"I guess... this counts as a success, right?"
A huge rock wall had been sliced cleanly in half by a deep, vertical gash carved straight into the ground. Fresh stone dust filled the air. Haseo waved his hand to clear away the mist blocking his vision, revealing two smooth, flat surfaces as if polished by flowing water.
There was no doubt about it—his question had a clear answer: yes. His jutsu had definitely succeeded.
"If we're talking purely about power," Katsuyu added, "this technique might even surpass your Lightning Release."
"Is that so?" Haseo mused, comparing the two jutsu in his mind before slightly shaking his head. "They're different. One focuses on penetration and internal damage—it's a stabbing assassination technique that concentrates immense thunderous force at a single point. The other emphasizes cutting through layer by layer—it's a slash capable of splitting anything in one stroke. That's why I developed a new ninjutsu; they complement rather than replace each other. Otherwise, if we only cared about raw power, I already have the Water Dragon Blast from the Second Hokage, and wouldn't need to create another."
One technique was designed to stab enemies like a spear, while the other functioned as an electric saw meant to slice them apart.
No matter what, learning a new chakra nature transformation and completing a new ninjutsu just before returning to battle brought great joy to Haseo. His training was finally taking a break, and since he'd accomplished something, he felt fearless facing the new battlefield and the unknown battles ahead.
He'd temporarily left the battlefield to serve as the Hokage's temporary bodyguard, spending New Year's in the village. By now, it had indeed been quite some time since he last fought—if anything, he was more than ready again.
According to normal rotation schedules, it was time for him to return to the battlefield… Actually, a new combat mission had already been handed to him.
As Haseo had predicted, Konoha hadn't been doing well against Amegakure lately, failing to live up to the war department's expectation of an easy victory.
Judging purely by overall strength, Amegakure should've been insignificant. Yet the battle had reached a stalemate. On one hand, during the middle and later stages of the Great Ninja War, Konoha had become unwilling to invest further resources on the front lines. On the other hand, fighting within the Land of Rain gave Amegakure a major geographical advantage—their forces could exploit terrain familiarity, constantly harassing Konoha's elite shinobi across forests and mountainous regions.
And what did they end up with? Konoha had sunk into a real mess.
We crushed the three great ninja villages already—how is it that we can't even deal with a small fry like Amegakure? That must have been Konoha's original thinking. Sorry, but clearly they just couldn't cut it.
After getting stuck for so long, Konoha finally woke up and changed their strategy.
Haseo wasn't surprised by this outcome at all. Strong doesn't always beat weak—that happens all the time. He could recall countless examples in his mind.
Konoha could be said to be the strongest village on the surface, while Amegakure seemed like a weakling by comparison. The former far surpassed the latter in strength, yet victory remained impossible to achieve.
After realizing the crux of the issue, Konoha began changing its battle strategy—no longer seeking victory through large-scale frontal engagements, and no longer treating enemy casualties as the primary goal. Instead, the Forward Command Post now started assembling elite ninja squads that continuously infiltrated into the Land of Rain in small numbers, shifting their operational focus onto sabotaging key infrastructure targets such as transportation networks, supply lines, production facilities, and communication hubs of Ame.
In other words, Konoha had abandoned its previous intention of swiftly defeating Ame so it could immediately withdraw from the war, instead being forced to return to the old path of protracted warfare.
This change was compelled by Amegakure's pressure, but this strategic retreat was honestly somewhat terrifying because it transformed the ninja conflict between Konoha and Ame into a test of national power between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain. Wars are decided by logistics, and there was absolutely no comparison in this aspect—no matter how long Ame dragged out the war, they would never achieve victory.
In effect, even though the war had once again become a war of attrition, Konoha could bear the cost of localized battles with ease. Put simply: Ame was merely a nuisance to Konoha, while Konoha was a life-threatening danger to Ame.
If the current leader of Amegakure truly possessed any intelligence, then what he should be considering wasn't how to defeat Konoha in battle—that was simply impossible—but rather securing a small local victory followed immediately by suing Konoha for peace. Not for anything else, just so they could exit the war gracefully with minimal losses.
Meaning, the outcome of the war between Konoha and Amegakure had already been decided beforehand. However, the process leading toward this result remained extremely significant.
By the time Haseo's squad returned to the Front Line, they were about to execute exactly this kind of infiltration and sabotage mission.
After completing his training, naturally there was no reason for Haseo to remain any longer in Shikkotsu Forest. Three days later, his squad assembled once again, preparing to return to the Front Line ahead of schedule.
"Everyone, it's been a while," Haseo greeted his three companions at the designated meeting point—the training grounds of Konoha.
Although everyone had stayed within the village during this period, due to Haseo's independent nature, they hadn't crossed paths often.
"Captain, are we returning to the battlefield?" someone asked. Given the sudden summons, chances were high that it was war-related.
"Yeah, since our squad has been loafing for far too long already, it's time for us to return to the Front Line to carry out missions," replied Haseo.
Marching off to battle, briefly withdrawing, then returning to fight again—only to die on the battlefield at last. That was the fate of most ninja.
"I'll explain our upcoming mission now; I hope everyone can mentally prepare themselves..." continued Haseo. "According to orders, we will operate independently away from command headquarters and penetrate deep into the Land of Rain. Our objective is to sabotage enemy transportation routes and other critical infrastructures."
Our missions are usually pretty vague—which gives us a lot of freedom and leeway. A lot of the time, we can act on our own judgment without being bound by HQ's rigid doctrines... That's the advantage of our operations.
Of course, there are clear disadvantages too—no supply lines, no intel support, deep behind enemy territory in the Land of Rain, surrounded by enemies on all sides. It's incredibly dangerous—one wrong move, and we could all be wiped out." Haseo continued explaining.
But something about what he said wasn't quite right, because this mission wasn't just about "risking total annihilation at any moment"—it was more about figuring out how *not* to get wiped out completely.
Haseo wasn't the kind to throw his life away for Konoha without thinking—but that's exactly what this mission demanded.
Still, after such a long period of training, Haseo no longer feared stepping onto the battlefield.
Amegakure? It's nothing special. Just another Amegakure.
Let me—Konoha's Iron Fist—step up and challenge Hanzo of Amegakure himself. As if I'd be afraid!
He thought silently to himself.
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