I need you, Minato, to lead a team and destroy Kannabi Bridge. You are the only one capable of ensuring success with your mastery of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Hearing Orochimaru's command, Namikaze Minato nodded seriously. If they wanted to force a decisive battle, Kannabi Bridge had to be either seized or destroyed.
This crucial supply route for Iwagakure—if destroyed—would create a period of logistical disruption.
Without supply replenishments, the Iwagakure forces operating within the Land of Fire would be forced to either restore the route or retreat.
Of course, simply destroying Kannabi Bridge would only buy the Land of Fire and Konohagakure some time to catch their breath.
"I will hold off the rest of Iwagakure's forces," Orochimaru said. "I will do my best to wear down their troops until Onoki loses hope. Once he sees victory slipping away, he will have no choice but to end this war."
"In other words, before the war of attrition is over, I need to destroy Kannabi Bridge as quickly as possible and wipe out their supplies and provisions."
Namikaze Minato fully understood Orochimaru's intent.
Before Konohagakure's remaining forces and Iwagakure's army exhausted each other, he had to complete his mission and throw Iwagakure into chaos, forcing them to withdraw.
If the losses were severe enough and victory seemed unattainable, Onoki—given his nature—would not continue a drawn-out battle against Konoha.
After all, despite the war progressing to this point and Iwagakure successfully breaching the frontline border, pushing the battle deeper into the Land of Fire—achieving their greatest success against Konoha since the village's founding—their losses had been equally immense.
Both sides were now on the brink of exhaustion, fighting desperately. The outcome of any battlefield could determine the overall victory or defeat.
When Iwagakure broke through the front lines and entered the Land of Fire, even though Konoha put all its efforts into destroying Kannabi Bridge, it could only delay Iwagakure for a while.
As long as Iwagakure still had the strength and potential for war, once the bridge was rebuilt, the battle would enter another fierce stage.
But now, with both sides suffering heavy losses from the war, the fall of Kannabi Bridge was a devastating blow to Iwagakure.
They had no choice but to consider retreating and negotiating peace with Konoha.
After all, with their supply lines cut off and reinforcements needing time to arrive, while their forces were already suffering casualties on the battlefield, if Orochimaru could display enough power, even someone as unwilling as Ōnoki would have to make a rational decision based on the situation.
And Orochimaru was confident—because he had Tsunade, Shisui, and Kagetsu by his side.
...
The war between Iwagakure and Konoha erupted once again.
This time, with both sides fully committed, the battle was exceptionally brutal. A large number of shinobi perished in the clashes of war techniques, yet the fighting never ceased.
At the forefront stood the strongest forces from both sides.
On the battlefield, no one would allow an enemy's top combatant to slaughter and wreak havoc freely—unless they were someone like Namikaze Minato, who was nearly impossible to restrain.
As soon as Ōnoki appeared, Orochimaru locked onto him. A vast tide of serpents, like a natural disaster, was summoned by Orochimaru and rampaged through the Iwagakure ranks.
Seeing this, Ōnoki had no choice but to personally intervene, leading his forces to hold Orochimaru back, preventing him from influencing the battlefield any further.
However, in the next instant, a massive purple serpent and a slug the size of a small mountain suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
Tsunade, her golden ponytail waving like a battle flag in the wind, stood beside Orochimaru.
The enormous slug suddenly began to dissolve, splitting into countless smaller versions that immediately attached themselves to the Konoha shinobi nearby.
The Konoha ninjas seemed familiar with this scene, feeling the chakra transmitted by the slug that crawled up their bodies. Their morale was boosted as a result.
With the slug's involvement in the war, Konoha's losses would be greatly reduced.
Because of this, Onoki, after learning about the information regarding the hemophobia, was willing to go to any lengths to eliminate Tsunade.
Because she could indeed influence the outcome of the war!
Lava Release: Scorching River of Lava.
Lava fireballs shot out suddenly from the Iwagakure camp, emitting intense heat as they smashed toward the Konoha ninjas in front of them.
The Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Rōshi.
A Lava Release kekkei genkai user, Rōshi quickly formed hand seals with both hands while testing his attacks.
The area covered by the lava fireballs immediately turned into a lava-filled region.
Konoha ninjas within this area quickly retreated, but those who couldn't avoid the attack were burned alive by the molten lava, their bodies instantly turned to ash.
Rōshi was about to release another jutsu to completely destroy the Konoha ninjas in front of him when he suddenly felt a sharp sense of danger.
Without thinking, he quickly used his feet to push against the ground and instantly vanished from his spot.
In the blink of an eye, a massive purple arrow shot through the air, hitting the spot where Rōshi had been standing just moments ago.
Rōshi continuously moved and blinked around, but the arrows seemed to predict his movements, almost hitting him multiple times.
Once the feeling of deadly danger passed, Rōshi stopped and looked breathlessly toward a specific spot within the Konoha camp.
At that moment, he had donned the Tailed Beast cloak, using the power of the Four-Tails.
In fact, if he hadn't borrowed the Four-Tails' power after sensing the danger, he would have already been pinned down like a hedgehog by those unpredictable arrows.
But the next moment, Rōshi's expression changed drastically again. He saw a torrential downpour of arrows, falling from the very spot he had been watching.
It was useless to dodge under this rain of arrows, and even if he managed to avoid them, what about the Iwagakure soldiers covered by the arrows?
Flower–Fruit Mountain!
A massive wall of lava surged up from the ground, created with all of Rōshi's power. It acted as a thick barrier, blocking the rain of arrows from reaching them.
The lava wall was deeply pierced by the arrow barrage, but after Rōshi increased his chakra output, the attack was finally stopped.
The lava wall faded, transforming into a flowing river of lava that poured toward the Konoha ninjas.
A figure appeared in front of Rōshi, surrounded by an energy aura, as if cloaked in a layer of chakra. The blood-red tomoe in his eyes spun as it revealed the Uchiha.
He drew his bow and shot a nearly point-blank arrow that pierced through Rōshi's beast cloak. If he hadn't instinctively dodged, the arrow would have pierced through his chest.
"Uchiha Shisui!"
Rōshi quickly melted the chakra arrow stuck in his body, pulling it out. Under the power of the tailed beast, his wounds rapidly healed. He also recognized the person who had arrived.
****
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