"...That's the case. Shikaku you'll stay at the headquarters in my stead. Let's start preparing for it!" Orochimaru waved decisively, announcing the end of the pre-war meeting, and took the lead to get out, convene a large force of ninjas, and headed towards Sunagakure camp.
Asahi took a team of medical-nin in the camp, this would be his team for quite some time. After receiving the order to start, according to their prior allocation, part of the medical-nin was divided into teams, and Asahi led his part of the team. Around two medical-nin followed the army with him.
Before setting off, Tsunade took a look at him, and after seeing Asahi's 'reassured' hand seal, she slightly nodded and left with a team composed of elite ninjas.
Tsunade's mission required her to not be directly involved in battle, and Tsunade who's suffering from hemophobia couldn't appear on the battlefield. Her mission was to summon out Katsuyu to treat the Konoha ninjas on the battlefield.
The team of elite ninjas who followed her were in charge to protect Tsunade and ensure her safety above all else.
Minato was surprised when he saw that Asahi was also following the army. In his opinion, Asahi should have been left with the rear troops, how could he set off with the front army troops?
Feeling Minato's gaze, Asahi lightly nodded to him, trying to get him to rest assured.
The running speed of these troops didn't need to be fast. The higher-ups of Sunagakure should already be on them regarding this matter. They should be ready by now for them, and were merely waiting for Konoha army to arrive.
The army advanced for about ten minutes when an Anbu ninja came to Orochimaru and said something. Then Minato took a team of ninjas away from Orochimaru. It seemed that there was another mission.
…
The Land of Rivers.
This country was sandwiched between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind and thus had become the best battlefield for Konoha and Sunagakure to fight on.
This was the sorrow of a small nation. Pain was correct in saying that the Great Countries start wars with each other for their so-called "justice", but completely ignore the feelings of the surrounding small countries.
In the Second Great Ninja War, Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure fought in the Land of Rain, causing numerous people of that small nation to be killed, injured and looted, and a large number of orphan were borne and displaced, with a large amount of them dying because of lack of food. This led to the future Pain, and the tragedy that started Nagato's desires for revenge against the world.
This time Konoha went to war against Sunagarure, and the Land of Rivers became the biggest victim. The battles in the previous months have caused huge losses to the small nation. It's estimated that after the battle this time is over, the Land of Rivers would take a long period of time to recover, if it recovers before another war takes place.
An open terrain was the best stage for a large number of ninja battles. From a distance, anyone could easily see that thousands of sand ninjas have occupied a high position and were already waiting for Konoha ninjas to start their attacks.
Konoha arrived with a large amount of ninjas on the battlefield, with an imposing manner.
Although Sunagakure had only brought around eight-thousand ninjas, due to the inexplicable disappearance of their Third Kazekage, the battle mania emanating from Sunagakure's side was a little bit more than on Konoha's side, and they seemed to be holding a lot of grudges while looking at their opponents.
Seeing this scene, Asahi felt in his heart that this battle was going to be hard to fight. However, he also thought that in addition to the large amount of ninjas, Konoha had Orochimaru, Tsunade, two Kage-level ninjas, and Minato, the Future Fourth Hokage on their side.
His mind was slightly stabalized. Survival was always his priority.
At this moment, an old woman of about sixty years old came out of the crowd on Sunagakure's side. Although the old woman was short, she exuded an invisible oppression, giving a feeling of oppresses by a mountain. It was Chiyo of the Sand.
Besides Chiyo, there was an old man who looked similar to her in age. It was the younger brother of Chiyo, Ebizo, whose strength was also not weak.
Chiyo and Ebizo were as of today, the only Kage-level ninjas and the backbone that Sunagakure relied on.
Behind Chiyo and Ebizo, there was another person following, he looked to be about eighteen-twenty years old.
'Looking at his appearance, he should be the future Fourth Kazekage Rasa, who was more known in the original as Gaara's father rather than himself.'
Looking at other people on Sunagakure's side, although there were some people who didn't appeared at all in the original work, these people were all great and famous elites in the shinobi world. Asahi had seen it in the reports.
Although Sunagakure didn't dispatch too many ninjas, their elites seemed to all have arrived.
The rules of this world were really weird. A ninja is a killer walking in the dark, often accompanied by mystery and blood, but ninjas also yearned for heroes and thirst for the recognition of being on the spotlight.
And especially these kind of battles were often accompanied with the birth of heroes.
"Are the Legendary Sannin of Konoha composed of just an Orochimaru? Didn't your other fellows came to play?" Chiyo's eyes were scornful and dismissive.
"Hehehehe!" Orochimaru, the Commander of the Konoha army chuckled coldly, and his snake-like eyes glanced at everyone on the Sunagakure's side, scorning, "For a village that only relies on its old reputation, your arrogant tone is not small. But when you flee, you will thank the heavens that there's only an Orochimaru here today."
Chiyo's face was slightly red, and she did not conceal the endless killing intent on her face. Her eyes stared at Orochimaru for a few seconds before she started to talk, "An arrogant youngster that dares to speak wildly, I am very interested on seeing what Sarutobi Hiruzen's face will look like after Konoha's defeat."
"If you can survive my hands, maybe you can see it," Orochimaru sneered.
As for the disappearance of Third Kazakage, neither side mentioned it. Now that the war already started, the Third Kazekage was no longer important. If Chiyo mentioned the Third Kazekage at this time, Orochimaru might have taken the opportunity to suppress her troops' morale.
For today's Sunagakure, the most important thing was to win this war, to prove the strength of their village, and to obtain enough prestige for the future Fourth Kazekage.
In this war, Asahi's only regret was that he did not find evidence of the assassination of the Third Kazekage by Sasori of the Red Sand, and contributed it to the village.
The only way to find evidence about this matter was to find Sasori of the Red Sand directly and grab the human puppet made from the Third Kazekage and give it to village. It's just that his current strength was too weak, and he couldn't compete with Sasori at all, so this idea could only end there.
But now all of this was not important.
"Kill them!"
Along with the shouting of the two parties, Konoha and Sunagakure ninjas turned into two torrents and rushed to each other's side. Today, ninjas on both sides would end each other lives and bring glory to themselves and their village.
*Shou*
*Shou*
*Shou*
The shuriken and kunai were thrown from both sides towards the other side and so, even before the ninjas of the two sides managed to close off the distance with each other, there were already casualties.
But with this amount of ninjas, the ninjutsu they collectively launch, was enough to change the landscape.
After this battle today, the battlefield would be turning upside down and would cause changes in the land within several dozen of kilometers.
*****
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