Reinforcements and the End

"They're going to run."

"Stop them."

"Don't let them get away!"

"."

Voices rang out across the battlefield one after another.

Clearly, Qian was not the only one who had noticed the Rock Ninja's intentions.

Some people tried to stop them, but Qian remained unmoved.

He had already contributed enough to this battle. Now that things were finally about to settle down, he really did not want to stir up more trouble.

However, since Iwagakure had chosen to retreat, that meant the Leaf's reinforcements had already arrived, or were not far away.

As that thought crossed his mind, a colossal figure suddenly emerged from the cliffs in the distance.

It was a giant venomous snake with horns on its head and purple patterns covering its body, its savage eyes filled with the pressure of a top predator.

"Manda!"

Qian murmured.

That was right. This giant snake was none other than the Summoning Beast from Ryūchi Cave—Manda.

As for how Qian recognized it?

Simple. Standing on top of its head, between its two horns, was a sinister man with golden vertical pupils, purple eye shadow, and pale skin.

If not Orochimaru, then who else could it be?

With that, combined with the giant snake's appearance, its identity was easy to guess.

Barring any surprises, this was the first batch of reinforcements.

What Qian had not expected, however, was that Orochimaru would actually come in person.

After all, he was the overall commander of the Leaf forces on the Rain Country Battlefield. Leaving the Main Camp so rashly really was not something he should have done.

But once Qian thought of Orochimaru's strength, he understood.

As one of the Sannin, Orochimaru was absolutely no weaker than any Kage-level powerhouse.

With that kind of strength, who could possibly do anything to him in a hurry?

Besides, this place was not far from the Leaf's Main Camp in the Land of Rain. If Orochimaru really encountered an ambush, as long as he stalled for a little while, support would arrive very quickly.

In that case, briefly leaving the Main Camp was not much of an issue.

Moreover, with Manda here, Orochimaru could reach the battlefield in the shortest possible time and control the situation with overwhelming strength.

That way, he could not only buy time for the reinforcements that followed, but also reduce casualties on his own side.

Killing two birds with one stone—why not?

After that, things developed more or less as Qian had expected. The moment Orochimaru appeared, he held the field in check, and with just a few simple ninjutsu, he stopped more than a dozen Hidden Rock Jonin.

With that, plus the people stopped by the other Leaf Village Jonin, when it came to Jonin alone, more than half of the Jonin Iwagakure had sent in this attack were almost all kept behind.

In addition, several dozen Rock Hidden Chunin were also stopped.

Clearly, Orochimaru's personal arrival had exceeded Iwagakure's expectations and disrupted their plans.

Otherwise, since Iwagakure had come prepared, they should not have retreated so hastily.

That was right—hastily.

If not, how could so many people have been left behind?

That Signal Whistle just now should have been an order for an emergency retreat.

It was precisely because of that that after hearing the whistle, the Rock Hidden Chunin fighting him had turned pale, then hurriedly fled.

This was the role of a top-tier powerhouse. One person alone could change the course of a battle.

The Rock Ninja who had been so imposing just moments ago turned into homeless dogs in the blink of an eye, chased and driven away.

However, Qian had no interest in beating dogs while they were down. After confirming that the area around him was safe, he took ointment and bandages for treating external injuries from his Ninja Tool Pouch and began tending to his wounds on his own.

In the battle just now, although he had not suffered any serious injuries, he had quite a few superficial wounds. If he did not treat them as soon as possible, they might cause some trouble.

Tap, tap, tap—

A burst of footsteps approached.

Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko walked over from nearby.

Qian lifted his eyes and looked over, only to see that both of them had quite a few wounds as well, and their faces were deathly pale.

However, this was not caused by excessive blood loss, but because they had been frightened by the scene before them.

At this moment, severed limbs were scattered all over the battlefield. Blood and minced flesh were everywhere, and with the pained groans that sounded by their ears from time to time, being able to stay standing was already pretty good.

Qian swept a rough glance over the scene. On the Leaf's side, there were around two hundred surviving Low and Mid-Ranked Ninja, roughly two-thirds of their previous number.

That seemed like quite a lot, but one must not forget that this battle had only lasted a dozen minutes.

Moreover, those Rock Ninja had specifically targeted Genin to kill.

As a result, among the two hundred-plus survivors, most were Chunin. The death rate among Genin had definitely exceeded fifty percent.

And within that fifty percent, rookie Genin made up more than half.

Think about it: bodies all over the ground, most of them classmates you knew. What kind of feeling was that?

Qian was a little better off. He was not particularly familiar with those people, so it did not hit him as hard.

But Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko were different.

The former was good at socializing and had decent relationships with many classmates, while the latter was more attentive and remembered every single person.

With that, one could imagine how great the psychological pressure was.

"Qian, do you think we might die on the battlefield someday too?"

In the silence, Ryosuke suddenly spoke up and asked.

"No—"

Qian had just been about to say "we won't," but his mouth opened and no words came out.

As far as the Third Great Ninja War was concerned, its brutality was not inferior to any other ninja war.

Right now, it was only the early-to-middle stage of the war, and the casualty rate was not too high. But when Konoha was pushed back to the village gates, that would be what you called brutal!

Forget Low and Mid-Ranked Ninja—even Jonin died in swaths.

Qian could not even be certain he would make it safely to the end, so what right did he have to tell Ryosuke that he would not die?

After a long silence, Qian said, "Don't overthink it. Just do your best to survive."

"Do my best to survive..."

Ryosuke murmured once, then said no more.

Time ticked by, second by second.

About five minutes later.

The second batch of reinforcements arrived.

This time, the ones who came were not only combat personnel, but also quite a number of Medical Ninja.

As the first village to establish a relatively complete system for training Medical Ninja, Konoha had more Medical Ninja than the other major ninja villages.

Because of that, the survival rate of wounded and disabled ninja far surpassed that of the other ninja villages.

Just like now, those Medical Ninja, under the protection of some combat ninja, quickly moved across the battlefield, using Medical Ninjutsu to treat the injured ninja.

Those with lighter injuries could recover most of the way on the spot, while those with heavier injuries could at least have their lives preserved for the time being.

Watching the superficial wounds on his body recover rapidly, Qian decided that no matter what, he had to learn a few Medical Ninjutsu in the future.

There was no way around it. Medical Ninjutsu was simply too convenient.

As long as one had enough Chakra, minor wounds and illnesses could be cured with ease.

Qian did not think he would avoid getting hurt in the future, so it was better to be prepared.

Of course, if he could raise his Physical Constitution attribute high enough to give his body a certain Self-healing ability, then he might not need Medical Ninjutsu.

But all of that was a matter for far in the future. The battlefield was so dangerous that he definitely had to learn one or two Medical Ninjutsu first for emergencies.

"All right!"

The Medical Ninja in front of him moved his hand away from Qian's shoulder and instructed, "Don't let it touch water these next few days, and don't do any strenuous exercise. It should fully recover in about three days."

"Thank you!"

Qian thanked him sincerely.

"You're welcome."

The Medical Ninja replied, then quickly walked toward another wounded person.