Just as Yechen continued his slaughter, Iwagakure actually withdrew its troops.
It was not just on their side. The Rock Ninja attacking the mountain to the north and those besieging the Willow Town Stronghold below also withdrew.
Standing atop the mountain, Yechen watched the Rock Ninja retreat in orderly ranks in the moonlight. He knew this battle was far from over.
Clearly, the Rock Ninja had launched an all-out assault intending to wipe them out, but Minato Namikaze's arrival had disrupted their plans.
After several charges, they realized they could not achieve their objective. To avoid needless casualties, they had no choice but to retreat.
There would likely be no more attacks on this scale for quite some time.
As long as the Rock Ninja did not try to finish them off in one stroke, infiltration by small squads would be far more effective for shinobi than large-scale battles.
But without a doubt, this was bad news for Yechen.
Only the chaos of large-scale battles offered him opportunities to profit. Minor skirmishes made it difficult to take advantage of the confusion.
After watching for a while, Yechen looked away and left his subordinates to clean up the battlefield, returning to his tent to continue training.
Before long, it was the following morning.
Although the Rock Ninja forces had withdrawn, Konoha did not relax in the slightest. Patrols and defensive units remained on high alert, ready for the next battle at any moment.
As it turned out, their vigilance was justified.
Sure enough, shortly after the morning passed, the Rock Ninja launched an attack.
Their approach was much as Yechen had predicted: they attacked the Willow Town Stronghold in small squads.
Seeing this, Yechen did not take action himself. He simply sent out several squads to meet them.
It was not