Amid Deidara's mocking laughter, clay giants continued to sprout around the battlefield like mushrooms after rain.
Since when did that brat Deidara reach this level?
As Ōnoki unleashed Dust Release after Dust Release to annihilate the giants, his mind raced. In his memory, Deidara's clay bombs had always been powerful—but never this devastating.
His Dust Release could destroy the clay constructs easily enough, but he was only one man… and the field was swarming with explosives on all sides.
The Allied Forces had completely lost cohesion.
What few shinobi had been following his orders before now scattered in panic, fleeing in every direction.
There was no Fourth Raikage.
No Gaara.
No Tsunade.
Mei Terumi was no longer Mizukage.
Even Naruto, Killer Bee, and Nara Shikaku—their elite and command units—were all absent.
Only Ōnoki remained. One old man could hardly hold the line alone.
Even with the daimyō's supposed support, this Allied Shinobi Force was nothing more than a pitiful shadow of the original—
or, as Madara had once put it, "a rabble in impressive numbers, but still a rabble."
Northeast sector.
"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets!"
A vast black cloud of puppets filled the sky, blotting out the light.
Standing below them, controlling the crimson puppet Hiruko, was Sasori.
Remarkably, there were no chakra strings attached to the puppets' backs.
These were not traditional puppets, but artificial puppet-humanoids—created from the data Sasori had acquired from Isshiki's base and remodeled using the principles behind Nagato's Six Paths of Pain.
No longer bound by the outdated limits of chakra strings, they were remotely controlled—far more flexible and efficient.
Sasori called them his Ultimate Puppet Army.
When the Puppet Army descended upon the Allied Forces, it was like wolves loosed into a herd of sheep.
Hundreds of puppets chased thousands of shinobi, tearing through the ranks with ruthless precision.
Even those few who dared to resist were quickly overwhelmed and buried under a tide of steel and poison.
Northwest sector.
"My apologies… but this road is closed," Sasuke said coldly.
His eyes spun into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
"Susanoo!"
Before them rose a true giant—over a hundred meters tall—clad in samurai armor, wielding the Yata Mirror in its left hand and the Totsuka Blade in its right.
Slash.
With a single swing, Susanoo cleaved the earth itself.
Dozens of shinobi were cut down instantly.
The Allied Forces panicked.
Those who had been fleeing toward Sasuke now turned back in terror, desperate to escape in any other direction.
Southeast sector.
"Even small nations have their own dignity," declared Kazahana Dotō, daimyō of the Land of Snow.
Clad in his nation's latest chakra armor, he stood proudly at the front lines, his troops arrayed behind him.
"Everyone—charge with me!"
Though the shinobi of the small nations couldn't compare in skill to those from the Great Villages, their superior equipment somewhat closed the gap—though not enough to make a real difference.
And then—
"ROAR!"
The massive, flame-wreathed form of the Two-Tails burst onto the battlefield.
Moments later, the One-Tail and Seven-Tails appeared as well.
In an ordinary war, the appearance of even a single Tailed Beast could decide the outcome.
Now three had entered the fray at once.
And then came a colossal reptilian creature—the Kuroishi Lizard—its chakra waves rivaling even the bijū.
Each movement of its body crushed scores of shinobi beneath it.
And it wasn't alone.
Alongside it stood the being known as – "Go," the World Destroyer, now in his Fourth Stage.
Southwest sector.
"Looks like I'll be getting another batch of prisoners after today," said Mui, warden of Hōzuki Castle, standing beside Kazahana Dotō. Behind him waited the shinobi of the Fūma clan.
Along with them were the forces of the Lands of Grass, Demons, Waterfalls, and other small nations.
Up to this point, the Allied Forces might still have been able to regroup and counterattack.
But what came next—Sunagakure's betrayal—was the final blow that shattered their defenses.
"Suna-nin!"
With a shout, Rasa ripped off his Allied Forces forehead protector and turned on the comrades beside him.
"Magnet Release: Gold Dust Tidal Wave!"
Golden sand surged forward like a tsunami, swallowing the surrounding shinobi whole.
"Follow me—kill them all!"
"YES, SIR!"
The Sand shinobi, already prepared for this moment, tore off their Allied insignia and turned their weapons on their former allies.
One betrayal after another tore through the lines.
The Allied Forces' front collapsed completely, and panic began spreading to the rear.
Numerically, the Alliance still had the advantage—but in terms of high-level combat power, they were hopelessly outmatched.
With Suna's defection, only three great villages remained: Cloud, Stone, and Mist.
The Mist was half-crippled, the Cloud even worse.
Iwa had been pummeled by Nagato before, but at least they still had numbers.
In theory, if the Allied Forces had stood united, they could have relied on sheer manpower to prevail.
After all, even ants can bring down an elephant.
Without monsters like Uchiha Madara, Senju Hashirama, or beings on the Six Paths level, even the strongest shinobi could be worn down and killed eventually.
But that was theory.
This world was no longer following the original story.
There was no golden, heroic Naruto to inspire the masses and raise morale.
No one to give them courage.
Cowards would be cowards.
Shinobi or not, they were still human—
and humans, when faced with death, would always know fear.
One person is intelligent.
A crowd of people becomes foolish.
And when fear spreads, a crowd becomes nothing more than panicked animals.
That, too, was human nature.
"Old man, what are you doing?" Kurotsuchi asked, bewildered, as she saw Ōnoki rummaging around near the rear lines instead of heading to the front. "Aren't you going to fight? What are you looking for back here?"
Fight? With what, exactly?
What could he possibly throw at them—her beauty, as a distraction tactic?
"What am I doing?" Ōnoki pulled out a sealing scroll and unraveled it.
Inside were stacks upon stacks of Iwagakure headbands.
Then, just like Rasa before him, he tore off his Allied Forces protector and tied the Iwa headband back around his brow.
"Why, ensuring this old man stays alive, of course."
He floated up into the air and shouted across the chaotic field below:
"All Iwa-nin, hear me!
Follow this old man and slay these villains who dared to provoke this war!"
A betrayal—right on the spot!
Good thing I always plan for contingencies, Ōnoki muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing with cold cunning as he turned toward the grand pavilion where the daimyō and nobles had gathered.
"Those damned nobles never intended to support us."
"Where are the reinforcements they promised? The samurai armies they swore to send?"
All that stood here was a ninja alliance—no samurai, no soldiers.
Nothing but empty promises.
If they'd sent all their troops, who would protect their own hides?
To the daimyō, shinobi were disposable tools.
The more that died, the better—ideally, all of them.
"To think they're still scheming, even now."
"Well then—don't blame this old man for repaying treachery with treachery."
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