Clearing the Battlefield

Uchiha Mei did not return that night after he left.

The next day, Konoha and the Kirigakure Shinobi began a fierce battle on the battlefield the reconnaissance teams had cleared.

Everyone in Konoha Camp moved out except for the personnel who had to stay behind.

Clearly, the Kirigakure Shinobi had not expected Konoha to launch such a large-scale attack and were caught off guard.

But the overall strength of the Kirigakure Shinobi in the Land of Bears was obviously far above Konoha's.

Even though Konoha gained some advantage early on through surprise, that advantage was not enough to turn into victory.

As expected, the war turned into a stalemate.

For an entire day and night, the sounds of slaughter on the battlefield never stopped.

Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana stood in the camp, looking at the smoke-filled battlefield ahead, their expressions incomparably grave.

"So this is a real battlefield? Compared to this, the reconnaissance missions we did before were like children playing house," Hyuga Asana said.

"Yeah. I didn't expect a real battlefield to be this brutal."

"How many people died in a day and night of killing like this?"

"Who knows? But the casualties definitely won't be low."

After Uchiha Yuan finished speaking, both of them fell silent.

Only after quite a while did Hyuga Asana speak again. "No wonder Lord Orochimaru didn't let our reconnaissance teams take part in this war.

On a battlefield like this, the people on the reconnaissance teams have no way to make use of their strengths. They might even be surrounded and attacked by the enemy."

"That's true. But after the war ends, we'll probably be sent over to clean up the battlefield and finish off any Kirigakure Shinobi who aren't completely dead yet," Uchiha Yuan said.

"Yuan, do you think we can win this time?"

"We should be able to! The Jonin discussed it for so long, and they also had the Clan Head of the Nara Clan making plans. If they didn't have absolute confidence, they probably wouldn't have acted rashly."

"I hope so!"

Another half day passed, and the sounds of slaughter on the battlefield gradually stopped. A moment later, waves of cheers came from the battlefield.

Konoha had won!

Just as Uchiha Yuan had guessed, Lord Orochimaru issued an order to all the reconnaissance teams on standby, telling them to assemble at once and go clean up the battlefield.

Cleaning up the battlefield mainly meant collecting Ninja Tools and Sealing Scrolls from the dead Kirigakure Shinobi, while also finishing off any Kirigakure Shinobi who had not yet died.

As for the bodies of their own comrades, there were dedicated personnel to deal with them, so they did not need to help.

Uchiha Yuan's team assembled at once and headed to the battlefield.

As soon as they arrived on the battlefield, the first thing that entered their sight was corpses—some belonging to Kirigakure Shinobi, some to Konoha Shinobi.

Uchiha Yuan forced down the discomfort in his heart and threw himself into the search work.

At first, Uchiha Yuan thought that in such a large-scale battle, there should be plenty of people who escaped by playing dead or were gravely wounded and on the verge of death, so he should be able to pick up a wave of Stat Points.

But to his surprise, after he activated Mind's Eye and searched for a long time, he did not find a single living Kirigakure Shinobi.

Uchiha Yuan could not help asking Shibi Aburame, "Teacher Shibui, we've been walking for so long. Why aren't there any Kirigakure Shinobi playing dead or gravely wounded and dying?"

"Do you think battles between shinobi are that easy to escape from? Once one side falls, a shinobi will definitely finish them off without mercy until they confirm the enemy is dead.

Trying to survive on the battlefield with that method is practically impossible."

After hearing Shibi Aburame's words, Uchiha Yuan fell silent. It seemed that battles between shinobi were far more brutal than he had imagined.

Uchiha Yuan sighed, gave up on the idea of taking advantage of the opportunity to pick up scraps, and began focusing on collecting enemy supplies.

All the reconnaissance teams on Konoha's side moved out together, and it took them half a day in total to basically strip the dead Kirigakure Shinobi of everything useful.

As for the corpses of the Kirigakure Shinobi, they did not destroy them. The Kirigakure Shinobi would probably send people later to collect them.

After searching around, Uchiha Yuan picked up quite a lot of war supplies, as well as more than a dozen Sealing Scrolls.

These Sealing Scrolls were all ones the shinobi had not had time to destroy before they died, just like what had happened with Uchiha Yuan's parents back then.

Generally speaking, those who could afford Sealing Scrolls were all fairly strong shinobi, so the collections inside their scrolls were naturally much richer than those of ordinary shinobi.

The main purpose of Lord Orochimaru sending them to clean up the battlefield was also these things.

Uchiha Yuan was quite curious about what was inside these Sealing Scrolls. He had been thinking of opening them to take a look, but Shibi Aburame stopped him.

According to Shibi Aburame, Sealing Scrolls could not be opened casually. These Sealing Scrolls might contain the enemy's final means of killing someone, so opening them himself would be dangerous.

Moreover, if the Sealing Scrolls were not taken away by the shinobi who killed their owners, then the property inside belonged to the village and could not be casually pried into.

Uchiha Yuan curled his lip and could only give up on the idea of opening the Sealing Scrolls to take a look.

Another hour passed, and the search work was completely over. Uchiha Yuan and the others turned and left the battlefield.

This time, while cleaning up the battlefield, Uchiha Yuan still gained something.

Although it was very difficult for anyone to survive a battle between shinobi, the base number this time was simply too large.

Uchiha Yuan still found three fish that had slipped through the net and killed them, obtaining 3 Stat Points. His current Stat Points had also reached 12.

After returning to camp, Uchiha Yuan and the other two handed everything they had collected to Shibi Aburame.

Shibi Aburame took the supplies and went to meet Lord Orochimaru.

A dozen or so minutes later, Shibi Aburame came out of the camp and turned to Uchiha Yuan and the others. "Lord Orochimaru wants to see you."

"See us? Teacher Shibui, are you sure there isn't some mistake?" Yamanaka Kizuki asked, looking shocked.

Shibi Aburame shook his head. "There's no mistake. To be honest, I'm pretty surprised too. I don't know why Lord Orochimaru would want to summon you three Genin."

What Shibi Aburame said was right. There were far too many Genin in the village, and no one knew how many Genin were on the Land of Bears battlefield. Even if Uchiha Yuan and Hyuga Asana could be considered outstanding among Genin, they still had not reached the point where a major figure like Orochimaru would pay attention to them.

So when Orochimaru said he wanted to meet Shibi Aburame's three subordinates, it was not only Shibi Aburame; everyone in the tent looked very surprised.

However, Orochimaru was the supreme commander of the Land of Bears camp. Since he said he wanted to see Uchiha Yuan and the others, no one else would say much. It was only meeting three Genin, not some major affair.

A moment later, Uchiha Yuan and the other two, led by Shibi Aburame, arrived at the tent in the very center of the camp.

From the outside, the tent did not look very large, but once they entered, it was much bigger than Uchiha Yuan had imagined.

Inside the tent were two conference tables, as well as a table that resembled a sand table. Judging from the terrain, it should have been the terrain of the Land of Bears. A huge map of the Land of Bears also hung at the very front.

And when Uchiha Yuan and the other two entered, everyone in the tent turned to glance at them.

It's on recommendations now, so I'm begging for follow-up reads. I ask all you big shots to click on each day's updated chapters. Whether this recommendation can advance now depends entirely on this. Thank you for your support.