A Sudden Turn

The chaotic battle lasted all night. It was not until dawn that Konoha's camp finally returned to calm.

That night, Hanyu and Hatake Sakumo encountered three waves of enemies in total: two two-man squads and one four-man squad. Taking advantage of the terrain, their familiarity with the surroundings, and their superior speed and footwork, they eliminated all eight enemies without suffering much damage.

For Hanyu and his partner, the night's fighting had been perilous, with death only a hair's breadth away, but the battles had come less frequently than they had expected.

There were enough shinobi defending this area, so the barrier around the frontline hospital had not been breached by the time the fighting ended.

Sand Village had failed to achieve this part of its objective, but they had not lingered to fight. Before dawn, they chose to retreat from the battlefield...

Leaving a field of corpses behind.

Konoha, the side caught off guard, had suffered heavy casualties, but Sand Village, as the attackers, had fared little better. In fact, the two sides' casualty rates and exchange ratio that night had been about the same.

It was all thanks to the order Kagami Uchiha had issued after Konoha's command system was disrupted. That simple order had stabilized the situation and morale in the camp.

Early the next morning, Hanyu sat on the ground, resting listlessly despite his slight exhaustion. An enemy's corpse lay not far away, but it was hardly worth paying attention to.

A little farther away, Hatake Sakumo was lying down to rest... His age seemed to have taken a much greater toll on him than it had on Hanyu.

In the growing light of dawn, Hanyu surveyed his surroundings. At a glance, although Konoha's camp had been ambushed, it did not seem to be on the verge of collapse. The damage was well within what they could withstand.

Had Sand Village's plan failed? Hanyu couldn't help wondering.

Reports on the battle wouldn't reach a shinobi of Hanyu's rank so quickly, and there were many details of the previous night's fighting he would never learn. After all, he was just an ordinary soldier. But, unexpectedly, just as he thought he should get up and help clear the battlefield, Koga appeared in front of him again.

Because command had been delegated the previous night, Koga was still the highest-ranking officer in the area—and Hanyu's immediate superior.

"Doctor Koga, are you all right?" Hanyu asked, seeing that he looked rather battered. One of Koga's arms was in a sling around his neck; he had clearly been wounded in the fighting the previous night.

Koga shook his head. He wasn't concerned about his injury. Instead, he said, "Hanyu, there's an emergency. You need to return to the village at once."

"Back to Konoha?" Hanyu froze, then hurried to his feet. He didn't understand the order. Konoha's camp had just been ambushed. With their forces weakened, shouldn't they hold their position and wait for reinforcements? Why send him back to Konoha?

Something was very wrong.

"Am I going with my squad?" he asked.

Since they had been assigned to different areas the previous night, Hanyu didn't know what had happened to the rest of his squad. He couldn't even be sure the other three were still alive.

But Koga immediately shook his head. "No, you're going alone. Your squad will stay here... You need to return to the village. You and your techniques will be useful there."

Hanyu was startled. Then he ventured a guess. "Did something happen to Teacher Sanshao?"

Hanyu's ties to Konoha were still fairly tenuous. Aside from Sanshao, he couldn't think of any reason to send him back to the village. He hadn't been at the front long, and he'd barely seen any real combat.

"No, it has nothing to do with Sanshao, but it is an emergency... Once you reach the village, everything will become clear," Koga said.

Since Koga wouldn't explain, pressing him about the reason for the recall was pointless. Hanyu continued, "Should I leave right away?"

"Immediately," Koga emphasized.

Now Hanyu understood. Whatever the mission was, it was definitely urgent. "Understood. I'll get ready now."

But just as Hanyu turned to leave, Koga grabbed him by the arm. With his one good hand, he gripped Hanyu tightly and leaned in to whisper, "If things really come to a crisis, make sure you protect Sanshao."

Seeing Koga's grave expression, Hanyu could only nod with equal seriousness. But his thoughts were in even greater turmoil... What on earth was happening in Konoha?

Unfortunately, he didn't remember much about the First Shinobi World War.

The mission was so urgent that Hanyu had no time to recover or rest. He went straight to join up with three shinobi he barely knew.

"Everyone's here? Then let's move."

The shinobi leading them gave the order to depart without hesitation. Several similar squads had already left before they set out... It was clear that Konoha was pulling large numbers of forces back to the village.

Could Sand Village have attacked Konoha's frontline camp and the village at the same time? How could that even be possible?! But if that wasn't the case, why were so many shinobi being withdrawn from the front?

None of it made sense.

Hanyu had no problem with combat missions, but he just hoped he wouldn't get caught up in some kind of conspiracy. His thoughts raced, but his feet never stopped moving.

He followed the squad out of camp and started the journey back to Konoha. But just before they left the camp, Hanyu suddenly paused.

"What's wrong?" the squad leader immediately noticed.

"Nothing. I just saw an 'old acquaintance,'" Hanyu said.

And a dead "old acquaintance," at that. As they passed a group of shinobi sorting the bodies, Hanyu spotted the corpse of the supply shinobi who had helped him choose his weapons the day before.

The squad leader seemed displeased by Hanyu's reaction. Frowning, he said, "Don't get distracted. Focus on the mission."

The group left Konoha's camp, then suddenly picked up their pace. They soon crossed the border of the Land of Rivers and returned to the Land of Fire.

The mood in the squad seemed to finally ease. Hanyu overheard two shinobi talking:

"If the Acting Hokage hadn't hesitated, last night's events would never have happened."

"Yeah, he still isn't decisive enough. He lacks a Hokage's sense of responsibility and experience. If it had been the Second..."

From their conversation, it seemed they were blaming Sarutobi Hiruzen for what had happened the previous night. Hanyu pursed his lips in scorn... The Third lacked authority and seniority, not experience or a sense of responsibility. What did Sand Village's ambush have to do with Sarutobi Hiruzen?

"And if it had been the Second..." Why not dream a little bigger and say, "If it had been the First Hokage"?

Still, it was hard to blame these shinobi for their shallow understanding. Shinobi only made it through elementary school and weren't very educated. Most knew only how to fight and kill. How could they understand strategy?

The Third was actually at the front as well. But with the two sides evenly matched on the main battlefield and the fighting at a stalemate, he hadn't sent the shinobi under his command directly into the front lines. Instead, he had chosen to establish a new camp on the border of the Land of Fire.

Combining the two forces into one without careful thought wouldn't have shifted the balance in Konoha's favor. The reasoning was simple: Konoha knew how to send in reinforcements. Did Sand Village not?

So the Third had established two separate camps, positioned to support each other, in case anything went wrong and to ensure they were fully prepared. Strategically, it made perfect sense.

But now, because something had gone wrong at the frontline camp, it seemed the Third's decision was being questioned... After all, Sarutobi was only the Acting Hokage.

For a leader without enough authority, every mistake made by his subordinates was his responsibility.