Chapter 567: Naruto: I Punched Tailed Beast Ball - 567 The Past and the Present

Chapter 567: Naruto: I Punched Tailed Beast Ball Chapter 567 The Past and the Present

"Is everyone alright? How is the situation?" Onoki glanced over the Rock Shinobi forces before asking Kitsuchi.

"About eight hundred people were seriously injured, and another seven hundred lost the ability to move on the battlefield and were unable to retreat in time. I don’t know whether they have been captured or..." Kitsuchi reported the casualties to Onoki with a shameful expression. After finishing, he immediately lowered his head.

A single encounter had resulted in such heavy casualties. As the commander of the forces, he could not escape responsibility, even though Nagato’s strength was simply overwhelming.

"I’m sorry, Tsuchikage-sama. I failed to live up to your expectations." Kitsuchi lowered his head.

Onoki had appointed him as acting Tsuchikage, yet he had produced such a disastrous result. Kitsuchi felt extremely miserable, believing that he had disappointed his father and might even have damaged his father’s authority within the Rock Shinobi Village because the acting Tsuchikage he had chosen had made such a serious mistake.

"Failure isn’t frightening. What’s frightening is losing your confidence." Seeing that his son seemed to have suffered a major blow, Onoki clasped his hands behind his back and spoke with a serious expression.

"Have you forgotten the Will of Stone of our Rock Shinobi Village?"

"Of course not. Perseverance and immovability are the Will of Stone of our Rock Shinobi Village." Kitsuchi answered quickly.

Onoki nodded and said, "If you remember it, then why are you looking so dejected? We lost this time, so we just need to win it back. The one who persists until the very end is the winner."

Onoki did not want to see his son become completely demoralized because of a single war. For the already declining younger generation of the Rock Shinobi, this would be a considerable blow.

If the younger generation failed to produce any capable talents, Onoki would most likely pass the position of Tsuchikage to Kitsuchi.

Onoki’s words made Kitsuchi feel deeply ashamed, and his fighting spirit immediately reignited. He almost wanted to fight Nagato again right away.

However, after thinking about it carefully, Kitsuchi abandoned that idea. He knew his own limits. At his current level, he was no match for Nagato.

"There is a very powerful ninja among the Light Shinobi. The reason our forces suffered such heavy casualties was because he used an extremely powerful large-scale ninjutsu." Kitsuchi began telling Onoki about the information he had gathered about the Light Shinobi Village.

"You fought him, right? Tell me about him in detail." Onoki nodded and asked for information about Nagato.

Onoki was not surprised that the enemy possessed a powerful fighter. After all, Kitsuchi was one of the three strongest shinobi in the Rock Shinobi Village. If the older generation were excluded based on age, Kitsuchi could even be considered the strongest.

Moreover, Kitsuchi had not brought a small force. Nearly three thousand Rock Shinobi had accompanied him. Even during a great shinobi war, that was roughly the number of ninja usually deployed outside the decisive battles.

Therefore, defeating Kitsuchi and the Rock Shinobi forces he commanded so easily naturally meant that the enemy possessed considerable strength.

Kitsuchi thought for a moment and recalled his battle with Nagato. Surprisingly, he realized that he had barely even exchanged blows with Nagato before losing. From beginning to end, Nagato had only displayed two ninjutsu.

"The leader of the Light Shinobi possesses a particularly powerful ninjutsu. He can unleash an incomparably powerful repulsive force that can easily knock me down and smash me into a crater when I use Rock Fist. Even the Mountain Soil Technique I released with all my strength was instantly destroyed. The casualties among our forces were also caused by this technique. He can also fly."

Kitsuchi revealed all the information he knew in one breath.

"Powerful repulsive force and the ability to fly?" Onoki fell into thought.

It sounded like a powerful secret-technique user. There were very few people in the shinobi world capable of flight.

"When we fight, don’t worry about that Light Shinobi leader. Lead the forces and suppress the other Light and Grass Shinobi. Leave him to me." Onoki said.

Flight was impressive, but Onoki himself happened to be one of the few people capable of it. And as for ninjutsu power, Onoki did not believe his Dust Release would be inferior to any other technique.

After comparing their abilities, Onoki felt that he had the advantage.

......

After his victory, Nagato did not pursue the retreating Rock Shinobi. Instead, he began resting in place.

The Rock Shinobi who had temporarily lost their ability to move on the battlefield were all captured. After receiving some basic treatment, they were imprisoned in the temporary camp they had established.

One Rock Shinobi who had lost an arm during the battle became extremely angry and cursed loudly without caring about his status as a prisoner.

The Light Shinobi guarding him sneered disdainfully. "It’s just an arm. You don’t need to turn into a mad dog over it. The ninja of the Five Great Shinobi Villages aren’t anything special."

"For a ninja, an arm is his life. What’s the difference between losing an arm and dying?" The Rock Shinobi said with hatred on his face.

Indeed, for an ordinary ninja, losing an arm had an enormous impact. First, they could no longer perform ninjutsu that required hand seals. Ordinary people could not perform the ridiculous trick of forming seals with one hand, and most ordinary ninja did not possess special seal-less ninjutsu.

Losing an arm would even affect their taijutsu.

"So what? Just replace it with a prosthetic. It’ll be even stronger than your original arm." The Light Shinobi spoke indifferently. After saying that, he proudly showed the Rock Shinobi his prosthetic arm.

The Rock Shinobi stared dumbfoundedly as the seemingly ordinary arm suddenly revealed a whole collection of weapons.

Just then, a loud roar rang out as the Light Shinobi camp came under attack.

The imprisoned Rock Shinobi became restless upon hearing the commotion.

"It must be the Tsuchikage and the others coming to rescue us!"

"We’ll be rescued soon!"

"What’s all the noise about!" the Light Shinobi guard shouted.

"Even if your Tsuchikage really comes, with our leader Yahiko here, he’ll just be joining you in here!" The Light Shinobi had absolute confidence in his own leader’s strength. He believed that even the leaders of the Five Great Shinobi Villages were no match for Nagato.

Nagato had extremely high prestige within the Light Shinobi Village, so no one objected to whatever decisions he made. For example, after defeating the enemy forces, he had chosen not to pursue them and instead established a camp to rest.

Because they were in a foreign land, the Light and Grass Shinobi remained highly vigilant. After discovering the Rock Shinobi, they quickly gathered together and prepared for battle. Nagato, who had sensed the commotion, also arrived on the battlefield soon after.

Seeing that the Rock Shinobi facing them were no longer led by Kitsuchi, but instead by a short old man wearing a green striped vest, Nagato secretly nodded.

His decision to act so arrogantly and establish camp in place had not been in vain. He had finally managed to draw out the Third Tsuchikage.

"Young people really are impressive. At such a young age, you are already leading a minor country in an attack against a major country. It reminds me of the former Demigod Hanzo." Onoki smiled.

On the surface, Onoki was praising Nagato and complimenting him for achieving so much at such a young age.

But by comparing Nagato to Hanzo, he was also implying something else.

Although Hanzo had once challenged a major country with a minor country, Hanzo had ultimately lost, and he had lost miserably.

The meaning behind Onoki’s words was obvious.

The former Demigod Hanzo had lost. Today, Nagato would lose as well.

"Hanzo? He was nothing but a useless fool. He doesn’t deserve to be compared with me. It seems the Third Tsuchikage is nothing special either." Nagato’s tone remained indifferent, but his words were extremely sharp.

He had understood Onoki’s implication and could not be bothered to exchange verbal jabs with him. Instead, he directly made his position clear.

Onoki narrowed his eyes as chakra gradually gathered throughout his limbs.

"Then let me teach you what it means to respect your elders."

Since Nagato was being so disrespectful, Onoki could no longer be bothered to pretend to be some wise elder of the shinobi world.

They were already at war. There were no elders or juniors anymore.

They were enemies.