War Breaks Out

Three days after Hatake Sakumo, Tsunade Senju, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya each led two teams out.

At the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers, the two thousand elite ninja led by Hatake Sakumo and Tsunade were currently stationed there.

As a small nation serving as a buffer between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, the Land of Rivers had withdrawn all its defenses back when war had begun looming last year.

As a small nation without its own ninja village, situated between two great nations, it had always been one of the main battlefields for wars between Konoha and Sunagakure.

The ruler of the Land of Rivers had made his position clear: fight all you want, just don't fight me.

Inside Hatake Sakumo's tent, a frog half the height of a man spat out an intelligence scroll.

"Excellent. The teams led by Orochimaru and Jiraiya are also stationed at the border of the Land of Tea and can launch an attack at any time." After reading the intelligence Jiraiya had sent, Hatake Sakumo spoke excitedly.

There was no need to guess. The Land of Tea's fate was no different from that of the Land of Rivers. The only difference was that it served as a buffer between Konoha and the Land of Water.

"Pass down the order. Tonight, we launch a surprise attack on the Sunagakure ninja force stationed in the Land of Rivers." Knowing that speed was crucial in war, Hatake Sakumo gave the order without even informing Tsunade first.

After all, so many ninja had suddenly vanished from Konoha. The longer they delayed, the more likely the spies in the village would notice something unusual and leak news of the surprise attack.

The chunin responsible for relaying orders immediately left.

As for where Sunagakure's ninja were stationed in the Land of Rivers, the advance force had long since investigated that intelligence. They would not let the surprise attack force arrive and wander around blindly.

At the Yin Hour, Hatake Sakumo and Tsunade led their two-thousand-man force silently toward Sunagakure's puppet force of roughly three thousand in the Land of Rivers.

With scouting ninja from the Hyuga Clan, Inuzuka Clan, and Aburame Clan among them, every trap along the way had been identified and cleared in advance.

This was also when people were at their most exhausted, so it took little effort to silently eliminate the sentries along the way. They did not even know what had happened before they died.

However, the ninja keeping watch atop the two guard towers would not be so easy to deal with.

Hatake Sakumo gestured to Tsunade beside him, indicating that she would take one and he would take the other.

Tsunade returned a gesture of understanding.

Once they were close enough, both of them used the Body Flicker Technique at the same time.

Hatake Sakumo instantly appeared behind the scout atop one of the towers. He drew the White Fang Short Sword from his back and lightly swept it across the man's throat before he could react. Blood sprayed forth. His eyes remained open, yet he had already fallen silent.

The instant the blade flashed, the scout on the other tower was about to shout "Enemy attack" when Tsunade struck his neck with a hand chop infused with monstrous strength.

With a crack, there was no need to look. His neck had broken.

There were truly few people who could survive Tsunade's monstrous-strength hand chop from behind while completely unprepared.

After confirming that no one else had noticed their movements, Hatake Sakumo waved toward where the troops were hiding, signaling that the attack could begin.

With a series of whooshes, the group began slaughtering the utterly unprepared Sunagakure puppet masters.

Finally, some lucky Sunagakure ninja was the first to react. Following a shrill cry of "Enemy attack!", the remaining living Sunagakure ninja woke one after another and prepared to face the enemies who had suddenly appeared before them.

But by then, half of the ninja would never wake from their sleep again.

The killing continued. Even when they encountered resistance, it did nothing to lessen the bloodlust of Konoha's elite ninja.

Hatake Sakumo in particular was unstoppable as he moved across the battlefield. No one could withstand even a single exchange with him, and puppets crumbled at the slightest contact with the White Fang Short Sword.

"Damn you! You despicable Konoha Ninja! Lord Kazekage will never forgive you—ah!" Before the Sunagakure puppet master could finish speaking, the White Fang Short Sword had already slit his throat.

Close combat against puppet masters was that simple. A puppet master's strength lay entirely in their puppets, yet Konoha's surprise attack had given them no time to release them.

Even the few who had managed to deploy their puppets received special attention from Konoha's jonin.

"Retreat! The jonin will remain behind to cover the rear! Everyone else must return alive and report to the Third Kazekage that Konoha has launched a surprise attack!" This was clearly an order from the commander of this force.

Upon hearing this, around twenty people immediately stepped forward from among the more than five hundred surviving puppet masters. The rest immediately fled toward the rear.

"Even if it costs us our lives, we will stop you Konoha Ninja here!"

Then, everyone who had stayed behind released the puppets under their control. Some were shaped like animals, while others were humanoid. However, they were all made of ordinary materials, not the more powerful and terrifying human puppets.

Hatake Sakumo did not rush to stop the fleeing ninja. He had already arranged a five-hundred-man force to ambush them from the rear, and traps had been laid along the way. Not a single Sunagakure ninja would escape this battle!

A white flash streaked through the night as Hatake Sakumo took the lead, walking toward the twenty-odd puppet masters and their fifty or sixty puppets.

Under Tsunade's leadership, the other Konoha Ninja did not attack. Instead, they formed a circle and left the stage to Hatake Sakumo.

It was not because they wanted to watch White Fang display his skill. They intended to capture the remaining ninja, who were suspected of being Sunagakure's leaders, alive. Rushing in together would too easily cause unnecessary casualties.

"So long as you agree to surrender, I will not harm your lives." Hatake Sakumo first tried to persuade them into surrendering.

"Pah! Even if we die, we will never surrender to despicable Konoha Ninja!" The lead ninja who had given the orders earlier answered again.

"Then there's nothing to be done." With a sigh, Hatake Sakumo prepared to destroy every puppet before him.

It might waste a little time, but compared to the gains after success, the effort would be well worth it.

A white flash streaked out, and one puppet had already been split in two. Hatake Sakumo's cold gaze sent a chill through the hearts of the more than twenty jonin who had remained behind.

"How is that possible? We can't even see anything! Everyone, attack together! I refuse to believe he can deal with so many puppets at once by himself!"

What followed gave the ninja of both Konoha and Sunagakure a taste of miraculous swordsmanship, as though someone were strolling beneath the moonlight.

Slashing, chopping, thrusting, sweeping, and cutting—no puppet could withstand more than two strikes from him.

Not only that, all manner of hidden weapons, poison smoke, Senbon, Flying Needles, Shuriken, and Kunai could not touch Hatake Sakumo in the slightest. He moved as gracefully as though he were dancing.

"No wonder the old man said that even he had no guarantee of victory against Lord Sakumo." After witnessing Hatake Sakumo's strength, Tsunade could not help but sigh.

She believed that even if she went all out now, she probably would not last an hour against Hatake Sakumo. But he was still young; she would surely have a chance to surpass him in the future!

This unequal battle ended quickly. In just half an hour, every puppet on the field had been destroyed by Hatake Sakumo—an average of two puppets per minute!

This showed the gap between ordinary jonin and Kage-level powerhouses, especially against a powerful Kage-level ninja like Hatake Sakumo, who had only just entered his prime.

As for the Sunagakure ninja on the other side, only around five of the twenty-odd jonin had reached the level of ordinary jonin. The rest were all Special Jonin, and there was not a single Elite Jonin among them!

If Hatake Sakumo had not wanted to capture those twenty-odd jonin alive and reduce his own side's losses, he could have dealt with every one of these physically frail puppet masters in just fifteen minutes. He only needed to avoid their puppets and attack their bodies.

Next, Hatake Sakumo ordered the prisoners bound. If they were willing to reveal intelligence, that would be best. If not, he could only resort to unconventional methods.

With members of the Yamanaka Clan and the Torture and Interrogation Division present, even the Uchiha Clan and Kurama Clan could interrogate them through genjutsu. Extracting some intelligence from their minds would not be difficult.

"Lord Sakumo, Lady Tsunade, all the fleeing Sunagakure ninja have also been captured. Not one escaped."

The leader of the five-hundred-man unit had returned as well. He was from the Nara Clan.

Against a group of Sunagakure ninja whose strength was at most that of chunin, if anyone had escaped despite an ambush and all those traps, it would have truly disgraced the brains of the Nara Clan.

"Very good. That means our surprise attack plan has succeeded. The three-thousand-strong Sunagakure puppet force that infiltrated the Land of Rivers has effectively been wiped out. Now we only need to wait for news from Orochimaru and Jiraiya's side."

Hatake Sakumo was very satisfied with the results of this battle. He had not disappointed the expectations of the Third Hokage and the Council of Elders, successfully achieving the goal of striking Sunagakure with a lightning attack.

"Yes. Next, we only need to guard against the Third Kazekage of Sunagakure lashing out in desperation. After such heavy losses, I refuse to believe they still have the nerve to contend with us." Tsunade also voiced her delight.

As for spending this entire battle following behind Hatake Sakumo and doing little more than standing around, Tsunade felt that if given the chance, she wanted to fight such an easy battle again!

In truth, the Third Hokage had sent Tsunade here for two reasons. One was to temper her, and the other was because Sunagakure was accustomed to using poison.

If anything went wrong, Tsunade's healing abilities could ensure that more poisoned ninja survived.

Even in this surprise attack, Sunagakure's counterattack had still claimed the lives of around a hundred Konoha Ninja.

That was also why Hatake Sakumo had ultimately chosen to defeat the twenty-odd Sunagakure jonin who stayed behind alone.

Most of them had died because the poison had run too deep and they had not received treatment in time.

More would have died, but Tsunade had saved most of those who had been poisoned but had not yet died with Medical Ninjutsu.

Thus, although Kage-level Tsunade had seemed dispensable in this battle, she had truly saved many ninja when it came to treating the wounded.

"Next, we'll station ourselves here and report the results of the battle to the Third Hokage."

After handing the prisoners over to the professionals, Hatake Sakumo unceremoniously took over the Land of Rivers encampment chosen by the Sunagakure puppet masters.

After all, it had everything they needed. Not only were the facilities complete, but even the supplies were enough to support their two thousand people for nearly half a year.

Since that was the case, why build another camp from scratch? They would have to reconstruct the facilities and transport supplies all over again. It would be troublesome in every way and waste time.

"Also, preserve the bodies of our fallen comrades. When we return to the village, bury them in the village cemetery."

When he finally mentioned the dead ninja, Hatake Sakumo felt a pang of sorrow in his heart.

But he quickly composed himself and continued issuing orders. No matter how smoothly a war went, someone would always die tragically.

What the living needed to do was carry the names of the fallen and live on, not wear their grief on their faces.

"Yes, Lord Sakumo."

Thus, Konoha had already achieved half of its objective!