Sudden Turn

The chaotic battle lasted throughout the night, and it was not until the break of dawn that the Konoha camp finally regained its tranquility.

During this night, Hanyu and Hatake Sakumo encountered three waves of enemies in total: two two-man squads and one four-man squad. By utilizing the advantages of the terrain, their familiarity with the environment, and their superior speed and movement techniques, they managed to eliminate those eight enemies without sustaining much damage themselves.

It could be said that for the Hanyu duo, although the night's combat was fraught with life-or-death peril, the frequency of the fighting was not as intense as one might have imagined.

The number of ninjas guarding this area was sufficient, so the barrier surrounding the frontline hospital remained unbreached until the fighting concluded.

The Sand Village failed to achieve this part of their objective, but before daybreak, they did not linger, choosing instead to withdraw from the battlefield rapidly...

After leaving behind a field of corpses.

It was not just the ambushed Konoha side that suffered heavy casualties; the attacking Sand Village forces fared no better. In reality, the casualty rates and exchange ratios for both sides tonight were not significantly different.

All of this was thanks to the orders issued by Kagami Uchiha after the Konoha command system had been disrupted. It was that simple order that stabilized the situation and the morale of the Konoha camp.

Early the next morning, Hanyu, looking somewhat weary, sat on the ground for a dry, meager rest. Not far from him lay an enemy corpse, but it was not worth paying any attention to.

A little further away, Hatake Sakumo was lying down to rest... due to his age, his exhaustion appeared much greater than Hanyu's.

With the help of the light from the horizon, Hanyu observed the surroundings. Roughly speaking, although the Konoha camp had been ambushed, it did not seem to have reached the point of collapse; this level of damage was entirely manageable.

Perhaps the Sand Village's plan failed? Hanyu could not help but think.

Intelligence summaries regarding the battle situation could not possibly reach a ninja of Hanyu's rank so quickly, and he would likely never have the chance to know many of the details of last night's battle; after all, he was merely a low-level soldier. However, unexpectedly, just as Hanyu felt he should stand up to help clear the battlefield, Koga appeared before him once again.

Because of the delegation of command last night, Koga was still the highest-ranking person in charge here, and also Hanyu's "direct superior."

"Doctor Koga, are you alright?" Hanyu asked, seeing the man's disheveled appearance. At this moment, one of Koga's arms was in a sling; clearly, he had been injured during the night's fighting.

Koga shook his head. He did not care about his own injuries, but instead continued, saying to Hanyu, "Hanyu, it's an emergency. You must return to the village immediately."

"Return to Konoha?" Hanyu was stunned, then hurriedly stood up. He did not quite understand this order. One had to realize that the Konoha camp had just been ambushed; in such a weakened state, shouldn't they hold their ground and wait for reinforcements? Why return to Konoha?

It was too abnormal.

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

Because they had been assigned to different areas last night, Hanyu did not know the status of the remaining members of his squad, and he could not even be sure if those three were still alive.

But Koga denied his suggestion again. "No, just you. Your squad will remain here... You are to return to the village. There, you and your jutsu will be of use."

Hanyu was shocked, then speculated, "Could it be that Sanshao-sensei has run into some trouble?"

Currently, Hanyu's relationship with Konoha was still quite shallow. Aside from Sanshao, he could not think of any reason to be recalled to the village—he had not been on the front lines for long, and he hadn't fought many serious battles.

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

Since he refused to explain, Hanyu knew he wouldn't get an answer even if he dwelled on the reason for returning, so he asked, "Should I leave right now?"

"Immediately," Koga emphasized.

Hanyu understood. Regardless of what the specific mission was, it was certainly urgent. "I understand. I'll go prepare."

But just as Hanyu was about to turn and leave, Koga grabbed him. He gripped Hanyu's arm tightly with his remaining functional hand, leaned in, and whispered, "When it truly comes to a critical moment, you must protect Sanshao."

Looking at the man's serious expression, Hanyu could only nod very earnestly, but his mind was even more chaotic now... What exactly had happened in Konoha?

Unfortunately, his memories did not contain much content regarding the First Shinobi World War.

The mission was exceptionally urgent. Hanyu had no time to rest or recuperate and was directly grouped with three other ninjas he was unfamiliar with.

"Is everyone here? Then let's move out."

After gathering, the leading ninja did not hesitate to issue the order to depart. Before they even left, several other squads had already departed from the area... From this, it was evident that Konoha was pulling a large amount of force back to the village.

Could it be that while the Sand Village was ambushing the Konoha frontline camp, they also attacked the village? How could such a thing be possible?! But if that wasn't the case, why withdraw so many ninjas from the front lines?

Everything stopped making sense.

Hanyu had no issues with combat missions, but he only hoped he wouldn't get caught up in some conspiracy. His thoughts raced, but his feet did not stop.

He followed the squad out of the camp and set off on the road back to Konoha. However, just before leaving the camp, Hanyu's footsteps suddenly faltered.

"What's wrong?" The squad leader immediately noticed his abnormality.

"No, it's nothing. I just saw an 'acquaintance'," Hanyu said.

And a dead "acquaintance" at that. While passing a group of ninjas sorting through corpses, Hanyu had seen the logistics ninja who had helped him pick out his weapons yesterday... or rather, his corpse.

The leader was somewhat dissatisfied with Hanyu's reaction. He frowned and said, "Don't get distracted. Focus on the mission."

The group left the Konoha camp and suddenly increased their movement speed. Very quickly, they crossed the border of the Land of Rivers and returned to the territory of the Land of Fire.

By this time, the atmosphere within the squad seemed to have finally relaxed a little, and Hanyu heard a conversation between two of the ninjas:

"If it weren't for the acting Third Hokage hesitating, what happened last night would never have occurred."

"Yeah, he's still not decisive enough, lacking the responsibility and experience of a Hokage. If it were the Second Hokage..."

Listening to their conversation, it seemed they were pinning the responsibility for last night's events on Sarutobi Hiruzen. Such thoughts made Hanyu curl his lip, and he scoffed inwardly... What the Third Hokage lacked was prestige and seniority, not experience or responsibility. What did the Sand Village's ambush have to do with Sarutobi Hiruzen?

And "if it were the Second Hokage"—why not dream a little bigger and say "if it were the First Hokage"?

But then again, one couldn't blame these ninjas for their shallow understanding. One had to realize that ninjas were essentially elementary school graduates with little cultural education; most only knew how to kill, so how could they understand what strategy was?

Currently, the Third Hokage was actually on the front lines as well. However, on the main battlefield where enemy and friendly forces were evenly matched and the situation was deadlocked, he had not directly committed the ninja forces he led to the front, but had instead chosen to establish a new camp on the border of the Land of Fire.

If he had rashly combined the two forces, it would not have caused the situation to tilt in Konoha's favor. The logic was simple: only Konoha knew how to reinforce troops, while the Sand Village didn't?

Therefore, the Third Hokage's approach of setting up two camps to support each other, guarding against the unexpected and ensuring safety, was strategically sound.

But now it seemed that because something had gone wrong at the frontline camp, the Third Hokage's approach was starting to be questioned... One had to remember, Sarutobi was currently only the acting Hokage.

For a leader lacking sufficient prestige, any failure by his subordinates was the responsibility of the leader himself.