Late at night, inside the Sunagakure camp.
A silver-haired girl sat in front of a table full of herbs, trying to develop an antidote.
But after researching all day, she had found absolutely nothing.
To her horror, not only could she not create an antidote—she couldn't even determine the components of the poison.
An entire day of work, and she didn't have a single clue.
"How is this possible?" the silver-haired girl muttered under her breath.
As a genius poison-maker of Sunagakure, this was the first time she had ever experienced something like this.
Logically speaking, with her skills, even if she couldn't quickly analyze the poison or develop an antidote, she should at least know what direction to study.
But in reality, she had spent an entire day without being able to identify even a single component of the poison.
This kind of thing was completely unheard of...
Looking at the poison sample on the table, her face turned paler and paler.
If she couldn't develop an antidote, Sunagakure would have no way of resisting Konoha.
When that happened, surrender would be the only option left.
"No… I have to develop the antidote no matter what!"
...
Konoha and Sunagakure's reinforcements arrived at the battlefield almost simultaneously.
With Nara Mikage's reinforcements arriving, and Renya's poison in effect, they took full advantage of the time window before Sunagakure could develop an antidote and launched a surprise attack without hesitation.
Konoha's shinobi surged forward in a mighty assault on the Sunagakure camp.
Sunagakure's commanding officer, Matsuda, gave the order to fight back as soon as he received the report.
But as soon as the battle began, the situation tilted overwhelmingly to one side.
Sunagakure shinobi were shocked to find that the poison used by Konoha was incredibly deadly. If they were even slightly exposed, the poison would activate and kill them in moments!
Meanwhile, their own poisons had absolutely no effect on the Konoha shinobi.
Seeing this, the Sunagakure reinforcements who had just arrived on the front lines began to question everything they knew.
Which village was supposed to be the poison experts again?!
Since when did Konoha become so deadly with poison?
The Konoha shinobi, seeing how lethal Renya's poison was and how helpless the enemy was against it, were absolutely thrilled.
They fought like madmen, completely fearless—after all, as long as the enemy got poisoned, they were guaranteed to die. The margin for error was incredibly high.
The Sunagakure shinobi were completely unnerved by the reckless onslaught.
They scrambled to keep their distance.
They chose to rely on ninjutsu exchanges from afar. No one wanted to fight in close quarters anymore.
After all, they couldn't win in melee at all.
When the Konoha shinobi saw the Sunagakure forces huddled together, only using long-range ninjutsu, they got irritated.
They stood just outside the range of the attacks and began taunting loudly.
"You cowards! Come out and fight one-on-one!"
"Hiding in the back? What kind of skill is that?"
"Are you even trying to fight? If not, then just surrender already!"
For a while, the battlefield was filled with Konoha shinobi shouting insults.
Anyone who didn't know better would've thought this was a street market...
Faced with the Konoha shinobi's taunts, the Sunagakure forces were fuming with frustration, but not a single one of them dared engage in close combat.
They could only use Wind Release ninjutsu to keep Konoha from advancing.
There was no helping it—they had been completely overwhelmed when it came to poison.
Renya looked at the group of Sunagakure shinobi clustering together in the distance and felt a little helpless.
He really hadn't expected Sunagakure to adopt such a turtle-defense strategy.
For now, there wasn't much he could do.
He could only wait for them to exhaust their chakra, then launch a full-scale attack.
"Renya-kun, the poison you developed is amazing!" Koharu Utatane couldn't help but praise.
Poison on the battlefield was practically a killing machine.
It allowed them to eliminate enemies at minimal cost.
Shimura Danzo nodded in agreement. He had just used the same poison Renya had developed, and in just a short amount of time, he had killed several Sunagakure shinobi.
They hadn't even had time to resist before collapsing.
Honestly, this had been the easiest time he'd ever had killing enemies in years.
Danzo finally understood why Renya had been so obsessed with developing poison. So this was his goal all along!
And in fact, he wasn't wrong...
The reason Renya started developing poison in the first place was to kill enemies at the lowest possible cost.
Back then, his strength wasn't high, and he would often encounter enemies stronger than him during missions.
It took the three of them a lot of effort just to kill one target.
Sometimes they couldn't even win and had to flee.
At the time, Renya had thought: if he could just develop a strong poison, he wouldn't have to fight so hard.
So he began to teach himself toxicology.
Renya, who had been absolutely hopeless in theoretical classes, turned out to have incredible talent in poison-making.
After years of research and refinement, the poisons he developed became stronger and stronger.
In Renya's eyes, being a ninja was all about ambushes, infiltration, and assassination.
There was no need to fight honorably—just kill the enemy.
If he could ambush, he'd ambush. If he could poison, he'd poison. If he could assassinate, he'd assassinate.
Head-on battles? No way. Unless the enemy was much weaker.
Otherwise, he would never take the risk of dying in a fight...
After all, he only had one life—if he died, that was it.
Wait… no. Renya had three lives.
With Izanagi, he had two extra chances.
Though his tolerance for death was higher than others, if he could stay alive, who would want to die?
Besides, every time he used Izanagi, he'd lose a Sharingan.
Without the Sharingan, his strength would drop significantly.
Weaker strength meant higher risk of dying.
Renya had always been cautious. He never let himself fall into desperate situations.
Like now, in this battle, he wasn't standing on the front lines. Instead, he remained in the middle of the group.
This way, if something unexpected happened, he'd still have time to react.
At least he wouldn't die a meaningless death...
The battle reached a stalemate.
Sunagakure's shinobi huddled far away, and the moment a Konoha ninja approached, they would be bombarded with countless Wind Release techniques.
But the Konoha shinobi weren't in a hurry. They repeatedly entered Sunagakure's attack range, only to retreat immediately.
It was all about draining their chakra. Once it ran out—
They would launch a full-scale assault without hesitation!
Until Sunagakure could create an antidote, Konoha had an absolute advantage.
This slow grind could only end with Sunagakure running out of steam.
...
Back at the Sunagakure camp.
Matsuda's face was grim upon hearing the report from the front lines.
"We can't let Konoha keep going like this!"
As the battlefield commander, he understood the severity of the situation.
Konoha's poison was far deadlier than he could've imagined.
If they didn't develop an antidote soon, Sunagakure would suffer catastrophic losses.
When that happened, how would he face the Kazekage-sama?!
He quickly left his tent and went to find the silver-haired girl who was working on the antidote.
...
"Chiyo, have you finished the antidote?"
Matsuda had barely stepped inside when he saw the girl's busy figure.
"Just a little longer… I'm almost there..."
"Then hurry. The front lines need your antidote!"
He knew this kind of thing couldn't be rushed...
After reminding her, he turned and left the tent.
Because he was facing away from Chiyo, Matsuda didn't see the panic in her expression.
...
A/N: There's no female lead. Chiyo will NOT be the female lead!!!
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