It's Hatake Sakumo.
He lost his right arm, and the broken part was bandaged roughly. The previous battle had dyed half of his body red with Hatake Sakumo's blood.
His iconic silver hair was also stuck together by blood and dust, hanging down in a messy manner, covering most of his face.
His only remaining left hand tightly grasped the dagger he had just made, and his body was trembling slightly due to blood loss and severe pain.
Hatake Sakumo's eyes, which were once as sharp as those carrying the supreme glory of Konoha White Fang, were now bloodshot, and deep in his pupils was bottomless pain, fatigue, and a void that came from being completely shattered.
But he forced himself to stand up straight, straightened his scarred back, and walked towards the center of the battlefield, step by step, extremely slowly, but with great determination, towards the figure that was like a god or demon.
Every step attracted the attention of all the survivors. Amidst the awe of Iwagakure and the despair of Konoha, a faint hope arose, which even they themselves could not believe.
Finally, Hatake Sakumo stopped ten steps away from Chichen.
To Chi Chen, this distance meant imminent death. Shuo Mao raised his head, and beneath his blood-stained silver hair, his eyes met Chi Chen's icy gaze with a deep sorrow and a resoluteness bordering on humiliation.
He opened his mouth, his cracked lips moving as if he had exhausted all his strength to utter each word.
If it were just him, he would rather die in battle than accept such humiliation, but the Konoha ninjas here are still so young.
I have to take them back myself, they are also the elite of Konoha.
"That's enough…"
Konoha
He took a deep breath, and that breath was like inhaling a hot knife, causing his body to twitch violently, but he gritted his teeth and roared out the following words with all his remaining dignity and strength:
"surrender!"
"We are willing to abandon all existing fortifications in the northern part of the Rain Country..." He breathed heavily with each word, "Can you let us go?"
He no longer looked at Chi Chen, his blood-stained head drooped slightly, and his only remaining left hand, which was holding the knife, had white knuckles and exposed veins.
The slightly lowered head was not to beg for mercy, but to prevent anyone, especially Chi Chen, from seeing the liquid in his eyes that was about to burst out, a mixture of endless sorrow and humiliation. Surrender should never be an option for those who practice Bushido.
The hunched and bloodstained figure, under the setting sun, looked like a monument that had been struck by a nuclear bomb but stubbornly refused to collapse.
His entire body exuded an intense and inextinguishable sadness.
Chi Chen admitted that he was impressed by Hatake Sakumo and that he was a respectable opponent.
But Chi Chen's eyes turned cold. The two sides were in a hostile relationship, and the disabled Konoha White Fang was also an enemy, so sorry, it was in the interests of Iwagakure only to let Konoha be in chaos.
Hatake Sakumo's hoarse words "Accept surrender" were like a stone thrown into a stagnant pond, which did not cause ripples but a whirlpool of despair.
The remaining Konoha ninjas on the battlefield, those survivors who were lucky enough not to be swallowed by the Dust Release light, seemed to have had their last bit of strength drained from their bodies.
Some people collapsed on the ground, staring blankly at the place where their companions disappeared; some covered their mouths tightly, suppressing the sobs of collapse, and their shoulders trembled violently; others tightly grasped the kunai, their knuckles turning white.
Chi Chen's gaze swept over the defeated soldiers, their spirits gone. He didn't respond to Hatake Sakumo's humiliating concession. Instead, he slowly raised his right hand. The pale blue light lingering around his fingertips wasn't murderous intent, but rather a precise perception. He closed his eyes for a moment, his silver-gray hair rippling slightly in the lingering scorching air.
The surrender of Hatake Sakumo only represents the loss of this battlefield. On another battlefield, the general command is probably also within Danzo's plan.
Then the Air Combat Brigade and the Explosion Team are probably rushing to the battlefield.
The most important thing now is to take advantage of this time when Danzo sends a large-scale army to give them a heavy blow, so that Iwagakure can get out of this.
Suddenly, Chichen looked at one of the few hundred remaining ninjas in Konoha.
"You." His voice was low, yet it carried an undeniable penetrating force. He pointed at a thin, bloodstained, evasive-eyed high school ninja. "Last November, at the eastern outpost of the Land of Earth, we ambushed the Iwagakure transport convoy, brutally slaughtered three captives, and cut off their forehead protectors as trophies."
The Chunin trembled all over and his face turned as pale as paper in an instant.
"I remember your face so well."
A sound so subtle that it was almost imperceptible that it broke through the air was heard, piercing through the thin middle ninja's eyebrows.
The remaining fear on his face froze in an instant, and then his entire head and half of his upper body silently decomposed and dissipated, leaving only half of his body falling to the ground.
"Anyone who has killed an Iwagakure will be executed, and the rest will be taken into custody."
Among the Iwagakure ninjas, someone let out a long, silent breath, with a look of pleasure after revenge and a barely perceptible tremor in his eyes.
The remaining soldiers of Konoha completely collapsed.
Watching my compatriots being wiped out so coldly and easily was like crushing ants.
The "life" that Hatake Sakumo had bought with humiliation before now seemed so fragile and ironic. The huge fear and the indelible humiliation completely drowned them like an icy tide.
"No... No...!" A young Konoha Genin could no longer bear it. He suddenly pulled out the kunai from his waist, tears streaming down his face, mixed with blood and dust, his eyes full of madness and despair, "I will never surrender!"
Phew!
Without any hesitation, the sharp kunai pierced into his own heart!
Blood instantly stained the tattered ninja vest red. He staggered, and with a twisted expression that seemed almost relieved, he fell heavily to the cold, crystallized ground. Warm blood flowed across the blue-white crystals, a dazzling red.
"Bastard! Monster from Iwagakure! Even if I become a ghost, I will not let you go--!" Another Chunin with an injured arm uttered a shrill curse, and suddenly injected the remaining chakra into the detonating talisman in his hand, and slapped it hard on his forehead!
boom!
There was a muffled thud, and flames mixed with blood and flesh fragments flew everywhere! The shockwave from the explosion blew away a layer of the ground around him.
It was like opening the floodgates of hell.
"Long live Konoha!"
"Hokage-sama...I'm sorry..."
"Mother…"
Desperate cries, unwilling curses, attachment to the homeland, vague last words...intertwined together, and then quickly swallowed up by the sound of physical destruction.
One by one, figures fell, ending their journey through this nightmare in the most tragic way. They could not defeat the godlike enemy, could not endure the humiliation of surrender, and could not live on with the blood debt of their companions being slaughtered.
Self-destruction became the only and last "dignity" they could control.
"······"
Chi Chen ignored these people. Everyone had their own choices, and he would respect their choices. After hastily arranging to take care of them, Chi Chen planned to go to the front line in the mountains.
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