"My lord, aren't we pursuing them?" A Konoha higher-up behind White Fang asked in a low voice.
"No need! Our primary target is the main Mist Ninja force. Turn immediately toward the eastern forest! We must intercept the Mist Ninja main force!"
After saying that, White Fang led the Konoha Shinobi Army behind him in a mad dash toward the forest directly east.
What exactly was Konoha's plan? Why had White Fang led the troops in setting an ambush within Jianmen Pass? After the plan was exposed, why had Orochimaru appeared in the forest in time to battle seventy thousand Mist Ninja? Why had Konoha kept such a close eye on the Mist Ninja main force, even letting the Seven Ninja Swordsmen go for their sake?
To understand the whole story, one had to start from the beginning. Five days earlier, on the very day Nawaki began negotiations with Kumogakure, Konoha's higher-ups received Nawaki's secret letter of warning and decided to heed his advice. They secretly dispatched one hundred and fifty thousand shinobi to the southern part of the Land of Fire to guard against a surprise attack by Kirigakure! The remaining one hundred thousand shinobi stayed at Konoha headquarters to defend the center.
Because this great war had mobilized a massive number of troops, Konoha was facing an unprecedented manpower shortage. Thus, most of the one hundred thousand shinobi left behind at headquarters were young, newly trained teenage shinobi. The one hundred and fifty thousand sent out included a great many members of shinobi clans. Even direct-line and main-house members of powerful clans like Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuga Hiashi had taken to the battlefield. It was clear that Konoha was prepared to stake everything it had.
At that point, apart from the older generation of higher-ups stationed at