The next day.
Night.
In the drizzling rain, a large group of Leaf ninjas were advancing at high speed.
Qian lifted his head and swept a glance around. Everywhere was packed with figures; by his rough estimate, there had to be hundreds, maybe even a thousand people.
Aside from the ninja left behind to guard the Main Camp and the frontline strongholds, Orochimaru had mobilized almost every ninja he could.
That alone showed just how massive this operation was!
It was not until noon today that Qian had received the mission notice and learned that the objective this time was to raid one of Iwagakure's strongholds.
Since Orochimaru was going to such great lengths, naturally he could not be targeting an ordinary stronghold.
In fact, this stronghold was Iwagakure's largest supply transfer center in the Rain Country, responsible for providing all kinds of supplies to two-thirds of the battlefield.
Once this stronghold fell, Iwagakure could forget about organizing any decent offensive for the next month or two.
Only now did Qian faintly understand why Orochimaru had previously ordered them to launch an all-out offensive across the front.
First, he had probably wanted to force Iwagakure to dispatch manpower to the front line through a method that would leave both sides wounded, thereby emptying out their rear and paving the way for the current operation.
This was an open scheme. Even if Iwagakure sensed that something was wrong, they still had to send more men to the front line, or Orochimaru would absolutely launch a second full-scale offensive.
At that point, what began as a feint might very well become real, pushing the battle line toward Iwagakure's side.
If that happened, the situation would become even more unfavorable.
So Iwagakure could only dispatch manpower to the front line to make up