Kapitel 62: Chapter 62: The Elite Forces
Nearby, Mizutani Shizuko, no fool herself, immediately realized something was wrong upon hearing Haruki Mori's urgent order to head to Zone E3. With a worried expression, she asked, "Seimei?"
Seimei responded with a reassuring glance, "Let's go."
Without further delay, he quickly gathered his equipment and began running toward Zone E3. Mizutani Shizuko followed closely behind, not wanting to fall behind. Several other Konoha Chūnin who had just received orders also joined them.
Zone E3 was essentially another mountain path connecting the Iwagakure headquarters to the logistics base, not far from the river corridor. The straight-line distance was less than a kilometer. Seimei and the others cut across the mountainside, arriving in just a few minutes.
By the time they got there, more than fifty Konoha ninja had already gathered. Most of them were Chūnin and Jōnin, with only a few Genin present. Among them, Seimei and Mizutani Shizuko were the youngest by far, which naturally drew some attention.
However, Seimei was used to this kind of attention by now. With every battle he survived, the gazes on him grew in number. Initially, it made him uncomfortable, but over time, he had come to accept it.
Ignoring the stares, Seimei found an open spot and sat down, closing his eyes. Seeing him settle in, the others gradually lost interest in him.
Time passed slowly. Since the team leader had not spoken yet, everyone remained quiet, conserving their strength and recovering from the earlier battle. As the minutes ticked by, more and more people gathered in the area.
Five minutes later, the number of people present exceeded one hundred.
Seimei opened his eyes, observing the heavily injured ninja around him, and couldn't help but frown. The situation might be more dire than he initially thought. They wouldn't be mobilizing wounded forces unless they were absolutely necessary.
"Are we really running out of options?" Seimei thought to himself.
Before the battle began, their forces numbered around three hundred. Although the losses on their side had been smaller than Iwagakure's due to their superior numbers, dozens of Konoha ninjas had still perished in the earlier battle.
The fight in the river corridor was still ongoing, and they needed to leave enough forces to keep fighting there. The number of ninjas that could be transferred to Zone E3 was likely around one hundred, and now, over a hundred were already gathered here.
Clearly, Konoha had brought in every available fighter. This suggested the enemy forces must be formidable.
Sighing internally, Seimei turned his attention to the Second Squad leader. Everyone else did the same, all eyes fixed on the man.
The squad leader stood up and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. When the crowd quieted down, he spoke directly: "Alright, time's up."
"I'm sure most of you have already figured it out."
"Yes, in just a short while, a reinforcement unit from Iwagakure will be passing through here. Our mission is to stop them and buy as much time as possible for the Third Squad to take out the enemy's logistics base."
He paused briefly before continuing, "I'm going to split you into six teams. Each team will cover a different area, ensuring that Iwagakure's reinforcements cannot get through."
Without waiting for any reactions, he began organizing the teams.
Seimei and Mizutani Shizuko were assigned to the fourth team, responsible for the middle section. This meant they probably wouldn't be the first to engage the enemy, but it also didn't mean the enemy would bypass them.
To avoid being picked off one by one, the six zones were positioned close together, meaning if a fight broke out in one zone, it would quickly affect the others. The squad leader had arranged the teams this way to stretch out the battlefront and slow down the enemy's advance.
After the teams were set, everyone moved into position.
Hidden within the dense forest, Seimei couldn't shake the feeling of unease. Every sign pointed to this incoming enemy being far from ordinary. Otherwise, the squad leader wouldn't have adopted such a stalling strategy, which only deepened his sense of insecurity.
As the tense atmosphere weighed down on him, ten minutes slipped by unnoticed.
At this point, nearly forty-five minutes had passed since the ambush began. If they counted from the start of the operation, it had been more than three hours.
According to their orders, if they hadn't succeeded within four hours of starting, the operation would be called off, and all units would retreat immediately.
In other words, they just needed to hold on for a few more minutes before they could withdraw. If possible, Seimei hoped the enemy would arrive as late as possible, because the longer they waited, the greater their chances of retreating safely.
Of course, if the enemy didn't show up at all, that would be even better.
But Seimei knew that wasn't realistic. The fact that the squad leader had rushed them here meant they had solid intelligence on the enemy's movements. Otherwise, they wouldn't have passed up the chance to finish off the previous batch of Iwagakure ninjas. Redirecting forces mid-battle would only allow more of the enemy to survive and increase Konoha's casualties in return.
The balance of gains and losses would be significant.
Only in an emergency would the squad leader make such a decision. And if he did, it meant the situation was serious enough that sacrifices had to be made.
It was precisely this thought that filled Seimei with dread.
While he was lost in thought, a disturbance suddenly rippled through the forest ahead.
Before Seimei could figure out what was happening, a massive wave of yellow sand surged toward them from the distance. The ground it passed over was quickly engulfed, and the trees were uprooted, pushed forward by the surging sand river.
Seimei immediately leaped into the air, landing in the branches of a large tree, and looked toward the source of the sand.
At the origin of the sand river stood a towering young Iwagakure ninja. He wore a red ninja headband, had a large nose, and a thick beard covering his face—none other than Kitsuchi, the son of the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki.
As a well-known figure in the ninja world, his image had been widely circulated, so Seimei recognized him immediately.
Kitsuchi might not have been as powerful as he would become by the time of the Fourth Great Ninja War, but at over twenty years old, he was already at the level of an elite Jōnin.
His strength was evident from the technique he had just used.
A simple Earth Release: Earth Flow River had reshaped the terrain and cleared out a large swath of the forest, forcing Konoha's hidden ninjas to reveal themselves.
Behind Kitsuchi, a group of Iwagakure ninja stood ready. Though their numbers were fewer than a hundred, every single one of them was at least Chūnin-level.
It was clear: this was a team of elite forces.
Seeing them, Seimei's heart sank. It was evident that the upcoming battle would be incredibly tough.
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