About a few minutes later, the Mist Ninja on the battlefield began to retreat in an orderly fashion.
At the same time, word came from Nara Akimitsu that the Mist Ninja force they had been pursuing had changed direction and was no longer advancing toward Aburatsu Port.
Putting the two together, Qian quickly guessed the Mist Village's plan. The other side had likely realized this place could no longer be held, so they were preparing to withdraw.
Still, just in case, he flew into the sky, preparing to observe the situation from a broader view.
The facts proved that the Mist Village was not playing any tricks. They really were preparing to withdraw.
Flying in the sky east of Aburatsu Port, Qian gazed into the distance.
He could see several Mist Village warships racing over the sea.
Clearly, they were preparing to pick up the Mist Ninja here, as well as the Mist Village force whose attack on the Konoha camp had failed.
However, judging by the timing of their appearance, they had obviously been prepared in advance.
One had to know that for some time now, to prevent their warships from being sabotaged by Konoha infiltration squads, they had all been docked at a Land of Waves port on the other side of the Strait.
Konoha had built a Forward Base there, and it was just large enough to dock big warships.
But coming from there, even warships would need a considerable amount of time. There was no way they could arrive this quickly.
In other words, these Mist Village warships must have come nearby long ago, and now that they had received the order, they had appeared at once.
From this, it was clear that even though the Mist Village had taken the initiative to launch this decisive