Chapter 21: Just Ōnoki? Let’s Take Him Down!
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"Oh my, Brother Danzō, what happened to you? How did you get so thin?"
Looking at the haggard appearance of Danzō, Jinghang was a bit taken aback. It hadn't been that long since their last meeting, yet Danzō now looked like a shadow of his former self. Dark circles hung heavy under his eyes, his eye sockets carried an unhealthy grayish hue, his cheeks were slightly sunken, and he had visibly lost weight.
"Ah, it's a long story," Danzō said, his lifeless eyes gazing out at the raindrops trickling down the window.
Ever since the war with Iwagakure had reached a stalemate, the situation had been steadily turning against Konoha. The Leaf forces, already exhausted from the chaos caused by Sunagakure at the Lake of the Moon, had barely managed to hold their ground in urban guerrilla warfare in Amegakure. They were simply buying time, hoping to regroup and launch a counterattack once reinforcements arrived.
While Konoha's reinforcements did eventually show up, so did Iwagakure's. The cunning Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, feigned retreat, only to set up a massive ambush on the outskirts of the city. Leading the fresh troops, Chōza Akimichi charged straight into the trap. Ōnoki, along with his three prized disciples—Kitsuchi, Akatsuchi, and Shirakuchi—tightened the encirclement using Earth Release techniques. Meanwhile, Ōnoki himself unleashed his Dust Release, wreaking havoc within the encirclement. Shirakuchi, a master of explosive clay, bombarded the Konoha forces with devastating explosions, leaving them in disarray.
In a desperate moment, Chōza Akimichi consumed the family's secret chili pill, using the Butterfly Mode to forcefully break through the encirclement with the remaining Konoha forces. However, the side effects of the pill left him on the brink of death.