"My lord, the Fifth Division currently has around nine thousand surviving ninja!"
Nine thousand?!
Such heavy losses!
Ōnoki remembered that the Fifth Division had numbered eighteen thousand ninja before the war began-or had it been nineteen thousand?
Now, only nine thousand remained.
That meant the Fifth Division had suffered casualties of over half its ninja in this battle.
"Why were the casualties so high?"
Ōnoki did not quite understand. He already knew that the Fifth Division had not been at the Main Battlefield for very long.
Unlike the Third Division led by Kakashi, they had not been locked in a fight to the death with the enemy from the very beginning, which was why the Third Division had been wiped out.
"My lord, after the Fifth Division arrived as reinforcements, they disregarded their own casualties to rescue the Third Division as quickly as possible. Only by fighting with everything they had did they break through the enemy encirclement and successfully join up with the Third Division."
"After joining up, they came under frenzied attacks and pressure from the enemy. Even the Impure World Reincarnation Ninja appeared on the battlefield at that point, which was why their casualties were so severe."
After hearing his subordinate's explanation, Ōnoki immediately understood.
Thinking back to how he had led the Second Division in attacking the White Zetsu Army earlier, he could see why.
"What a shame. Even with Mifune and the Fifth Division fighting so desperately, they still failed to save many ninja from the Third Division."
"Fifteen thousand casualties in the Third Division and eight thousand in the Fifth Division. That already makes twenty-three thousand in total."
"And that doesn't even include the Second Division I led."
Ōnoki made a rough estimate. By his reckoning, since the Second Division had arrived relatively late,