The battle between the two giants continued while the other ninjas around them tried not to be affected by them.
But just one missed attack from both giants could kill a large number of them, so the only thing they could do was move further away from the battle so they could kill each other without distractions.
Meanwhile, several hundred meters away, the battle between the two Kages continued.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
While numerous kunai and shuriken clashed against each other, 3 huge incomplete metal barriers could be found in the middle of the battlefield.
When the last kunai fell into a tree, the two fighters looked at each other while they were 50 meters apart.
Although 50 meters was nothing for a ninja, neither of them moved because they knew it was not appropriate to continue the fight.
In the midst of a war, it is very dangerous to run out of energy after a battle and be at the mercy of a third party hoping to take advantage of the situation.
Especially those two, who are the leaders of their villages and who have the greatest chance of suffering an assassination attempt in normal times, let alone turbulent times like a war.
Between the two combatants, the terrain had been destroyed beyond recognition, clearly demonstrating the power level of both men.
They themselves were not unscathed either, as their uniforms were mostly destroyed and held together only by pieces of cloth that remained intact.
Onoki looked at Hiruzen and cursed the man's good luck, or rather his experience, in being able to escape his dust element.
After this, it will be very difficult to catch the man off guard again.
Meanwhile, Hiruzen was also sweating profusely.
If he had taken a single false step, he would have been trapped by Onoki's dust element and disappeared from existence.
Only his many years of experience saved him, as he immediately summoned 5 Rashomon gates and gave one of his shadow clones time to swap positions with him.
If his clone hadn't done that, he would have died because the Rashomon gates didn't hold for long before being breached.
And the same happens in reverse.
If he hadn't summoned the 5 Rashomon Gates, his shadow clone wouldn't have had enough time to swap places.
The two men looked at each other and understood that the battle would not continue.
Besides being tired and wounded, both men had senses powerful enough to know that the battle between the two armies was fierce.
If things continued this way, both villages would lose a large number of ninjas.
On the battlefield, Kitsuchi and Torifu also felt the battle between the two kages.
When the fight continued after that ray of light, they realized that the Hokage was still alive and had different reactions.
As Kitsuchi grimaced, Torifu sighed in relief.
The two men could no longer fight each other, as they heard the signal to retreat and immediately returned to take command of both armies.
.
.
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At the Leaf Village camp, Natsuo sighed with relief when he received news through his clones that the Third Tsuchikage and the Stone Village army had been repelled.
But as he headed back to his tent to rest, he regretted not having planted more explosives when he tried to reveal the whereabouts of the Tsuchikage and his group.
If I had known that the village believed Onoki's death was a good thing, I would have planted many more explosives.
Of course, this doesn't mean the Third Tsuchikage would fall into the trap so easily, as as a powerful ninja he could sense that something was wrong, trusting his instincts and escaping prematurely.
Anyway, the immediate danger had now passed and Natsuo could return to his tent to rest without worrying about a sneak attack.
It was the other ninjas in the camp who were still worried because they had received information that the armies of both villages had begun to fight.
It was only half an hour later that they received the information that the battle had ended and that the Tsuchikage had been repelled.
"¡Viva Hokage-sama!"
"¡Viva Hokage-sama!"
"¡Viva Hokage-sama!"
…
The shouts of the Leaf ninjas did not bother Natsuo since the protective seals were always active and did not allow even the sound to enter.
But Natsuo didn't want to be uninformed about what was happening at the camp, so he left a couple of shadow clones hidden using wood chakra to remain concealed underground.
If something important happened, these shadow clones would warn him.
It wasn't until the next day that Natsuo left his tent and found a cheerful atmosphere in the camp.
Of course, he didn't have to ask to find out why.
Onoki had been repelled and not even the famous dust element could defeat the Third Hokage, so most thought that the war would not continue for much longer.
Unfortunately for them, they were proven wrong when only 1 week passed before the Rock ninjas attacked again and the Leaf ninjas had to defend themselves.
During the following days, a large number of wounded arrived at the camp and all the medical ninjas worked overtime to save them.
It was lucky that all the injured were ninjas, otherwise a normal person would have died after ending up in such a condition.
Natsuo also spent a lot of time working as a doctor at the camp, using only the chakra reserves of a newly promoted Jonin and hiding the rest in his Jinchuriki seal.
While pretending to be tired to let other doctors do most of the work, Natsuo called it a day and retired to his tent.
His steps were hurried, as he had received important information from his shadow clones.
And when he entered his tent and lifted the security seals, he immediately sat cross-legged on the ground before connecting to his shadow clones' communication network.
Besides helping Kushina, he needed to teach the Cloud Village a lesson.
.
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A few days ago
Thousands of kilometers away from the battlefield in the land of grass, in the village of lightning, a meeting was taking place between the Third Raikage and his advisor Dodai.
"...both sides are consuming each other and it is estimated that they will have to stop fighting in another week"
In front of the Third Raikage's desk, Dodai was passing around the report that the spies had sent about the battlefield situation in the land of grass.
"What about Hiruzen and Onoki?" asked the Third Raikage.
"Since their last battle, the two men have only faced each other twice more, and on both occasions the battle did not have the same intensity as the first."
Upon hearing Dodai's words, the Third Raikage nodded his head while grimacing and mentally calling both Kages cowards.
The Third Raikage preferred that both men continue fighting until they killed each other, but the two men had more considerations, so they didn't fight with everything they had in those two battles.
After receiving the report on the state of both villages, the Third Raikage thought that his village had a good chance of taking advantage of the weakened state of both villages after years of war.
So they had to be ready for war at any moment
Although the Leaf Village had many powerful ninjas, the Cloud Village was not far behind.
Besides a few elite ninjas, there was him and the 2 Jinchuriki from the Cloud Village.
Blue B, the Jinchuriki of the 8-tailed beast
And Yugito, the Jinchuriki of the 2-tailed beast.
The Third Raikage would like to go to war against the two villages right now, but it's not the right time.
Despite what people might think, he's just all muscles, A is not stupid.
Relying on the two Jinchuriki to lead the battle could backfire.
Blue B and Yugito are powerful, but they have not yet mastered the chakra of the beasts sealed inside them and could get out of control, harming the cloud ninjas themselves.
Thinking about the seal of each Jinchuriki, A cursed the Uzumaki.
When they attacked the Uzumaki, they wanted to obtain their sealing abilities.
Unfortunately for them, they obtained very few sealing scrolls as most were destroyed by the redheads before they fell.
In addition to that, most committed suicide and destroyed their bodies, guessing what would become of their future if they were captured by the other villages.
In the end, they only obtained a few scrolls and a few living Uzumaki.
Unfortunately, these sealing scrolls were very difficult for them and they could only understand a little.