Naruto: Five Lives, Five Times the Excitement

Chapter 297 Sand Ninja Civil War (8)

"That immense amount of chakra must belong to a tailed beast. The battle looks incredibly intense. Let's speed up!"

On a barren piece of land, a hundred Rain Ninjas advanced rapidly. Nagato, with his extraordinary sensory abilities, sensed the aftershocks of Sensuke's battle.

Beside Nagato were Yamori, Kakuzu, and Sasori.

Orochimaru is repairing his severed hand, while Yahiko, Konan, and Tetsuka each have their own missions.

They had to suppress the rebellion launched by Hanzo's remaining forces while also strengthening border defenses to avoid being ambushed by Iwa ninja and Konoha ninja.

Therefore, Nagato could not lead many people.

Hearing Nagato's words, Mikami frowned and said, "If Yekura and the others are killed, our mission will be a complete failure. Perhaps we should go ahead first."

Kakuzu suggested, "At our speed, we'll reach the battlefield quickly."

Sasori didn't object, so Nagato nodded and said, "Okay!"

And so, the four of them broke away from the main force and rushed toward the battlefield at an even faster pace.

Originally, Mishou thought that Scorpion would be a hindrance because he usually moved slowly. But the puppet that Scorpion was controlling grew wings and flew up, faster than Mishou.

At this moment, Chisuke had just used the Flying Thunder God Technique to escape, and then rushed back to the battlefield to fight alongside Yoruichi.

At this point, Yekura's men were dwindling in number, and soon even the last wall could not be held. Yekura could only lead everyone to continue retreating.

"Detonate it!"

Jumping down the wall and looking at his former comrades from the same village on the wall, Ye Cang hardened his heart and loudly gave the order.

The traps hidden inside the city walls were activated, causing a series of explosions inside the walls and sending hard stones flying everywhere.

Fortunately, Luo Sha reacted quickly, controlling the gold dust to form a huge arc-shaped shield that blocked most of the blast impact and saved many of his men; otherwise, his men would have suffered heavy losses.

Even so, the explosion caused hundreds of casualties, making it the most devastating single attack in the entire battle, even more so than Chisuke in his tailed beast form.

During the retreat, people were constantly being killed by the enemy. Seeing his comrades falling one after another, Yekura felt that the battle had been lost. Filled with grief and anger, he stopped his retreat and turned to face the enemy.

Seeing Yekura like this, Chisuke was shocked and loudly urged, "Teacher, don't do anything foolish! Have you forgotten about the scroll? You still need to avenge her. The Rain Ninja will be here soon, and we haven't been defeated yet!"

Unlike Chisuke, Yekura truly regarded Sunagakure as her home and the Sunagakure ninja as her comrades.

During this time, watching the Sand Village civil war and seeing her former comrades kill each other, she felt very sad. However, for the sake of Maki and Sensuke, she suppressed these emotions and did not show them.

If it weren't for Chisuke's constant encouragement, Yekura probably wouldn't have chosen this path, and might even have sacrificed herself for the greater good.

Chisuke understood Yōkura's feelings to some extent, but he couldn't truly empathize with them.

In order to achieve his goal, Sensuke didn't care about the father of this world, let alone the deaths of the Sand Ninja.

For him, the Sand Village was merely a tool to achieve his grand ideals.

Hearing Chisuke's words, Yekura smiled bitterly: "I'm sorry, Chisuke. Forgive my weakness. I can't face the cruel reality and can't fulfill my promise to you to become the Kazekage. From now on, you'll have to rely on yourself!"

After saying this, Yekura was surrounded by flames and charged into the enemy ranks, his target being Rasa and Chiyo.

No, even if you're going to die, wait two years before you die!

Now that you're dead, my prestige isn't high enough to keep things under control!

Unfortunately, Chisuke was Yokura's disciple, not Yokura's father, so Yokura wouldn't listen to him at all.

The wind howls, the Yi River is cold; Ye Cang has gone, never to return.

Chisuke silently recited a poem to Yekura before continuing his retreat.

In any case, he still had several hundred men under his command.

These subordinates have been through the baptism of war and are all quite strong. Even if they fail to seize the position of Kazekage, they can still establish a force in the ninja world.

"Damn you, Mikami, hurry up! Otherwise, I'm really going to have to run for my life!"

With a death wish, Yekura unleashed his full power, intercepting the enemy's main force and buying time for Chisuke and the others to escape.

A dozen minutes later, Yekura died in the siege. A spear made of gold dust pierced her abdomen and then transformed into many long spikes that pierced through Yekura's body.

Seeing Yekura dead, Rasa looked around at the raging fire and the dehydrated corpses, and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Finally, Yekura died, and the war ended."

Once Yekura dies, Rasa will become the sole Kazekage, and no one else, however dissatisfied, will have enough prestige or strength to threaten him.

It should be noted that in the recent battle, although our side had a huge advantage, many people still did not put in their full effort; otherwise, we would have won much earlier than half a day of fighting.

This can be seen from the casualty ratio. Luo Sha's direct subordinates took the lead and played the main role in the battle, so they suffered the heaviest casualties.

It should be noted that Rasa's direct subordinates only accounted for a quarter of the Sand Ninja, yet they suffered half of the casualties!

Chiyo nodded and said, "Now we only need to send out an elite squad to pursue Chisuke and retrieve the tailed beasts; there's no need to mobilize a large army."

The injured Ebizo led the army to rest here, while Rasa and Chiyo led two hundred Sand Ninja to pursue Sensuke, not giving him a chance to escape the Land of Wind.

They hadn't caught up with Chisuke yet when Chisuke finally met Nagato and the others.

Looking at the travel-worn group in front of him, Chisuke swallowed the curses he was about to utter, considering the disparity in strength between the two sides, and instead stepped forward to explain the current situation.

Upon hearing that Yekura was dead, Nagato and the others frowned. Kakuzu said in a deep voice, "Since Yekura is dead and the situation of the Sand Village civil war is clear, there's no point in us intervening any further. We should retreat."

Seeing that Nagato seemed somewhat tempted and about to be swayed by Kakuzu, Sensuke immediately retorted, "We cannot retreat! According to our intelligence, Rasa has already allied with Konoha. With Konoha as an ally, you are of no importance. Even if we retreat now, they will retaliate against you. Since we have offended them, we must eliminate the enemy so that there will be no future troubles."

Upon hearing Chisuke's words, Nagato recalled the horrific massacre at Maple Leaf Canyon, his face darkening as he unconsciously clenched his fists.

Upon seeing this, Mikami immediately asked Sensuke deliberately, "Hmph, with Yokura dead, you have no leader. Even if we wanted to support someone, we wouldn't know who to support."

Sensuke understood immediately that Yagami wanted him to give Nagato a reason, an excuse to fight Rasa, and he responded right away.

"Although my teacher is dead, I am still here, and I have a thousand loyal subordinates! Don't be fooled by the large number of enemies; many of them are not truly under Rasa's rule. As long as we kill Rasa and Chiyo, I am confident that I can take control of Sunagakure!"

Chisuke exaggerated his own strength and diminished the enemy's strength, while simultaneously posing a threat.

"Now is the best time to counterattack. Once they completely control the Sand Village, we will lose all chance of winning."

Mi Shou snorted coldly and said, "Ridiculous. The situation is different now than before, and the conditions for our intervention cannot be the same. We'll fight for you, but what will you give us in return!"

Mikami's meaning was simple: sell the village quickly, since Sunagakure isn't yours anyway, and you won't have to bear any burden when you sell it.

Even recognizing the Akatsuki as their father and becoming a Kazekage would be better than what I'm doing now!