Chapter 86
While Orochimaru was busy mobilizing the troops, Ryo recalled what information he had about the Village Hidden in the Rock.
The Earth Country's land was simple, mostly formed of desolate Rocks. The village was built within a barrier made of those natural rock walls.
Therefore, the village was surrounded by natural hazards and known for its solide defence.
Different from other countries, the relations.h.i.+p between the Earth Country and the Village Hidden in Rocks was very harmonious. The Daimyōs and Tsuchikages respected each other and had great cooperation. That made their losses in the 3rd World War minimal in the original timeline.
Their battle style was mainly revolving around initiating with the Explosion Squad, and then followed by the rest of the Ninjas using Earth Release to create favorable conditions for the following Taijutsu based fighting.
Konoha's Ninjas had no edge over the Rock Ninjas. Their defences were strong, and most of their Ninjas were proficient with Earth Release. On the other hand, the Nature Release that Konoha Ninjas were most proficient with was Fire Release, and that wasn't particularly efficient against their defences.
If the only problem was this, that wouldn't make Konoha get in such a disadvantage on its own. The hardest thing for Konoha's Ninja's to face was the Explosion Squad's initiation.
As expected from Orochimaru, his pre-battle mobilization speech wasn't that impa.s.sioned. Still, it had the power to reach Konoha's Ninjas hearts.
Looking at the over 5000 Konoha Ninjas' reaction, a fanatical expression rose on Ryo's face, and he saw a glimpse of the charming effect of Orochimaru's words.
After the speech, Konoha's Ninjas set off, and the Rock Ninja's also noticed their movement. The 3rd Tsuchikage led his own army to resist Konoha's attack.
The two sides met upon a hill, with Konoha occupying the higher terrain. Ryo used his perceptive abilities to locate the explosion squad.
"Orochimaru, you dare to come?! Aren't you afraid that we would kill more of your men?"
Facing Onoki's provocation, Orochimaru licked his lips in his signature way, and the revealed his wicked smile.
"Disgusting! [Dust Release: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu]!"
"[Summoning: Triple Rash.o.m.on]" Faced with his enemy's attack, Orochimaru didn't wasn't fl.u.s.tered and went straight for defense.
The power of Onoki's attack was so devastating that it took out two of the Rash.o.m.ons.
The Rock Ninja's saw that their Kage went straight into action, and they went in to engage the enemy as well. The 1st to appear was the Explosion squad, the one that caused Konoha many losses in lives.
"Well? Aren't you going to rescue your men?" During their 1st few battles, Orochimaru definitely protected his men. This time however, he showed no signs of being willing to move in.
This was abnormal, making Onoki feel puzzled and worried.
On the other side, Ryo was long awaiting for the Explosion Squad's attack. Most of them mainly relied on their long-Range attacks to place Explosive Clay at a distance.
Ryo 1st started by sending out his Lightning Hound to
"Captain, there seems to be something wrong their on Konoha's side!" Said a member of the Explosion Squad.
"They are on high ground, it's normal for the 1st wave to misfire, carry on!"
The members of the Explosion Squad trusted their captain and were convinced by his words. They proceeded immediately for the second round of explosions.
While they were onto that, Ryo was preparing his own Jutsu, the Rasengan with the Lightning Nature Transformation added to it.
As he demonstrated in Orochimaru's tent, by injecting Lightning Chakra, the Rasengn gradually turned into a Lightning Sphere, which had a sparkling electric sparks.
Ryo then entered Sage Mode, injecting the Lightning Sphere with Senjutsu Chakra, while continuing to alter its structure.
Ryo continued injecting it with Lighting Sphere, and finally, the amount of that Chakra injected altered the Rasengan's quality completely. The electric sparks of the Lightning sphere started to converge slowly.
Patches of black started appearing on the Rasengan, and it started emitting a strange attractive force.
"Everyone steps back!" As he completed his Justu, Ryo told all of Konoha's men to Retreat.
All of Konoha's Ninjas stepped behind, as the 2nd wave of explosive clay came.
Ryo through his new "Rasengan" directly towards the Explosion squad, and the new attack exploded in the middle.
Rasenshuriken's explosion formed a myriad of wind blades, but this attack's explosion created a ma.s.sive Lightning Bolt out of the blue, and the huge thundering sound it made got the whole battlefield quiet.
The captain of the team agreed after giving his team member's words some thought. However, he was somewhat reluctant to retreat. He decided to advance and explore the source of the Jutsu on Konoha's side. Squad all lost their function.
"What is this technique? Who in to world has such strong Lightning Release?" asked the captain of the Explosion Squad.
His team shook their heads in ignorance. Since the last battle, the only reinforcement to Konoha's camp that was detected was a group of medical Ninjas. They had no clue where such a strong attack came from.
"Captain, 1st let's retreat and let the rest of our other Ninjas face them for now. As long as this technique is still there, it will be difficult for us to explode any one."
The captain of the team agreed after giving his team-member's words some thought. However, he was somewhat reluctant to retreat. He decided to advance and explore the source of the Jutsu on Konoha's side.
"Captain, you should be careful. Let us go 1st!"
On the other side, Onoki also heard the ma.s.sive thundering sound of the technique. He did not expect Konoha's Ninjas to have such a strong Lightning user on the battlefield.
"Orochimaru, is this your trump card? Who is this Ninja?"
"A friend of mine." Orochimaru didn't ignore Onoki this time, and slowly answered him.
At 1st sight of Ryo, Orochimaru felt that only this kid could understand him. The moment he met him, he found out that Ryo became closer to him rather quickly.
Ryo's att.i.tude towards him made him feel that they could be friends.
Orochimaru was similar in nature to a snake. A snake is a cold-blooded animal, that is not emotional by nature. Same went for Orochimaru.
Before, his only ties to Konoha were 3rd and to the rest of the Sannin. This time around however, there's also Ryo Yamanaka, and perhaps, his lovely disciple Anko.
"Orochimaru, you have friend? Who is he?"
This time around, Orochimaru ignored Onoki's question. Any answer would be leaking information to the enemy, even though the Rock Ninjas are to find out Ryo's ident.i.ty sooner or later anyway.
On the other side, after Ryo stopped the Explosion Squad, the two armies rushed in from both sides, and they collided into a ma.s.sive Melee battle.
Ryo wasn't about to partic.i.p.ate in this battle, the Jutsu he just used cost him a lot of Chakra. There was no Quasi-Kages on the battlefield for him to be concerned. He had no interest in attacking, and simply chatted with Uchiha Maan.
"Ryo, what's the name of that Jutsu you just used?" Maan asked.
"That Justu, it is called… it is called [Raiton: Denjiki Rasengan]!"
"Oy oy, don't tell me you just finished this technique! You haven't even named it yet?"
"Haha! Yeah!" Said Ryo with a smile.
Just as the two of them were chatting, the captain of the Explosion Squad had already reached Konoha's backline.
(Translator Note: Denjiki 電磁気 is the j.a.panese translation of the Author's naming of the technique, 电磁 -Diàncí-. The name Denjiki Rasengan means "Electromagnetic Rasengan".)