Capítulo 756: Chapter 750 : Aftermath!
"Is Hokage-sama alright?" One of Hiruzen's Anbu Guard asked. Several other Anbu and Jounins had appeared on the rooftop as well.
Jiraiya answered, "He's fine for now, but needs to be checked upon urgently. Summon the best medical ninjas here."
Three Anbu Guards nodded and flickered away. The last one stayed and asked, "What of the Suna ninjas who escaped earlier? Should we chase and hunt them down while they are in the Land of Fire?"
Fujin answered, "No need. They have already lost their will. Chasing after them will just needlessly increase our casualties and spread our forces thin."
The Anbu Guard nodded and didn't ask anything else. Fujin thought, 'Considering the situation, chasing and eliminating them now would be more beneficial for Konoha. It'd allow us to inflict the highest damage to Suna before the negotiations begin. Unfortunately…'
The words Fujin spoke weren't his own. It was what Shikaku and Hiruzen told everyone they shared their plans with. Unlike Fujin's Kumo mission, where he was tasked to kill as many Kumo ninjas as he could, their focus was exactly the opposite in this war. They wanted to keep the casualties to a minimum.
While killing more enemies could send a strong message to other hidden villages, ensuring that Konoha stayed strong was a bigger deterrent to other villages. They didn't mind letting a few hundred enemies escape if it meant that fewer Konoha ninjas lost their lives.
Of course, the circumstances were quite different from what they imagined. Suna's morale was truly shattered. If Fujin chased after them, he could annihilate their entire forces with little trouble. Even if they dispersed, Fujin could hunt most of them down before they could leave the Land of Fire. Fortunately for the Suna ninjas, Fujin didn't have anything to gain by doing so. Hence, he just followed Shikaku's plan.
Other ninjas soon came to check up on Hiruzen. Realizing how serious Hiruzen's situation was, the atmosphere became solemn. The morale that was high due to Fujin's actions finally began dying down as the war was finally over. Even so, many ninjas looked at Fujin respectfully, something that didn't escape Jiraiya's eyes.
Jiraiya analyzed, 'I had sensed Sakumo-san's presence earlier. In addition, Orochimaru likely had sensei trapped inside the barrier since the start. And, considering how important the battles here were, this place should have been attacked the most. Yet, there isn't a single enemy ninja here. This boy probably did a remarkable job to ensure complete victory here. No wonder they are looking at him with such admiration in their eyes.'
Soon, senior medical ninjas arrived and began examining Hiruzen. At the same time, a Jounin flickered next to Fujin and said in a soft voice, "Councilman Fujin, the box in which you sealed Kabuto suddenly disappeared."
A frown immediately appeared on Fujin's face. He asked, "What do you mean by disappeared? Did anyone see where it went?"
The Jounin replied with a hint of embarrassment, "We momentarily looked at the barrier when you destroyed it. When we looked back, the box was missing."
Seeing Fujin deep in thoughts, Hoka asked, "Do you think it was Orochimaru?"
Fujin replied, "Yeah, most likely. I guess whoever reverse summoned Orochimaru also reverse summoned Kabuto. Still, it's strange for such importance to be given to a dead subordinate."
Kakashi added, "He wasn't an ordinary subordinate. I guess Orochimaru still has some use for him even though he is dead. With the Edo Tensei jutsu, he can still make use of him."
Fujin nodded and asked, "What about the others I sealed?"
The Jounin quickly answered, "They're still here."
Fujin replied, "Alright. No need to worry about it anymore. Attend to the injured ninjas. Your group suffered the most due to Kabuto."
The Jounin nodded and quickly flickered away. Soon after, Hiruzen was taken to the Hospital and other Medical ninjas began attending to injured Konoha ninjas.
Naruto and Gaara's battle wrapped up as well. Just like in the original story, Naruto defeated Gaara and used his strongest jutsu on him before Temari and Kankuro could take him away.
The only change from the original story was that Shibi wasn't free to come to his son's rescue. Shikaku had assigned him to deal with one of the eight groups that attacked the village. However, Shino was still rescued by an older Aburame Jounin. Fujin's clone secretly kept an eye until the group returned to the village.
For the next few hours, Konoha became extremely busy. Shikaku deployed teams to analyze their losses, the hospital overflowed with injured ninjas, announcements were made to calm the civilians who were in panic and the perimeters of the village were once again secured.
Finally, the leaders of the village gathered in Konoha's council room. However, there were a few noticeable things in the council. Hiruzen was missing for obvious reasons, while neither Danzo nor Jiraiya showed up for the meeting.
Fujin thought, 'So, Danzo chose to hide his face… Understandable as his absence in the war would have been questioned if he showed up here. Even though this could have been a chance for him to put his name up for the next Hokage, he is far behind Jiraiya and Tsunade in this race.'
Fujin couldn't help but find it amusing that Tsunade, someone who hadn't been in the village for over a decade, had better qualifications for the seat of the Hokage than Danzo, someone who lived in the village and continuously schemed.
The silence was broken by Homura, who cursed, "Those bloody fools! To think they'd ally with Orochimaru and attack us. They nearly broke the delicate balance of the shinobi world and almost plunged the world into the Fourth Great Ninja War."
Shikaku added, "Fortunately, we were prepared. Otherwise, the situation would have been far worse."
Hiashi asked, "What is the status of our losses, other than Lord Third?"
Shikaku pushed some papers ahead and answered, "Even though we faced a deadly attack, our losses are minimal for a battle of this scale. In the arena, where the most critical battles took place, we lost 37 ninjas and 84 civilians. By comparison, Sunagakure lost 377 ninjas while Otogakure ninjas were completely wiped out.
In addition to the battle in the arena, they attacked our village from 8 more directions. All 8 attacking groups were wiped out. There were no civilian casualties as none of them reached deep into the village, but 58 ninjas sacrificed their lives to stop them, mostly due to being caught off guard by the giant snakes.
In all, we lost 21 Jounins, 62 Chunins and 12 Genins along with 84 civilians. There are several more injured, but very few are in a serious condition.
Sunagakure lost 625 ninjas in total while Otogakure lost 307 ninjas. I suspect that these are over half of the forces Orochimaru controlled before he started the war. It might even exceed 75%!"
The numbers surprised almost everyone in the room. While they had overwhelming victories on their battlefield, they didn't think it'd be the same case everywhere. After all, the attack was truly powerful. Several council members glanced at Fujin. By now, they knew about the events in the arena and how easily Fujin had cut down the enemy numbers! Over a third of the dead ninjas were cut down by Fujin alone! Most still had a hard time believing how much of an impact Fujin had on the war.
Fujin ignored their glances and asked, "So, what's next? How do we deal with Sunagakure and Otogakure?"
Koharu replied, "If the Fourth Kazekage were still alive, we'd have very little choice other than retaliating. However, he died even before the invasion. Sunagakure will claim that they were fooled by Orochimaru and remove the blame from their head. They'll use the death of their Kage during negotiations and we can use it to our advantage."
Hiromasa added, "That is obvious. However, Sunagakure has crossed a line this time around. Even though they have heavy losses, we'll look weak if our allies are left scot-free after stabbing us in the back. In the future, our other allies might be emboldened to do the same."
Homura sighed and said, "That is true. I propose we send an army to the Land of Rice and wipe out all of Orochimaru's bases in that country once our wounded are healed. Since he is weakened by Hiruzen, we may have a chance of killing him for good. As for Sunagakure, we'll make them pay up."
Inoichi asked, "Pay up what? They are already poor. With the Fourth Kazekage dead, they can't even mine Gold any longer. We already made them give their Wind jutsu collection in the previous Great War."
Koharu replied, "They still have mastery in creating and controlling puppets. We can force them to hand us their knowledge about the same."
The council immediately began discussing what they could make Suna pay. However, Fujin was slightly confused. He asked, "I don't understand. Suna is weak right now. Their Kage has died and they don't have anyone strong enough to replace him. Why don't we just attack Sunagakure and return the favor?"
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