Land of Rain, Konoha encampment.
Orochimaru frowned as he looked over the orders sent by the Third. He snorted and tossed them to Jiraiya and Tsunade beside him.
The moment Jiraiya saw Orochimaru's expression, his heart sank.
"What's with that look?"
"Don't tell me something happened to Hanma?"
After Jiraiya nervously finished reading it, his face turned livid as well.
The order contained many words, yet said very little.
Its opening briefly reported Hanma's battle against Shukaku, mentioning his victory in vague terms.
The rest could be condensed into a single sentence:
Launch an immediate full-scale attack on the Amegakure Ninja and secure results as soon as possible.
Because Hanma's previous clash with Hanzo had been extremely intense, Hanzo had been forced to reveal his trump card.
At the time, Hanma had not yet fallen out with the Hokage faction, so he had reported the battle with Hanzo to the Third.
Thus, Konoha's leadership possessed comprehensive intelligence on Hanzo.
In that intelligence, Hanma had particularly emphasized Hanzo's killing power on the battlefield.
And this report had been delivered to the three of them at the very beginning of the war.
All three understood how many casualties would result if they attacked according to the Third's orders.
By this point, the situation in the three-way war had gradually become clear.
On the battlefield between the Sunagakure Ninja and Konoha, both sides had suffered grievous losses.
Hanma had killed Shukaku, Bunpuku, and Dan Katō had killed Ebizo, while Hatake Sakumo had destroyed a great number of puppets. The Sunagakure Ninja had suffered a devastating blow.
But Konoha's losses had been no less severe. Dan Katō had been killed by Chiyo, while Bunpuku and Shukaku had also inflicted heavy casualties upon Konoha's forces.
On the battlefield between Konoha and the Amegakure Ninja, however,