"I don't think so, Hinata," he said while manipulating his insects to locate the next target across the battlefield. "Why do I say that? Because my bugs say Lord Jiraiya's already on the battlefield."
The battle was still raging when suddenly a figure appeared in the center of the battlefield. He appeared completely indifferent to the chaos around him.
"Oh no," Jiraiya called out theatrically, kicking away an enemy who had attempted to ambush him. "Again with this trick—who are these guys coming out of?"
As he spoke, he formed several hand seals.
"Everyone, get into the trees—now! [Earth Release: Bottomless Swamp!]"
Upon hearing his command, the Konoha ninja immediately ceased fighting and leaped onto nearby trees.
Because at that exact moment, the ground beneath their feet turned into a vast, muddy swamp stretching nearly a kilometer. Anyone caught inside would face certain death.
Some enemies reacted quickly and used chakra to stabilize themselves, standing atop the swamp like they were walking on water. But many others weren't fast enough to escape. They flailed desperately before being devoured by the pit.
In the center of the swamp, bubbles continued rising to the surface—each one marking the final gasp of an enemy trapped below.
Kiba Inuzuka caught the scent of death in the air, and he knew it all came down to that one man.
"Guess I wanna be that strong when I'm his age, too," he muttered, gripping tightly onto a tree branch alongside his teammates. "Did you guys see that? That guy's insane."
Hinata saw everything through her Byakugan—the enemies devoured by the swamp, the barriers set up to hide the underground tunnels—all of which had been destroyed by Jiraiya's jutsu.
Thinking about it carefully, the scene really was somewhat horrifying, but its effectiveness was undeniable.
"Hmph." Jiraiya looked at the devastation with a satisfied nod.
"Damn Nagato… If I still had my left arm, I could've made this swamp twice as big."
"Retreat! Fall back and regroup!" One of the enemies shouted loudly and turned to flee toward solid ground.
It was impossible—the underground frontline they'd painstakingly built had been breached so easily, and the war had only just begun a month ago.
Konoha's power far exceeded what they'd expected. They couldn't adapt to Konoha's tactics, let alone plan any counterattacks.
They'd set up countless traps throughout the forest to ambush Konoha's ninja…
But never did they expect Konoha to break their tunnel warfare strategy using such a method.
Not once had they seen a Konoha ninja enter or leave those tunnels. Konoha's defenses were flawless, undetectable even by the Byakugan.
Unless one of their own had betrayed them, there was no way Konoha could've found out.
Jiraiya threw his head back and laughed, barely holding back the urge to strike a triumphant pose.
He gestured to the subordinate beside him, who immediately took out a flare gun and shot it into the sky, signaling the main force to continue advancing.
At this point, the enemy was powerless to stop them anymore.
If this war were a flood, then Konoha would be an unstoppable torrent.
******
As Jiraiya gathered his forces, preparing to launch a full-scale attack, Naruto and Yugito had already set off.
When the flare lit up the sky, they had already crossed the river and entered the enemy's core region.
"Tell me, Yugito, where is the closest troop stationed by your village in Frost Country? The nearest one," Naruto asked while leaping through the trees. He created several Shadow Clones to keep watch around them and guard against surprise attacks.
"They've been pushed back near the border of Land of Lightning, northeast direction, about a hundred kilometers away," Yugito answered from right behind Naruto. "This morning before we left, Mariko sent this information to Konoha, and they relayed it to me." She did a quick calculation in her head and added, "If everything goes smoothly, we should reach our destination in about three hours."
Judging from their current speed, jumping from branch to branch, three hours should be plenty of time. "Don't worry, everything will be fine," Naruto said confidently. "Ero-Sennin will lead our forces and wipe the enemy out. They'll be too busy dealing with their own problems to even consider intercepting us."
In fact, Konoha's rear units should already be advancing, entering the marshlands created by Jiraiya.
Yugito was caught off guard by Konoha's tactics. She had never fought against them directly before.
Their methods of warfare were completely different. When facing large-scale battles, her own village preferred direct frontal assaults on enemy lines, followed by dispersing and breaking through deep inside enemy territory, splitting up their forces and wiping them out one by one.
They were currently encountering exactly this kind of problem on another front.
Now, Konoha had already discovered the enemy's secret weapon—the tunnels. Once this information was relayed back, the entire battlefield would shift dramatically.
Once she returned to Kumogakure, she would make sure to spread this information. She believed that she could deliver it faster than messenger hawks.
Shinobi Alliance Land Forces' Northeast Army originally wanted to strike first, catching Kumogakure off guard with a sudden attack—a brilliant plan in theory—except they underestimated Kumogakure's strength, resulting instead in being completely wiped out themselves, as if hit head-on by the Raikage's Lightning Oppression Horizontal.
Clearly, they were facing a similar enemy on another battlefield.
Despite all that, the Konoha ninja remained composed throughout. They hadn't allowed themselves to become carried away by the initial victory.
They wouldn't recklessly commit all their strength in the first engagement but instead advanced step-by-step, carefully scouting the enemy's defenses to avoid traps until they found the enemy's vulnerability, only then launching a decisive counterattack.
First came small-scale guerrilla engagements to test the enemy's strength, and once a vulnerability was found, they would launch a full-scale assault to crush the enemy decisively.
"Take me back to my teammates..." Yugito Nii said to Naruto with a smile. "Then we can fight side by side and end this war sooner together."
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