Sunagakure and Kumogakure shared no common border, and unlike Kirigakure, Kumogakure had no past conflicts of interest with Sunagakure. On the contrary, they both had Konoha as an enemy. If possible, the Third Raikage had no intention of antagonizing Sunagakure.
"I'm sorry, Raikage-sama, but as I just mentioned, they are already people of Sunagakure. I don't think Kumogakure would, like Konoha, consider abandoning comrades to be the right thing to do, would they?"
Shimizu smiled slightly at the Third Raikage, also subtly referencing the White Fang incident in Konoha.
He couldn't have wished more to stall these two with words, the longer the better.
Now, the seven or eight cats, big and small, of the Chinoike Clan were all gone, leaving only Yagura Ichizoku En standing with them.
Adding in Ebizo, Maki, and Satoru, four jonin, two of whom were definitely elite jonin level in strength, as long as they didn't encounter other Kage-level powerhouses or the organized forces of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, they basically wouldn't have any opponents, enough to safely send the team out of the Land of Hot Water.
Such a large team, with an obvious goal, would definitely need Sunagakure to send people to meet them after they withdrew.
It's just that Sunagakure is relatively far away. Shimizu estimated that he would have to pay a sufficient price to get Hanzō to take action.
As long as they could pass through the Land of Rice Fields at the fastest speed after withdrawing from the Land of Hot Water, and reach the range that Hanzō's power could reach in a short time, it would basically be considered a success.
"Kid, no need to play those empty tricks with me. Anyway, I'll just leave you with your life, as long as I don't cripple you."
"Lightning Release: Liger Bomb!"
"Jinton: Style Two: Dissolving Stream Dance!"
The hand blade and the ninja sword collided, releasing a powerful shockwave in an instant.
Then came the second blow, the third blow...
Not far away, A instantly dodged Dai Iwan's carpet bombing, elbowed away the little boy, and then punched towards Fatty's ground-splitting heavy punch.
Three puppets with an average quality equivalent to the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets were basically unlikely to win against a powerhouse close to the Kage level, but stalling him wasn't a big problem.
The little boy's speed was much slower than A's, but he could barely keep up. Adding in Dai Iwan and Fatty's large-scale attack to contain him, he could also stop A for a while.
Compared to him, the really troublesome opponent was the Third Raikage.
In a short moment, the two had exchanged dozens of blows.
Shimizu's first impression of this guy was that he was tough.
Not only was his defense tough, but his attack was the same.
A's physical fitness allowed him to defend against most conventional ninjutsu when using Lightning Release Chakra Mode, and in order to enhance his attack power and defense, A wore a circle of metal arm guards composed of lines on his arms.
But the Third Raikage didn't need them at all.
Because he couldn't find any substance in the ninja world that was harder than his flesh. Even if he controlled one of the strongest five forces in the ninja world, he couldn't find it.
Unless he could find artifacts like the Kusanagi Sword, his body was the strongest ninja tool he could find, both in attack and defense.
Excluding special attacks like Dust Release and Amaterasu, it would be difficult to truly hurt him.
"Heavy Stream Burst!"
"Dissolving Breath, First Form: Ion Cut!"
"Lightning Style Ninjutsu: Elbo!"
"Dissolving Breath, Eighth Form: Dissolving Spin!"
The battle between the two became more and more intense. Even though it was pure physical combat, Shimizu felt that the ninja sword in his hand was a bit overwhelmed.
Although this sword was also a high-quality ninja tool that had been tempered and forged, costing as much as two S-rank missions, it could withstand Shimizu's power when facing most enemies, allowing Shimizu to exert his strength, but after all, it was not comparable to weapons made of chakra metal, such as the Sword of the Thunder God and the White Fang Short Sword, let alone artifacts passed down from ancient times such as the Kusanagi Sword.
The hardness and power of weapons made of chakra metal would increase with the increase of the user's chakra strength.
A single mistake would lead to eternal regret!
If it was in the hands of an ordinary chunin, it could greatly increase the power of swordsmanship, but the quality was average. In the hands of a jonin, the power would be even more extraordinary, but there was still the possibility of being broken.
But if it came to sword masters at the top of the ninja world like Hatake Sakumo and Senju Tobirama, these weapons made of chakra metal, after being strengthened by top-level chakra, their sharpness and hardness would be enough to compete with artifacts such as the Kusanagi Sword, becoming the sharpest weapon in the ninja world.
But this approach was too extravagant. Except for Konoha, who was rich and powerful, few people would do this.
This thing was too rare, and in Sunagakure, most of the chakra metal was used to create the key hubs needed for top-level puppets. Basically, 60% of it was in Chiyo's Chikamatsu Ten Puppets.
The remaining part was used to make the Three-Star Fan, and the strongest one was currently in Karura's hands.
There was also a small amount of chakra metal in Shimizu's three puppets. This was basically to melt the chakra metal into extremely thin filaments to strengthen the control of chakra threads over some important hubs.
The chakra metal in Shimizu's three puppets might only add up to less than ten grams.
The most cost-effective way was to combine chakra metal with other special metals to create other high-quality ninja swords. In this way, the upper limit was not as good as a ninja sword made directly from pure chakra metal, but the lower limit was much higher. A typical representative was Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen, except for a few exceptions such as Samehada, other ninja swords, such as the Twin Swords Hiramekarei, the Long Sword Nuibari, etc., were like this.
For the top sword masters in the ninja world, that little extra bonus was not very useful, but for some jonin and elite jonin to use, relying on the special mechanism of the knife itself, they could exert power far beyond ordinary jonin.
In fact, if Shimizu could have such a ninja sword, it would be enough. He didn't ask for it to greatly enhance his attack like the White Fang Short Sword, but to be durable enough to always fully exert Shimizu's full strength without being like it was now.
But unfortunately, chakra metal was expensive and hard to find. Sunagakure didn't specialize in swordsmanship in the past, so there was no such weapon.
If Shimizu wanted it, he would have to find a way himself.
And now, the Third Raikage, who had been fighting for half his life, had also judged through his rich combat experience that the weapon in Shimizu's hand could no longer withstand it. After realizing that it was difficult for him to cause effective damage to Shimizu, he began to change his fighting style.
