Confrontation
Konoha's army collapsed far faster than Danzo had expected.
Torune's intelligence gathering was not particularly timely, after all. By the time Danzo arrived with his men, Konoha's forces had lost all organization. Even the ninja commanding the army in Orochimaru's place had been killed by Pakura.
Danzo gave it his all this time.
First, he summoned Baku to bolster the Konoha ninjas' morale. Then he personally unleashed an S-rank Wind Release technique, stopping the pursuing Suna Shinobi army.
Seeing roughly a thousand men escape to his side, Danzo felt some regret, but still thought the trip had been worthwhile.
Things went just as he had expected: he successfully rescued these ninjas.
The Suna Shinobi were shocked to see Konoha reinforcements suddenly appear.
When they saw that Danzo was leading them himself, they immediately backed off.
Even Pakura did not dare face Danzo's attacks head-on.
Under the protection of the five hundred fresh troops Danzo had brought, the thousand-odd routed soldiers soon reformed their ranks.
But Danzo did not lead them back into battle. Instead, he retreated swiftly.
At the same time, he sent a request for reinforcements to Hiruzen Sarutobi in Konoha.
The Suna Shinobi did not pursue. Seeing Danzo retreat, Pakura led her army away to coordinate with the Iwa Shinobi.
She intended to keep Orochimaru from escaping.
Of course, her idea was rather naive. Once Orochimaru saw that Konoha's army had disengaged, he stopped tangling with the Iwa Shinobi. With Manda covering his retreat, he successfully slipped underground and escaped.
Still, neither the Suna Shinobi nor the Iwa Shinobi felt too disappointed.
They had already achieved their strategic objective, eliminating roughly a thousand Konoha Ninja.
They had also captured all of Konoha's supplies at this camp.
Konoha had brought a great deal on its last expedition to