According to scout reports from the Iwagakure Front, Ōnoki had already launched an attack on Konoha—and it was a full-scale offensive.
Ōnoki, the Tsuchikage, had not appeared in person. Yet with the power of the Four Tails and Five Tails, combined with the Explosion Release demolition squad led by Gari, Iwagakure had still placed immense pressure on Konoha. Without Minato Namikaze, Konoha's forces had suffered defeat after defeat, and the battlefield had now even pushed into the heartland of the Land of Fire!
Clearly, Yagura's earlier scheme had succeeded.
By taking advantage of the news of Jiraiya's death, he had drawn the other two great ninja villages into helping. Though they did not know what was happening on Kumogakure's side, Iwagakure had indeed launched a full-scale assault on Konoha, just as Yagura had anticipated.
This was also one of the reasons why, after Tsunan Town fell, Konoha's resistance had not been particularly fierce and they had even retreated directly to their rear positions.
As the Iwagakure battlefield advanced, the distance between it and the Kirigakure Front continued to shrink.
Even if the entire army marched out, they would only need half a day to arrive. Therefore, Yoru's two-sided cheese pincer plan was entirely feasible.
After the Kirigakure higher-ups discussed the feasibility of the plan, Yagura immediately had the messengers within the camp use summoning techniques to send the intelligence back to the village and request approval for the battle plan.
But the reply they received poured a bucket of cold water over Yoru.
"Mizukage-sama rejected your proposal."
Yagura sighed and tossed a scroll to Yoru. "Mizukage-sama believes that even if we move at our fastest speed and successfully launch a surprise attack on the Konoha forces under Orochimaru before Minato Namikaze can react, we will still suffer an attack from