Escape From Konoha

The quiet dawn dyes the dividing line between the earth and the sky white.

At six o'clock in the morning, the air force of the Kingdom of Ghosts once again attacked Windmill Town from the air.

Various buildings in the town have been turned into uninhabitable ruins after repeated bombings in the past few days.

However, the Sand Ninja still stood tenaciously on the ruins of the town.

"Are you coming again?"

Marky looked at the sky with a headache.

The air force of the Kingdom of Ghosts will launch attacks here every time at night and in the morning on time.

And each time the size is a standard fifty-man troop.

After these days of intense consumption, the bows, arrows and detonating talismans in the Suna Ninja troops were almost at their lowest point.

If the Kingdom of Ghosts launches another air strike tonight, then tomorrow morning, they will not have enough bows and arrows and detonators to deal with the air forces of the Kingdom of Ghosts.

By that time, the Sand Ninja troops who have lost their anti-air capabilities will definitely become a living target for the Demon Country's air troops.

Compared with the so-called air strikes, the Air Force of the Kingdom of Ghosts is more like using a thousand sand ninjas as wooden stakes for their actual combat training.

Their air strike capabilities are increasing day by day, and they have become more skilled in operations.

In yesterday's air raid, the Kingdom of Oni only lost six aircraft, but the Sand Ninja paid the precious lives of dozens of ninjas.

So far, less than half of the Suna ninja have survived, and half of these half of the Suna ninja are wounded. There are very few sand ninjas who can retain their full combat effectiveness.

The buzzing roar of aircraft resounded in the sky, and they began a new round of high-altitude bomb drops.

"Don't relax. As long as we resist the morning attack, reinforcements will arrive in the afternoon! That's the best time for us to fight back!"

Magee shouted to the surrounding Suna Ninja. This sentence greatly boosted the morale of the Suna Ninja.

After several days of repeated bombings, they already had a huge psychological shadow on the country of Ghost Country.

Now that they heard Markey say that reinforcements would arrive in the afternoon, hope was rekindled in their hearts.

As long as we survive this round of bombings in the morning, the days of humiliation and confinement will be over.

When the time comes, they, the Sand Ninjas, will march all the way to the capital of the Demon Country with unstoppable momentum, feeling proud and proud.

Markie saw that everyone's morale had been mobilized by him, so he nodded, picked up the radio communicator, and began to direct the battle.

Soon, Markey noticed something was wrong.

A hoarse, sharp sound suddenly came from the communicator. This sound was like the sound of stones scratching against glass, and it was exactly the same as that sound.

"Team 3, what's the situation on your side? Can you hear me? If you hear me, please answer!"

Mackey asked quickly.

The hoarse sharp sound became louder, but no report came, being covered by the ferocious sound of artillery fire.

Marki stared blankly to the southeast, where the three teams were located. They were covered by endless flames, sand and soil were flying, and they fell into a dead silence.

The radio...is out of order?

Markey had to accept this fact that made him despair.

Why do radios malfunction?

He quickly picked up the spare radio device, but there was still only hoarse noise coming. His own voice and that of the rest of the team were completely blocked by something, making it impossible to convey information, let alone direct operations.

"W-what's going on?"

Markie couldn't figure out why the radio failed at such a critical moment, and why the backup radio also failed.

This kind of thing is definitely not a coincidence.

But it wasn't a coincidence. He didn't know what the ninjas of the Ghost Country had done to cause their radios to malfunction at the same moment.

Without his unified command, Ma Ji shuddered just thinking about what would happen to the Sand Ninjas in the ruins of Windmill Town.

His eyes glowed red, and he looked at the Demon Country's aerial troops who were still projecting explosive kunai in the air. There was strong anger in his heart but he could not vent it.

Because the detonating arrows on the ground were shot into the sky without any order, the Suna Ninja's anti-air capabilities were greatly weakened against the Demon Country's air forces, and they were unable to form effective anti-air combat effectiveness.

"Lord Markey, be careful!"

A kunai wrapped in a detonating talisman suddenly fell to the ground, very close to Ma Ji's body.

Ma Ji, who was in an extremely frightened and angry state, lost his mind for a moment and could not accept such a result.

A sand ninja quickly knocked down Maki to prevent him from having an accident.

boom!

The two of them were swept away by the impact of the detonating talisman, looking disgraced and embarrassed.

Ma Ji coughed, blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, gritted his teeth and stared at the Ghost Kingdom troops in the sky, his heart filled with unwillingness and bitterness.

Reason told him that the Sand Ninja troops who could not unite would only be defeated individually in the subsequent air raids.

The big picture is settled.

He had imagined many times that the defeat of the Sand Ninja troops here would be due to lack of food and water, or the bows and arrows and detonating charms were consumed too quickly, resulting in the loss of combat capability.

But he never expected that the root cause of his failure would be that the radio device could not communicate normally.

The Sand Ninja troops were perfectly cut up on the battlefield by the Demon Country Ninjas. They fought individually in front of the unified Demon Country air force offensive. There was no other result except being defeated individually.

In war, if a team loses its cohesion and unity, it will fail very quickly.

Whether it is to integrate the queue or disperse the enemy, it is necessary to make reasonable arrangements as soon as possible. An extra minute of delay may cause the situation to change suddenly. The Kingdom of Ghosts has fundamentally cut off the Sand Ninja's tactical configuration. This is what makes Maji most desperate.

Even if the Sand Ninjas are allowed to disperse now, so that the firepower of the Ghost Country is dispersed to a certain extent, it seems a little late to make arrangements at this time.

Magee looked at the air forces of the Kingdom of Demons, bombing from the outside with detonating kunai with ease, and constantly reducing the scope of the Suna Ninja's activities, just to prevent the Suna Ninja from being scattered, intending to gather them together and end the battle in one breath.

Being able to cut off communication equipment, how could the Kingdom of Ghosts not think of this step?

They have already made a foolproof plan and will not give the Sand Ninja any chance to counterattack.

…

Nowhere in Windmill Town, which was trapped in artillery fire and dust, was intact.

In order to end the battle this morning, high-intensity fire suppression was adopted this time. The attack would not be stopped until the Sand Ninja completely lost their ability to resist, instead of being a time-limited training activity like the previous times.

Ayane looked at the smoking windmill town from a distance with white eyes. The town's original appearance had long been changed beyond recognition.

On the charred ruins, countless bodies of Sand Ninja fell. Some were not dead yet, writhing and struggling in pain on the ruins, dying.

"Come on, we can carry out the final closing of the net. There is no need to attack those who are not dead. We will bring them all back to Ziyuan City and put them back in prison for custody. Dead people are worthless."

"yes."

After hearing this, the Jonin squadron leader disappeared from Ayane and led people to Windmill Town to close the net.

◎

When we returned to Ziyuan City, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

In less than a week, Ayane's troops killed a total of 731 enemies, captured 269 people, and some supplies. We lost 47 aircraft and suffered 31 minor injuries. people, three were seriously injured, and the sacrifice rate was zero.

Although it lasted a long time, it was a proud achievement to kill 731 enemies on the basis of zero sacrifice.

This can also prove that the containment and air attack capabilities of the air force are outstanding.

The high mobility also makes people have unlimited beautiful thoughts about the future of this army.

After reading Ayane's report, Shiraishi nodded slightly. Basically, he did not deviate from his expectations. The time consumption and results were very close to his speculations.

The only regret is that the formal personnel of the air force is only 300 people.

Not only because of the cost of the latest combat aircraft, but also because of technical limitations.

After all, unlike the low-tech light weapons like the Kunai gun, the cost of military combat aircraft is very expensive.

The follow-up training of flight personnel is also a considerable amount of time and cost.

Such troops, before developing more powerful bomb-throwing weapons, are used as a surprise attack, which can bring many unexpected results.

Once the enemy is familiar with the mechanism, the threat capability will be greatly reduced.

"Overall, this is a beautiful victory, thank you for your hard work. By the way, there is nothing wrong with those prisoners, right?"

Shiraishi mentioned this.

"Don't worry, there are medical ninjas following us on the way back, and the seriously injured prisoners' injuries have been stabilized. Now I have sent people to put them in prison. After the war is over, let Sunagakure come over and get money to ransom them."

Ayane had already figured out how to give Zaisha a good meal when the time came.

Especially Sand Hidden's Jonin Maki, this time was once again captured alive by their ghost kingdom.

The celebrity around the fourth generation of Fengkage must be able to sell a lot of money by then.

"There is no need to worry about this kind of thing. With these prisoners in our hands, the advantage will be on our side. Even if we negotiate at the negotiating table, we will be in the dominant position."

Shiraishi rational analysis.

"To bring the battlefield to the negotiation table, we need to give Sunagakure a painful blow... Well, what's going on with Ruri? Have you killed the Fourth Kazekage?"

Ayane asked.

Shiraishi glanced at Ayane helplessly and sighed.

"Hey, where are you thinking? That's one of the Five Shadows after all. If he dies, the problem will become very serious."

"What's serious? The third Raikage didn't die on the battlefield at Iwagakure."

Ayane disagreed.

"Now is no different than during the Third Ninja War. Countries are tending to a state of peace in order to cultivate their health and recuperate. For a village, the shadow is not only responsible for the strength, but also the core of the leadership. In order to avenge the Kazekage, Suna If Yin uses all his strength to attack us, the situation will be bad.”

"There are only over 10,000 people. With the cooperation of the three of us, it won't be a problem to stop them."

Ayane made a simple comparison of strength. The three of them, with the help of seven clones, could fight head-on against ten thousand ninjas, and even win the final fruit of victory.

"What if they divide their forces and directly attack the Kingdom of Ghosts? The situation you mentioned is an ideal situation for them to go their own way and confront us head-on. As long as they have any brains, they will not do this, but go straight to the front. It refers to the Kingdom of Ghosts. Countless towns will be completely destroyed, a large number of refugees will be generated, and the economy will shrink directly to the state of ten years ago... This is very fatal. "

After Shiraishi's explanation, Ayane was a little speechless.

"This is not the most serious thing. What I am most worried about is that when fighting Sunagakure, other major powers will intervene on the battlefield, thus triggering the Fourth Ninja World War. The attitudes of Kumogakure and Iwagakure are unclear. In Konoha's words, I think he will join forces with Sunagakure to get rid of us."

Shiraishi's words made Ayane look a little more serious.

Indeed, leaving aside the other major ninja villages, Konoha is the village that most wishes for something unexpected to happen to them.

Once they find an opportunity, those high-level officials in Konoha will definitely not mind coming over to add insult to injury.

It's not just Sunagakure that needs attention in this war, Konoha also needs to be on guard.

"If Konoha wants to intervene on the battlefield, it may be unrealistic to launch large-scale troops against us due to distance and supply problems. But it must not be difficult to dispatch a small elite force to join Sunagakure and execute a beheading operation on us. "

"Listening to what you say, the pressure is really increasing, Shiraishi-kun."

Ayane had a smile on her face, but there was no sense of relaxation at all.

"Because we can no longer use rebellious thinking to deal with interest disputes between countries. This is a change in identity. We can get what we want without breaking the rules. We should abandon the previous practices as soon as possible. . From darkness to light, we have to act according to the rules on the surface."

This is a limitation but also an opportunity.

"If the Fourth Kazekage knew that he had escaped due to this reason, he would probably be depressed to death."

"No, I am sincerely grateful to the Fourth Kazekage, because he is alive and conscientiously fulfills the Kazekage's obligations, so that we can control the direction of this war to the extent we need, instead of fighting with more than 10,000 Sand Ninjas Fight to the end, otherwise we will suffer heavy losses."

A full-scale conflict-style war is not advisable.

The worst thing is that without Rasa as the Kazekage, Sunagakure has no candidate for the next Kazekage. It is unpredictable what kind of actions he will make when he is furious.

Shiraishi was also worried that the Chiyo siblings would come out again at that time. They were two old antiques who had survived since the early days of the Ninja Village, but they were much more troublesome than Rasa, the Kazekage.

If there was anyone among Sunagakure who he feared the most, it was undoubtedly the siblings.

Kazekage Luosha still had to succumb to the two of them.

"Based on this situation, leaving the fourth generation Kazekage is more valuable than him. Therefore, my instructions to Liuli are to kill as many effective forces as possible except the Kazekage himself. To reduce the military strength of a ninja village, it is not just about killing. The Death Shadow method. Annihilating their jounin and chunin can also achieve the results we expected."

In regular battles, the Five Shadows can achieve the so-called ability of one knight to defeat a thousand.

But faced with the combination of dozens of jounin, even the Five Kage will drink their hatred in the battle.

In a ninja village the size of Sunagakure, the number of jounin is far more than just a few dozen.

Kazekage is just Sunagakure's top ninja.

There are also many jonins one level below the Kazekage.

Just because the Kazekage stands at the top, we cannot ignore the role of the other Jonin.

Scattered across the battlefield, these jounin were invaluable.

"I see, you get the maximum benefit at the minimum cost, right?"

Ayane understood it easily.

"That's more or less it. Next, adopt the strategy of distant relations and close attacks, and send envoys to Kumogakure and Kirigakure to sell their interests to them and keep them neutral in the international arena."

Needless to say, Kirigakure's side, the so-called mission dispatch is just a formality, pretending to be seen by others, so as not to make others suspicious.

What Shiraishi hopes to see most is Kumogakure's neutral attitude.

As long as Kumogakure is appeased and kept neutral, the Kingdom of Demons will win half the battle.

"Then my next task is..."

Ayane seemed to have guessed something.

Shiraishi nodded and said: "You stay here to prevent Iwagakure. Konoha cannot win over them. They may secretly support Sunagakure and kill people with borrowed swords. After reaching a neutrality agreement with Kumogakure, I will immediately go to the Kingdom of Wind Join forces with Liuli to further expand the advantage of the Kingdom of Wind on the battlefield and ensure that no accidents occur. Finally, we can negotiate at the negotiating table."

Although he also wanted to take Ayane with him to the battlefield of the Kingdom of Wind, but in that case, the domestic defense force would become very weak.

Onoki, the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, is an old man who is very good at sneaking and playing tricks, so he needs to be strictly guarded.

Moreover, even if they reached a neutrality agreement with Kumogakure, they could not retain too much trust. The importance of Ayane staying at home was highlighted.

It's like a competition on the field. Make sure you don't lose points first, and then think about scoring. This is Shiraishi's usual thinking.

Fortunately, Ayane is not a very aggressive ninja. If she and Liuli were replaced, and Liuli was allowed to defend and Ayane was responsible for the main attack, the situation would be very different.

◎

There was a solemn atmosphere in the conference room.

The 2,000-man army led by Fengying Luosha suffered heavy casualties after being ambushed. The large amount of supplies carried by the army was also thrown away and captured by the enemy.

It can be said that it was a bad start.

Because no one expected in advance that there would be a surprise attack in the Kingdom of Wind.

Moreover, the culprit of the sneak attack was the ninja who had betrayed Konoha more than ten years ago.

Such a ridiculous scene was actually staged in the ninja world.

Playing the role of the clown on the stage is their Kingdom of the Wind.

"Declaration of war against the Kingdom of the Wind... This group of traitors are really brave."

A high-ranking Sand Ninja clenched a piece of paper into a ball and gritted his teeth.

For a small country to formally declare war on a big country, it would be a great shame and humiliation for the big country.

The representative of the declaration of war was a rebellious ninja who broke away from the ninja village system. This was more like a slap in the face of the Suna ninja.

"Konoha! The Kingdom of Demons! We must let the Hokage and the Miko from the Kingdom of Demons give us a reasonable explanation for this matter, otherwise this matter will never end!"

Another Sunagakure senior executive also had a livid face and gloomy eyes.

Allowing the rebellious ninja to remain unchecked for more than ten years is undoubtedly Konoha's dereliction of duty.

In the same way, the miko of the Demon Country allowed the rebellious ninja to operate in the country and also served as a military representative. This was even more ridiculous than Konoha's attitude of indulging the rebellious ninja.

When can rebels and ninjas be able to express their voices openly and openly in the world?

"Regardless of what Konoha can say, condoning the rebellious miko of the Demon Country is obviously the behavior of the previous generation of miko. Looking for this generation of miko... I'm afraid the results will be minimal. Moreover, the miko of the Demon Country has a special status. , they don’t want to explain anything about this kind of thing, no matter what the outcome is, the witches can stay out of it.”

Luo Sha frowned in distress.

Now that I think about it, all of Sunagakure's actions were passively guided by others.

From the very beginning, when the debt collectors made a big fuss in the Daming Mansion of the Land of Wind, the Kingdom of Ghosts was already setting up a trap.

They confusedly believed that the Kingdom of Ghosts did not have the power to resist the big powers, so they carried out a series of wrong policies. When such a loss occurs, all senior executives cannot escape the blame.

Since there was an accident on their side, the troops belonging to Ma Ji who stayed in the Kingdom of Ghosts were probably in danger.

Such a heavy sacrifice made Luo Sha feel very bad.

"What do you plan to do, Kazekage-sama?"

"Next, I will lead the troops again and try to drive Uchiha Ruri out of the Kingdom of Wind."

Luo Sha bit hard on the word 'try your best'.

It can be seen that he himself does not have much confidence in this matter.

"Then Konoha Hokage and the Demonic Country Miko are not planning to negotiate?"

"Negotiations are of course necessary. It is unlikely that the Miko of the Demon Country will achieve results. In the end, force will do the talking. But Konoha may be able to help us."

"Konoha... help?"

Regarding Kazekage's words, all the senior officials of Sunagakure were thoughtful.

"As far as I know, Konoha has never given up on searching for Chiba Shiraishi, Uchiha Ruri and Hyuga Ayane. The Nine-Tails Rebellion that occurred seven or eight years ago resulted in the death of Konoha's fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato. It is also inseparable from these three people. Therefore, compared to us Sunagakure, Konoha is the village least willing to see these three people stand up in the world."

Once Chiba Shiraishi and the other two completely establish their footing, Konoha will not only lose face, but also have a formidable enemy in the world.

It can be said that Konoha is more anxious than Sunagakure now, wishing that the Kingdom of Demons would be destroyed immediately, destroying everything about the three people, and pretending that nothing had happened.

As the saying goes, the enemy of your enemy is your friend.

If Konoha can help Sunagakure at this time, Rasa will not mind temporarily reaching cooperation with Konoha.

"What if Konoha refuses to intervene?"

One senior official asked worriedly.

"Then tell them that Sunagakure is willing to negotiate peace with the Kingdom of Ghosts, and recognize the legal status of Chiba Shiraishi and the others in the Kingdom of Ghosts."

This is a lie.

Because the current conflict with the Kingdom of Ghosts cannot be resolved by simple peace talks.

He would not agree, and the daimyo would not agree either.

But Rasa didn't mind using such rhetoric to threaten Konoha and launch an aid operation to Sunagakure.

Because, Konoha now cannot afford to gamble.