[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-this-water-shadow-is-strong-but-excessively-caut":3,"chapter-this-water-shadow-is-strong-but-excessively-caut-this-mizukage-is-strong-but-excessively-cautious-chapter-460":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","This Mizukage Is Strong, but Far Too Cautious",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},2194771,3774,"Chapter 460: Awakened, the time for the hunt","this-mizukage-is-strong-but-excessively-cautious-chapter-460",460,"\u003Cp>Although at this moment, Chiyo and Ebizo wished they could eat Hatake Sakumo’s flesh and drink his blood, what use would that be?\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>They understood the principle that the winner is the king and the loser is the bandit.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Their hatred for Hatake Sakumo was both a national grudge and a personal vendetta.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Everything had to start from the early days when the Sand Village chose to rashly launch a war against Konoha.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Originally, after the Sand Village and the Rain Village fought to a draw, the Sand Village, having quelled the chaos of the Rain Village, was about to enter a period of peaceful development.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>But after Hanzo of the Salamander launched an attack on Konoha, the Sand Village elders Chiyo and Ebizo stubbornly believed that now was the best time to take action against Konoha.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Therefore, relying on the prestige they had accumulated within the Sand Village over many years, Chiyo and Ebizo ignored the opposition of the Third Kazekage and launched an attack on Konoha on their own.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Little did they know, the attack that the Sand Village thought was secret had actually been exposed to Konoha’s eyes long ago.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>At the beginning of the war, Chiyo and Ebizo sent out their most elite puppet master troops as the vanguard, intending to directly open up the situation by relying on the combat power of the puppet master troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The result was unexpected: the Sand Village’s puppet master troops encountered an attack by the Konoha elite led by Hatake Sakumo.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Caught off guard, Hatake Sakumo killed two leaders of the Sand Village’s puppet master troops in a single encounter; this was the origin of the two quasi-Kage level powerhouses in Hatake Sakumo’s record.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>With the leaders killed and having encountered an ambush, the trump card puppet master troops in the hands of Chiyo and Ebizo were nearly wiped out in one battle.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Coincidentally, these two people were exactly Chiyo’s son and daughter-in-law, who would later be made into the \"father\" and \"mother\" puppets by Sasori of the Red Sand.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Now, the hatred between the two sides was completely irreconcilable.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Under the interference of Chiyo’s intense personal emotions, both sides entered a period of cruel slaughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>But in the end, due to Hatake Sakumo’s powerful decapitation ability and the unfavorable situation of losing their main force at the start, the Sand Village quickly fell into a disadvantage.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>And as time passed, the disadvantage gradually turned into a defeat.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The Sand Village’s defeat seemed accidental but was actually inevitable.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>This had to be discussed from all aspects.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>The war launched by Chiyo and Ebizo did not receive the support of the Kazekage.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>As everyone knows, ever since the Second Kazekage Rasa created puppet techniques and sand-manipulation ninjutsu, puppet techniques and sand-manipulation ninjutsu became two powerful, distinct paths of inheritance within the Sand Village.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Aside from some bloodline abilities, high-level Sand ninjas wanting to increase their strength would often choose one of these two paths.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>After the Second Kazekage died, Chiyo and Ebizo inherited the Second Kazekage’s puppet techniques, while the Third Kazekage, Iron Sand, inherited the Second Kazekage’s sand-manipulation ninjutsu.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>After the young Third Kazekage took office, the conservative faction led by Chiyo had always been insubordinate to the Third Kazekage’s rule, unwilling to hand over the power in their hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Because of this, the internal affairs of the Sand Village had actually been in a power struggle, and such a situation would naturally give birth to power-struggling factions.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>One could roughly guess that as the most outstanding user of sand-manipulation ninjutsu today, and holding the high position of Third Kazekage, although he could not shake the status of Chiyo and Ebizo due to his youth, the high-level ninjas within the Sand Village who were skilled in sand-manipulation ninjutsu would still instinctively flock to the Third Kazekage’s command.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Naturally, ninjas skilled in puppet techniques would inevitably gather under Chiyo’s command to support her.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>In this way, puppet ninjas and sand-manipulation ninjas formed two opposing factions within the Sand Village.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>In the original work, one could see from Gaara’s abilities that the specialty of sand-manipulation ninjutsu was not actually attack, but defense and sealing.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Puppet techniques were completely different; from the performance in the original work, puppet masters were completely \"squishy ADCs.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>One attacking and one defending, they formed a completely distinct contrast.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>And in a situation where the Third Kazekage himself opposed launching the war, a large number of high-level Sand ninjas who used sand-manipulation ninjutsu would naturally also hold an opposing attitude toward participating in the war.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>In this case, unless Chiyo and Ebizo intended to completely break with the Third Kazekage, it was impossible for them to forcibly conscript the sand-manipulation ninjas.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Therefore, in reality, the main force of the troops under Chiyo and Ebizo consisted of puppet masters and some ninjas who used ordinary elemental techniques; there were hardly any ninjas who could use sand-manipulation ninjutsu.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>And the ninjutsu characteristics of the ninjas within the Sand Village were mostly focused on offensive Wind Release, with few people proficient in defensive Earth Release and Water Release techniques.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>This resulted in the poor defensive capability of the troops led by Chiyo.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>As Kage-level powerhouses, there were strong and weak ones, each with their own characteristics.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>And Hatake Sakumo happened to be the greatest nemesis of puppet masters.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>If puppet masters were all squishy ADCs skilled in long-range attacks, then Hatake Sakumo was a top-tier assassin with maxed-out attack and agility.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Hatake Sakumo was skilled in two things.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>One was sword technique, the other was Earth Release.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Hatake Sakumo’s fighting style was also very simple: use high-level Earth Release to approach without anyone noticing, then end the target with a blade strike of thunderous speed, and then retreat underground.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Although the description sounded very plain, complex and flashy methods did not always mean they were effective, and simple means did not mean they were useless.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Hatake Sakumo’s combat method was simple: push speed, precision, and ruthlessness to the extreme.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>And such an opponent was exactly the enemy that puppet masters, who were skilled at \"flying kites,\" feared the most.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Even the Kage-level puppet master siblings, Chiyo and Ebizo, were hard-countered by Hatake Sakumo, let alone other puppet masters.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Although their abilities were countered, a ninja’s battle could not be decided by abilities alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>If they really fought, relying on the complementary abilities of the siblings Chiyo and Ebizo, it was not necessarily impossible to fight.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Unfortunately, what gave them the biggest headache was that Hatake Sakumo simply did not engage them in a head-on confrontation.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Hatake Sakumo, a standard ninja, a ninja skilled in the way of the assassin, how could he possibly fight Chiyo and Ebizo head-on?\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>What is an assassin? Standing on the edge of a blade, wandering in the shadows.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Regarding this war between Konoha and the Sand Ninjas, it could only be described in one sentence.\u003C\u002Fp>\u003Cp>Hatake Sakumo: Awakened, the time for the hunt.\u003C\u002Fp>",1166,"2026-06-17T05:01:42.922Z","2026-06-17T09:00:23.248Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","118f0329d9ba9e590f78b6701c1dcbb8b46d65e226ec094ff0aba700f49be756","this-mizukage-is-strong-but-excessively-cautious-chapter-461","this-mizukage-is-strong-but-excessively-cautious-chapter-459",533,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthis-mizukage-is-strong-but-excessively-cautious-cover.jpg"]