Jiraiya ultimately did not choose to engage in a field battle outside the city.
Even if the barrier were broken, they would still have the advantage of terrain, with various defensive facilities and traps to rely on. It would be better than going out to fight with nothing at all.
If they could repel the enemy, they could continue to repair the seal and keep dragging things out.
“Holding back and not coming out for a field battle with us? Quite patient.”
Shimizu stood with one hand behind his back, watching the sealing barrier, which was tenaciously holding on amidst the continuous barrage of artillery fire in the distance, his eyes flickering slightly.
Yekura, Rasa, be prepared to lead the assault troops to open the way in one hour.
Shimizu ordered again.
Cannon fodder provides all-round coverage, followed by powerful attack teams for the second wave of assault, and then the main force rolls over.
Simple and effective.
A dozen seconds later.
Twice as many shells as before were fired from the Suna camp, interspersed with rockets that were slightly different in shape.
Many of the devices here were found by Shimizu's other world avatars, some of the more classic cannons and ammunition that the Suna village's current industrial capabilities can produce at low cost and on a large scale.
And some of the more high-end ones are naturally made by combining the industrial and chakra systems, referring to the production methods of explosive tags and other ninja tools.
These guys are even more powerful.
“Suna's new ninja tools…”
Another secret corner of the battlefield.
Orochimaru, who led a small number of sensory ninjas out to scout in advance, squinted his narrow eyes as he watched the shells bombard the barrier like a continuous meteor shower.
Unsurprisingly, Suna Village is now able to produce these things on a large scale and in large quantities.
Then, in any future battles with Suna, the opponent can directly bombard the enemy's location with a large number of artillery pieces outside the attack range of conventional ninjutsu, especially in frontal assault battles like the one now.
If the opponent wants to defend a position, they can directly pinpoint the location and then cover it with bombardment.
The sealing barrier, which has played a huge role in the two previous Shinobi World Wars for Konoha and has made countless contributions, can only become a fortified tortoise shell at this time.
In just a few years, Suna Village has suddenly become so much more difficult to deal with than it was during the last Shinobi World War.
How many new things do they still have?
Orochimaru was now even more grateful that he had made the right choice before.
Suna Village has changed too much now, and its strength must be much stronger than it was in the beginning.
If they still relied on the experience of the previous two Shinobi World Wars and recklessly rushed up to fight head-on, they would inevitably be caught off guard, lose their advantage in the early stages, lose large swaths of land, and fall into a passive situation of being beaten.
It's still better to focus on harassment and defense, test out Suna's remaining methods, and wait until they are familiar with and develop relative solutions and countermeasures before it's Konoha's turn to exert its strength!
At that time, relying on Konoha's solid foundation and the abundant supplies and funds that the Fire Country daimyo can provide, just like the previous two Shinobi World Wars, they will use a long enough health bar to last until the end, until they achieve victory!
This is indeed the most correct approach.
The premise is that they can withstand Suna's first wave of explosions; otherwise, the result will still not be much better.
The bombardment lasted for an hour.
In fact, the rock-solid sealing barrier had already been destroyed more than ten minutes ago.
But that doesn't prevent them from continuing to use artillery fire to wash the ground.
This can both strike the enemy and initially destroy the enemy's remaining defensive facilities.
Of course, for these ninjas, their ability to defend and evade when facing this kind of attack is definitely very strong, and it is still difficult to say how much damage it can cause.
However, Shimizu didn't think that he could seriously injure Konoha's team with just these things.
More, it is to use these artillery fires to provide cover.
At this moment, Suna's troops have begun to engage Konoha ninjas.
It is still those combined ninjutsu that are common in large-scale ninja corps battles.
Rows of Wind Release ninjas, led by Shimizu, jointly cast Wind Release: Net.
Endless wind blades are superimposed together, densely cutting everything in front of them into pieces.
On the Konoha side, Jiraiya led a large number of Konoha ninjas to perform Earth Release together, constructing a ten-thousand-mile earth flow wall to block it, and incidentally opened the first wave of ninjutsu confrontation with Suna's subsequent Earth Release team.
In this regard, Konoha and Suna have already had a lot of combat experience and have mature countermeasures.
Feeling that the war was finally about to enter a rhythm that he was familiar with, Jiraiya breathed a slight sigh of relief.
At this time, he already had two toads stepping on his shoulders, and his face had become somewhat like a frog, with some pimples growing.
This battle must be fought with all our strength.
So, before the battle even started, Jiraiya summoned Fukasaku and Shima, the two toads, and entered the Sage Mode that he had only recently learned.
“Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!”
“Water Release: Water Surge Wave!”
“Water Release: Waterfall Basin Technique!”
Under Jiraiya's leadership, a Konoha ninja jumped out and spat out Water Release towards Suna's side.
The power of Water Release itself, coupled with the falling momentum brought by being high above, is enough to crush any army.
However, in the next moment, the battlefield once again became something that Jiraiya was not familiar with.
One after another, the standard puppets, under the control of the puppeteers, opened a launch port in the arm area and fired one frozen explosive bomb after another.
In an instant, the cold air spread wantonly, and a crisp freezing sound rang out. The combined Water Release that the Konoha ninjas had carefully prepared was now frozen, and even a part of the ninjas at the front of the team were frozen.
“This is… the Ice Release of the Yuki clan of Kirigakure? No, it's still a special ninja tool without chakra!”
Jiraiya, who was at the very front, reacted in time, quickly grabbed the two Konoha ninjas beside him, and quickly jumped back to avoid it.
And at this time, the Suna ninjas rushed over through the road made of condensed solid ice, and the Konoha ninjas finally met their opponents in this war.
“Scorching Style: Vapor Consecutive Murders!”
Dozens of enormous fireballs, manipulated by Pakura, flew in all directions, bombarding the most densely populated areas of Konoha ninjas.
On the other side, Rasa crossed his arms in front of his chest, standing on a cloud of gold dust, his face stern, golden waves rolling around him, mercilessly obliterating every enemy.
“Magnet Release Rasa, Scorch Release Pakura, what's going on with Sunagakure these past few years? Kekkei Genkai ninjas keep popping up one after another.”
Jiraiya cursed, looking at the Scorch Release fireball coming towards him, and clapped his hands together.
Smoke billowed, and a giant orange-red toad appeared.
“Water Release: Bullet!”
Several large water bullets were spat out from Gamabunta's mouth, colliding with Pakura's Scorch Release fireballs, then exploding with a bang, turning into steam, which quickly cooled down under the low temperature created by the frozen explosive tags.
“Jiraiya! Are you trying to murder me! If I hadn't reacted in time, I would have been killed as soon as I came out!”
Looking at the Scorch Release fireballs that were rising again around Pakura in the water mist, Gamabunta, with a pipe in his mouth, couldn't help but curse loudly.
But Jiraiya was too busy to reply at this moment.
“Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet!”
Two toads spat fire, and Jiraiya spat oil transformed from water release, forming a large area of scorching fire, covering Rasa's gold dust.
Among the gold dust, the purity of gold is generally between 50% and 80%, and can reach 95% after preliminary purification.
However, gold is not suitable for use as a weapon at all, because its hardness and melting point are not outstanding among metals, so Rasa chose to mix other substances into the metal to form gold dust to increase the power of his bloodline limit.
It's just that under the high temperature brought by Jiraiya's ninjutsu, a lot of gold dust was still melted into liquid gold.
Rasa's expression remained unchanged, he just manipulated more gold dust, part of it turned into a shield to protect himself, and the other part condensed into countless gold cones, attacking Jiraiya.
“So Jiraiya has already mastered Sage Mode at this time…”
In the distance of the battlefield, Shimizu looked at the movement of the battle in the distance, quite surprised, and then relieved.
In the original timeline, in the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox attack that occurred a year after the end of the Third Shinobi World War a few years later, Minato Namikaze had already displayed Sage Mode, and Jiraiya would probably know it even earlier.
Because Jiraiya, who is now over thirty years old, has reached the peak of a ninja in terms of physical fitness and chakra volume. If he can't learn it at this time, he won't be able to learn it in the future.
He should have approached his limit, but he is still lacking in background, experience, and proficiency in Sage Mode. Even if he has not reached the peak of Kage level, the gap will not be too big.
Rasa and Pakura are not weak, but the former is now only at the middle and lower level of Kage level, while Pakura has just entered this level.
If they fight Jiraiya alone, it will be very difficult. It is estimated that they will just maneuver and delay, and will definitely be suppressed.
But if the two join forces, in Shimizu's estimation, suppressing an ordinary Kage-level powerhouse is definitely not a problem. It is hard to say whether they can kill him.
It's just that Jiraiya's strength is slightly beyond expectations. Rasa and Pakura have not gained the upper hand. Instead, Jiraiya relied on Sage Mode and three summoned beasts to fight to a draw.
Although it is a pity, at least Jiraiya has been entangled.
Without Jiraiya, a top expert, it would be difficult for the remaining people in Konoha to stop Sunagakure's next actions.
“Puppet Corps, dispatch the automated puppet army.”
After Sasori received Shimizu's instructions, he quickly led the puppet corps to dispatch.
Neat and uniform footsteps sounded, and a torrent of standardized puppets made of steel rushed towards Konoha's position.
The first thing released was the Fear Gas.
As long as there are enough materials, the Fear Gas can be mass-produced. Scarecrow has done things to spread the Fear Gas throughout Gotham.
Green poisonous gas covered the sky and the sun, spreading among the crowd.
Every Sunagakure ninja had been injected with the antidote in advance and would not be affected by the poisonous gas.
But the Konoha ninjas are not necessarily.
Even if these people's bodies have chakra, and they can use the spiritual energy in the chakra to resist or even suppress this illusion-like toxin, there are really not many ordinary ninjas who can resist it.
Many weaker Chunin and Genin fell into madness after being infected by the poisonous gas, screamed, and began to indiscriminately attack everyone around them, even their companions were merciless.
Konoha's military formation was in chaos.
“Damn it, what new poison has Sunagakure developed again! Even Tsunade-sama's antidote pills have a much worse suppressive effect when facing this kind of poison than when facing other poisons.”
A Konoha Jonin endured the fear illusions that flashed from time to time in his mind and vision, and cut open an earthen wall in front of him to protect himself.
“This is a toxin that directly affects the nerves. The effect is very similar to the Narakumi no Jutsu. It can make people see the most terrifying things in their hearts. Don’t use the usual detoxification methods. Just treat it as a kind of illusion. Whenever an illusion appears, disrupt your own chakra and cause a certain impact on your own nerves. Although you still cannot completely get rid of the influence, you can at least subjectively eliminate the illusion and not lose your combat effectiveness.”
A Konoha Jonin with red pupils shattered the puppet attacking him with a sword, and said calmly.
Not far away, a Yamanaka clan ninja did so after hearing this, and then, under the cover of this red-eyed ninja, cast the Mind Body Transmission Technique and transmitted it to the commander on the battlefield.
This red-eyed ninja is Yūhi Kurenai.
He is a veteran elite Jonin of the same generation as the Sannin, even older, similar to the deceased Konoha White Fang. He has a great reputation. Without a bloodline limit like Sharingan, he has become a recognized illusion master.
Perhaps some Uchiha can use the Three-Tomoe Sharingan to perform illusions that are stronger than him, but that is just the situation after the bloodline limit is blessed.
In terms of mastery of illusion and knowledge of principles, those people are definitely no match for Yūhi Kurenai.
Specialization in a subject has its own advantages. When it comes to understanding illusion, it is true that no one in the ninja world can beat him.
His method is definitely far from cracking the Fear Gas, but at least it can prevent the Konoha ninjas from collapsing at the first touch under the influence of the poisonous gas, and instead retain a certain amount of combat power for counterattack.
