The giant Katsuyu appearing atop the mountain immediately put every Konoha ninja who had rushed nearby at ease.
Katsuyu was such an iconic summoned beast that only one person in the entire Shinobi World possessed it. Its appearance meant only one thing—Tsunade had returned!
To be fair, Jiraiya and Tsunade, the two commanders, had yet to appear since the war began, leaving Konoha's ninjas deeply unsettled.
That unease reached its peak when the command center exploded, turning into panic.
In only that brief span of time, Konoha's side had gone from advancing cautiously and fighting while retreating to showing signs of a crushing rout.
It was the result of their morale suffering a devastating blow.
Of course, it was also related to quite a few elite ninjas on the front lines shaking off their enemies and forcing their way back to reinforce the mountaintop.
In their eyes, the safety of the command center was clearly more important than temporary gains and losses on the front lines.
There was nothing exactly wrong with that way of thinking.
If everyone in the command center had truly been wiped out by that Tailed Beast Bomb, then the thousands of Konoha ninjas on Bluefish Island would naturally have had no chance of survival either.
But every choice brought different gains and losses.
They had merely shaken off their enemies, not eliminated them.
Thus, once those elite ninjas left, the pressure they should have borne naturally shifted onto the ordinary ninjas.
To use a somewhat inappropriate analogy.
The heroes had all gone back to defend the crystal, and you still expected your minion wave not to get pushed back?
In that brief moment, the previously deadlocked, interwoven battle line abruptly surged forward.
That advance represented the deaths of over a hundred Konoha ninjas.
And that