As superiors, Kaguya Ren and Ling are used to all kinds of things. They all know that all kinds of strange things can happen in war.

But they also knew that this ninja was an experienced veteran, and they even believed that this ninja would never turn a blind eye to this huge crack when he was scouting here.

But the question is, who can prove whether he was lazy and failed to complete the reconnaissance mission properly?

More importantly, someone has to be held responsible for such a huge mistake, right?

If he doesn't take responsibility, should Ling and Huiye Ren take responsibility?

Kaguya Ren ordered unhappily, "Take him away first, and punish him later."

"The first problem now is to plug this gap. Will anyone be able to burrow into the ground?"

The Kirigakure ninjas looked at each other in bewilderment. It wasn't that no one knew how to do it, but such a large gap would require extremely high proficiency in earth-style ninjutsu to be able to block it under the impact of the flood.

Building a dam in normal times and plugging a breach during a flood are two completely different things, and the difficulty is naturally not on the same level.

Finally, it was Ling from the Snow Clan who sighed and said, "We can only try using ice escape. Although freezing is not very suitable and cannot last long, we don't need to hold on for long."

Summoning three highest-level teams from the Snow Clan, plus Ling, there were exactly ten powerful Ice Release Bloodline Genkai ninjas. They went directly into the big pit, stood on both sides of the crack, and then formed hand seals and cast spells at the same time.

Ice Release: Icicle

This is the simplest ice escape ninjutsu. Because it is simple, it can be performed very quickly. With the help of the abundant water here, a large number of ice pillars that are ten meters long and one meter thick are created in a few seconds and fall on the gap in a haphazard manner.

The strength of the icicles is very problematic. Under the impact of the water flow, the icicles break into several sections from time to time and fall into the cracks along with the water flow.

But the ten ice-style ninjas performed their ninjutsu even faster, and the accumulation of icicles increased rapidly, soon completely covering the gap with several layers, and the speed of the water flow suddenly slowed down.

Ling saw that the time had come and shouted, "Now, Freeze!"

"yes!"

The ninjas of the Snow Clan immediately switched to ninjutsu and performed Ice Release: Freezing. Everyone puffed up their cheeks and blew icy air towards the location of the icicle.

Using icicles as the frame and the endlessly flowing flood as the material, a crystal clear iceberg soon appeared in front of everyone.

The iceberg was roughly cone-shaped, with a bottom diameter of more than 150 meters, firmly blocking the huge gap. The surging water stopped falling, and the roaring sound of the water suddenly decreased by half, even giving people the illusion that this place was exceptionally quiet.

Kaguya Lian clapped her hands and laughed, "It's blocked now, Ice Escape is very powerful."

Ling shook his head and said, "Not nearly there yet. This can only last for a few hours, and when the water level rises here, the ice may float up."

After saying that, he began to make hand seals at an extremely fast speed, and his slender and tender white fingers turned into a phantom. It took him a long time to make hand seals at such a fast speed before he completed the prelude to the ninjutsu.

Finally, Ling Jiao shouted: "Ice Escape: Ling Freeze!"

As the huge amount of chakra condensed, it gathered into a pure white beam of light, shining directly onto the iceberg.

In fact, this is not a beam of light, but a jet of absolutely low temperature, which freezes all the moisture in the air into ice dust. The ice dust reflects the sunlight as it diffuses, forming a false Tyndall effect, which makes people mistakenly think it is light.

As this special ice escape hit the iceberg, the shape of the iceberg did not change at all, but the color changed from white to blue, and then quickly deepened from blue, and finally turned almost into indigo.

In fact, the shape of the iceberg does change, but the changes occur at the bottom. Dozens of ice spikes continue to drill into the rock to reinforce it.

The indigo ice is almost not cold to the touch, but in fact the temperature is so low that Ling is hard to describe. Moreover, this kind of ice is very introverted and the speed of absorbing heat is reduced to the limit, so it does not feel cold to the touch.

With such ice quality, the iceberg can exist for about a year. Even if the Konoha ninjas concentrate their manpower to attack, they cannot destroy the iceberg within a day or two.

The ninjutsu was progressing very smoothly and would be completed soon. Ling couldn't help but smile on his face, just like a wintersweet that suddenly bloomed in the cold winter, so beautiful that it froze people.

Kaguya Ren couldn't help but shiver, the flesh on her cheeks twitched twice, and she took a few deep breaths to clear her mind of all the inappropriate thoughts.

It was too dangerous, I almost bent it.

But Ling's smile only lasted a few seconds, and his face changed drastically. He felt an ice spike drilling through the rock.

Drilled through!

It should never be drilled through, and after drilling through, the ice lost its restraint and spread rapidly. The feedback of the spreading ice made Ling realize that the ground under his feet was not thick rock, but a thin layer of rock slab.

Could this be naturally occurring?

With doubts, Ling simply manipulated the ice to spread around, gradually figuring out its general shape, and finally realized that the space under his feet was a cylindrical hole, and the puddle and the iceberg were supported by a rock slab supported by several stone pillars with exactly the same spacing.

There is no doubt that this is a man-made...trap.

Ling warned loudly: "Retreat, retreat immediately! This is a trap!"

None of the ninjas reacted, so Ling set an example for everyone to see. He stepped on the rushing flood water and ran to the top of the pit as fast as he could.

When the Kirigakure ninjas saw Ling, who always paid attention to his manners, running in a very embarrassed manner, they immediately believed that he was not joking and all started to move.

Of course, the sound of rocks cracking under their feet was even more persuasive, and no one dared to stay at the bottom of this circular pit.

According to Uchiha You's design, at least several meters of water must accumulate to trigger the first collapse, and then more water must accumulate to trigger the final collapse.

But the Kirigakure ninja used ice escape to create a small iceberg, which increased its weight several times. The most important thing was that Ling manipulated the iceberg to grow spikes downwards, piercing through the rock layer. The expansion effect of the ice even caused the rocks to crack.

Therefore, the first collapse was the largest-scale collapse. The rock slab disguised as a circular deep pit fell down as a whole, revealing a sinkhole with a diameter of 300 meters. Several unlucky people among the Kirigakure Ninja fell down.

The ninjas who were close to the edge were fine. They quickly used the walls of the tiankeng to stabilize their bodies and walked up step by step. But the ninjas who were too far from the edge were finished. They fell down screaming.

The screams of these ninjas were surprisingly long-lasting. After a long time, they were drowned out by the loud noise of heavy objects falling to the ground and then disappeared completely.

Everyone knows that the depth of this tiankeng is terrifyingly deep, and even with so much water pouring into it, there is not even a sound of water falling, proving that there is no water underneath at all.

Ling's lips trembled as he said, "We can't take down Kubota Village."

Kaguya Ren's reaction was a little slow, but after getting the hint, she figured it out.

This sinkhole is too big to be blocked, and it is too deep to be filled up.

If water cannot accumulate, the ground cannot be completely flooded. If water cannot completely flood the ground, the ninjas of Konoha Village cannot be eliminated and Kubota Village cannot be occupied.

All the plans of the Kirigakure ninja failed.

Kaguya Ren sighed and said, "We can only retreat. We don't know if we can get back to the fleet."

Ling shook his head and said, "Let's not have any illusions. We can't hide our disastrous defeat. The Kumogakure ninja will definitely attack. I just hope that the ninjas we have left behind are alert enough to avoid the Kumogakure's sneak attack."

Hui Ye Lian frowned and said: "Then what should we do?"

Ling looked towards the east and said calmly, "It's simple. Call back Commander Gui Deng Shuo Yue, and then we will throw away all the extra baggage and travel light, then head east directly to the sea."

It took Kaguya Ren a few seconds to understand what these words meant. He asked for confirmation: "Swim...swim back?"

"Yeah." Ling Yiran was very calm, as if he was talking about what to eat next, "This is the worst case scenario."

"If we're lucky, we'll be able to reunite with the retreating fleet and return to the Water Kingdom by ship."

"Of course, after such a big defeat, none of us three had a good life after returning."

When Hui Ye Lian thought about the dark days ahead, she was also filled with frustration and sighed, "Yeah, there will be no good days ahead."

In his frustration, he suddenly thought of the Konoha ninja unit that had led them to this point, and the anger that had long since turned to ashes in his heart was rekindled.

Kaguya Ren asked fiercely: "You don't want me to open the passage for you now?"

"You want to... kill the Konoha ninja there?"

"Of course! Can you?"

"Okay, I'll organize the retreat, and you go kill them all."

…

Hozuki Sakutsuki, who was confronting Orochimaru, felt uncomfortable all over. He came to keep an eye on Orochimaru and prevent him from interfering in the battlefield, but this guy was not in a hurry at all and watched the changes on the battlefield leisurely.

Logically speaking, Kizuna Sakutsuki should be happy that he achieved his goal without fighting, but for some reason, he felt more and more uneasy, as if he was being stared at by a poisonous snake.

He glanced at Orochimaru and found that his feeling was correct. The man in front of him was the most poisonous snake in the ninja world. He was so silent. Was he planning some conspiracy?

Orochimaru was in a very good mood. Uchiha Yu led the Tiger Corps to roam the battlefield, showing the advantages of the new ninja troops to the fullest. Orochimaru had already seen something was going on.

The 84 ninjas of the Tiger Force are indeed more elite than the Kirigakure ninjas, but they are not so powerful as to surpass the 200 Kirigakure ninjas.

The Tiger Unit was indeed able to quickly defeat hundreds of Mist Ninjas. The secret was their excellent tactics and killing speed.

Their formation and familiar tactics ensured that the four-man team could concentrate their strength and focus the attacks of all four on one ninja.

Orochimaru originally didn't like the four-man team of the Tiger Force, because the extra person seemed cumbersome, and their movements were mechanical and stiff, without any spiritual beauty.

But now he understood that numbers and mechanization were the essence of tactics. Only the combined efforts of four people could ensure the crushing of the Chunin, and only mechanical actions could ensure absolute synchronization when attacking the enemy.

When the Tiger Troops can kill the enemy with one strike every time, they don't have to worry too much about defense and dodging, and their attacks will naturally be smoother and faster.

The four teams worked together and could kill 20 ninjas in just ten seconds. For any small group of Kirigakure ninjas, this rate of casualties would cause them to collapse.

The squad combat, which seemed so stiff and unsmooth no matter how you looked at it, was, in the eyes of the Tiger Force as a whole, a manifestation of fast and smooth killing, and even gave people an inexplicable sense of magnificence.

Only a jonin from Kirigakure, and an experienced one at that, could handle such an attack.

But the four-man team will not attack the jonin at all. It is the responsibility of the team leader to hold back the jonin, and it is Uchiha Yu's responsibility to kill the jonin.

The mission structure of the Tiger Force is so perfect that ninjas of each level are responsible for their own goals, and with mutual support, they can overwhelm the enemy.

It seems that the only problem lies with the jonin. The jonin leading the team must be stronger than the enemy. Not only must he defeat the hostile jonin, but he must also be able to defeat them quickly with the assistance of several chuunins.

But this is already very remarkable, and the level of the jonin among the Konoha ninja is high enough that they can fully undertake this task. Even if one person is not capable of it, a team of jonin can be formed.

The more Orochimaru looked at it, the more satisfied he became. He had already started planning a plan to train a new ninja unit in his mind. As for the ninja from the Kizuna family who was standing next to him and was an eyesore, he completely ignored him.

I really wasn't sure I could kill him, so I could only let him stay there and be an eyesore.

Orochimaru is a disciple of the Ninjutsu Doctor, and he knows that the Kizuna family is a family that has deception ingrained in its bones.

They promoted their family's inherited secret water-transforming technique throughout the ninja world, but this was not really a secret technique at all. It was something that could even change the molecular structure of the body. How could there be such a fantastic secret technique?

It is clearly a physical bloodline limit, and it is on the same level as the Sharingan, Shikotsuki, Byakugan, etc., and it directly involves the bloodline limit of the body's organs.

They are also keen on publicizing the weaknesses of their family's water transformation techniques, such as fear of lightning escape, fear of ice escape, and even evaporation caused by fire escape, which can seriously harm the Kizuna ninja.

According to the content of these propaganda, the secret art of water transformation is rubbish. The ninjas of the Hozumi clan will be doomed if they encounter ninjas who master lightning escape, fire escape, and ice escape. They can only show off in front of ninjas who don't know ninjutsu or only know water escape, wind escape, and earth escape.

As long as you think about it, you will find the problem here.

The Hozuki family is the natives of the Water Country, and the Snow Clan, who has the Ice Release Kekkei Genkai, are also from the Water Country. The Water Country has two neighbors, the Hidden Cloud Village where everyone is proficient in Lightning Release, and the Konoha Village which is most proficient in Fire Release.

With two neighbors blocking them from outside and a hostile ninja clan with ice escape skills inside, in an environment that restrains the secret arts of the Hozuki family, they still regard the water transformation secret art as the foundation of their family heritage. Are they mentally ill, or are the other ninjas blind?

During the thousands of years of the Warring States Period and the first ten years after the establishment of the Ninja Village, hundreds of ninja clans were destroyed. The fact that the Hozuki family has been able to survive to this day shows that their secret techniques are definitely not as fatally flawed as advertised.

If the water transformation technique really worked like that, the Kizuki family of the Water Country would have been wiped out by the Yeyue family of the Lightning Country long ago.

No, it's not the turn of these foreigners. Although the Snow Clan looks delicate and lovely, they are also a fierce ninja clan that will destroy the clan at will. If they can really restrain the Ghost Light Ninja to this extent and tolerate the Ghost Light Clan to continue to this day, there may be only one reason, that is, the Ghost Light Clan has been annexed by the Snow Clan, and they have become slaves whose life and death are controlled by others.

Just like the main family and branch family within the Hyuga clan.

Survival is not a battle. It is not about defeating the enemy. Nor is it about being strong in a single area. It is about having no fatal weaknesses in all aspects and not being easily killed.

The secret art of water transformation should be inherited at different levels. Low-level ninjas do not fully master it, and their fatal weaknesses are real, but the secret art mastered by high-level ninjas has absolutely no weaknesses and can maximize their advantages.

It can be said that every Kage-level Kizuna ninja is an immortal monster and is very annoying.

Even though Orochimaru also pursues immortality, it does not prevent him from despising the Kizuna family. The most hated thing in the world is enemies like me.

However, there is still a chance to kill this Kizuna Ninja.

Before he came, he gave an order to Nara Shikaku that if he did not return within four hours and did not contact him, he was to mobilize the Konoha Ninja Army and launch an all-out counterattack.

Calculating the time, it’s almost time now.

If the Konoha Ninja Army can arrive in time, the Yamanaka clan ninjas who are good at soul attacks will also come with the army.

There are quite a few Ino-Shika-Cho combinations under Orochimaru's command. As long as the Yamanaka clan is gathered together, there will be a chance to control the soul of the Kizuna ninja. By then, any secret water transformation technique will be meaningless.

If you want to capture him, find a big water jar to seal up Hozuki. If you want to kill him, use fire escape to evaporate him little by little.

Among the Konoha ninjas, the most are those who know Fire Style, and this kind of work can be done very quickly.

Unfortunately, before the arrival of the Konohagakure Ninja Army, Hozuki Sakutsuki received some information and retreated early. After a while, the entire Kirigakure Ninja Army began to retreat.

Having missed an opportunity to kill the enemy commander, a hint of regret flashed in Orochimaru's golden snake eyes, but he was soon relieved. There was no need to rush, as there would be many more opportunities to hunt later.

After receiving the signal to retreat and reuniting with Ling and Kaguya Ren, Kizuki Haneki strongly agreed with the retreat. There is no habit of fighting to the death in the ninja tradition. Since all plans have failed, the best thing to do is to save their lives.

As for being embarrassed, he doesn't care.

Hozuki Sakuzuki also fully agreed with Kaguya Ren's proposal to kill that small group of Konoha ninjas.

But he specifically reminded them: "My suggestion is to kill as many as you can in ten minutes. If you can't kill them all, don't be stubborn. We may not have much time."

Ling asked in surprise: "What's wrong?"

Hozuki Sakutsuki frowned and said, "When I was confronting Orochimaru, he pretended to ignore me. Not only did he not take any precautions, he didn't even try to attack me. This is not right."

"When I retreated, I felt Orochimaru's eyes. Those eyes were full of regret, the regret of having the food slipped away from my mouth."

"Konoha's ninja army must be on the way, maybe they'll be here soon."

Kaguya Ren and Ling's expressions changed at the same time.