"Boom!!!"
While Yagami was slaughtering the Sand shinobi, a huge plume of smoke suddenly erupted not far away.
He glanced over.
From within the smoke, Orochimaru's summoned beast, Manda, burst out and began rampaging across the battlefield, smashing everything in its path.
"Perfect timing."
Yagami thought for a moment, then stomped lightly on the ground.
In the next instant, his figure shot forward like a flash of light, streaking straight toward Manda's head.
Manda, who had been wildly charging around the battlefield, suddenly sensed something rapidly approaching. On instinct, the giant snake turned its massive head.
The figure he saw—was Yagami.
Manda's pupils shrank into thin golden slits.
Pa.
Yagami landed steadily on top of Manda's head.
Manda was so frightened he froze on the spot, not daring to move a muscle.
"U-uh… Lord Yagami, I'm an ally,"
he said, flicking his tongue nervously as he spoke in a low, wary voice.
Yagami's presence was far more terrifying to him than Orochimaru's.
He had no idea what Yagami wanted to do, so he didn't dare act rashly.
"Just keep charging,"
Yagami said calmly, sheathing his shinobi blade at his waist.
"I'm only borrowing the highest spot with the best view."
"O-okay!"
Manda let out a silent sigh of relief upon realizing Yagami hadn't come to cause him trouble.
Without hesitating, he continued to surge straight into the Sand shinobi ranks, trampling everything in front of him.
"Laser Beam!"
"Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!"
With his weapon sheathed, Yagami raised both hands.
Dazzling light began to gather at the tips of his index fingers.
Standing atop Manda's head, his field of view was incredibly wide—he could overlook nearly half the battlefield from up there.
Wherever Sand shinobi were clustered, or wherever Konoha troops were at a disadvantage…
Yagami could fire laser beams to support them instantly.
"Die, you little brat!!"
A Sand shinobi holding a short sword let out a roar.
He charged straight at Kakashi, trying to coordinate with his two comrades to finish Kakashi off in one strike.
At that very moment, a beam of light pierced down from above.
A laser shot through the charging Sand shinobi's head, dropping him instantly.
"Boom!!"
The violent photon blast detonated on impact.
The two Sand shinobi who had been surrounding Kakashi were thrown into a daze by the shock.
Kakashi seized the opening, his gaze sharpening. He swung his blade in a clean arc.
The heads of the two Sand shinobi flew into the air.
"Huff…! Yagami-sensei!!"
Catching his breath, Kakashi turned and looked toward Yagami, who was standing on Manda's head in the distance.
Yagami looked back at him as well.
He noticed the blade in Kakashi's hand was already full of chips from repeated clashes.
So Yagami pulled the black sword at his waist—Shusui—and, with a flick of his wrist, threw it toward Kakashi.
With the power of the Glint-Glint Fruit at his disposal, he had already developed techniques like the Ama no Murakumo Sword. He no longer needed Shusui.
"It's so heavy…! This is Sensei's sword?!"
Kakashi's eyes widened as he hurriedly reached up with both hands to catch the weapon.
The sheer weight of the black blade shocked him.
"Che!!"
Just as Kakashi was gripping the sword and carefully examining his teacher's weapon, a Sand shinobi suddenly lunged at him with a roar.
"Clang!!"
On instinct, Kakashi drew the blade in a single motion.
The charging Sand shinobi froze mid-strike.
"Crack—! Slish—!"
The kunai in the Sand shinobi's hand snapped cleanly in two.
A moment later, the shinobi himself was cut down from shoulder to hip, collapsing in a spray of blood.
"S-So sharp…!!"
Staring at the Sand shinobi he'd sliced clean in half, Kakashi was stunned.
He turned back toward where Yagami had been—only to find that Yagami had already vanished from Manda's head.
"Hahaha, Chiyo…"
"It looks like your puppets aren't holding up so well!"
Orochimaru, locked in combat with Chiyo, let out a low, mocking laugh.
After Yagami had destroyed a large number of her puppets earlier, Chiyo's overall combat strength had already dropped by several levels.
Now, the five ordinary puppets she'd added to her formation had been destroyed one after another by Orochimaru.
Out of the original ten, only the true core—her original Ten Puppet Collection of Chikamatsu—remained.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
Chiyo panted heavily, fixing Orochimaru with a tense, unyielding glare.
Originally, her strength had been roughly equal to Orochimaru's.
But now, with only five puppets left, she was being completely overwhelmed.
"Magnet Style: Golden Sand Waves!"
Just as Chiyo's expression grew increasingly grim, countless streams of golden sand surged up from behind her.
They swept forward like a wave, forcing Orochimaru to leap back and break off his attack.
"Rasa…?!"
Chiyo turned her head in surprise.
Floating on a platform of golden sand, Rasa—the Fourth Kazekage—hovered pale-faced in mid-air.
"Lady Chiyo,"
Rasa called out weakly as he approached,
"order the retreat, quickly. Continuing this battle is meaningless."
From his vantage point in the air, his field of vision was extremely broad.
He could clearly see that the Sand shinobi forces had lost all their morale and were on the verge of collapsing entirely.
If they continued fighting like this, not only was there no hope of victory…
They would only rack up needless casualties.
"Retreat?"
"Do you understand what you're saying?"
Chiyo narrowed her eyes sharply at Rasa.
If they ordered a retreat now, Sand's military morale would completely collapse.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Sunagakure would have already lost half this war.
How could she possibly accept such a result?
"...Just look for yourself at what the battlefield has become."
Rasa let out a bitter sigh when he saw her expression.
With a wave of his hand, golden sand surged up beneath Chiyo's feet, lifting her into the sky alongside him.
"Boom!!"
"Boom!!"
From up high, they could clearly see beams of light continuously firing from the top of Manda's head—each one launched from Yagami's hands.
Everywhere the golden explosions bloomed, Sand shinobi were blown away, buried under blasts of light.
Wherever Yagami passed, the Sand shinobi didn't even dare to resist. They were scattering and fleeing in all directions.
The entire Sand army had fallen into a state of total demoralization because of him.
Their combat strength had plummeted.
Only the jōnin with the strongest mental fortitude were still barely holding on.
"It's over…"
"Sunagakure… is finished."
Watching this scene unfold from above, Chiyo's face went completely pale.
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