Chapter 67: Foolish Acts from a Foolish Mind

Seeing the somewhat shocking scene before him, Haseo couldn't help but quietly mutter to himself in a voice too soft for others to hear.

Chichio, curious about what he was saying, moved her ear closer. She then caught Haseo's faint murmuring...

"No smoke, no harm... No smoke, no harm... *sigh*"

That comment earned an eye-roll from Chichio, naturally. The battlefield ahead had already been swept clean by violent bursts of energy… Sure, the result did indeed look "injury-free"—but could enemies who were roasted or turned into charcoal really be considered "unharmed"?

With both shadows attacking one another, only one would remain. No one needed to tell them what to do next—every Konoha ninja knew exactly what to do.

"Ten thousand victories! Kill!" countless Konoha ninjas surged past the Third Hokage, charging once more toward Sunagakure's frontlines with boundless courage and searing intent to kill.

In contrast, despite not having completely lost their nerve yet, the Suna ninjas who had just witnessed their leader's death clearly lacked the will to fight fiercely.

"Kazekage..."

"Second Kazekage... has fallen."

Sunagakure's forces fell into chaos. While Kazekage's death wouldn't directly collapse Sand's command structure, the psychological blow of witnessing their highest commander fall would not fade quickly. Having served as village leader for many years, the Second Kazekage had long commanded great authority—his passing now dealt a devastating blow to Suna's morale.

Other high-ranking Suna officials tried desperately to regain control. Under normal circumstances, they might've gotten things back in order—but not now. Konoha had already launched a full-scale offensive. Any intelligent person knew Konoha wouldn't waste this opportunity—they'd press forward aggressively instead.

Thus, the battle continued, even more brutal and one-sided than before.

The light drizzle above eventually turned into heavy rain, washing away blood spilled upon the ground. The fighting would continue—but from the moment the Second Kazekage perished, the outcome of this battle could already be considered decided.

"Hokage-sama, what should we do now?"

"Mm. Continue pursuit. Our goal is to eliminate more of Suna's combat forces within the Land of Rivers. However, act carefully—not recklessly. For now, don't cross into the Land of Wind itself. We must prevent Suna from making any desperate, suicidal counterattacks." The Third Hokage gave his orders to the messenger ninja at his side. All things considered, it was a reasonable and cautious directive.

Konoha had already gained sufficient results from this battle. There was no need to risk unnecessary sacrifices driven by greed. There was one thing particularly on Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind—throughout this entire engagement, Suna hadn't deployed the One-Tail Shukaku at all.

The Third Hokage wasn't indecisive—he understood that through this victory, Konoha had ensured Suna would lack the strength to invade the Land of Fire anytime soon. But he also didn't expect winning a single battle to utterly wipe out Sunagakure.

That simply wasn't something anyone could accomplish—annihilating a major ninja village was never so simple... Well, actually, Sarutobi thought again and shook his head. It wasn't that it was impossible for someone else—it was just that he himself couldn't bring himself to do something like that.

He looked up at the gloomy sky. Even though he had defeated Second Kazekage, he didn't feel it was anything worth boasting about. If this war had been led by First Hokage, would there even have been a need to scheme through all these "minor details"? Troop mobilization? Logistics preparation? Medical support prioritization? All those concerns would have vanished the moment First Hokage himself stood at the border—every problem would have resolved itself effortlessly.

Tailed Beast? What was this thing anyway? Could you even eat it? Was it tasty?

"Compared with previous generations, I'm still far behind," thought Third Hokage. Victory was surely joyous, but battle always ended up feeling hollow.

Actually, this kind of thinking only revealed how Hiruzen Sarutobi overcomplicated things himself. As a living person, why did he keep comparing himself to those who were just absurdly powerful? That was just asking for frustration.

...

From morning until evening, after the sacrifice of Second Kazekage, Sunagakure's defenses finally crumbled under Konoha's relentless full-scale assault that had continued for most of the day. The Sunagakure forces began attempting to retreat from the battlefield.

Initially, the withdrawal of the Sunagakure shinobi remained organized, but once Konoha detected their intent, their forces surged forward again, accelerating the offensive—and then came the collapse.

On one side stood focused, well-organized, and effectively commanded ninja. On the other side were fleeing enemies. What followed could no longer even be called combat—it had become a complete one-sided slaughter.

The battlefield lay within the Land of Rivers, a country long and narrow from north to south, compressed east to west. Therefore, the distance to Wind Country's border wasn't great at all—but even this short distance proved nearly impossible for many Sunagakure ninja to cross.

Their homeland lay so close yet remained forever out of reach.

Konoha fought with ruthless ferocity, launching total attacks without restraint. Naturally, Haseo's squad also joined the fight shortly afterward.

Night replaced day, continuing nonstop for three days. Those Sunagakure ninja who could escape returned to the Land of Wind, while the ones left behind inside River Country were nearly completely wiped out. At this point, the Hokage finally announced victory in this campaign—

—and its conclusion.

In this campaign, Konoha had committed six thousand ninja. Overall, Sunagakure deployed roughly an equal number. According to post-battle records, including the Kazekage—their supreme leader—nearly half of Sunagakure's forces had been lost. This stark figure revealed devastating damage from which they could not recover anytime soon, leaving them powerless to look eastward for some time. They might even need to fear when Konoha or Iwagakure would invade the Land of Wind next.

Wind Country—a land where taking two steps meant biting down on sand—might hold little appeal for Fire Country's lush-land-dwelling Hidden Leaf Village, but for Iwagakure, that might not necessarily be the case.

In fact, during the initial stages of combat, the kill-to-death ratios between Konoha and Suna had been fairly balanced. Years into the Great Ninja World War, the average abilities of shinobi from each village had largely equalized. Most of Konoha's impressive results had actually come from later pursuit operations.

By the end of the battle, Konoha's losses hadn't even reached one-fifth of Sunagakure's.

Undoubtedly, this was a great victory.

The toll was relentless high-intensity combat, leaving legions of Konoha ninjas drained beyond belief — like dogs that had run themselves to death.

Three days later, Haseo looked a total mess. Not even minding the water puddles and damp mud on the ground, he flopped beneath a tree like a lifeless body dumped there.

At this moment, Renjiro cheerfully approached him, wearing a mysterious grin as he said, "Captain, did you know? Because you swiftly took down Menzuomen of Sunagakure, some people at the Front Line have already begun praising your name."

Haseo shot him a sidelong glance, thinking to himself: Why am I lying here like a dog that's run itself to death, while you're still so energetic?

He couldn't care less about nicknames, but he still had to play along to keep the mood light. So he slightly lifted his eyelids and played along by asking, "Oh? What title?"

Overall, although Haseo had once proudly called himself Homura Naraka, having a nickname wasn't always a good thing. It would draw attention from enemy intelligence systems, who'd collect information on him, and on the battlefield, they'd target him with concentrated forces. However, for certain shinobi, receiving such a title was unavoidable, regardless of personal preference.

Renjiro didn't keep him waiting and happily continued, "They're calling you… '[Reverse Plume].'"

Haseo suddenly opened his eyes wide, instantly regaining energy, and exclaimed angrily, "Who the hell came up with this nonsense?"

He felt a bit worked up — not because it made him sound like some Vastayan hybrid. No, it was worse. It made him sound way too much like a rogue ninja.

PS:

Back in ancient times, there was a mighty general leading a vast army on a campaign deep into enemy territory. He tasted victory after victory, taking city after city, until finally, both man and beast were exhausted to the bone upon reaching the enemy capital.

However, having advanced so deep into enemy land, the moment they reached the city walls, they found themselves trapped inside a massive encirclement. There was no turning back — one step back meant total annihilation. The general only had one choice — to launch an all-or-nothing assault, breaking into the enemy's capital in a desperate bid for survival.

The siege was brutal. Very quickly, most of the troops were slaughtered. Eventually, even the general himself donned armor and wielded his sword personally, joining the final wave of attack near the siege tower at the city gate.

He dropped his armor and slid his sword into its scabbard, then stood beside his men, helping push the siege tower toward the city gates. At this critical moment between life and death, he pressed his hands and feet against the siege tower, shouting out with all his might to inspire his weary soldiers:

[Push! Push...] [Upvote now!]

But by then, the soldiers had lost the will to fight — all they wanted was to pull back. So the general's deputy spoke up, "General, perhaps we should withdraw..."

"Yeah, you're right. Don't forget to hit [Follow] too."

The deputy commander frowned bitterly, thinking to himself that they couldn't beat the enemy anymore, "General, we must fight..."

"You want [Patreon tips] as well? Aren't you being a bit shameless?"

"General, you—"

"That's right. One must maintain a little dignity. Just hurry up and leave those [Likes] and [Follows], kthx."

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