Chapter 347: I Have a Bold Idea!

Before long, Hyūga Hizashi, with a few traces of blood still staining his body, arrived in front of Uchiha Ren.

“Ren, something’s strange. The several hundred Sand shinobi who were gathered at the entrance of Sunagakure earlier have all disappeared. Aside from those few shelters, there are barely any signs of life anywhere in the village. Sunagakure seems to have become a completely deserted city!”

Hizashi wiped the sweat from his forehead and reported the results of his reconnaissance to Uchiha Ren with a puzzled expression.

“How is that possible?!”

Before Uchiha Ren could say anything, Rasa, whose chakra had been sealed, spoke in disbelief.

“There may not be many shinobi remaining in Sunagakure, but Elder Chiyo is still there! Elder Ebizō is still there! And Bunpuku… Where did they all go?!”

Rasa instinctively assumed that something had happened to Elder Chiyo and the others. He simply could not bring himself to believe what he was hearing.

Uchiha Ren, however, immediately sensed that something was wrong. After a brief moment of thought, he said,

“I see. They evacuated Sunagakure in order to preserve their remaining fighting strength?”

“Given the overwhelming disparity in strength, that would indeed be a sensible choice.”

“But… Chiyo really made a disastrous move this time.”

As Uchiha Ren’s thoughts raced, a bold idea gradually took shape in his mind.

“Wh-What are you planning to do?!”

Rasa had heard Uchiha Ren muttering to himself. A trace of panic appeared in his eyes as he warned him,

“Don’t do anything reckless! This is Sunagakure’s territory! If you dare cause trouble here, Sunagakure will never let you get away with it!”

“We’ll worry about that later.”

Uchiha Ren said nothing more. He summoned several Konoha shinobi and had them take Rasa away.

Before long, the Konoha elite shinobi, led by Jiraiya and the others, had also annihilated all the Sand shinobi who were still putting up a desperate resistance at the Sashan Temple position.

With their backs against the wall, the Sand shinobi stationed at Sashan Temple had indeed caused considerable trouble for the Konoha forces.

But under the overwhelming suppression of absolute strength, the battle at the Sashan Temple position still ended very quickly!

In this battle, Konoha paid the price of three deaths, eleven critically wounded, and forty-two lightly wounded to annihilate nearly a thousand Sand shinobi.

They also captured more than a dozen Sunagakure shinobi, including the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, as well as senior figures such as Maki and Yūra.

It could be said that Konoha had achieved a complete victory!

Uchiha Ren left several squads of shinobi under Tsunade’s command to escort the Sand prisoners at a slower pace.

He then led the remaining Konoha shinobi and rapidly advanced toward Sunagakure!

“Yoo-hoo!!! This old man is finally free again!!!”

“You old hag from Sunagakure, just you wait!!!”

Just as Uchiha Ren and the others arrived at the entrance to Sunagakure, a massive cloud of white smoke suddenly exploded.

A colossal figure, towering like a mountain, appeared directly in their path and let out a shrill roar.

“It’s the One-Tail, Shukaku, from Sunagakure!”

One of the Konoha shinobi recognized the enormous figure and cried out in shock!

The Konoha formation immediately erupted into chaos.

Although the Tailed Beasts had looked almost like harmless little chicks when controlled by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, in the eyes of ordinary shinobi, a Tailed Beast was practically synonymous with a natural disaster!

Otherwise, the Nine Tailed Beasts would never have been treated as ultimate weapons by the great shinobi villages!

Yet Uchiha Ren’s footsteps did not slow down in the slightest.

Instead, the moment he saw the One-Tail, Shukaku, appear, he leaped into the air and shot straight toward it!

“Hey, you stupid tanuki!”

“Hm? Who dares call me that?! Are you tired of living…?”

Shukaku instinctively turned toward the voice.

What greeted its eyes, however, was a pair of scarlet Mangekyō Sharingan!

Shukaku’s heart jolted, and the words that had yet to leave its mouth were immediately swallowed.

Although Shukaku had never personally experienced the terror of Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, that did not mean it had never witnessed the power of the Sharingan!

After all, the Tailed Beasts had coexisted with the Uchiha Clan in the shinobi world for more than a thousand years. Moreover, the Nine Tailed Beasts possessed their own secret means of communication.

Thus, Shukaku knew very well just how great a threat the Sharingan posed to them.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

Shukaku had locked eyes with Uchiha Ren!

In the next instant, the world spun around him.

The scene before Shukaku’s eyes changed completely.

He found himself bound by dozens of thick chains in a blood-red space, restrained in an extremely humiliating position!

“Damn it! You naturally evil Uchiha brat! I just got out! Let me go!”

Shukaku opened his mouth and roared furiously.

Although he could not see Uchiha Ren’s figure, he could clearly sense his presence.

“As expected, compared with Matatabi, you really are one noisy stupid tanuki. And that voice of yours is ridiculously shrill!”