radicalducati Chapter 256 An Invitation from Orochimaru
Chapter 256 An Invitation from Orochimaru
Chapter 256 An Invitation from Orochimaru
"Bullying the weak is something I'm even better at!"
Using the power of instantly killing a ninja, Taiichi's words sounded particularly domineering, and no one dared to take them lightly.
"Matsushita Taichi, don't push your luck."
"So what if I bully you? Didn't you say this is war? Why is it that only you Cloud Ninjas are allowed to bully the weak with numbers, but I'm not allowed to bully the weak with strength? You're being too hypocritical, Killer Bee."
Taiichi didn't stand on ceremony with them. As he spoke, he instantly appeared again and chased after another Chunin.
This time, Killer Bee, who was prepared, immediately used his Instantaneous Movement to come to the rescue. With his Lightning Release activated, his Instantaneous Movement was even faster than Taiichi's.
However, Taiichi possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique. Just as he was about to be intercepted, his figure vanished from his original spot and reappeared far away from Killer Bee, charging towards another Chunin once again.
"Boom!" Another punch landed, and another Chunin from Kumogakure was sent flying.
"Taichi Matsushita, if you've got the guts, fight me one-on-one."
Killer Bee roared in anger, but Taiichi ignored him completely. As the number of Flying Thunder God Kunai increased, his movement became more varied. Even under the protection of Killer Bee and the other four Jonin, the remaining two Chunin were all killed by Taiichi's constant attacks.
Only then did Taichi finally stop. There was no other way; Chunin were far too weak for Taichi. If he were given the chance to attack, he would be killed in one move.
After the last Kumogakure Chunin died, Killer Bee calmed down. He and the other three Jonin formed a swastika formation, their eyes fixed on Taiichi.
"Why are you staring at me like that? I'm just doing what you say. Besides, this war was started by your Cloud Village. If you look at me like that, people who don't know the situation will think I'm a bad guy."
Taichi, never one to miss a chance, continued to provoke Killer Bee, seemingly wanting to take on all of them one-on-one.
However, Killer Bee, after calming down, also showed his meticulous side. He ignored Taichi's provocation and instead looked at the Uchiha ninja who was receiving treatment in the distance.
"That Uchiha ninja must be too badly injured to use the Flying Thunder God Technique!" Killer Bee looked at Taichi and spoke normally, which was unusual for him.
Ignoring Taichi's slightly changed expression, he directly ordered the three Jonin, "You go and kill that Uchiha ninja, I'll hold Matsushita Taichi back."
"I was hoping to play with you guys a little longer, but it seems like I won't have the chance now."
Taiyi instantly appeared next to Uchiha Kouen. Although he couldn't use the Flying Thunder God Technique to teleport, after receiving treatment, he could easily escape.
"Killer Bee, I'll remember this today. You Kumogakure ninjas will have to watch out from now on."
After saying that, Taiyi spread out the wings materialized from his chakra, and with a violent flap, he took off carrying Uchiha Kouhan. He swayed and dodged the kunai and ninjutsu that attacked from behind. Taiyi flew higher and higher, farther and farther, until he disappeared from sight.
On the ground, Killer Bee's face was dark. Although they destroyed Konoha's No. 9 base and killed 7 Konoha ninjas in this battle, they only lost 4 Chunin.
But Killer Bee couldn't be happy at all. Putting aside the humiliation of being tricked by Matsushita Taichi, just how to face Matsushita Taichi's retaliatory attacks was enough to give him a headache.
"Go back first and report what happened here to our elder brother!"
After saying that, Killer Bee took the lead and ran quickly towards the Cloud Village camp.
Konoha's front-line camp.
Taiichi flew back to the camp with Uchiha Kouen at top speed. After handing Kouen over to his shadow clone for treatment, his main body immediately went to Orochimaru.
"Outpost No. 9 is finished. When I arrived there, it had already been destroyed by the Tailed Beast Ball. In the end, only two people escaped."
Taiichi briefly recounted what he had seen to Orochimaru, then wanted to hear what new arrangements Orochimaru could make.
"Hehe, Taiichi, have you noticed? Kumogakure is getting anxious." Orochimaru's tone was indifferent, but his eyes were extremely sharp, like a venomous snake locking onto its prey.
"Indeed, we originally planned to take a steady and methodical approach, gradually eroding all of Kumogakure's strongholds in the Land of Hot Water. Now, with their targeted attacks, the situation is about to deteriorate into a war of attrition between the two sides, which will result in significant losses for us."
Taiichi could see it clearly. Although Konoha was currently seeking reinforcements everywhere, it was only because they were caught off guard by Kumogakure. Konoha quickly adjusted its personnel deployment, and apart from small teams like Killer Bee, Kumogakure would not be able to launch such an easy sneak attack on Konoha's teams.
"Taiyi, you are not used to war yet. The battlefield is like this, changing in an instant. Human life is like grass on the battlefield. We can only protect our comrades in the big picture. On the specific battlefield, we must not hesitate because of these losses. That would be irresponsible to the other ninjas."
Remember, on the battlefield, you must not be soft-hearted; you must fight when you must fight, and you must be willing to sacrifice when you must sacrifice.
"Yes, thank you for Orochimaru's teachings. I can distinguish between what is important and what is not." Taiichi humbly accepted the teachings and admitted his shortcomings, which was not shameful at all.
"What about Outpost Nine? It's extremely important."
Orochimaru stuck out his long tongue, licked his lips, and said with a wicked smile, "Kumakunobi didn't occupy these strongholds either. I will notify all the guard units behind to abandon the defense of the strongholds and station them all in the wild. They only need to perform the guard duty and do not need to fight the enemy head-on."
He turned to Taiyi and said, "As for direct combat, I will form several elite squads, just like the Cloud Village, to hunt down their ninjas who go out, and see who will be the first to give up."
Tai nodded in agreement. After spending so much time on the battlefield, he understood that there were not many conspiracies and tricks on the battlefield. Most of the time, it was just a back-and-forth clash of forces.
The decisive battle will begin when one side can no longer hold out. Like now, the two sides are no longer focused on capturing strongholds, but instead hunting each other's ninjas – a more direct war of attrition.
Taichi took out 10 specially made Flying Thunder God kunai from his ninja tool bag and handed them to Orochimaru: "These are Flying Thunder God kunai that I specially researched. They can be used to contact me directly in an emergency. Make sure each combat squad has one, so I can provide timely support when they encounter danger."
Orochimaru looked at the kunai in his hand with a look of surprise, picked one up and examined it carefully. From Taiichi's description, he knew that this thing must have been developed by Taiichi to save the lives of his teammates or relatives.
After all, this thing can summon Taiyi, so it can also be used as a trap to kill Taiyi. If you don't have a certain level of trust in the other party, you would never hand over such a deadly thing to someone else.
"That's a really good idea, combining shadow clones and sealing techniques to develop a technique that can transmit information in real time. But how did you achieve that?"
Orochimaru truly lives up to his name, the most powerful scientist in the Naruto world. Just by looking at Taiichi's technique, he grasped the general idea behind its development.
He looked up at Taiyi, his eyes filled with the joy of seeing a kindred spirit. Ignoring the fact that this was the central command tent, he directly extended an invitation to Taiyi: "Taiyi, it's such a waste to use your talent for fighting and killing. Have you ever considered studying the true meaning of chakra with me and pursuing the ultimate mystery of life?"
Taiichi was also stunned, not expecting Orochimaru to make such an invitation. However, considering Orochimaru's research fanaticism, it wasn't that strange. Moreover, at this stage of Orochimaru's life, it seemed that cooperating with him wouldn't be a bad idea.
"Lord Orochimaru, I have also been pursuing the true meaning of chakra. The improvement of my strength will allow me to study these things better. As for studying them together, I am of course willing. If you have any projects in the future, please be sure to contact me. I am also very interested in these things."
Taiichi spoke frankly; he truly admired Orochimaru's research spirit, and he thought it would be very interesting to do scientific research with Orochimaru if given the opportunity.
Orochimaru's research spirit is commendable, but his attitude towards test subjects is somewhat poor. If there is an opportunity, one should definitely try to dissuade him.
Orochimaru also showed his first bright smile since they met today. He took two steps forward and patted Taichi on the shoulder for the first time. "Okay, I just hope you won't refuse when the time comes, Taichi."
In the following period, Konoha and Kumogakure engaged in one offensive and defensive battle after another, but overall, Konoha held the advantage.
At first, the Cloud Village was also puzzled as to why, even though the two sides were evenly matched, the Cloud Village always suffered more defeats.
After carefully questioning the survivors of each battle, they finally discovered that they had still lost to Matsushita Taichi.
Konoha seems to have found a way to contact Matsushita Taichi at any time, so whenever their ninjas encounter an enemy they cannot defeat, they call for support immediately. With this kind of support available at any time, how can an ordinary elite squad withstand Matsushita Taichi's attacks?
As a result, in the ensuing battles, Kumogakure not only failed to achieve their goal of killing Konoha's forces, but also suffered heavy losses themselves.
In less than a month, Kumogakure completely lost all its strongholds in the Land of Hot Water, and the entire frontline camp had to retreat back to the Land of the Moon.
However, this situation was finally alleviated after the Cloud Village sent another thousand troops as reinforcements. The Cloud Village also changed its previous aggressive stance, no longer seeking to launch attacks, but instead began to fight a defensive counterattack.
This change by Kumogakure was exactly what Konoha wanted. After more than two months of intense fighting, not to mention ordinary ninjas, even someone as energetic as Taichi was extremely exhausted in such an environment.
They were constantly providing support here and there. In the worst instance, Taiyi provided support to five battlefields in a single day.
For more than a month now, not only has he not been able to research the Adamantine Sealing Technique to develop new ninjutsu, but the chakra stored in his Yin Seal has not increased but decreased instead.
If they keep fighting like this, I don't know if others can keep up, but Taiichi will be the first to give up. He's just too tired.
With the Cloud Village halting its advance, the Leaf Village also tacitly slowed its offensive, and the entire northern battlefield fell into an eerie calm.
Both sides are trying to buy time to rest and recuperate, and to alleviate the physical and mental exhaustion caused by the long war.
While the fighting was raging on the northern battlefield, new changes were also taking place on the southern battlefield.
After the Cloud Ninja left, Sunagakure not only failed to recover effectively, but also became entangled in a conflict with Kirigakure. This left them with no energy to take any new actions against Konoha. The only thing Sunagakure could be thankful for now was that Konoha did not take advantage of their misfortune.
It's not surprising that Konoha isn't interested in this. Konoha has now completely occupied the Land of Rivers, and all the missions entrusted to them have temporarily ended up in Konoha's pocket.
Geographically, further ahead lies an endless desert. Faced with such geographical conditions, only a fool would think of continuing to advance. After all, not everyone is like Taiichi and Minato, who can unleash 100% of their full strength even in the desert.
Therefore, based on the experiences of World War I and World War II, Konoha's current policy towards Sunagakure is: if you don't come to attack me, I won't bother with you.
Therefore, the entire southern camp is generally quite relaxed now. Apart from daily patrols, the rest of the time is basically spent on self-training.
That noon, Yangping and his companions had just returned to camp after completing their training for the day when they were intercepted by a messenger ninja.
"Uchiha Yohei, urgent mission."
"Haha, brothers, finally a mission! I've been so bored!" Yang Ping laughed heartily. Although there was no danger, these days were indeed boring, especially since this was the front line. Apart from daily training, they had nothing else to do.
Kakashi, Obito, and the others also wore smiles; it wasn't just Yohei who was bored, they were just as bored.
Yang Ping took the mission scroll, checked all the secret patterns, and confirmed its authenticity before preparing to open it.
But then a hand pressed down on Yangping's hand, stopping him from doing anything further.
"Uchiha Yohei, this is a classified mission. Only those carrying out the mission can know the details." The messenger ninja glanced at Kakashi and the others, then continued, "They are not the ones carrying out the mission."
Yang Ping raised an eyebrow and asked again, "Is this a mission just for me? My team members don't need to participate?"
"Confidential, but your team members are definitely not among them." The response was formulaic, rigid, and cold.
Yangping winked at Kakashi and Saori, who nodded knowingly and pulled Obito and Rin away from the group, but they didn't go far, just watching from a distance.
Only then did Yangping open the scroll and begin reading.
The mission was simple, or at least it didn't seem difficult; it was just a simple task to retrieve intelligence from a designated person at a designated location.
However, the mission location was quite far away, actually in the Land of Rain, which was really beyond Yang Ping's expectations. What kind of intelligence was it that required sending someone from the Land of Rivers to receive it?
However, a mission is a mission, and since the mission has already been assigned, Yangping has no reason to question it.
"I'm going back to pack up the supplies, I'll be right back," Yangping said to the messenger ninja before turning and walking towards Kakashi and the others.
But he had only taken two steps when he stopped, turned around, and looked at the messenger ninja who was following closely behind him. "Brother, I know the rules, keeping things confidential, but you don't need to keep following me like this!"
However, the messenger ninja remained silent, simply following Yangping blindly.
Yangping had no choice but to ignore it and walked over to his companions. "Let's go back to camp. I need to pack up our supplies. We're going on a long trip."
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