MSIN: Chapter 175

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The Land of Water's Kirigakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, is renowned for its Water Release jutsu, and its ability to support the "Kage" position isn't just because the Kage themselves possess overwhelming strength, but more importantly, because they have a group of powerful ninjas to back them up.

In terms of fame, Kirigakure's top calling card should be the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, an elite group of Jōnin who wield seven swords… although it's now become the Five Ninja Swordsmen.

After the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, the next in line should be the Hyūga clan, with their Kekkei Genkai. Their overall combat ability is not weak. Once the bloodline limit awakens, the Shikotsumyaku can be truly unique. It's a pity that the probability is very low.

After that, there's… the Hozuki clan.

The Second Mizukage, Hozuki Gengetsu, was himself born into the Hozuki clan. The current Third Mizukage is extremely mysterious, but based on some intelligence, it's speculated that he is also related to the Hozuki clan. There are rumors that his name is Hozuki Suigetsu.

In any case, the Hozuki clan has a close connection to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. It's possible that they are related to the origin and source of the swords. Although the sword users aren't necessarily ninjas of the Hozuki clan, for a long time, the Hozuki clan has held the summoning scroll that symbolizes the ultimate right to ownership of the swords.

If a sword is lost, or if a sword falls into the hands of a ninja from another village, the Hozuki clan can summon the sword back through summoning.

Kisame Hoshigaki had told Haori that the Kubikiribōchō had been recovered. It wasn't like Haori had imagined, with a bunch of people retrieving the sword from the Land of Whirlpools. It was summoned back through this method.

Now, Samehada was experiencing the same fate.

So, it had only been three minutes, and it disappeared.

This was unfortunate… You couldn't really blame Haori. It was hard for ordinary people to anticipate this kind of thing. After all, Haori hadn't expected the sword to be summoned before.

Perhaps after studying Samehada, he could use his knowledge of sealing jutsu to discover the tricks of the sword. But unfortunately, the battlefield wasn't a research environment, and there wasn't enough time.

So, he was screwed. His feelings were betrayed. Although it was a bit disrespectful to the deceased Kisame Hoshigaki, Haori genuinely felt like he had wasted his time.

As for why it was summoned away right after Samehada changed hands, it wasn't because the news spread that fast. It was because a certain Hozuki ninja currently holding the Hozuki clan's scroll was on this chaotic battlefield.

He had seen Samehada being taken by a Konoha ninja.

So, Samehada was actually still nearby. If Haori had the Byakugan, he could probably find the sword by looking around. But unfortunately, he didn't. So, Haori didn't know who had taken his sword.

Anyway, he wasn't used to that weapon. It didn't suit Haori's style. He was just going to let it go. It was just a sword that could absorb chakra. It wasn't anything special.

Well, that's Haori's real thought. He didn't feel sorry at all. It was just a salted fish.

He wasn't being stubborn, nor was he comforting himself.

Just as Haori was standing on the slug's head, thinking about where Samehada had gone and preparing to give up, Orochimaru suddenly appeared beside him.

"Tsunade's slug?"

"Orochimaru-sama?"

Could it be that because Manda's death rate had shifted from 50% to 100%, Orochimaru had come to pick a fight?

Actually, Orochimaru didn't care much about the life and death of others. You could call it rationality, or you could call it indifference. He himself was like a cold snake.

Just like he had said to Tsunade, "You're the only person I don't want to kill," and then immediately stabbed her in the chest. Not wanting to kill, killing, and being able to kill are not contradictory.

Manda had always been disobedient. It wouldn't hurt for it to learn a lesson. And even if Haori had really killed Manda, so what? There were other replacements.

But Haori suspected that Orochimaru had been secretly watching this whole time. Otherwise, why did he show up right after Manda disappeared? The reason… because he had killed Manda, so as compensation, he had to dedicate himself to research, etc.

"So, Manda disappeared because of the slug's acid? Using summoning jutsu from inside a body and then releasing acid is a very deadly attack method… You're very resourceful." Orochimaru said.

Haori blinked. This guy was definitely spying, right?

"Orochimaru-sama, aren't you going to check if your summoning beast is really dead?"

"As for Manda, it won't die. That level of injury, it will probably be weakened for a while, and then it will recover."

Its body was burned through, and it can still recover? I haven't learned much jutsu. Don't lie to me… Haori looked at Orochimaru with a sideways glance and asked, "Then, the eye I poked out, can that recover too?"

Orochimaru: "…"

He should poke out one of Haori's eyes and let him experiment to see if his eye could grow back after being popped out.

But as they talked about summoning, Haori finally understood. Samehada must have been summoned away by someone…

It was impossible to guard against. But with this experience, the next time he encountered this kind of ninja tool, Haori would know to first not rush to use it. He would put a tag on it to register its ownership, indicating that the ownership had changed, before doing anything else.

The slug, such a large prop on the battlefield, wasn't attacked by anyone. Because the Kirigakure ninjas were already overwhelmed. It was good enough that such a large summoning beast didn't join the attack. Why would they provoke it? That would be like looking for death.

Just as Haori was engaging in divergent thinking again, a hurried and deliberate sound from the inland direction of the Land of Water startled him.

Haori instantly understood. It was Konoha's retreat signal.

Sure enough, Orochimaru beside him said, "It's the retreat signal. The reconnaissance ninjas I sent earlier have discovered that Kirigakure reinforcements have arrived."

"We should leave this place."

After saying this, Orochimaru disappeared from Haori's side.

He was the commander on Konoha's side. He couldn't just chat with Haori here forever. Now that it was time to retreat, he had to get busy with the dispatch.

"Retreat, huh…"

Haori squatted down, reached out and patted the slug's head, then released the summoning jutsu.

There's a kind of sadness that only belongs to a strong force. When they first attack, they have to go first. And when the main force retreats, they have to stay behind.

It was clear that Haori was part of this kind of sadness.

But he didn't have any problems. Although he had been stabbed in the side, the injury wasn't bad enough to hinder his movements. Plus, he still had a good amount of chakra left, so it wouldn't be a problem to participate in the rearguard action.

But according to the strategy, they were no longer allowed to act independently when retreating. They had to stick together.

The ninjas at the back would simultaneously release area-of-effect ninjutsu to block any possible pursuit by the enemy. But at this time, most of the enemy had been taken out by Konoha's one-wave attack. The remaining "ninjas" were no longer capable of being cruel. They could only watch as Konoha took advantage of the situation and ran away.

But after this attack, Kirigakure should also understand that Konoha had changed its war strategy.

Konoha had switched from defense to offense. If there were any more attacks, they probably wouldn't be able to succeed as easily as this time.

If they had anticipated this, Kirigakure's troop deployment wouldn't have been so thin. After all, before, Konoha was overwhelmed and it was Kirigakure that was maintaining the offensive.

Konoha came quickly and left quickly. After achieving their strategic goal, they quickly withdrew and didn't engage in a prolonged fight with Kirigakure. They also didn't give the enemy a chance to retaliate.

The retreat was uneventful. Although the operation lasted two hours and they were out for a whole day, the results were good enough. They destroyed the enemy's forward base and a lot of supplies. If Kirigakure wanted to launch another offensive against Konoha, they would have to prepare for a while, just in terms of supplies.

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