Once, twice. Each time the Sand Village soldiers appeared, the entire Leaf Village army was thrown into a state of heightened combat readiness.
Although Hiruzen had ordered the main force to ignore the harassers and leave them to other personnel, the Sand Village soldiers, after causing disruption, showed no desire to actually fight.
They fled quickly each time, consistent with their approach from the beginning. Furthermore, their timing and frequency of appearance were completely unpredictable. Several times, just as Hiruzen was preparing to send out a proper combat team to eliminate them, the Sand Village presence seemed to simply vanish without reappearing.
However, given the nature of the tactics being employed, the entire Konoha army did not dare to truly lower their guard. Even during rest periods they maintained high vigilance, following their original planned route.
Gradually, Hiruzen realized that their marching speed had fallen significantly behind the anticipated pace, and this was beginning to affect troop morale as well.
By the time they reached the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Fire, they were at least half a day behind schedule. And that half day of preparation time the Sand Village had bought for itself before the main engagement could well translate into significant additional losses for the Leaf Village.
On the other side, it remained unclear whether the harassment units would reappear to trouble Konoha again. But the Sand Village's senior ninja Tsuruichi had already led the remaining soldiers back to the Sand Village main army's pre-established encampment in the forest.
Intelligence concerning the Konoha army had been passed along to Shimizu and his officers ahead of the army's arrival.
"Hiruzen."
In a clearing in the forest, the military leadership assembled around Shimizu looked serious after hearing the intelligence the returning ninja had brought back.
They had all been speculating about who was commanding the Konoha army. Which senior Konoha official was leading this campaign? Some had guessed Hiruzen, but had not been certain. The probability had seemed relatively small. The two villages had not even fully engaged yet, the battlefield situation was still developing, and the circumstances hadn't appeared serious enough to require the Hokage himself to take the field.
A more cautious reactive strategy would have seemed more fitting for a Hokage of Hiruzen's experience. And yet here he was.
This was a significant development. The appearance of a Kage-level unit on the battlefield meant something that everyone present understood without needing it explained.
The Sand Village would be at a severe disadvantage when it came to battlefield control. And this was all taking place on the Land of Fire's territory. Fighting on someone else's ground made an already difficult situation even more precarious.
Fortunately, the Sand Village had caught the Leaf Village completely off guard and had seized the initiative to build some early advantage. Without that opening, the situation would already be beyond recovery.
After the others returned to their positions and additional intelligence about the Leaf Village army was gathered, Shimizu stood looking at the slightly injured, somewhat disheveled returning ninja and stroked his chin in thought.
He began analyzing Hiruzen's objective.
Clearly, this old Hokage wanted to strike with lightning speed and take decisive measures to quickly suppress the disruption the Sand Village had created. He wanted to resolve things before they could escalate further.
"Notify everyone," Shimizu said after a moment, his voice carrying the weight of considerable pressure. "Tell all units to prepare. The enemy is coming."
Playing a battlefield chess match with the Third Hokage as his opponent was, for an elite Jonin like Shimizu, something of an overwhelming assignment.
Fortunately, Tsuruichi and the others had bought enough time for the Sand Village army to set up additional traps and battle arrangements before direct engagement began.
"Yes."
A subordinate nodded and departed quickly.
Shimizu inquired further about the casualty situation from the harassment operations. Even though these had been skirmishes rather than direct confrontations, the survival rate among his troops in their contacts with Konoha had not been high.
The Sand Village had lost more people proportionally than Konoha, without question. Fortunately, the numbers he had deployed for the harassment phase had not been large. He had been somewhat prepared for this outcome.
After all, this was Konoha. Their overall ninja level remained slightly higher than the Sand Village's across the board, and that was before accounting for Konoha's combat system depth, including the bloodline and secret technique users embedded throughout their forces. The Sand Village was at a clear structural disadvantage.
"As expected of Konoha," Shimizu said. "Even with meticulous planning and early efforts to gain the advantage on this battlefield, from the broader strategic perspective, the weaker side is still us."
"If the commander had been anyone other than Hiruzen, things might be somewhat more manageable. But now, judging from the scale of the Konoha army and the Hokage's personal involvement, it is clear the enemy intends a full-scale assault.
And this is still under the premise of us holding a certain advantage from our opening strike. Without the benefit of that surprise attack, a direct one-on-one war against Konoha would be unwinnable for the village."
The more he compared the two sides, the more pressure settled onto his shoulders. His mind was working through the strengths and weaknesses of each side rapidly.
Then he looked up toward the tree line.
"Where exactly is the enemy army deployed? Which of Konoha's clans have they sent out? Are the Uchiha and Hyuga among them?"
"We have not yet engaged their main army."
However, in the final moments of contact, there had been waves of attacks and harassment against them.
"The Aburame clan, the Nara clan, the Inuzuka clan, the Chimura clan, and even members of an unfamiliar Fire clan have all appeared.
Whether the Uchiha clan is present remains unclear. But we can be fairly certain the Hyuga clan is not participating in the battle. If they were, given their bloodline technique, our casualties would likely have been considerably more severe."
Tsuruichi thought for a moment before responding.
"Neither the Uchiha nor the Hyuga are here? Surely they are not simply sitting this out. Given the current situation, does Hiruzen have some other battle plan or arrangement we are not seeing?"
"There is also the Sarutobi clan to account for," Shimizu added.
The more he thought about it, the more he recalled the two Leaf Village Jonin that Sasori had killed. These clans represented the main combat force the Leaf Village army had deployed. Among them were quite a few high-ranking military personnel.
These clans all had distinctive identifying features in their clothing and techniques, their lineages making them not too difficult to recognize when encountered. It was precisely because the Leaf Village army had deployed forces from the aforementioned clans that Tsuruichi, following prior instructions, had retreated rapidly.
Because this meant the Leaf Village army was preparing to take them seriously.
"There is one more clan," the returning ninja suddenly remembered. "In the Leaf Village army, there is the Kurama clan. They lead genjutsu-specialized soldiers in battle."
Silence followed.
Shimizu had almost forgotten about this clan entirely.
The Kurama clan had played a crucial strategic supporting role in the Leaf Village's battlefield operations during the last Great Ninja War. Their clan members had even spearheaded the compilation of the Fundamentals of Genjutsu text for the Leaf Village.
The Kurama clan had been a particularly outstanding fighting force for Konoha during the Second Great Ninja War, and their great reputation was also built on the extraordinary skill of their genjutsu practitioners.
The Sand Village had some understanding of Leaf Village intelligence regarding them. However, if he recalled correctly, from somewhere around the beginning of this Great Ninja War, the Kurama clan had been in a state of significant decline.
Clan members had been unable to sustain the awakening of their bloodline limit, and their physical constitutions were relatively weak. They had ultimately been losing their prestigious status within Konoha, with only a few surviving members remaining in later generations.
The bloodline of survival was a fragile thing.
It appeared that by the current generation, no awakened bloodline limit user had emerged from the clan, causing a breakdown in their core combat capability.
Furthermore, excessive reliance on genjutsu had led to a prolonged deterioration of their taijutsu skills, which had ultimately caused them to withdraw from Konoha's higher decision-making circles.
During the Kurama clan's prosperous period, each generation could produce at least three Jonin. The difference between then and now was stark. Even so, they had not yet reached the point of having fewer than ten clan members total as would be the case in later generations.
They could still exert some meaningful strength on the battlefield.
"Understood," Shimizu nodded.
Looking at Konoha's combat power distribution and their abundant talent reserves, and then looking at the Sand Village's situation in comparison, it truly felt like an uneven fight.
The Sand Village was short on manpower, and the incomplete deployment of forces made that problem even more apparent.
"It is going to be a fierce battle," one of the Sand Village officers said in a heavy tone.
"Judging from when they departed, it will be nearly nighttime by the time they arrive here."
"Knowing they left so quickly, do you think they will launch a direct attack? Or will they stay outside the forest, make tactical arrangements, and wait until daytime to begin their offensive?"
Shimizu looked around at the others.
"Judging from Hiruzen personally leading the assault, what they want is to stabilize this side of the battlefield as quickly as possible. The Leaf Village army will not hesitate."
"They will attack directly tonight. If they hesitate and pull back, it signals a full-scale retreat. That is not something Hiruzen will accept."
His voice was cold and firm.
"Prepare for a night battle."
...
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Bonus @900 PS
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