Half an hour later.
East of Black Stone Outpost.
Not far from the shoreline.
Several hundred Leaf ninjas were divided into three groups, arranged in an arc, hidden behind cover as they quietly waited for the enemy to arrive.
The entire defensive line was extremely quiet. Aside from the occasional sound of waves striking the beach, there was only the faint breathing of the crowd.
In sharp contrast was the slightly noisy crowd behind them.
These were all low- and mid-ranked ninjas.
At this moment, they were continuously carrying supplies out from inside the outpost—Kunai, Shuriken, Exploding Tags, and the like. Everything one could need was there.
Clearly, the Leaf Village had also spent a long time preparing for this battle.
Time passed, second by second, minute by minute.
After an unknown amount of time, someone suddenly shouted, "They're here!"
At that, everyone jolted and immediately focused with all their attention, looking toward the sea ahead.
They saw a Kirigakure warship sail out from the bay and enter everyone's field of vision, followed by a second, then a third...
In the end, a full dozen or so Kirigakure warships appeared on the sea.
Immediately, ninja from the Hyuga clan activated their Byakugan to observe the number and strength of the Mist Ninja on the ships, then reported the information upward for Sano Nobuhisa and the others to use as reference.
In the Ninja World, wars between ninja did not rely on strategy as heavily as wars between ordinary people, but their emphasis on intelligence was, if anything, even greater.
Only, in this world where great power belonged to the individual, intelligence was sometimes not that important. When you could not win, you still could not win.
It was precisely because of this that wars between ninja sometimes looked more