The Shock in Kirigakure

The Mist Ninja, forced to retreat under pursuit,

couldn't mount any effective counterattacks.

The Mist Ninja had no choice but to fall back.

They couldn't hope to inflict significant losses on the pursuing Snow Ninja. Just managing to slow their advance to some extent was already a tremendous victory. They couldn't count on the Mist Ninja in the Land of Rainbow at all. Lang Xing's death right at the start had caused the command system of the main Mist Ninja force to collapse completely. They still couldn't contact Ao, their overall commander. The Mist Ninja force in the Land of Rainbow had been utterly routed. Of the nearly two thousand troops on the front line, casualties reached a staggering seventy percent. The Snow Ninja tallied the dead during their pursuit. Though they couldn't arrive at an exact figure, they estimated that the number had reached a terrifying thousand or more!

Even if most of them were only lower- and middle-ranked ninja,

many Jonin had barely managed to escape.

But such a death toll still dealt a tremendous blow to Kirigakure.

Then there were another two or three hundred Mist Ninja who had been captured, not to mention those still missing. Including the wounded who had retreated with them, fewer than six hundred Mist Ninja from the Land of Rainbow had made it back to the territory of the Land of Water. More than half of them were injured, and some might even die from their wounds if they didn't receive treatment in time.

They had only managed to retreat safely because a number of Mist Ninja had met them at the border of the Land of Water, and because Naruto had ordered his forces not to pursue them too far.

The Mist Ninja in the Land of the Sea,

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