Chapter 90 – Desperate Counterattack
(Double Length Chapter)
Inside the temporary cave stronghold, the atmosphere was heavy and suffocating.
Members of both squads had gathered here.
Deep within the hastily expanded section of the cave, Taichi worked alone, treating Hatake Sakumo's injuries.
The most critical wound was the piercing injury through Sakumo's shoulder. Using a chakra scalpel, Taichi precisely excised necrotic tissue that had long since died. Every movement was careful, meticulous—yet decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
Moments later, the soft green glow of Mystical Palm Technique followed, stimulating rapid cell division and accelerating the healing process.
At this point, any talk of "burning life potential" was complete nonsense.
You had to survive first—only then was there a future.
Once the most severe injury was stabilized, Taichi didn't dare pause for even a second. Sweat soaked into his bangs, dripping down his face, but he had no time to wipe it away.
He immediately turned to the countless wounds covering Sakumo's body—injuries that had worsened due to prolonged lack of treatment. Many were swollen, festering, and emitting a nauseating stench. If they'd been left any longer, Sakumo could have died from infection alone, which would have been a tragic farce.
---
While Taichi worked inside the cave, Captain Yamaguchi, Minato, and the others remained busy outside.
Pooling all available resources, they laid traps of varying sizes around the temporary camp, hoping to delay the enemy's advance.
Minato also secretly embedded several Flying Thunder God kunai around the cave's perimeter, preparing an unpleasant surprise for their pursuers.
"Minato," Captain Yamaguchi asked, glancing toward the cave entrance hidden behind a concealment barrier, "how bad are Sakumo-senpai's injuries?"
"Extremely serious," Minato replied gravely. "I checked him briefly when Taichi and Makoto brought him back. Ordinary medical ninjutsu wouldn't be enough to save him. I'm not sure how far Taichi's medical skills can go."
Minato's heart was heavy—if the White Fang of Konoha were to die here, the loss to the village would be immeasurable.
But after hearing Minato's assessment, Captain Yamaguchi actually relaxed.
He had personally witnessed Taichi's medical prowess. As long as Sakumo wasn't already beyond saving, this situation was well within Taichi's capabilities.
"Then there's no need to worry," Yamaguchi said calmly. "Taichi has pulled people back from the brink of death before."
Minato froze in surprise—it was the first time he'd heard this. Relief slowly replaced his concern.
Once the preparations were complete, everyone took positions to rest.
They all knew a brutal battle was imminent. Every second now was precious—time to restore stamina and chakra.
---
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!
A deafening chain of explosions tore through the silence.
Flames shot skyward. Smoke billowed violently.
The explosive tag traps had been triggered.
The thunderous blasts instantly alerted everyone. The group snapped into formation as planned—both captains at the front, Yōhei slightly behind in the center, the remaining four guarding the cave entrance. Makoto's three ninja hounds prowled restlessly around the perimeter.
As the explosions faded, fifteen figures emerged from the forest.
Four of them staggered forward, their clothes scorched and torn, bodies visibly injured—clear victims of the traps.
The Konoha and Cloud forces stood facing each other across roughly twenty meters of open ground.
No one spoke. No one moved.
The Cloud ANBU were in a foul mood. They had already lost comrades earlier—and now, before even engaging, four more had been wounded by traps.
While the injuries weren't fatal, combat effectiveness had clearly dropped. Worse still, morale had taken a direct hit.
The Cloud platoon leader studied the Konoha formation carefully.
So they're buying time for treatment…
That much was obvious. After days of pursuit, they knew exactly how badly wounded Sakumo was. Without rescue, he would've died on his own eventually.
As they continued observing, something felt off.
The two Konoha jōnin at the front didn't match the profiles they'd predicted—no obvious taijutsu monster, no blade-specialist.
The Cloud jōnin exchanged glances.
Konoha has hidden forces. Stay sharp.
---
"Konoha shinobi," the platoon leader barked, "hand over Hatake Sakumo! He assassinated our village's high-ranking officials. We act under the Raikage's direct orders!"
Minato responded instantly, unfazed.
"Then your village's intelligence network is deeply flawed," he shot back coldly.
"If we fail to return today, the unsavory deeds Cloud has committed will be exposed to the entire shinobi world. At that point, I wonder how your village will explain itself."
It was a bluff—but even a moment of hesitation would be worth it.
The Cloud leader realized intimidation wouldn't work. Worse, his own troops were wavering.
He gave up on words.
With a sharp gesture, four squad leaders led their units forward, launching a full assault. The platoon leader stayed back, guarding against the hidden taijutsu specialists he suspected.
---
Seeing the enemy charge, Captain Yamaguchi unleashed his full strength.
His hands blurred.
Earth Release: Earth Flow River!
Chakra surged through the ground. The terrain transformed instantly into a roaring torrent of mud that flooded forward. Five charging Cloud chūnin were caught immediately, trapped in the viscous flow.
Yamaguchi's seals shifted again.
Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet!
A massive dragon head burst from the ground, spewing dense earthen projectiles toward the scattering enemies.
Beside him, Minato mirrored the attack perfectly.
Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!
Roaring flames fused with the earth bullets, amplifying their destructive power dramatically.
The Cloud forces were completely caught off guard.
The four jōnin barely managed to evade the barrage—but the chūnin weren't so lucky. Charging too aggressively, they had no chance to avoid such wide-area techniques.
Even those who survived were forced to burn through their trump cards at great cost.
Behind the front line, Yōhei and Saori stared in shock.
They knew their captain was skilled in Earth Release—but they had never imagined it was this devastating.
The Cloud chūnin had been nearly wiped out by the combined assault, temporarily neutralized. But the jōnin broke through, each engaging Minato or Yamaguchi directly. Two others bypassed them entirely, charging toward Konoha's rear line.
The Cloud platoon leader finally lost his restraint.
Casualties piled up too fast.
He burst forward at full speed, targeting Yamaguchi—whom he judged the greatest threat.
Already locked in combat, Yamaguchi felt the pressure skyrocket as the leader joined in. Within a few exchanges, he began taking injuries.
The situation at the rear was even worse.
Five Konoha shinobi were struggling desperately against two Cloud jōnin. Without Makoto's three dogs throwing themselves into reckless support attacks, casualties would have already occurred.
Even so, Saori and Nakamura Rei were already bleeding from multiple wounds.
The battlefield teetered on the brink of collapse.
Yōhei had been slashed across the back, the wound so deep that bone was visible.
Even so, he remained standing in front of Saori, refusing to retreat—because most of Saori's injuries had been taken while shielding him.
The two tomoe in Yōhei's eyes spun wildly as he pushed his chakra to its limit, desperately searching for even the slightest opening in the enemy's movements.
But the gap in strength was simply too great.
As the situation grew increasingly dire, the Cloud Village chūnin who had barely survived the earlier ninjutsu—bloodied and twisted with rage—finally struggled free and prepared to rejoin the battle.
A suffocating sense of despair spread across the battlefield.
---
At the critical moment—
Minato, who had been locked in combat with a jōnin, vanished without warning.
Not retreated.
Not dodged.
He was simply… gone.
In the very next instant, he reappeared at the side of a Cloud jōnin who was mid-swing, stabbing toward Inuzuka Makoto.
Minato's kunai was already resting against the man's neck.
Using the jōnin's own forward momentum, Minato calmly pushed the blade in.
"Pfft."
The sound of steel cutting flesh was soft—almost inaudible.
Yet to everyone present, it exploded like thunder.
The Cloud jōnin's charge stopped dead. Blood erupted from his throat, disbelief frozen in his eyes.
Where did he go?
—was the stunned thought of the jōnin who had been fighting Minato.
When did he get here?
—was the final thought of the man whose throat had just been cut.
For an instant, the entire battlefield froze.
No one moved.
This wasn't normal Body Flicker.
Not even close.
A deep, instinctive fear spread through the Cloud forces. Unclear about what had just happened, none of them dared to attack.
The Cloud chūnin who had just escaped danger instinctively retreated behind their captain.
An eerie silence fell.
---
Before the battle had begun, Minato had secretly given every ally a Flying Thunder God kunai.
This moment was exactly why.
It wasn't that Minato had been holding back—he had only mastered the technique recently, and even now, using it in real combat was risky. That he'd succeeded just now was as much fortune as skill.
---
Just as the standoff resumed, the concealed barrier at the cave entrance rippled—and vanished.
All eyes turned toward the cave.
A figure slowly stepped out of the darkness.
First, boots touched sunlight.
Then a short blade came into view.
Finally, white hair—sharp eyes—an imposing presence.
Hatake Sakumo.
"The White Fang of Konoha."
"Senpai! Your injuries—!"
Minato was the first to react, flashing to Sakumo's side, his eyes scanning the bandage-wrapped upper body in concern.
The other Konoha shinobi quickly gathered near the cave entrance.
But the Cloud forces felt none of that relief.
Two Konoha jōnin had already proven terrifying—and now the very man they'd been hunting was standing again.
If the balance shifted any further, they wouldn't just lose—they'd be wiped out.
"Damn it… they even brought a medical ninja this strong."
Remembering the village's instructions—retreat if victory is impossible—the Cloud platoon leader made a decisive call.
"Take the wounded. Retrieve the dead.
We withdraw."
The squad leaders didn't argue. Silently, they gathered the fallen and retreated step by step into the forest.
Captain Yamaguchi instinctively moved to stop them—but Minato caught his eye and subtly shook his head.
Yamaguchi hesitated, then trusted Minato's judgment.
The moment the Cloud forces disappeared from sight—
Sakumo collapsed.
His knees buckled. His body slumped forward, cold sweat pouring down his face as he gasped for breath.
Only then did everyone understand.
That had been a bluff—a gamble with his life.
Taichi emerged from the cave moments later, visibly exhausted. Continuous high-level medical ninjutsu had drained him heavily—his condition was barely better than Sakumo's.
"We need to recover quickly and leave immediately," Minato ordered while supporting Sakumo.
"If Cloud realizes what really happened, they'll come back."
No one argued.
Each person swallowed a soldier pill, forcing their bodies to recover faster.
Taichi still couldn't rest.
Even without chakra-based healing, he carried plenty of medical supplies. Everyone present—aside from the two jōnin—was injured. Even the three ninja dogs were badly hurt.
Treating this many wounded… was no small task.
When Taichi reached Yōhei, the normally cheerful boy was pale as a sheet, lips tinged blue from blood loss.
The wound on his back made Taichi suck in a sharp breath.
Another centimeter—and his spine would have been severed.
And yet, Yōhei hadn't made a sound.
"Well?" Yōhei joked weakly. "That's my medal of honor."
"If it were any bigger," Taichi replied grimly, "I wouldn't be healing you at all."
Even now, Yōhei could joke.
Taichi couldn't help but admire him—his hands already glowing with the last of his chakra as Mystical Palm Technique activated.
This wasn't a wound ordinary treatment could fix.
Meanwhile, Minato and Captain Yamaguchi spoke with Sakumo, reconstructing what had happened.
The truth soon became clear.
Sakumo had run straight into the Raikage and his guard while completing the assassination. The mission succeeded—but he was gravely wounded and forced to flee.
Then came six straight days of pursuit by Cloud ANBU.
But when timelines were compared, something was wrong.
There was a two-day discrepancy.
The Cloud forces should have received their withdrawal order two days ago.
Yet the pursuit had continued until just now.
That meant only two possibilities:
Either Konoha's intelligence had catastrophically failed—
or Cloud had deliberately delayed the order, attempting to kill Sakumo before backing off.
Either way, this demanded answers.
After a brief rest, the group set out immediately.
This place was far too dangerous to linger.
They advanced in a guarded formation, Makoto scouting ahead with Kuromaru. The other dogs were injured—otherwise reconnaissance would have been far safer.
At last, they crossed into the Land of Hot Water.
Only then did everyone finally breathe easier.
Exhausted and wounded, all they wanted was a safe place to rest.
---
Then—
BOOM!
A chain of explosions erupted ahead.
Fire and shockwaves swallowed Makoto and Kuromaru whole.
Everyone froze.
Where Makoto had been—there was only fire.
"No!"
Yōhei screamed and charged forward.
Minato arrived an instant earlier, dispersing the flames with a powerful gust of wind.
What remained…
Were two charred bodies.
One large. One small.
No signs of life.
---
More than a dozen figures closed in from all sides.
Their clothing was mismatched. Their chakra signatures uneven.
Bounty hunters.
"Ha! So the White Fang really is here."
"And just like the intel said—badly wounded."
"We wouldn't dare face him at full strength… but now?"
"We have numbers."
"Six jōnin against two injured ones."
"Fifty million ryō… that head is mine!"
The battlefield filled with mocking voices.
Minato, Yamaguchi, and Sakumo steadied themselves instantly.
Taichi grabbed Yōhei before he could rush forward.
And then—
Taichi froze.
Yōhei's eyes.
The two tomoe were gone.
In their place—
Three tomoe.
---
"Too many enemies. Too many jōnin," Yamaguchi muttered. "How do we fight this?"
"At close range, it comes down to strength," Sakumo said grimly.
"At full health, I could have danced through them all. But now…"
Taichi stepped forward.
"They're focused on you three. They won't watch Yōhei or me closely."
He glanced at Yōhei.
"He's awakened the three-tomoe Sharingan."
The jōnin stared—awed, and pained.
A prodigy… forged by grief.
"…It might work," Minato said quietly.
They didn't hesitate.
Before the bounty hunters could finish their intimidation—
Konoha struck first.
Earth Release: Earth Flow River!
Yamaguchi flooded the densest cluster of enemies, then followed with Earth Dragon Bullets, forcing two jōnin to engage him directly.
Minato didn't use ninjutsu this time.
He vanished in a blur—clashing with a jōnin in a storm of steel and speed.
Sakumo forced his battered body into motion, locking down another jōnin in a tense exchange.
The bounty hunters roared and surged forward, ignoring losses.
Their target was clear.
Hatake Sakumo.
The White Fang's head—
Was worth fifty million ryō.
And they meant to claim it.