Wind fueled the flas, fire strengthened the lightning, earth stabilized the water, and water carried the wind's montum.
The five changes in chakra natures created astonishing resonance and synergy at this mont, transforming into a destructive, raging wave that covered over half the battlefield and spread outward in a fan-shaped pattern!
Toroi's Storm Style: Storm Dragon Light Wave fiercely collided head-on with it!
At the sa ti, the various Ninjutsu released by the hundreds of elite Kumogakure ninjas around him rged into a multicolored tide of death that slamd directly into the five-colored elental torrent!
Boom!!!
The explosion surpassed the concept of sound itself, as though even the heavens trembled in fear and the earth groaned in agony.
Light transford into a devouring white color, while the shockwave swept in every direction like a raging sea.
Wherever it passed, the ground was scraped away by several ters, forests turned to powder, and mountain rock shattered into sand!
Toroi and the hundreds of elite Kumogakure ninjas around him were violently blown away by the irresistible force, smashing through several giant trees like kites with broken strings before crashing heavily onto the ground.
They blocked it, yet they also failed to block it.
"Cough cough... Cough cough..." Toroi coughed a few tis as he supported himself.
Raising his eyes, the dust finally began to slowly disperse.
Ahead, only a gigantic crater over one hundred ters wide remained, as though struck by a teor.
Lightning and flas still flickered within it, the earth and stones were scorched black, steam rose endlessly, and the cuts left behind by lingering wind blades still hissed across the ground.
As for the Konoha group, they had already vanished without a trace.
"As expected of... the third Hokage!"
Toroi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and slowly straightened his body while looking toward the distant forest where the Konoha group had disappeared.
"Chase them! Even if it costs us our lives! We must bring the third Hokage down with us!"
...
"Orochimaru, you stay behind and cover the rear!"
Under the protection and guidance of the third Hokage, the Shinichi Battalion and Danzo's group quickly withdrew from the battlefield, soon eting up with Orochimaru, who had arrived ahead with reinforcents.
But seeing Orochimaru's calm expression, still looking completely fine while speaking with Shinichi as if nothing had happened, the third Hokage suddenly felt a strange thought arise in his heart.
However, when the words reached his mouth, he swallowed them back down.
"Hiruzen."
At that mont, Danzo Shimura, whom he had been silently supporting with his left hand the entire ti, suddenly spoke.
"Hm?"
The third Hokage glanced sideways at him.
Danzo remained silent for a mont before slowly speaking words that seed to have been repeatedly ground over in his heart for countless years and countless tis: "This ti, I finally walked ahead of you."
Hearing this, the third Hokage was first stunned, then the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward into a smile as he nodded and sighed: "Yeah, this ti, you walked ahead of ."
He paused, a trace of teasing filling his voice: "So, how does it feel?"
"Hmph!" Danzo Shimura snorted coldly. "Just that. Nothing special."
Without giving Hiruzen Sarutobi a chance to respond, he continued with a stern face while beginning to lecture him: "Hiruzen, your actions this ti were far too reckless. As Hokage, how could you casually risk yourself alone and enter deep into enemy territory? It was utterly foolish! If sothing had really happened, then the village would have..."
At this point, he suddenly stopped, seemingly realizing that he himself had just done the exact sa foolish thing, and his tone softened slightly: "However... We'll let it pass this ti. Don't let there be a next ti."
"Alright, there won't be a next ti." Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded in agreent before adding, "But the sa goes for you."
"Hmph! Of course I know that!"
'Like hell I believe you!'
The instant their gazes t, they almost simultaneously looked away, the exact sa thought flashing through both of their minds.
After the brief lecture, neither spoke again.
While speeding forward, their gazes occasionally swept over the mountains, forests, and night scenery rushing past around them, strange emotions flickering deep within their eyes.
Not long after, the group successfully reunited with the eight hundred elite reinforcent troops brought by the third Hokage this ti.
Everyone tacitly adjusted their formation, protecting the wounded in the center while the elites covered the rear, withdrawing completely from the borders of the Land of Lightning at the fastest speed and by the most concealed route possible.
The night gradually faded, and a sliver of dawn light already appeared on the horizon.
The third Hokage and Danzo Shimura looked at the gradually brightening sky before them, both carrying indescribably complex emotions in their eyes.
Once again, they had escaped alive from the Land of Lightning, from this land that had buried far too many lives, deaths, and regrets.
Only this ti, it was ultimately different from decades ago.
Decades ago, it was their teacher who used his own life to carve out a path of survival for them.
Decades later, they had likewise intended to use their own lives to carve out a path of survival for the younger generation.
The last ti they escaped, behind them was their teacher's resolute figure turning away and walking alone toward death, an eternal regret they could never recover, a wound that half a lifeti could not heal.
This ti, when they withdrew, beside them were the figures of the younger generation sprinting shoulder to shoulder, the will passed on like an eternal fla, and the ability to finally look back at that land without sha.
The third Hokage slightly raised his head, looking toward the increasingly bright eastern horizon, his sleeves fluttering lightly in the mountain wind.
Danzo Shimura also used his remaining left eye, looked in the sa direction, and his lips twitched slightly.
Neither of them spoke.
But at this mont, sothing buried for decades seed to finally be soothed quietly by that ray of dawn light breaking through the horizon.
The road ahead was not over, and the slaughter had not ended.
But so regrets no longer needed to be carried for an entire lifeti!
...
Several hours later, at the Konoha main camp within the Land of Frost.
Although they encountered several scattered Kumogakure ninja squads on the return journey, the enemy was either too few in number or lacked sufficient strength, and was swiftly eliminated before they could send out warnings.
Whenever they encountered larger groups that might alert the main front-line forces, they decisively avoided them and chose detour routes.
In the end, this force numbering over a thousand people, composed of Shinichi Battalion, Root elites, and the eight hundred-man reinforcent force, crossed the national border without incident and safely returned to Konoha's main camp.
In front of the camp gates, ninjas who had already received the news stood solemnly in two rows, their eyes filled with undisguised respect and shock as they watched this force returning from hell.
All the wounded, especially those who had lost too much blood and were already near unconsciousness, were quickly and carefully carried down and sent to the rear field hospital to receive the highest level of treatnt.
As for Shinichi Higashino, the young captain who had led a legendary force to achieve unbelievable results worthy of being recorded in the history of Shinobi World Warfare, he walked steadily beside the third Hokage under countless burning, admiring, and even reverent gazes toward the central command headquarters.
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