Starting with rogue ninjas, building the insect kingdom.

Chapter 103 On the Eve of the Great Battle

Looking at the panicked crowd below, Aburame Shisei, though quite certain in his heart, still turned to the Seven-Tails lying not far away and asked, "Seven-Tails, can your scales blind the Byakugan and Sharingan?"

The Seven-Tails flapped its wings and said, "Of course it can. My scale powder isn't for the eyes, it's for chakra perception. Whatever the Byakugan or Sharingan, once they're covered in my scale powder, they're all blind."

Aburame Shisei nodded and turned to look at the panicked ninjas.

Did you all hear that?

"The two clans sent by Konoha are famous for their eyes," Aburame Shisei said calmly. "And our trump card is the scale powder that renders all eyes ineffective."

"Furthermore, Takigakure has already agreed to lend 100 elite ninjas to help us. Now we just need to wait patiently and let them enter our encirclement."

At this moment, another old man said, "We, the Grass Ninja Village, have already countered the Hyuga Gentle Fist. As long as we can make them blind, the Gentle Fist is just a decoration in front of us."

"Exactly! Let them see how powerful the Grass Ninja Village is!"

"War! War! War!"

Several days later, all the ninjas of Kusagakure had assembled, totaling 513 people, and were divided into two groups.

The first batch of four hundred men, led by Negishi Kusanagi himself, were well-equipped and in high spirits. They would set up defenses on the border to intercept the vanguard of Konoha.

The second batch of 113 people, including 100 Dragonfly Users and 13 reserves, will be personally commanded by Shisei Aburame. They will serve as a reserve force, ready to be deployed to the battlefield at crucial moments.

Standing on the high platform, Negishi Kusanagi looked down at the dense crowd below: "Do you have the confidence to defeat the enemy?"

A chorus of shouts erupted from below: "Yes!"

"Speak louder! Do you have confidence?!"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"War! War! War!"

Negishi Kusanagi raised his hand: "Let's go!"

Four hundred ninjas marched in orderly steps toward the border.

Aburame Shisei stood still, watching their retreating figures. Beside him, the seven enormous bodies lay prone on the ground, their six wings gently flapping.

"Aren't you going?" she asked.

"No rush," Aburame Shisei said calmly. "Let them fight a battle first, and wear down Konoha's morale."

He turned to look at the Seven-Tailed Fox.

"Then, it'll all depend on you."

Seven-Tails said, "Don't worry! I've got it covered! By the way, after the battle, could you give me a little bit of that energy again? Just a tiny bit?"

Aburame Shisei: "..."

"Let's talk after we've finished fighting."

On the other side, at the border of the Land of Grass, there is a fifty-mile battle line.

Fugaku Uchiha stood on a high slope, his crimson Sharingan slowly rotating as he scanned the valley covered by dense forest in front of him.

Behind him, nearly a thousand Konoha ninjas were stationed in an orderly fashion, their camp spread out in a fan shape, occupying a strategic location within a radius of three miles.

Hyuga Tenjin walked slowly over, his Byakugan activated, and the veins on both sides of his forehead bulged slightly.

He stood beside Fugaku, his gaze piercing through the layers of trees, taking in the terrain within ten kilometers ahead.

"The setup is very rough," Hyuga Tenjin said calmly. "The traps are unevenly spaced, and the technique is amateurish; it must have been set up in a hurry."

Fugaku Uchiha nodded, his three-tomoe Sharingan catching faint traces of chakra in the distance: "But they have quite a few people. In the encounter three days ago, we killed over ninety of them, and fewer than ten of them escaped with serious injuries. The Grass Village's available fighting force should be far more than that."

"You think there's an ambush?" Hyuga Tennin asked, glancing sideways.

"I don't think so," Fugaku Uchiha said calmly. "I just feel... it's gone too smoothly."

It went too smoothly indeed.

The Konoha army advanced to this point and encountered almost no significant resistance. The traps set by the Grass Ninja—rope tripping devices, makeshift explosive tags, and poison needle mechanisms—were rendered useless by the Sharingan of the Uchiha and the Byakugan of the Hyuga.

Often, the traps are dismantled by Konoha's sensory squad or reconnaissance team before they are even triggered.

The battle was one-sided.

In the skirmish three days ago, Konoha only sent three squads of thirty men each, yet they annihilated the vanguard of nearly a hundred Grass Ninja. Konoha suffered relatively few casualties, with only a little over thirty wounded, seventeen of whom died from their injuries, and this was only due to the intervention of the enemy's Jonin.

In a battle involving thousands of players, this damage is negligible.

At this moment, a relaxed atmosphere permeated the Konoha camp.

Several Chunin sat around the campfire, chatting as they polished their kunai.

"I thought it would be really tough, but it's just like this?"

"I heard that the Grass Village doesn't even have any decent ninjas. The strongest ones are only at the level of ordinary Jonin."

"Isn't this bullying?"

Elsewhere, three Jonin were counting their spoils. The ninja tools looted from the grass ninja corpses varied in quality, mostly ordinary ironware, with only a few kunai made of chakra metal, which were also of inferior quality.

"With equipment like this, they dare to challenge Konoha?" a Jonin with a scar on his face sneered. "Taking down a grass ninja village is like fighting a major power; it's a piece of cake. Don't you see these ninjas? They're not even enough for us to kill."

"Hey, don't say that. Those 100 people before were quite strong."

"Impressive, haha! Judging from past experience, those are already all of their elites."

Their voices were neither too loud nor too soft, just enough to reach the ears of Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuga Tennin, who were not far away.

两人同时转身。

Fugaku Uchiha's Sharingan suddenly shifted, turning cold: "Jonin Tanaka."

The scarred ninja stiffened and quickly stood up: "Lord Fugaku."

"Repeat what you just said."

Tanaka swallowed hard, not daring to utter a sound.

Hyuga Tenjin stepped forward, his Byakugan fixed on him, his voice low but carrying an undeniable authority: "Whether the opponent is one of the Five Great Nations or a small ninja village, as long as they are an enemy, they must be treated with the utmost seriousness. Underestimating the enemy is the greatest folly a ninja can commit."

Fugaku Uchiha picked up the conversation, his voice echoing throughout the camp: "During the battle three days ago, did you examine the corpses of those Grass Ninja closely?"

The campsite quieted down.

"Their equipment was indeed rudimentary, but their physical condition was off," Fugaku Uchiha continued. "Their muscle density far exceeded that of ordinary Kusanagi ninja, and their chakra reserves were also unusually abundant. I examined the palms of several corpses—the calluses that were usually formed from years of kunai throwing practice were newly formed recently. In other words, they had undergone high-intensity training in a short period of time."

Hyuga Tenjin nodded and added, "Furthermore, those who escaped back were extremely fast even after being injured. That's not the kind of physical ability that ordinary Grass Ninja should have."

The two exchanged a glance and both saw a problem in each other's eyes.