"Samehada—give me chakra!"
A surge of energy flooded into Sarutobi Sasuke as he rapidly activated Explosive Blade: Foam Edge, stamping out stacks of temporary explosive tags like a printing press.
Samehada's stored chakra had already been depleted during the assault on Iwa's Demolition Corps, but luckily, they'd captured plenty of Iwa-nin along the way.
Using their drained chakra as fuel, Sasuke mass-produced explosive tags at an insane rate.
"Dō—you handle the first layer of traps."
"Yes, Captain!"
Shukaku Dō grabbed a crate of tags and led his Tool Specialist Platoon to set up ambush points.
Other platoons—Yamigami Yō, Kōsenshi, and Mitarashi Hyakuren—also dispersed, leaving behind small teams to reinforce the traps with more tags as they were printed.
But time was running out.
The Iwa forces, realizing their left flank had collapsed, were retreating faster.
Sasuke barely managed to produce 100,000 explosive tags—enough for just three layers of traps.
Had there been more time, they could've squeezed hundreds of thousands more out of their prisoners.
Knowing they couldn't hold the main pass against Iwa's full retreat, the Sarutobi Unit positioned themselves along the left mountain slope, raining down explosive kunai from above.
Every tag was fresh off the press, still warm in their hands.
The Retreat Collapses
Hiruzen Sarutobi, in his prime, was a monster on the battlefield.
His leadership and combat prowess made him a true "Shinobi Monarch."
Facing him was Iwa's commander, Tōshibito, a tactical genius—but no match for Hiruzen's relentless assault.
Forced into a fighting retreat, the Iwa-nin relied on Earth Style barriers to cover their withdrawal.
But now, with their escape route potentially cut off, their discipline wavered.
Hiruzen seized the opening—crushing their formations with overwhelming force.
Trapped between Hiruzen's pursuit and the Sarutobi Unit's ambush, the Iwa army shattered into chaos.
Thousands of stone-nin fled in panic, each desperate to outrun their comrades.
Then came worse news—
Gobi's Jinchūriki, Han, had gone full tailed beast mode under the Sannin's assault.
Now, a rampaging Five-Tails was indiscriminately vaporizing everything—including Iwa's own forces.
The Cost of War
The Iwa-nin had planned to retreat through the right flank, avoiding the Sarutobi Unit's traps.
But with a tailed beast now rampaging there, they had no choice but to charge straight into the explosive gauntlet.
"Don't stop! Keep moving!"
Tōshibito knew the real threat wasn't the 500 Konoha nin on the slope—it was Hiruzen's main force closing in behind them.
If they slowed down now, they'd be swallowed whole.
The Sarutobi Unit didn't recklessly charge. Instead, they held the high ground, hurling explosive kunai downward while Wind Style users amplified the range, turning the entire pass into a kill zone.
"How many explosive tags do these bastards have?!"
Tōshibito's rage turned to disbelief as the barrage never let up.
Then—the ground erupted.
The vanguard unit had triggered the main trap—tens of thousands of tags detonating at once.
The explosion was catastrophic.
"This… this is insanity!"
Even for a major village, this was financial suicide.
Explosive tags weren't cheap—7,000 ryō each at wholesale.
10,000 tags = 70 million ryō.
This single trap had just burned billions.
"Does Konoha have a gold mine?!"
In pure cost-efficiency, this was madness.
Iwa might lose hundreds of ninja, but Konoha was hemorrhaging money faster than blood.
For the price of killing 100-200 low-rank Iwa-nin, they could've trained an entire battalion.
But Konoha didn't care.
Because money was just another weapon—and they had plenty to spare.