The Deaths and the Missing

As they chased and fled, Yuzuru not only became separated from Konoha's main force, but also got a little lost.

He could no longer hear the fighting on the battlefield in the Land of Grass. There was a good chance Yuzuru was now in the Land of Rain. The border—was it over there?

Regardless, after dealing with the Iwagakure pursuers behind him, he was safe for the time being.

Their relentless pursuit had finally paid off, though perhaps not in the way they'd hoped. Yuzuru calmed himself a little and recovered some strength, then returned to the enemy he'd blown up and salvaged some usable ninja tools.

"You got blown up pretty badly. It wasn't painless the whole way through, but the pain only lasted an instant... You closed your eyes, opened them, and it was all over. No need to struggle so hideously."

"Shuriken, Soldier Pills, Smoke Bombs... You're out of Exploding Tags, too."

After picking out a few usable ninja tools, Yuzuru had no intention of cleaning up the battlefield. He didn't have that kind of time.

Worried that the explosion might attract more enemies, Yuzuru decided to leave at once.

He had escaped both the Iwagakure Ninja pursuing him and the organization of Konohagakure. For a moment, Yuzuru considered his chances of surviving as a wandering ninja. But after thinking it over, he realized he was getting ahead of himself... Even if he became a wanderer, he couldn't do it in the Land of Rain.

Returning to the battlefield in the Land of Grass would be difficult, too. First, Yuzuru was in poor shape. Thanks to Tsunade's treatment earlier, he had no serious injuries, but the continuous fighting had left him utterly exhausted, and his chakra was depleted.

Second, he had no way of knowing how the battle was going. Had Konoha won or lost? The fighting had taken place closer to Iwagakure territory. If Iwagakure kept sending in reinforcements and eventually drove Konoha back—or defeated them—then returning would be like walking straight into a trap.

Whether a ninja like him returned to the battlefield didn't seem to make much difference.

Yuzuru wasn't a native of Konoha, and he didn't feel a particularly strong attachment to it. If he had anywhere else to go, leaving Konoha while he had the chance would certainly be an option. But, as mentioned, this was the Land of Rain, crawling with Rain, Stone, and Sand ninja. Yuzuru couldn't afford to think long-term. Right now, his best option was to return to the Konoha front.

He seemed free to move about, but in truth, the entire battlefield had him trapped.

All right, before taking his next step, Yuzuru needed to find somewhere to hide and get a good night's rest so he could regain some strength.

So Yuzuru forced himself to keep going, moving cautiously through the night. He had to watch out not only for enemies lurking in the dark, but also for all kinds of traps set by the various ninja forces. Explosive Tags and poisonous gas were equally deadly.

Fortunately, Yuzuru was lucky. After walking a while, he found a dry hollow in a tree. He carefully camouflaged the entrance before hiding inside.

Without his team leader nearby, Yuzuru naturally didn't dare light a fire in the night. He took off his rain-soaked outer garment, then curled up in the corner of the hollow, covering himself with dead leaves that smelled musty to avoid getting too cold. Once he'd made these preparations, he closed his eyes to rest.

Yuzuru hadn't planned to fall asleep. This was the Land of Rain, and he'd meant to stay alert. But before long, he was fast asleep.

Half a day of fighting had drained his chakra. His exhausted body and spent mind made it impossible for him to stay awake.

For a ninja, overusing chakra was never a good thing. The exhaustion it brought, both mental and physical, was difficult to shake off in a short time... If a ninja regularly squeezed every last bit of chakra from himself, an early death was practically inevitable.

Meanwhile, the inexplicable battle was finally coming to an end. Nightfall gave both sides a chance to disengage. After dark, Konoha and Iwagakure each called off the fighting, doing their best to carry their wounded and recover their dead before withdrawing from the battlefield under cover of night... The battle had served no tactical purpose, nor had it advanced any strategic objective. One side had sent in reinforcements, the other had done the same, and then they'd started fighting.

Konoha hadn't come away with nothing. They'd captured a high-ranking Iwagakure spy, ensuring the safety of their intelligence. If that had been the end of it, and Konoha's baiting team had been able to withdraw, it would have been a huge win for Konoha.

Unfortunately, the battlefield didn't bend to anyone's will.

A quick tally afterward showed that the rate of severe injury and death among Konoha's participating ninja exceeded forty percent. In other words, once the battle was over, two hundred of the five hundred could barely stand. Nearly everyone else who'd taken part was injured, too... War between ninja was simply too cruel.

Iwagakure had fared no better. Konoha's toad user, snake user, and slug user might not yet have earned the title of Sannin, but their destructive power on the battlefield already far surpassed that of ordinary ninja.

The three remaining members of Torifu Akimichi's squad had withdrawn to the eastern part of the Land of Grass.

"Yuzuru? Still no sign of him?" Torifu Akimichi asked. He found it hard to accept that a ninja he'd believed in could simply be gone.

But that was war. Many talented ninja never got the chance to grow; a single battle could take their lives.

"No. At least, we haven't found his body," Hazuki Uchiha replied.

"Missing is the best news we could hope for. The Iwagakure Ninja used too many techniques to split up the battlefield in this battle... Yuzuru may have been separated from us," Kairi Omori said.

"Yuzuru's good on his feet. There's still a chance," Torifu Akimichi said, wiping the dried blood from his face. He was still willing to believe Yuzuru might have survived.

Whether he had faith in his teammate or was simply fooling himself, he didn't want to give up hope so easily.

At Konoha's front-line headquarters, Mitokado Homura and Shimura Danzō soon received the battle report. The casualty figures were shocking enough to nearly make Mitokado Homura lose control of himself.

"We've found the spy. All we had to do was meet him and withdraw. Why did it turn into a skirmish?"

"They were probably caught up in the atmosphere of the battlefield and blinded by hatred... Some ninja on both our side and Iwagakure's side were too young and not rational enough," Shimura Danzō said, judging that young ninja were too young.

"The atmosphere? We lost so many ninja for no reason. How are we supposed to explain this to the Hokage?"

It had to be admitted: the Shinobi World War, reignited after twenty years, was just as brutal as ever. But beyond that, a great deal of the fighting had been little more than a clash between amateurs.

"Homura, we're fighting a Shinobi World War, not playing house. If we acted with absolute rationality, we shouldn't have sent Torifu Akimichi's squad in the first place. And once we'd confirmed the spy's identity, we shouldn't have sent anyone to support them... We should've let them withdraw on their own."

"Danzō, you... That would have meant abandoning that squad outright."

"I'm talking about the pros and cons, not morality."

Well, this was Danzō, after all... Morally speaking, abandoning their own ninja was despicable. But it would have prevented major losses.

Konoha had made a show of "rescuing Akimichi, the jōnin." And what had come of it?

Of course, on the grander scale of time and space, ninja on the battlefield had always been expendable. If they weren't used up in this battle, they'd be used up in the next. The Shinobi World War wouldn't end until they'd spent nearly all their cards.

"Send the report to Hiruzen. He'll understand."