Chapter 147
2-in-1-chapter
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"Lord Hiashi, there is no way we can hold back the Cloud-nin on our own."
The man who spoke had graying hair and a face etched with deep lines of worry, the wrinkles on his forehead bunched so tightly they could crush a mosquito. He looked at Hyūga Hiashi with a pleading expression, his posture utterly humble, begging the clan head to show mercy and grant the shinobi of the Hidden Hot Springs a way out.
Assigning the Hot Springs shinobi to guard the Kusatsu Mountains and block the Cloud's advance—in his eyes, this was nothing short of sending them to their deaths.
"Ensen, I never said you were to stop the Cloud-nin outright. Your task is to delay their advance as much as possible. And it is not even certain when they will attack. Perhaps by the time we complete our withdrawal, they will not have struck yet. If so, you will be able to retreat as well."
The man called Ensen was the leader of the Hidden Hot Springs.
But when he heard Hiashi's reply, it was as though his heart had been plunged into ice water.
No matter how many words Hiashi had used, the meaning was the same: the shinobi of the Hidden Hot Springs had to remain behind to guard the Kusatsu Mountains, buying time for Konoha's forces to retreat. If the Cloud attacked during that window, then the Hot Springs shinobi were to delay them at all costs.
The fire of anger and resentment rose inside his chest. Ensen's breathing grew heavier, veins standing out on the backs of his hands. He forced himself to swallow the rage and once again begged in a low voice.
"Lord Hiashi, I…"
"Ensen. As long as the young and the children survive, the legacy of the Hidden Hot Springs will not be broken. And Konoha will never allow your village to vanish. You need not fear for the future of the Hot Springs. You only need to fulfill your mission." Hiashi cut him off, refusing to let him finish.
At those words, Ensen deflated like a punctured balloon. All the fury and resentment drained away.
When the Cloud had first marched south, the Hidden Hot Springs had already hurried to evacuate their women and children under the age of fifteen, sending them along with the nobles of the Land of Hot Water to shelter in the Land of Fire. This was an old tradition of the Hot Springs. As a vassal of the Land of Fire, every great war saw their people escorted to Konoha's territory.
It was both a means of protecting their nation's lineage and a demonstration of loyalty to Fire Country and Konoha.
Thinking of his own son, only three years old this year, Ensen let out a sigh of helplessness. There was no other path left. They would have to grit their teeth and face it. As for why they did not simply defect to the Cloud under such crushing pressure from Konoha—the reason was simple.
Beyond the fact that their families had already been taken as hostages, the greater truth was that Konoha was the most merciful and reasonable patron they could hope for. Even now, after the war had reached this point, the Hidden Hot Springs still retained more than half their strength. Their northern neighbor, the Hidden Frost, had fared far worse. As the Cloud's lackeys, the Frost-nin had already been reduced to almost nothing.
At the very beginning of the campaign, the Cloud had driven the Frost forward as cannon fodder, throwing them into the path of battle without regard for losses. In only two major clashes, while Konoha was forced to retreat, the Frost were utterly devastated. Everything they had painfully rebuilt in the six years since the Third Shinobi War was annihilated.
Among the Five Great Villages, Konoha was truly the best choice.
And given the geography—Hot Water shared a direct border with Fire. If the shinobi of the Hidden Hot Springs ever dared defect to the Cloud, Konoha would destroy them without hesitation and simply establish a new village in their place.
In the end, this was nothing more than the sorrow of a small nation trapped between great powers.
Ensen lowered his head in resignation.
Just as he was about to withdraw, a Konoha shinobi from the communications unit rushed into the command tent, shouting.
"Lord Hiashi! The Cloud, the Cloud are attacking!"
The sudden report sent Hiashi's blood pressure spiking, the veins at his temple visibly throbbing.
"Byakugan—open!"
Hiashi activated his Byakugan.
As the head of the Hyūga clan, bearing the purest blood of the main family, his Byakugan had been honed through years of discipline. His vision extended for more than ten kilometers. Standing in the command tent, he could see the frontlines clearly. The battlefield was ablaze, shinobi with different headbands and different-colored flak jackets locked in vicious combat.
From what he could see, Konoha was falling back, driven into retreat.
The reason was simple: the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, half-transformed into a tailed beast, had become the Cloud's spearpoint. With overwhelming force she tore through Konoha's defenses, driving her comrades forward in a frenzied charge. The Konoha shinobi had almost no power to resist.
"Damn it!"
Hiashi's face darkened.
Jinchūriki… they were intolerable. He could not stop himself from cursing, even directing blame toward the First Hokage's decision to divide the tailed beasts among the great nations. That choice had not brought peace—it had only made the wars fiercer.
Three great Shinobi Wars later, Konoha had suffered grievous losses.
"How could they have come so quickly? Do these Cloud brutes never need to rest? Are they made of iron?"
Hyūga Hiashi's mood was as dark as it could be.
The Cloud shinobi had launched their attack far too soon.
After multiple consecutive high-intensity battles, followed by long forced marches, the Nara clan's Jōnin strategists had calculated that the Cloud forces would need at least three days to rest before mounting another offensive. Yet it was only the second day, and the attack had already come.
Aburame Shibi and the others quickly assembled. After a brief but focused discussion, they confirmed that the prior retreat plan would not be changed. However, it was clear that they could no longer count on the Hot Water shinobi to cover the withdrawal in this situation. To escape the Kusatsu mountain region, sacrifices would have to be made.
"I will take the Two-Tails Jinchūriki."
Aburame Shibi stepped forward.
"Defeating the Two-Tails Jinchūriki will be difficult, but I can at least hold her back for a while."
"Shibi, thank you."
Hiashi understood this was no time for empty words. He accepted Shibi's offer and then said, "Since you will block the Two-Tails Jinchūriki, then I will deal with that man, Darui." He had no need of the sensory team's reports; as one of Konoha's foremost sensory shinobi, he had already grasped the Cloud formation with his own Byakugan.
Darui and the Two-Tails Jinchūriki.
Those were the two most troublesome opponents among the Cloud forces.
During the course of repeated clashes, both sides had learned enough of each other to identify the greatest threats. Darui, bearer of the Storm Release Kekkei Genkai and heir to the Third Raikage's Black Lightning, was a rising star of the battlefield, rivaling even the Two-Tails Jinchūriki in renown.
Otherwise, Hiashi would never have said outright that he would take the field personally against him.
It was simply the truth: only he and Aburame Shibi could contend with Darui. Anyone else would be overwhelmed, unless three or five of them combined their strength, and even then, they might not be able to delay him.
In shinobi wars, victory and defeat often hinged on the clashes of the strongest. This did not mean the struggles of Chūnin and Genin were meaningless, but the elite had the power to decide the direction of war.
Konoha's steady retreats were not because its Chūnin and Genin were weaker than their counterparts. Numerical inferiority was a factor, but the true reason lay elsewhere: Hyūga Hiashi and Aburame Shibi were not the equals of the Fourth Raikage and the Cloud's Jinchūriki.
When the higher tier of power could not stand against the enemy, the lower tiers inevitably collapsed under the overwhelming difference.
"Nara Shiosui, I leave command of the retreat in your hands."
With Hiashi and Shibi moving to the frontlines, overall command passed to the young Nara strategist, only just past twenty. Despite his youth, the Nara were famed for maturity beyond their years, and Hiashi trusted him.
"Lord Hiashi, Lord Shibi, please return safely."
True to his clan's reputation for brilliance, Shiosui did not falter. Even before Hiashi and Shibi had set out, he had already begun to issue clear, orderly commands. Konoha's shinobi and the Hot Water allies carried them out without chaos. Seeing this, Hiashi felt no further concern and advanced with Shibi, each leading a team toward the front.
…..........
......
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In the forest, a streak of black lightning flashed by.
"Haah… haah…"
A Konoha shinobi clutched at his throat, blood gushing like a fountain between his fingers. The wound was too deep and too long. His hands soon lost all strength, and the light faded from his eyes as his body, already cooling, toppled heavily from the branch.
"Forgive me. Rest in peace forever."
The words came from a young man perched on a treetop.
He had white hair, dark skin, heavy lips, and a fringe covering his left eye. Tattoos of the characters for "Lightning" and "Water" were inked on his shoulders. His garb was the typical attire of Cloud shinobi, and on his back was an empty scabbard. The blade it had held was now in his hand, still dripping blood.
It was he who had felled the Konoha special Jōnin with a single strike.
"Captain Darui, Lady Yugito has advanced another five hundred meters."
The report came through the wireless communicator at his ear.
Darui flicked his wrist, sending the last traces of blood flying from the blade. Hearing the update, he sighed helplessly. "Lady Yugito… always charging too fast." The problem was compounded by the fact that both she and he were regarded as senior. The Raikage had not explicitly clarified who held greater authority.
Even if Darui felt her pace reckless, he could not stop her. All he could do was strive to keep up.
"I understand. I'll get there as soon as—"
Before he could finish, black lightning flashed again. Darui's figure appeared on the branch of another tree, while the branch he had just occupied was shattered to splinters by a formless strike.
Had his reflexes been any slower, that blow would have left him with broken bones at the very least.
"This is… the Hyūga clan's Vacuum Palm."
Darui's eyes tracked the path of the attack back to its source. There stood his assailant.
"Tell Lady Yugito this for me: a big catch has appeared here. I can't come right away. Tell her not to charge too far ahead. That's all."
With those words, Darui shut off his communicator, focused his full attention, and locked his gaze on Hyūga Hiashi, who had stepped into the forest before him.
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