Sasori went to join Tsuruichi at the ambush position.
"Understood," Tsuruichi nodded with genuine seriousness.
It was clear that Yuji and Sasori had completed their mission brilliantly, eliminating the risks posed by the Leaf Village's advance reconnaissance team before it could deliver its full intelligence.
Before leaving, Yuji felt a lingering unease and made a point of emphasizing several things.
"Remember, the ambush is only meant to use traps and dispersed squads to contain the enemy and inflict casualties. Do not fight them to the death.
The surrounding mountainous terrain is complex and well-suited for guerrilla warfare, but you are facing a large Leaf Village army and that is genuinely dangerous.
Personnel must remain dispersed at all times. If they cluster together, they risk being surrounded and suffering heavy losses in a short window."
He continued.
"Follow the pre-planned retreat routes, harassing them while pulling back, then rejoin the rear forces.
The goal is to slow their advance to the border and give the intelligence personnel adequate time."
"Passing the information is the most critical element."
"Your mission is to ensure that the main Konoha army arrives at the battlefield in poor condition. Do not aim to maximize kills.
Ensure that Konoha's main army can still transmit information back and maintain a certain survival rate. That is the strategic objective."
He emphasized this point multiple times.
"Understood," Tsuruichi said in a low voice, seeing the concern clearly written on Yuji's face. "Rest assured. I will execute your tactical arrangements and complete the strategic mission."
Afterward, the two of them returned to the border first.
The worry was not unfounded. Even with carefully planned tactics, execution in the field ultimately depended on individual willpower and discipline.
The Sand Village and Konoha had a long-standing feud, and combined with the general customs of the ninja world, there was a very real possibility that once battle erupted, some Sand Village members would act on impulse, engaging recklessly or pursuing kills beyond the strategic framework, causing the entire operation to collapse.
Even if the operation succeeded partially, it might still fall short of the strategic standard required.
What the Sand Village needed was not a high kill count against Konoha. What the Sand Village needed was to make Konoha suffer in a specific, calculated way.
Their morale and fighting spirit needed to be damaged before they even entered the main battlefield. A thorough picture of the Leaf Village's army deployment also needed to be assembled.
If neither of these two objectives was well executed, the Sand Village's position in the battles ahead would be considerably more difficult.
On the other side, Namikaze Minato and Nara Shikaku, after riding hard for more than half a day, finally rejoined the Leaf Village's main army.
A large army naturally did not move quickly. This was precisely why Minato and the others had been sent ahead to the border in advance.
Before engaging the Sand Village's force, the Leaf Village had wanted to gather as much battlefield intelligence as possible while simultaneously relying on a small elite group to clear obstacles or enemy ambushes from the main army's path.
That plan had failed.
Of six people sent out, only two had returned. And those who had been lost were among the village's key young talents. Yamanaka Inoichi and Inuzuka Tsume. Both next-generation heirs of their respective clans.
Minato and Shikaku stood side by side with their heads bowed before Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Shikaku's eyes had gone red. He was sobbing, unable to hold it back. Minato also looked heartbroken, and at the same time proactively moved to take responsibility for the mission's failure before Sarutobi could assign it.
"Blood Doctor Yuji and Akasuna no Sasori." Sarutobi Hiruzen, wearing a helmet and armor over a specially made battle uniform, frowned and murmured the names quietly. "It seems the Sand Village anticipated our reconnaissance and took measures against it."
He did not criticize Minato or Shikaku. This was war. They had already given everything for the village. The old man was heartbroken as well. But he could not allow his emotions to influence his judgment now.
"Minato. You did very well."
Sarutobi said it plainly, not as comfort. From everything Minato had described, he had given everything he had in that engagement. Sarutobi had a clear prior assessment of the combined strength of the six people he had sent. The praise was sincere.
At the very least, this engagement had given Konoha something critical. They now understood the scale of the danger posed by the Sand Village's Twin Stars, and they had obtained considerably more detailed information about the Blood Doctor's bloodline abilities and fighting methods than they had possessed before.
Without the reconnaissance intelligence they had hoped for, the Leaf Village's main force would have to enter the battlefield and engage the Sand Village's main army in the opening engagement without adequate preparation. That was not going to be simple.
"The Sand Village just left their border position, and in such a short time they have managed to execute tactical arrangements this sophisticated. This does not match the Sand Village's usual style or standards.
Our own reaction has not been slow either. Who is commanding their army? This tactical approach does not match any of the commanders we know from them."
A high-ranking officer standing beside Sarutobi spoke in a low voice, simultaneously gesturing for Minato to take Shikaku away to rest.
The Leaf Village had clashed with the Sand Village many times before and was deeply familiar with their past battlefield performance.
A commander was like the brain of an army in the field. Their tactical style could be clearly observed and felt through the patterns that emerged across an engagement, the way moves unfolded in a game of chess.
Furthermore, many commanders' tactical arrangements and approaches were highly personal, direct manifestations of their individual war thinking and will.
What the Sand Village had demonstrated this time was something different. The tactics were meticulously planned and their anticipation of Konoha's moves had been precise enough to cut with the accuracy of a scalpel.
This went beyond early planning or intelligence gathering alone. It required real-time adaptation to battlefield developments. Could someone from the Sand Village actually possess this level of strategic vision?
This struck Konoha as deeply strange, and it also filled them with genuine pressure.
Frankly speaking, the emergence of a talented strategic general posed a greater long-term threat to Konoha than the appearance of another top-tier warrior.
If the Sand Village had possessed such an individual during the previous Great Ninja War, Konoha would not have emerged from those conflicts in the position it did.
The Sand Village's Twin Stars as combat forces, combined with a highly intelligent strategic commander capable of anticipating resource disparities and managing them accordingly. From what Konoha could currently observe, the situation ahead was extremely difficult.
"The Sand Village is probably moving along the same route we are taking to the battlefield."
"Have all units exercise additional caution and adjust their formations accordingly."
Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke.
As Hokage, he was personally leading the army against the Sand Village in this engagement. His plan had been to take advantage of the war's initial phase, before news had fully spread across the ninja world, to intervene directly and quickly.
Suppress the border chaos, drive back or repel the Sand Village army, stabilize the situation, and then hand control of the battlefield to other commanders.
In this way, by the time other villages fully reacted, the Sand Village's offensive would already have been contained and Konoha would have the remaining capacity to deal with subsequent changes across the wider ninja world.
He was the Hokage. And the Sand Village currently lacked a Kazekage. A village Kage's weight on the battlefield could not be underestimated or replaced.
But now, Sarutobi was beginning to realize that things might not unfold according to his predictions.
Even with his personal intervention, restoring order quickly was no longer a certainty. Even if Konoha committed to a major offensive against the Sand Village, success was far from guaranteed.
Because the true war had not yet fully begun, and the Sand Village had already shown a portion of its strategic capability. And what it had shown was already quite formidable.
Even with his battlefield experience, his status as Hokage, and the full weight of everything he had accumulated across decades, he could feel the difficulty building, and with it, genuine pressure.
...
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