"How could this happen? These stone soldiers actually came back to life!"
"Damn it... could these things be the kind of monsters that can't be killed?"
"This is bad. If we can't find whoever is controlling them behind the scenes, our chakra won't last if this drags on."
During the earlier battle against Konoha, most of the elite ninja of the Sand Village had already been killed or severely wounded.
Those who remained were mostly mediocre.
Although Yuzuru had transferred several training instructors from Konoha, the time had been far too short to produce any real results.
So when they saw the giant stone soldiers revive again, the Sand Village ninja could not help but panic.
Watching their disgraceful reaction, Baki felt his face burn with embarrassment.
To show such an ugly display in front of Yuzuru was simply humiliating.
Thinking this, he shouted loudly, "Quiet down! They're just a bunch of broken rocks. Maintain formation!"
"With Lord Yuzuru overseeing the battlefield, what are you afraid of?"
Hearing Baki's shout, the Sand Village ninja suddenly brightened.
That's right!
With the invincible Yuzuru here, what were two hundred stone soldiers supposed to amount to?
In an instant, the Sand Village ninja seemed to be injected with adrenaline as they began forming hand seals again and launched attacks toward the giant stone soldiers.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
...
With a series of dull explosions, the stone soldiers were smashed into fragments again and again.
Yet like cockroaches that refused to die, they reassembled themselves time after time.
As time passed, the Sand Village ninja gradually began to run out of strength.
After all, continuously releasing ninjutsu was something very few ninja could sustain for long.
"We're going to have to fight them in close combat!"
The Sand Village ninja swallowed nervously.
The three-meter-tall stone soldiers radiated overwhelming pressure, and they could regenerate endlessly.
Facing such things in close combat was enough to make anyone feel immense pressure.
"I'll do it!"
A low shout rang out as Hatake Kakashi transformed into a streak of purple lightning. With the help of his clones, he quickly surrounded the stone soldiers.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Beast Tracking Fang!"
The chakra within Kakashi surged to its limit as countless strands of purple lightning wrapped around his kunai and shot toward the giant stone soldiers.
With a series of terrifying explosions, more than two hundred stone soldiers were blasted into fragments under the barrage of lightning-charged kunai.
"Obito!"
"I'm on it."
Obito laughed as his eyes turned into the crimson Mangekyō Sharingan.
Susanoo manifested behind him, holding two enormous shuriken.
"Kamui: Shuriken!"
The spinning shuriken tore through space itself, carving two pitch-black rifts.
Kakashi and his shadow clones immediately formed hand seals together.
"Wind Release: Passing Typhoon!"
A massive current of wind instantly swept every fragment of the stone soldiers into the dark spatial rifts.
"It's finished."
Obito and Kakashi bumped fists calmly before returning to Yuzuru's side.
The Sand Village ninja, however, were completely dumbfounded.
They had personally fought those stone soldiers and knew exactly how troublesome they were.
Their defense was terrifying, and even when smashed into pieces they could revive again.
A thousand of them attacking together had been unable to do anything to those stone soldiers.
Yet now Kakashi and Obito had easily wiped them all out by themselves...
Was this the strength of Konoha ninja?
Were these truly the subordinates of Lord Yuzuru?
They were unbelievably powerful!
Even Baki could not help clicking his tongue in amazement.
He felt that as a jonin, he probably wouldn't last even ten exchanges against Kakashi or Uchiha.
Feeling the shocked gazes of the Sand Village ninja, Obito felt extremely pleased.
Showing off in front of others really felt great!
"Big Brother Yuzuru, once I sealed those stone soldiers inside the Kamui space, they stopped moving."
"The reason they can keep reviving must be because something in the real world is constantly supplying them with power."
Hearing this, Yuzuru nodded and said calmly, "Let's go to the village before the Locks and see what's going on."
"Yes!"
————
————
Under Yuzuru's leadership, the group fought their way all the way to the village before the Locks.
The reason the word "fought" was used was because the entire Land of Keys had already fallen, and those strange stone soldiers were everywhere.
To ease some of Hanare's anxiety, Yuzuru had Kakashi and Obito eliminate every stone soldier they encountered along the way.
Finally, when the group arrived at the village before the Locks, they discovered that more than five hundred stone soldiers were attacking the village.
The ninja of the village before the Locks were relying on the terrain to desperately resist the assault.
But it was clear they were already exhausted. It was only a matter of time before the stone soldiers broke through the village defenses.
"Damn it! Where did these damned things come from?"
"No idea. Hurry and think of something. We can't hold out much longer."
"Are we really going to see the Locks village destroyed today?"
The Locks village only had a little over three hundred ninja in total. Under the attack of the giant stone soldiers, more than half had already been killed or wounded.
Corpses littered the ground, and blood had pooled into a small stream.
Yet despite paying such a terrible price, they had not managed to destroy even a single stone soldier.
A sense of despair began spreading among the village's ninja.
Just as they were about to abandon the village and flee, they suddenly saw two ninja running toward them from the distance.
Then they witnessed a gigantic demonic statue over a hundred meters tall appear, stomping more than five hundred stone soldiers into fragments within moments.
Next, space itself seemed to tear apart as a massive crack appeared. Kakashi skillfully used a Wind Release technique to blow all the fragments of the stone soldiers into it.
In just a short moment, the stone soldiers that had driven the village's ninja into despair were completely annihilated.
It was as simple as crushing a swarm of ants.
"Are you reinforcements someone invited?"
The surviving ninja of the Locks village looked at Obito and Kakashi and asked.
They had thought that even if they survived today, their village would surely be destroyed.
Yet unexpectedly, fate had taken a sudden turn. Two mysterious powerhouses had saved both them and their village.
Obito and Kakashi said nothing and simply stepped aside.
Then the ninja of the Locks village saw Hanare slowly walking forward.
"Hanare?"
A burly man immediately recognized her and revealed a shocked expression.
Hanare asked anxiously, "Toshio, where are Leader Hideki and Shoichi?"
Hearing Hanare call his name directly, the burly man's expression became slightly displeased.
But he also knew this was not the time to argue over such matters, so he said coldly, "Shoichi is already dead. He died at the hands of those stone soldiers just now."
"As for Hideki..." Toshio gritted his teeth. "That coward who fled before the battle doesn't deserve to be our leader!"
