Once the fighting began, there was no longer any chance to calmly encircle and wipe them out.
From that point on, every new wave of enemies they encountered could turn into a hard-fought battle—and each one would be tougher than the last.
But was that truly the case?
Konoha's defensive zone along the eastern front was extremely vast, covering nearly the entire southeastern coastline. As a result, the defensive net was sparse. Each point was manned by a single squad, whose role was not to directly repel the enemy, but to serve as sentry posts—planting "eyes" to form a chained surveillance network guarding against enemy advances.
If the incoming enemy force was small, they would fight; if it was large, they would withdraw, trading space for time so the main forces could arrive. With the Byakugan at their disposal, as long as they did not act recklessly, Konoha could keep this up indefinitely.
Kirigakure, however, was different.
The Land of Whirlpools, as the perfect springboard for invading the Land of Fire, had terrain shaped like a long, narrow peninsula. Within the defensive lines constructed by Kirigakure, ninjas were deployed far more densely.
They were the invading side and had no real room to retreat. If they withdrew to the sea, what meaning would this invasion even have?
When the fighting erupted and the first defensive line burst into flames at multiple points, the Kirigakure ninja in the rear immediately understood what had happened—damn it, Konoha had struck first.
This was no longer the small-scale harassment by a handful of ninja during the earlier standoff period, but a decisive battle. It seemed the moment had come for the two sides to determine the victor.
They immediately used every available method to transmit the intelligence further back to the command center, while simultaneously sending signals to rally their comrades and prepare to resist together.
This would allow them to cooperate effectively against the enemy, avoid being defeated in detail, and slow the advance of the Konoha ninja—buying time for the rear to organize large forces to meet the attack.
Now, time was life.
When the Seventh Assault Unit that Makoto belonged to broke through the first early-warning defensive line at the fastest speed and fought its way to the second defensive line, what they faced was a blocking force that had already gathered a good number of Kirigakure ninja.
Thick mist mixed with chakra concealed them within it. Similar scenes were playing out along the entire defensive line—each one like a cluster of white fortresses, with skilled hunters lying in ambush inside, waiting for prey to enter the net so they could slaughter them at will.
But as old rivals, Konoha had long since prepared ways to deal with this.
In Makoto's unit, there were Wind Release ninja who used ninjutsu to blow away the Hiding in Mist Technique, but this time was different from what he had encountered when he came to the eastern front battlefield.
Back then, the dozen or so Kirigakure ninja used the Hiding in Mist Technique only to cover their own scattered breakout. Now, the Kirigakure ninja in front of them were determined to hold them here, so there were always people inside maintaining the Hiding in Mist Technique.
Wind Release could only blow away the outer mist. Inside, there was always a large area where the mist remained thick, and when the Wind Release ended, the mist began spreading outward again.
It seemed that with just a bit of time, the mist could cover the battlefield again—but that bit of time was enough.
Countless kunai with explosive tags attached were thrown into the thickest part of the mist; with the situation unclear, they first launched a round of saturation bombardment.
Under the Hyūga Clan's Byakugan, there was no mist that could not be seen through. Those unlucky ones using the Hiding in Mist Technique received special attention, and for a time they were blasted into frantic disarray.
Most of the traps that had been hastily set up in front of the position were also blasted out of commission.
Facing opponents in war who were essentially running a wallhack was just that difficult. It was therefore easy to imagine how envious, jealous, and resentful the other ninja villages were toward Konoha. No matter what methods they used, they had always wanted to get their hands on a pair of Byakugan to enjoy that advantage for themselves.
Fortunately, the Hyūga Clan had the Caged Bird Curse Seal as protection, which maximized the prevention of the Byakugan leaking out.
Although this seemed somewhat unfair to the Hyūga branch family, Konoha as a whole benefited from it, so the higher-ups naturally had nothing to say.
In fact, most members of the Hyūga branch family did not have much objection to the Caged Bird. They understood that it was also a form of protection for themselves. What they hated was not the Caged Bird itself, but the unfairness—what they hated was the main family turning the Caged Bird into a means of controlling the branch family's life and death.
When the mist dispersed, close combat officially began. For a time, ninjutsu flew everywhere on both sides, but the most common were Fire Release and Water Release.
The collision of the two types of ninjutsu made the battlefield mist grow thicker again, but at this point no one cared about that anymore. Amid scattered screams, the two sides had already become entangled with each other.
Aside from a few freaks of nature, there was no ninja who could rely on ninjutsu alone from start to finish in a single battle. On the battlefield, using taijutsu in coordination with weapons was the most chakra-efficient way to fight.
After all, you never knew how long a battle would last, so you had to carefully calculate every bit of your chakra.
Even someone like Makoto, who possessed a large amount of chakra, did not like to waste it. Otherwise, what was the point of all the hard work he had put into developing highly efficient killing methods?
Following along within the crowd, the four members of Third Squad also charged into the Kirigakure ninja.
On the chaotic battlefield, kunai and shuriken flew everywhere. If you failed to pay attention to any movement around you, a single moment of carelessness could leave you wounded—or cost you your life.
Suddenly, Makoto, advancing at the front, fixed his gaze. His left hand shot up and caught a shuriken. He did not even glance at it. After adding a little something to the shuriken, he casually returned it to its owner.
Wrapped in a trace of Wind Release chakra, the shuriken let out a sharp whistling sound as it shot back along its original path at an even greater speed.
"Ah!"
An unlucky Kirigakure ninja who had been trying to approach their squad was pierced clean through the body in a single strike. He fell to the ground wailing, and was then successfully finished off by Hayate.
As for whether that shuriken had originally been thrown by him—who had the time to care about that now?
Yūgao clashed in swordplay with an adult Kirigakure ninja. However, the gap in strength between the two was too great. After only two exchanges, her guard was knocked wide open, exposing a huge opening. The adult Kirigakure ninja wore a crazed grin, ready to savor the cute sight of the little girl's head falling off.
But Kumomi flashed past. A sharp ninja blade lightly sliced across his neck.
The Kirigakure ninja only felt a chill at his throat, and then saw the young girl rush in front of him and stab him once more in the heart.
One strike to the chest, one to the throat—
Even if Tsunade were here, she would only shake her head.
There was no saving him.
Third Squad cooperated with seamless coordination. While protecting one another, they also killed the enemy with high efficiency.
Very quickly, the Kirigakure ninja resistance that had gathered along the second defensive line was smashed through by the Konoha ninja. Aside from a handful of quick-witted types who saw the situation turning bad and sold out their teammates to flee, the rest were left lying on the ground.
So, on the battlefield, you absolutely cannot let your blood rush to your head. You have to calmly observe the situation. If you see that something is off, you choose a strategic withdrawal—that is the only way to live long.
As for why the direction of the "strategic withdrawal" is the opposite way—don't worry about that. Just tell me: did I withdraw or not?
...
The mist dispersed with the wind, and the screams grew fainter and fainter.
Uchiha Sōsuke glanced over the battlefield and gave the order: "Quick, check the battlefield. Watch out for traps on their bodies, and give the Kirigakure bastards who aren't dead another stab."
"Treat the wounded—bandage them on the spot. Leave comrades who are too badly injured to keep fighting, as well as the dead, where they are, and let the follow-up troops take over."
"Yes!" The ninja around them carried out the orders at once.
"Are there any sensory-type ninja? Are you still alive?"
"Yes!" Makoto and a Hyūga ninja youth with a high ponytail responded quickly.
Higashino Makoto knew this guy. His name was Hyūga Hoheto. He was two years older than him and in the same class as Anko. Because this unit had a sensory expert like Makoto, they had only brought along one Hyūga ninja.
At present, there were not many Hyūga ninja on the eastern front. Other places needed the Byakugan's help more than they did.
Not far away, there were also dog-handlers and insect-users gathering toward this place.
Uchiha Sōsuke instructed the few of them: "You are to search immediately. See if there are any enemies hidden away. Make sure this area is absolutely safe."
"Yes!" After receiving the order, the few of them scattered.
Ninja were a profession that specialized most in hiding. There were always some people who had mastered all sorts of strange methods, and would appear behind you when you were not paying attention and stab you.
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