Under the shroud of Susanoo, Ruri appeared there without a single hair out of place.
Her eyes flicked upward; she could clearly see that a few cracks had appeared on Susanoo's left shoulder and head, and those cracks showed a tendency to spread further.
"Not bad power. Being able to leave a mark on this… I'll grudgingly acknowledge you as having the strength befitting one of the current Five Kage."
Ruri smiled at Rasa, who was looking at her warily.
Rasa's face grew somewhat gloomy, and he did not answer.
Though he didn't want to admit it, in terms of sheer strength, the other side might actually be above him.
However, he was still one of the current Five Kage; no matter who looked down on him, it could not be an arrogant, overbearing Renegade Ninja.
As a Kage, if he needed a Renegade Ninja to recognize his strength, that would be the greatest insult he had suffered since taking the office of Kazekage.
Rasa snorted coldly, slammed one hand heavily on the sand, and under Ruri's startled gaze directly extracted a golden spear from the desert.
After being pulled out from the desert, this golden spear was not held in Rasa's hand, but floated steadily above his head.
He aimed the tip of the spear at where Ruri stood, and with a sharp blast in the air, the golden spear turned into a streak of golden light, piercing through the resistance of the atmosphere as it shot straight toward Ruri.
During its flight, the golden spear continued to spin at high speed, further reinforcing its own piercing power.
Protected by Susanoo, Ruri crossed her arms over her chest, her gaze indifferent, wearing a leisurely posture as if simply waiting for the golden spear to arrive.
Seeing the attitude Ruri displayed, Rasa felt a surge of dark delight.
With such arrogant conceit, the chances of seriously injuring her became even greater.
Just as the golden spear was about to touch Susanoo's outer shell, the air suddenly froze.
Rasa's eyes abruptly widened, as if he had seen something unbelievable.
It vanished!?
The golden spear pierced straight through empty air where no one stood, flew off into the distance, shrank to a tiny golden dot, and quickly disappeared from sight.
Rasa suddenly sensed something, and the hairs on his back stood on end.
Without any hesitation he turned around, extracting Gold Sand from the sand layer and rapidly wrapping it around his body, forming a thick shield wall.
A dark red sword flash swept across his field of vision.
The Gold Sand collapsed; a cry of pain escaped his mouth, and Rasa's body shot away like a kite whose string had been cut, driven tumbling into the distance by the explosive force generated by the sword flash.
Ruri gazed at Rasa, who kept tumbling farther away. The Three-Tomoe Sharingan in her eyes had at some point transformed into the Mangekyo Sharingan, and dense lightning crawled all over her body, like living serpents of electricity coursing back and forth across Susanoo.
"Retreat!"
Still barely conscious, Rasa ignored the horrific injuries on his body and roared at the top of his lungs.
The veins at his temples throbbed violently, cold sweat streamed down his cheeks, his whole skeleton felt like it had fallen apart, and the wounds on his body were gushing blood uncontrollably.
The surrounding Hidden Sand Ninja fell briefly silent, then suddenly came to their senses and ran in panic toward Rasa's position, forming layers of protection around him.
Boom!
Boom!
Ruri charged this way, Susanoo moving along with her; every step it took caused a dull tremor through the sand.
"Stop her!"
"Don't let her get near Lord Kazekage!"
The Hidden Sand Ninja, fearless of death, launched a charge toward Ruri.
Explosive Kunai, along with all kinds of Ninja Techniques, were unleashed together at the target.
The Chakra Blade swept out in an arc, as if merely brushing away dust around her. With effortless ease it knocked countless Hidden Sand Ninja aside, leaving their heads broken and bloodied as they rolled miserably across the ground.
Ruri did not waver in the slightest. Her Chakra erupted further as she controlled Susanoo, swinging it wildly without any discernible pattern.
Sword flashes blasted out one after another, kicking up clouds of sand and dust, scouring all directions, relentlessly cleansing the Hidden Sand Ninja who surged in to surround her.
In no time, only devastation remained on the sandy ground. Countless Hidden Sand Ninja lay in pools of blood; some were not yet dead, struggling and screaming in anguish, their faces written full of terror.
◎
The Hidden Sand's counterattack ended in complete failure.
Of the two thousand Hidden Sand Ninja who attacked the base this time, in less than half an hour of offense and defense they suffered catastrophic casualties, leaving behind a large number of corpses and prisoners before finally fleeing in panic.
However, in order to repel the Hidden Sand Ninja's assault, Hakushi's side also took some degree of damage. Setting personnel casualties aside, compared to the Hidden Sand's losses they were negligible.
But in terms of weaponry, under the Hidden Sand Ninja's frenzied attacks, more than thirty cannons were destroyed, and the devices maintaining the barrier were damaged, making them difficult to repair in the short term and greatly weakening the base's defensive power.
Several days passed like this. The Ninja of the Land of Demons also attempted a few counterattacks against the Hidden Sand, but without trying to forcibly seize the northwestern borderlands of the Land of Wind. Instead, they continued with their methodical, steady advance, using Dominator 001 and Amatsuhime to bomb the Hidden Sand's supply depots, constantly forcing Hidden Sand troops out of the northwestern region of the Land of Wind.
With the deterrence Ruri had displayed that day, the Hidden Sand seemed to have lost the will for any strong counteroffensive, their morale sinking to an abysmally low ebb.
Faced with the alternating attacks of Dominator 001 and Amatsuhime, the Hidden Sand's resistance grew weaker by the day, giving off an impression of utter frailty.
Noticing how low the Hidden Sand's fighting spirit had fallen, Hakushi instead became suspicious. Moreover, there was an even bigger point of doubt.
Namely, when Dominator 001 and Amatsuhime were destroying the Hidden Sand's supplies, the Fourth Kazekage Rasa never appeared to intercept them. It was as if he had vanished; there was no sign of him making any move to stop them at all.