The war between Konoha and Hidden Cloud had reached its most intense stage.
Most people hadn't expected that while Konoha pinned down the enemy and ambushed its reinforcements, repeatedly driving back the support forces led by the Fourth Raikage himself and steadily expanding its gains,
the several hundred Hidden Cloud remnants trapped inside Konoha's encirclement would erupt with astonishing fighting strength.
When these shinobi realized that their village's rescue was hopeless and that their presence would only drag it down, they chose to gather all their strength and launch one final, most heroic assault.
Either they broke through or they all died in battle. They would never surrender, nor would they cling to life. They couldn't let themselves become leverage Konoha could use against their village.
With that resolve, under cover of night and led by three jōnin, more than five hundred surviving Hidden Cloud shinobi launched a breakout, ready to sacrifice their lives for their village.
"Everyone, follow me! Groups of three! If the ones in front die, the ones behind take their place. Taking even one Konoha bastard down is a bargain!"
The Hidden Cloud jōnin leading the breakout charged at the very front.
"Let me go first! I've got Explosive Tags stuck all over me!"
A Hidden Cloud Chunin with silver streaks in his hair broke out of the crowd and rushed to the very front of the formation.
"Kill those Konoha bastards!"
"Even if every last one of us dies, we can't become bait in Konoha's hands and drag our village down!"
"Break through! Break through! Break through!"
At that moment, these Hidden Cloud shinobi didn't look like shinobi at all. They were more like bloodthirsty berserkers, charging as one toward a single point in the encirclement.
They made no effort to maintain formation, and had no carefully laid plans. They simply didn't want to become a burden to their village, so they chose to spend their lives wearing down Konoha's shinobi.
When Hidden Cloud suddenly launched its desperate breakout, Konoha was caught completely off guard.
The Konoha shinobi defending the western flank stood their ground and fought to the death, immediately calling for urgent reinforcements.
"Konoha bastards, you're all going to die!"
The Hidden Cloud Chunin who had just shouted that he would charge at the front rushed straight into Konoha's ranks and detonated the Explosive Tags on his body.
A tremendous boom shook the air!
The Hidden Cloud shinobi was blown to pieces. The Konoha shinobi around him had no time to dodge; they were hurled away by the blast, their fates unknown.
"Those Hidden Cloud lunatics never planned on making it out alive." A Konoha jōnin watched the scene, his heart sinking as he realized what the Hidden Cloud shinobi were planning.
Those bastards hadn't intended to break through at all. They had come to fight to the death!
"Everyone, with me! We can't let the Hidden Cloud shinobi break through!"
Before the words had even left his mouth, the Konoha jōnin drew the Ninja Blade from his back and charged forward.
Not a single Konoha shinobi holding the position retreated. They all grabbed their weapons and rushed forward to fight the Hidden Cloud shinobi.
The Konoha forces defending this position numbered no more than a hundred, far fewer than the Hidden Cloud shinobi trying to break through.
But with ample supplies and a willingness to fight to the death no weaker than their enemy's, the Konoha shinobi managed to hold the Hidden Cloud forces back for a time.
A little over ten minutes later, Minato received the call for help and arrived first, relying on the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Minato's arrival alone immediately turned the tide of the battle in Konoha's favor.
Like Sakumo, Minato was a specialist in taking down human opponents. He became a golden flash on the battlefield, mercilessly reaping the lives of Hidden Cloud shinobi.
The battlefield was strewn with corpses. Blood soaked into the soil, staining the entire stretch of land dark red.
In that single battle, all five hundred-plus Hidden Cloud shinobi were killed. Not one survived.
The Konoha shinobi defending the position also suffered heavy casualties. Of the more than one hundred, only thirty-six remained alive, and every one of them was wounded.
This breakout completely turned the tide of the war.
At dawn the next day, just as the sun rose, the Fourth Raikage at the Hidden Cloud command post received word that the five hundred-plus shinobi trapped in the encirclement had failed to break out and were all dead.
Bang!
The furious Fourth Raikage smashed the table in front of him with a single punch. His face turned red and contorted with rage.
The advisers and staff officers beside him fell silent. Just the day before, they had urged the Fourth Raikage to negotiate with Konoha, end the war, and pay to bring the trapped Hidden Cloud shinobi home.
"They're all dead!" The Fourth Raikage swept his bloodshot gaze across everyone in the tent.
"They could have lived! They were bait in Konoha's hands. As long as we didn't give up on them, Konoha wouldn't have harmed them."
The Fourth Raikage stifled his fury and muttered in a low voice as he walked over to one of the staff officers.
"Why did they go to their deaths?"
The staff officer's eyes were also red with grief and anger. He replied quietly, "They chose to die."
"Our brothers chose to give their lives to wear down Konoha's shinobi, so they wouldn't drag us down or become a burden to the entire village."
As he spoke, the Fourth Raikage looked around at everyone, his face cold as ice. Fury and murderous intent laced his voice as he said, "From this moment on, if anyone suggests peace talks again, I'll kill him myself!"
Dodai, the trusted aide of both the Third and Fourth Raikage and Hidden Cloud's strategist, seized the moment and raised his arm, shouting, "Avenge them!"
"Avenge them!"
"Avenge them!"
Everyone in the tent raised their arms and shouted, their eyes bloodshot.
The Fourth Raikage clenched his fists and strode out of the tent. Outside, countless Hidden Cloud shinobi had gathered after hearing the commotion.
Everyone's eyes were on the Fourth Raikage. Rage filled every face, and the entire Hidden Cloud camp was like a powder keg on the verge of exploding.
"Avenge them!" The Fourth Raikage raised his right hand.
"Avenge them!"
Countless Hidden Cloud shinobi raised their arms with him, shouting in unison, their cries growing louder with each wave.
After suffering one setback after another at Konoha's hands, the valiant sacrifice of their comrades had pushed the anger and morale of every Hidden Cloud shinobi to their peak.
The battle had taken a dramatic turn. With more than five hundred Hidden Cloud warriors laying down their lives, the situation had changed completely.
Konoha had lost its greatest leverage against Hidden Cloud. Now it would face a force of grieving soldiers, all sworn to avenge their comrades to the death.
"This battle's going to be tough!"
In Konoha's command post, Jiraiya looked worried.
The others also wore grave expressions. They all knew that the war ahead would become a bloody fight to the death.
Minato stood beside Jiraiya. As the first to arrive with reinforcements the previous night, he was one of the heroes of the battle, but his expression was just as solemn.
The Hidden Cloud shinobi who had fought without fear of death last night—even seeming to seek it—had left a deep impression on him.
"If anger has clouded Hidden Cloud's judgment, that gives us an opportunity. We can use it to plan another ambush and wipe out their main force, crippling them once and for all." Orochimaru had a different view. He ran his tongue over his lips, his eyes cold.
"Orochimaru has a point. Hidden Cloud's morale may be high, but we still have the advantage in raw strength. If they want a decisive battle, then we'll give them one!" Mitokado Homura, Hokage Advisor and staff officer, agreed. His fighting spirit had yet to fade completely.
"But fighting like that will cost too many lives," Jiraiya said hesitantly.
"Jiraiya, at this stage of the war, stop worrying about casualties! We should be thinking about how to win. If we can win and crush Hidden Cloud once and for all, we'll be able to recover and rebuild for the next twenty or thirty years." Mitokado Homura scolded him sharply.
Jiraiya said no more. He simply nodded in silence, his gaze fixed on the sand table before him.
Before you continue