Encirclement and Blockade

Nawaki had deployed a meticulous plan with 190,000 troops to surround and annihilate 5,000 Cloud Ninja, catching them completely off guard. This was no longer a one-sided crushing victory, but a massacre. Thus, Nawaki believed this war would surely proceed without a hitch.

And indeed, just as he had expected, the offensive on the outskirts of the city went extremely smoothly. The four commanders Nawaki had chosen all excelled at large-scale frontal warfare. Tsunade and Jiraiya had the assistance of their summoned beasts, while Kushina and Dan Katō directly transformed into gigantic chakra beasts. All four possessed strategic-level combat power, sweeping through the battlefield with unstoppable force. Kumogakure's outer forces crumbled at the first blow. With the cooperation of the armies under their command, the Cloud Ninja's hidden sentries and patrol units were crushed with devastating ease.

The four remembered Nawaki's orders and did not pursue the fleeing enemies. Instead, they steadily tightened the encirclement, carefully searching every inch of ground within it. Any trace of a living creature was mercilessly eliminated, and even the small animals within ten miles of the city's outskirts suffered an undeserved calamity.

Nawaki's caution had not been unnecessary. During the army's thorough search, they truly found several Cloud Ninja attempting to slip through using the Transformation Technique, as well as quite a few intelligence operatives hiding in the shadows and large numbers of ninja beasts trying to escape with intelligence. If these people had been overlooked, Kumogakure would soon have learned the details of Konoha's Shinobi Army. If Nawaki's true strength were exposed, it would be extremely detrimental to the next stage of his plan.

Nawaki had already defeated two thousand Cloud Ninja in the city, so there could have been no more than three thousand troops outside the city. Split across four directions,