"That's… Konoha's forces from the Land of Moon. It seems that Kumogakure's surrender happened even earlier than we anticipated," Shamon said darkly, unable to hide his frustration.
He had not expected that even Konoha's reinforcements from the Land of Moon would already have reached the Land of Rain.
"So now, do you still dare to claim you have a numbers advantage?" Hui asked, a mocking smile on his face, leaving Mu silent.
"Oh, and if you're thinking of that three-thousand-strong ambush unit of yours," Hui continued, "let me save you the trouble; they've all been wiped out. Not.A. Single. One. Left." Hui's words hit hard, and Mu and Onoki both visibly paled.
That ambush force was almost entirely composed of Iwagakure's finest shinobi!
"Hui!" Mu growled, his eyes blazing with fury as he glared at Hui.
His anger was boiling over, bordering on madness. Just today alone, their Iwa-Suna Alliance had suffered a loss of eight thousand shinobi.
That number was nearly enough to make Mu black out from shock.
The rest of the Alliance ninja were equally shaken, looking at Hui as though he were a devil incarnate—a young man who spoke of massacre with the chilling detachment of someone stating simple facts.
"But you're right about one thing. Despite everything, your Alliance still has eight thousand shinobi, and we Konoha forces only number a little over seven thousand," Hui added with a taunting grin, clearly aiming to provoke Mu and Shamon.
The comment hit its mark, causing their anger to surge, but with it came a sinking feeling in their hearts.
An eight-thousand-to-seven-thousand advantage barely counted as an advantage at all, especially when Konoha had far more elite fighters—particularly the powerhouse that was Hui himself.
Even if Hui couldn't perform that technique again, he was still the shinobi who had once taken on six Kage-level opponents and killed five of them single-handedly.
And then there was Tobirama, whose Edo Tensei jutsu could summon the dead to turn the tide of battle. With that, their "numbers advantage" would vanish, becoming a disadvantage instead.
"It looks like the tables have turned, Shamon, Mu," Tobirama said, clearly enjoying the reversal of fortune. Before Hui's arrival, Konoha's five thousand were facing nearly twenty thousand from the Iwa-Suna Alliance.
But now, the gap was less than one thousand—a staggering, nearly impossible shift in odds.
Mu and Shamon winced at the reminder. Losing eight thousand ninja in a single day… it was simply unthinkable.
"Mochizuki Hui!" Onoki's face turned red with fury. This war had been his idea.
He had been the one to persuade his master, Mu, the Second Tsuchikage, to enter the conflict.
Now, with so many Iwagakure shinobi dead, the weight of responsibility pressed heavily on him.
"Onoki, I've spared you twice already. This time, I won't be letting you off," Hui said coldly, his gaze sharpening as he stepped toward Onoki.
The Iwa-Suna Alliance forces, seeing Hui approach, instinctively stepped back, hearts racing with fear.
The trauma of witnessing Heaven's Calamity still haunted them, making Hui seem like an invincible force, a god even, who could not be challenged.
Even Onoki felt a chill, taking a small step back as memories of his previous encounters with Hui flashed through his mind.
Hui's words might have sounded arrogant, but Onoki knew they were true—Hui had already been capable of defeating him over a year ago with his Shadow Avatar technique alone.
Now, with Hui's strength clearly grown, Onoki had no confidence he could survive a direct fight.
"So, you really think we're nothing but insects to crush underfoot? You arrogant brat! Let me show you what a true shinobi can do!" shouted one of the Alliance's elite jonin, his pride stung by Hui's condescension.
His anger drove him to break formation, rushing toward Hui in blind rage.
"No!" Onoki shouted, but it was too late—the jonin was nearly upon Hui.
"Die!" the jonin roared as his fist, wrapped in a massive boulder of stone, hurtled toward Hui with crushing force.
Boom!
In the next instant, a fist, white as jade and perfectly unblemished, struck out and shattered the rock-encased fist to pieces. Hui's hand closed around the jonin's throat, lifting him off the ground.
"An insignificant firefly dares to challenge the sun?" Hui's voice was calm, almost cold, as he tightened his grip, snapping the jonin's neck effortlessly before discarding his body like a piece of trash.
Then he turned back to Onoki.
"If you're so angry, Onoki, and you want to kill me, then I'll give you a chance. Here I stand—dare you face me in battle?" Hui called out, his voice carrying across the battlefield.
Onoki's heart raced, a sheen of cold sweat forming on his brow as memories of his past defeats resurfaced. Fear seized him once again.
The entire battlefield fell silent as all eyes fixed on Hui, standing alone in the clearing between the two armies.
But the expressions differed—Alliance shinobi gazed at him in terror, while Konoha's ninja looked on with profound reverence.
"I'll be the one to take you on," a voice broke the silence. It was Mu, the Second Tsuchikage himself.
In this moment, with Hui's imposing presence suppressing the will of the Alliance's eight thousand shinobi, Mu, as Iwagakure's Tsuchikage and Onoki's master, stepped forward.
"Lord Second!" one of the Iwagakure ninja called out in alarm, his voice filled with concern.
Onoki stood frozen, wanting to speak but unable to find the words as confusion clouded his mind.
"The Second Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, is it? Very well, I've wanted to fight you for a long time," Hui replied, his tone calm and unbothered.
His expression was unreadable, but his eyes gleamed with a fierce energy as strange markings appeared around his eyes. Mu's sharp eyes caught the shift.
"So, you have a powerful dojutsu as well," he observed, his tone growing serious. This was another new ability of Hui's, one that Mu hadn't known about.
Seeing him reveal this new power now only added to the weight in Mu's heart; dojutsu were renowned for their fearsome power, from the Sharingan to the Byakugan.
Hearing Mu's words, many of the Alliance troops and Konoha ninja alike looked to Hui's eyes, astonished.
"A dojutsu? Does Mochizuki Hui also have a dojutsu?" the Uchiha clan leader murmured, visibly surprised.
Even after fighting alongside Hui for days, he had no idea Hui possessed this power.
Hui himself didn't seem concerned that his dojutsu was now public knowledge—after all, he had chosen to reveal it.
At his level, it hardly mattered. No one would dare covet his abilities, let alone demand an explanation of their origins.
Because where Hui stood, he was already unrivaled.
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