Reinforcements

Aoba had never gone all out. In truth, if he entered Sage Mode, he would have been more than capable of tearing through the Cloud Shinobi before him.

In Sage Mode, the power of every attack he made would double outright. Ordinary shinobi simply could not contend with it. It was practically the bane of those brutish Cloud Shinobi.

But in reality, he did not dare.

Just as he had told Anko, they had already completed their mission beyond expectations. Not the mission of transporting supplies, but the mission of serving as bait.

With the perception granted by Wind Release, Aoba could clearly sense that two enemies in the distant forest had yet to make a move.

Of those two, Aoba was very familiar with one of them. That person was the Fourth Raikage. As for the other, although Aoba had not seen his face, he had identified him from afar.

That was a chakra signature as vast as a volcano. He was the Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki.

Compared to the Kage of the other villages, the Raikage was arguably the one who enjoyed fighting personally the most. He had cultivated the Lightning Release Chakra Mode to an extremely profound level, possessed extraordinary stamina, and was a complete battle maniac.

Unlike Konoha's Third Hokage, who would never casually take action unless someone locked him in a cage...

Aoba was not afraid of the Raikage now. The man was immensely powerful, but if Aoba entered Sage Mode, he might not be much weaker. Even if he could not win, he was confident he could escape from the Raikage.

What he truly feared was the Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki.

He was a Perfect Jinchūriki, the kind who could freely wield a Tailed Beast's power. More importantly, Aoba remembered that Tailed Beasts could sense Natural Energy.

Unless it came down to the wire, Aoba did not want to reveal Senjutsu as his trump card. That was why he had not used Sage Mode.

He was waiting for Konoha's reinforcements. The Third Hokage was terrible in every way, but in certain situations, he still had one useful trait. Generally speaking, he had at least a little shame.

That was completely different from Danzo. That bastard was utterly shameless.

Konoha's side was struggling to hold on. Aside from Aoba and Anko, who could still handle things with ease, everyone else had fallen into a bitter battle.

Of the thirty-man team, nearly half had already been killed or wounded after five minutes of fighting.

The survivors gathered together and used combination ninjutsu to barely hold back the Cloud Shinobi's assault. But chakra was limited. At most, they could hold out for another five minutes before losing all ability to resist.

Anko had even begun to despair.

"How is this possible? This is the heartland of the Land of Fire, territory completely controlled by Konoha. Why were we attacked in a place like this?"

"Because this is our mission."

Aoba's words struck Anko silent. She froze for a moment, then seemed to realize something as well.

"If we're bait, then the ANBU reinforcements should have arrived by now."

Aoba looked back down the road they had come from. He had actually already sensed a large number of shinobi approaching. But they had not entered the battle directly and were merely waiting nearby.

It seemed there were still plenty of people in Konoha who wanted to use this opportunity to purge Orochimaru's network of connections.

But at that moment, Aoba suddenly sensed a disturbance among the people behind them.

His perception merely used the wind to sense chakra within a certain range. It was far inferior to the Byakugan and Mind's Eye of the Kagura, so he had no idea what exactly was happening in the rear. He only sensed someone channeling chakra and rushing over.

From afar, he could see a conspicuous white-haired shinobi racing toward them at high speed.

It was Kakashi. Aoba smiled faintly. Judging by the situation, Kakashi had likely defied orders and forced his way here as reinforcements.

The two of them cut through the Cloud Shinobi blockade and joined up.

"What happened? You're the only one?"

"No, the situation is very bad. We anticipated that the enemy would ambush us, but we didn't expect the force they deployed to exceed what we could handle. So the rear decided to wait for reinforcements."

"...So the reason there are no reinforcements is because the reinforcements are waiting for reinforcements?"

"...More or less."

Aoba understood. The ANBU reinforcement force had probably detected the Raikage's presence. After all, a reinforcement force would certainly include a Sensory Division. It was only normal for them to notice him.

That was where things became awkward. They might have assembled a large number of elite shinobi as reinforcements, but the Hokage could not possibly come in person. Therefore, no one in the force could contend with someone on the Raikage's level.

So the commander had ordered them to keep waiting. The consequence was that they would simply watch Aoba and the others die.

"Konoha still has someone who can fight the Raikage? Are you waiting for Lord Hokage?"

"...Lord Hokage did not deploy. But Lord Jiraiya is already on his way."

"Jiraiya? That'll do."

Aoba did not actually relax. Jiraiya was certainly strong. If he entered Sage Mode, there were not many people in the current Shinobi World who could defeat him.

But he could not possibly fight the Raikage and the Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki at the same time. And Konoha's Jinchūriki had not yet become a fighting force.

For one thing, if the battle became too intense and the Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki fired a Tailed Beast Ball at everyone, they would be completely finished.

Under normal circumstances, the major ninja villages treated Tailed Beasts as strategic weapons and would not lightly use Tailed Beast Balls. The consequences of those things were destructive, comparable to nuclear weapons.

If one village used them, the others would use them too. After a few Tailed Beast Balls, the Five Great Ninja Villages would become the Five Great Basins.

But that meant nothing in front of Kumogakure. Those mad dogs would really use them if given the chance. That was why Aoba did not think highly of the current situation.

To put it bluntly, Konoha was still too weak. There were too few experts capable of standing on their own.

Kakashi's arrival forced the reinforcement force in the rear to join the battle ahead of schedule. At the same time, the long-hidden Raikage and Eight-Tails' Jinchūriki finally revealed themselves.

This so-called bait operation had actually been a two-way trap.

Konoha had deliberately leaked the news that this team was transporting important supplies, with Aoba, a sworn enemy of the Cloud Shinobi, among them. They wanted to lure the Cloud Shinobi into dispatching an elite force for an ambush.

At the same time, Konoha had gathered a large force and prepared to swoop in afterward, swallowing this Cloud Shinobi elite unit in one bite.

In the end, they had caught the fish. But it was a little too big, and the line could not hold.

Aoba glanced at the reinforcements.

Kakashi, Might Guy, and a large number of elite ANBU and Root shinobi. Among those he recognized were Gekko Hayate, Namiashi Raidō, and several other familiar figures.

When Aoba saw Might Guy, he finally let out a sigh of relief. With him here, today should not be a problem.

Yet Aoba also felt some regret. If Jiraiya could not arrive in time, Might Guy might become a one-time legend today.