A Konoha ninja, his face stained with blood and his body exhausted, dragged himself forward, preparing to form hand seals for a jutsu.
The sun had risen once more. The sudden battle, which had lasted for an entire day and night, was now over.
At the beginning of the fight, Konoha found itself in an extreme disadvantage due to the enemy's sudden assault and numerical superiority. However, when Nagare returned and the Third Mizukage retreated, Mist's side lost both its highest command and its will to continue fighting. In the end, Konoha managed to turn the tide, successfully eliminating most of the remaining enemies.
It was largely due to Konoha having combat powerhouses like Haseo and Sakumo Hatake, along with the advantage provided by the Uzumaki clan's defensive barriers, that although the Konoha front line had endured substantial damage, they still managed to eliminate an equal number of enemies. Therefore, the outcome of the battle was just barely acceptable...
If one ignored the loss of the frontline's ability to monitor Mist and only calculated casualties and kill ratios.
Since Konoha was fighting against stronger opponents, each ninja was essentially being used as if worth two men. Their resistance had been hard-fought but exhausting. After the battle ended, though, they finally caught a rare breath. Most of them either sat down to rest somewhere or simply collapsed on the ground, sleeping from sheer exhaustion.
The Medical Team members had already begun their work busily. At this point, medical supplies on the front lines were clearly insufficient. Nearly every ninja required some level of treatment, but there were only three medical squads available—severely understaffed.
As for that recently seen ninja, he wasn't even fortunate enough to get a moment's rest; many others like him also had no time to relax even after the battle ended.
Merely because he was a Water Release ninja… During yesterday's fight, Haseo had set fire to the mountains. While it felt satisfying at the time, afterward everyone else had to put out the resulting wildfires, otherwise someone might accidentally burn to death.
One could say that Haseo had unnecessarily increased the workload for many other ninjas… Truly worthy of being Haseo.
Besides the water-ninjas who were busy extinguishing flames, the remaining ninjas, after taking a brief rest and regaining a little energy, began spontaneously cleaning up the battlefield.
Sakumo Hatake was still leading an elite squad, patrolling across the battlefield, searching for surviving enemies faking death or hiding in plain sight.
Meanwhile, Haseo was discussing and summarizing the recently concluded battle with Uzumaki Shikou.
"Lord Haseo, the battle results are mostly compiled now. After a full day and night of combat, including both dead and wounded, our forces have lost approximately sixty percent of our combat effectiveness... This is a very heavy blow. Mist's attack was not only unexpected, but also far larger in scale than we had ever imagined."
The enemy's offensive force obviously bypassed the Land of Whirlpools before penetrating into the Land of Fire. When Haseo sent back the signal, Mist launched a large-scale raid as well. At that point, we had already been unable to retreat, so I could only issue an order to gather all the ninja to the camp."
Uzumaki Shikou summarized Konoha's combat losses like this. Even she herself was no longer unscathed now; her right sleeve had somehow disappeared, and bandages wrapped tightly around her exposed arm, stained with specks of blood oozing through.
There was a slight flaw in her logic... Whenever Mist launched an attack, it would undoubtedly be a large-scale assault capable of swallowing up Konoha's front line entirely. After all, Konoha had deployed very limited forces in this direction.
Certainly there wasn't a scenario where Konoha fielded one hundred ninja while Mist also sent exactly one hundred, allowing for fair competition and one-on-one duels—how stupid would the Mizukage have to be?
The only issue was that nobody had anticipated Mist actually daring to move against Konoha.
Shikou's report left Haseo momentarily silent. As a commander leading his first campaign, this result had already gone far beyond "an unlucky start" for Haseo... Basically, they had just arrived at the front line when half his unit was already lost.
"You didn't make any wrong decisions," Haseo finally said after a pause.
In his mind, the best possible choice then would have been for Konoha to retreat timely, avoiding Mist's initial onslaught. However, since Mist had long harbored such intentions, how likely was it that they'd simply allow Konoha's ninja to leave unchallenged?
Therefore, while Haseo's idea made sense, it wasn't practical.
For Uzumaki Shikou to recall all the scattered ninja and consolidate defenses was already quite commendable; doing so had avoided the outcome of small squads being isolated and destroyed one by one.
"Did you promptly report what happened here back to the village?" Soon after, Haseo asked.
"I've already reported. During the surprise attack on the front line, I submitted the first report, including details about the enemy outnumbering us significantly and the fact that Lord Haseo encountered the Third Mizukage in the Land of Whirlpools. Later, once Lord Haseo returned, I gave a second report indicating our front-line situation had basically stabilized. And after the battle concluded, I submitted a third report detailing its outcome."
Uzumaki Shikou clearly understood Konoha's purpose in deploying such a large unit along the coastline. Therefore, upon encountering such a major incident, she ensured intelligence was transmitted swiftly and efficiently... All Konoha wanted was for Haseo's group to act as Konoha's eyes watching over the sea surface—they naturally expected Shikou to relay everything those eyes witnessed.
What was even more concerning than Mist's raid on the Eastern Front was the obvious hostility they showed toward Konoha. This was practically a declaration of war.
Although Konoha had struggled to avoid fighting on two fronts, not long after the war broke out, this dreadful situation came true.
And things could get even worse… if Kumo from the north also had intentions toward Konoha.
The external battlefield environment for Konoha and the Land of Fire was deteriorating.
"The Hokage and Konoha's higher-ups definitely wouldn't want to hear such news—it's like smacking them right in the face, a slap directed at Konoha's collective intelligence. The facts made it painfully clear—Konoha's earlier strategic judgment had been disastrously wrong.
If the number of ninja I brought to the Eastern Front had been one thousand instead of just over one hundred, then even if Kirigakure had its own ambitions, it wouldn't have dared to act so hastily…"
Strategic mistakes weren't simply the fault of one or two individuals; they were systemic issues. However… a mistake was still a mistake.
The Hokage did have cards to play—the war had just begun, after all, and countless ninja remained concentrated within the village. Yet the Third seemed stingy, always wanting to conserve forces. This kind of "greed" naturally became one of the reasons behind the current problems on the Eastern Front.
"Master Haseo, now isn't the time to say things like this. I… fear the village might hold you accountable for this defeat," Shikou expressed her concern. Her thoughts, in certain aspects, were more delicate than Haseo's, so she knew very well that now absolutely wasn't the moment for Haseo to be making sarcastic remarks.
Haseo fell silent for a moment. Thinking it over, if those above really had cold hearts, they indeed could use him as a scapegoat. After all, he was the commander, and a major defeat had occurred on the battlefield.
If the Hokage wanted to maintain his shining and noble image, he absolutely couldn't afford to make mistakes. Therefore, every error would inevitably be shouldered by his subordinates—whether willingly or unwillingly.
"Whether I'm held accountable doesn't really hinge on how bad things are. The real key lies in how much value I have as a 'chip' on the chessboard. So… yeah, I still trust the Third Hokage," Haseo replied to Shikou.
He wouldn't be foolish enough to trust Konoha's upper echelons purely out of emotional considerations. However, he understood that even those who hated him most would still weigh carefully the role his combat effectiveness played during wartime.
Setting aside other high-ranking leaders, just looking at the Third Hokage himself, he certainly wouldn't want Haseo to become disaffected.
Haseo had never truly belonged to Konoha in the first place; he could endure hardship—he just wouldn't willingly take on responsibilities that weren't his to bear… that wasn't just his nature.
His connection with the Senju clan already belonged to the past—the clan had long since faded into obscurity. Currently, Haseo controlled the Kagenami, in a sense integrating the Uzumaki clan, whose power was intimately linked with the Nine-Tails. Remember, Konoha now controls eight of the Nine-Tails. That meant managing future jinchūriki would become a massive undertaking.
Of course, looking at it from another angle, Haseo stood somewhat between the Uzumaki and Konoha like a middleman profiting from both sides. For Konoha's upper levels, the ideal scenario would naturally be having direct command over the Uzumaki clan, enabling effortless control over its ninja as if extending their own limbs.
But if one were to think along these lines, then what about Mito Uzumaki? Shouldn't she be eliminated too since she's still alive?
"Don't overthink it," Haseo said, after a moment's thought. There was no need to start assigning blame so soon after the battle had barely ended. "The situation here has changed significantly, so I'll need to head back to the village personally to report to the Hokage."
With the Eastern Front's circumstances now greatly altered, as commander, Haseo did need to pay a visit to Konoha... After all, Konoha couldn't possibly expect this small group of dozens to keep fighting off Mist's forces alone—that would just be ridiculous.
And if it were just Haseo alone, traveling back and forth to Konoha wouldn't be a problem at all.
"Next, we'll tidy up the battlefield a bit, recover the bodies of our fallen ninja, then leave behind two or three Reconnaissance Units primarily composed of Hyuga ninja to monitor whether the Mist will invade again. The rest of us should retreat far enough to be safe until the village decides to send reinforcements."
Nobody could know whether or not the Mist might attempt another invasion within a short time.
Haseo had temporarily lost confidence in facing Mist's forces directly, so he decided to withdraw cautiously.
No wonder the Mist is always a tough opponent.
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