On the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water, the Hidden Cloud's army was encamped.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
A series of piercing sounds cut through the air as the Fourth Raikage arrived at the camp, accompanied by Yugito, Darui, and dozens of others.
"Lord Raikage!"
Several Hidden Cloud Jonin were already waiting outside the camp.
Dawn was just breaking. The Hidden Cloud encampment still bore the scars of battle, and the faces of the Jonin were etched with exhaustion.
"Did Konoha attack last night?" The Fourth Raikage swept his gaze across the camp and the assembled Jonin, his voice deep and resonant.
"Yes, Lord Raikage! Shortly after Yugito-sama left yesterday, Konoha's Orochimaru led an attack on the camp. We suffered hundreds of casualties," one of the Jonin replied respectfully, stepping forward.
Yugito frowned, about to speak, but the Fourth Raikage stopped her with a raised hand. He gave a curt order: "Withdraw!"
"Yes, sir!"
The assembled ninja were stunned. After a moment's pause, the Jonin bowed and repeated the order. It was clear from their voices that the Hidden Cloud ninja were weary of the fighting.
After the Jonin left to carry out his orders, Yugito couldn't contain her frustration. "Lord Raikage, are we simply giving up? Konoha is on the verge of collapse!" Yugito, the perfect Jinchuriki of the Hidden Cloud, was proud and unwilling to accept such an outcome.
"Konoha is on the verge of collapse, and so are we! You saw the damage that Anbu Squad 11's four members inflicted yesterday. We lost at least a dozen elite Jonin. And on Konoha's side, Orochimaru and Jiraiya, their two high-level combatants, are still unharmed. Continuing to wear ourselves down against Konoha serves no purpose. That old geezer Oonoki wants to swoop in and take advantage, but I won't let him!"
The Fourth Raikage's eyes were sharp, his voice booming with suppressed anger. When he spoke of Oonoki, his voice was filled with hatred and caution. During the Third Shinobi World War, it was that old geezer Oonoki who had used a scheme to exhaust and kill his father, the Third Raikage.
As the leader of a village, the Fourth Raikage, A, was no brainless brute. While the Hidden Cloud had initiated the fight with Konoha, the underlying cause was the deaths of Konoha's Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Kushina Uzumaki. Now, seeing that Konoha was not as weak as they had imagined, there was no need to continue this costly conflict.
By noon that day, the thousands-strong Hidden Cloud army had retreated from the battlefield, withdrawing from the border of the Land of Hot Water.
Inside the Konoha army's encampment, Tatsuya strode into Orochimaru's command tent. After a night of rest, and consuming a massive amount of food to convert into life energy, Tatsuya's injuries had healed by seventy to eighty percent.
"Orochimaru-sama!" Tatsuya bowed respectfully upon entering the tent.
As the commander of the ninja army, Orochimaru's tent was unusually bare and cold.
"Tatsuya-kun, why aren't you over there enjoying your hero's welcome? What brings you here?" Orochimaru's eyes flickered with an unusual light as he regarded Tatsuya.
Tatsuya replied respectfully, "I came to thank you, Orochimaru-sama. Without your help, we likely wouldn't have made it back."
Orochimaru smiled faintly, unconcerned. "You needn't thank me. I simply didn't want to see something… interesting… come to an end." His tone was casual, his expression unchanging.
He paused, his eyes narrowing as he stared at Tatsuya, his snake-like tongue flicking across his lips. "Tatsuya-kun, I must say, your growth rate has truly exceeded my expectations. The Butterfly Transformation Jutsu… even in the Akimichi clan's history, few have mastered that secret technique."
Tatsuya lowered his head slightly. "It was merely a stroke of luck."
"Heh… luck?" Orochimaru's lips curled into an inscrutable smile.
Tatsuya keenly noticed Orochimaru's gaze linger for a moment on the streaks of grey-white hair at his temples.
Silence fell between the two for several minutes before Tatsuya slowly raised his head, meeting Orochimaru's gaze with a determined voice. "Orochimaru-sama, I want to know who was behind Anbu Squad 11's mission."
"It's just the machinations of outdated politicians. If you possess sufficient strength, why bother with such things?" Orochimaru replied, his words seemingly unrelated to the question, yet full of intrigue.
Tatsuya understood. He bowed slightly to Orochimaru and turned to leave.
"Tatsuya-kun, just how many abilities do you still have hidden? You truly are a fascinating… junior," Orochimaru murmured softly to himself, watching Tatsuya's retreating back.
Stepping out of the tent, Tatsuya looked up at the starlit sky. A flicker of both grim determination and wistful melancholy passed through his eyes. Some people, in the end, had disappointed him.
In their conversation, Orochimaru had seemingly said nothing, yet he had clearly revealed the answer Tatsuya sought. The battle in the valley… there were simply too many suspicious points. The absurdity of the mission, combined with so many coincidences, made it hard not to be suspicious. From the outcome, Konoha was undoubtedly the ultimate beneficiary.
In his previous life, the ninja world was merely an exciting fictional world to Tatsuya. Separated by a screen and the pages of a book, many things were hazy and indistinct to the reader, like flowers viewed through a fog. But now, immersed in this world, he had a tangible understanding of many things. He had reached a conclusion about the seemingly benevolent and righteous old man.
It seems I need to accelerate my plans. Tatsuya clenched his fists, a silent resolve hardening in his heart.
A few days later, with the complete withdrawal of the Hidden Cloud's army, the Konoha ninja forces stationed on the northeastern border of the Land of Fire also began to retreat. The two great ninja villages had formally declared a truce.
Among the returning troops, the four members of Anbu Squad 11, having received initial treatment, also began their journey back to Konoha. Of the four, only Tatsuya, whose injuries had healed the fastest, could walk independently. His condition had essentially returned to its peak state before the battle. The lifespan lost due to twice forcing the use of the Body Flicker secret technique had also been partially replenished by Tatsuya's relentless extraction of life energy from food. In just a few short days, the grey-white hairs at his temples showed signs of gradually returning to black.
Kakashi, Shisui, and Guy, however, could only lie on stretchers. Kakashi's injuries, thanks to the army's medical ninjas, had healed somewhat, and he only needed a period of rest to recover fully. Shisui and Guy's conditions were more severe. The army's medical ninjas could only temporarily stabilize their injuries and prevent them from worsening. Whether they could fully recover was still uncertain.
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