this regard, Ōnoki could indeed be called a master.

On the battlefield against Suna, Hanzō had planned to rely on the massive poison fog from his salamander summoning animal to decisively secure victory.

The result was that Chiyo, who had also personally deployed, neutralized it on the spot with experience accumulated from past encounters with salamander toxins, and even deduced the defect that the salamander needed five minutes to replenish its poison gas.

Hanzō naturally found this quite troubling. But even so, Chiyo was marked by him.

If, in their one-on-one battle, Chiyo had the intention of sending puppets to support Suna, Hanzō, with reduced pressure, could summon his salamander and unleash a big one.

And then, if Chiyo, distracted during the fight with Hanzō and slightly relaxed her control over a few puppets, also tried to deal with Hanzō's poison fog, she would probably be breached and killed on the spot.

After all, Hanzō had been active alone in the Country of Iron for a while back in the day, and in taijutsu, he completely overwhelmed Chiyo.

But by driving Chikamatsu's Ten Puppets with the supreme puppeteer technique, the Ten-Finger Technique, and with the advantage of puppet durability and numbers, Chiyo could completely hold Hanzō in place.

So after several rounds of confrontation, neither side could easily gain an advantage. In the end, Hanzō and Chiyo both began silently waiting for opportunities to strike, trying to create decisive enough to secure victory.

Of course, that was just the surface reason.

What Chiyo was actually waiting for was news from Hii Kōri.

Even with the obvious defect of needing five minutes to accumulate toxin, the horrific toxin coverage rate of Hanzō's summoning animal—which exceeded their initial estimates—was enough to compensate for this.

Additionally, since they hadn't initially considered that the battlefield would shift to the Country of Rain, provoking Hanzō, although Chiyo could handle the salamander's poison fog, the consumption of herbs for making antidotes couldn't quite keep up.

And Hii Kōri, during this period, had been working overtime to modify the support automatons he had designed for the battlefield—devices that were essentially "charging" mechanisms.

These small machines, which gained short-term mobility by charging chakra into their cores, were generally used for short-distance material transport. ConsIriding chakra conversion rates, core production costs, and mass-production difficulty, these automatons—only the size of an adult's foot—had not been compatible with more functions at the design stage.

To be able to deploy them on a large scale to collect herbs, the design would need modification.

Of course, the Country of Wind would also provide herbal support, but using local materials was always faster.

After all, antidotes were something you couldn't have too many of. Being able to distribute them widely was always better than having Chiyo handle it every time.

Although wearing gas masks was useless against that level of poison fog, inhalation antidotes through nebulizers was still quite effective.

On the other hand, on the battlefield against Konoha, Hanzō's poison fog strategy had been extremely successful.

The Konoha ninja present at the time were basically all taken down, leaving only Hiruzen Sarutobi's three disciples barely holding on.

It was hard to say whether Hanzō's sparing of them counted as a "master" persona, but it was certainly true that he didn't want to completely ruin relations with Konoha.

After all, his essential demand was simply for Konoha and Suna to get the hell out of the Country of Rain. Having, in the current situation where the First Hokage's wife's clan had been wiped out, additionally chopped down the First Hokage's granddaughter in public—no matter how you thought about it, that wasn't very sensible.

As for other ninja casualties?

Ah, everyone says all people are equal, but surely some are more equal than others. (X)

Anyway, with overall strategy impossible to win, and only local victory on Hanzō's personal battlefield,

Hanzō certainly didn't want to attract Konoha's firepower on Suna's behalf.

Holding to this philosophy, he conveniently bestowed upon them the title "Legendary Sanin of Konoha" and spared their lives.

But although Hanzō's active figure on both battlefields did provide ample support for achieving his goals,

This also proved Amegakure's predicament from the side.

Amegakure did have quite a few capable jōnin, but the only one who could truly hold up the scene as a Kage-level powerhouse was Hanzō alone.

Under these circumstances, Konoha was willing to step back, do Hanzō a favor, and turn around to bash Suna's demon brat, but Suna certainly wasn't happy about that.

After ensuring sufficient antidote supply, Hanzō's anti-army means became ineffective. With Hanzō himself held in place by Chiyo, lacking decisive powerhouses and with their jōnin intelligence completely compromised, Amegakure no longer had any advantage against Suna.

So, just one week later, Amegakure—which had initially declared war on both Konoha and Suna—formally withdrew from this Great Ninja War.

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