Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 42 Battlefield Arrangement

When Jiraiya brought Hyuga Kanan back to the camp, he had already fallen into a deep sleep and was placed directly on a hospital bed by Jiraiya.

The fighting continues on the battlefield, and Jiraiya must return to the battlefield quickly.

The Iwa ninja, unwilling to give up, quickly pursued them. The Konoha's forces immediately engaged the pursuing Iwa ninja in battle, which continued until dusk. Only then did the Iwa ninja reluctantly regroup and prepare for another battle the next day.

Both sides immediately ceased fighting and began to regroup and provide battlefield medical care.

From the moment Hyuga Kanan became active on the battlefield and was discovered and surrounded by Iwa ninja, the situation on the battlefield changed, though Hyuga Kanan didn't realize it.

Now that Hyuga Kanan has been rescued by Jiraiya and brought back to camp, the battlefield has shifted to a direct confrontation between Konoha and Iwa ninja. The Iwa ninja have also regained their senses, and their goal is to crush the Konoha team.

It would be good if we could capture members of the Hyuga clan alive, but we can't forget the main purpose of this war just because of one Hyuga Kanan.

However, at that time, the Iwa ninja were momentarily distracted by Hyuga Kanan's Byakugan and kept fleeing on the battlefield, causing many Iwa ninja who were unaware of the truth to join the encirclement. This gave Konoha an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, preventing the Iwa ninja from achieving their tactical objectives in today's battle.

When the Iwa ninjas were resting and discovered that they had lost nearly 200 men in the battle that day, the Iwa ninja leader, Takashi, was furious. He severely reprimanded the team that had been most eager to pursue and besiege Hyuga Kanan, causing chaos and heavy losses for the Iwa ninjas at the front line.

Orochimaru returned to camp and, upon hearing the situation of the Konoha forces, his face darkened. Konoha had suffered over 300 casualties in their battle with the Iwa ninja. Just after Jiraiya rescued Hyuga Kanan, the Iwa ninja's frenzied attacks to block Konoha's rescue and interception teams resulted in the loss of over 200 men. In other words, Konoha only suffered significant losses after the rescue efforts.

Orochimaru immediately reprimanded Jiraiya, arguing that the situation should have been handled by having Hyuga Kanan constantly draw the attention of the Iwa ninja and attack the Iwa ninja team from the outside, inflicting maximum damage on them, instead of risking everything to rescue one person, resulting in heavy casualties from the Konoha forces' interception and the Iwa ninja's pursuit.

Jiraiya's expression was also not good. He believed that Konoha could not abandon Hyuga Kanan, who had made great contributions to the war. He was a comrade of Konoha and could not be abandoned casually.

After all, Hyuga Kanan attracted almost half of the Iwa ninja's frontline fighting force, giving Konoha a chance to breathe and preventing a direct collapse of the battlefield.

Unfortunately, the Iwa ninja's relentless pursuit inflicted heavy casualties on the Konoha team.

No one expected that the Iwa ninja would pursue so relentlessly, fighting without regard for casualties, catching the Konoha ninja completely off guard and causing them huge losses.

Looking around at everyone in the command center, he realized that after so many days of fighting the Iwa ninja, the battle had long since deviated from the original plan.

At least 2000 Iwa ninjas remain, and the Jonin have suffered virtually no losses. Apart from Hyuga Kanan's team initially surrounding and eliminating an Iwa Jonin who had broken into the defensive line when they first arrived to support the front lines, Tsunade managed to seize an opportunity during the battle to kill another Iwa Jonin.

The situation is much more difficult for Konoha. The number of ninjas, which was already less than that of Iwagakure, is now less than 1000. Among their core Chunin, almost two-thirds of their personnel were lost today. There are only 8 people left standing in the command post, which is still less than double digits.

Orochimaru's expression grew even more grim. This battle had reached its final stage, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to contain the main force of the Iwa ninja through direct confrontation.

The Iwa ninja have already discovered the weaknesses of the Konoha forces. If they are fully determined to fight, and a large-scale battle is to follow, Konoha will find it difficult to contend with the Iwa ninja. Now, a new plan needs to be devised for the interception mission.

Among these Konoha ninjas, Orochimaru saw no means to continue the direct confrontation, so he could only rearrange the plan he had already devised.

Orochimaru's eyes grew even colder. If this order were given, the Konoha team would suffer heavy losses, possibly even being wiped out. But this was also the last chance for the Konoha ninja to delay the mission as much as possible; he had to make a decision and make arrangements quickly.

Even if such an order would lead to the annihilation of the Konoha team, even if it could only buy the Iwa ninja a little bit of time.

However, this mission is related to the final victory of Konoha in the Land of Fire. The headquarters had already made the worst-case scenario plans when arranging this plan. Now it depends on whether Orochimaru can make up his mind.

Orochimaru's face was extremely gloomy. After taking a slight breath, he disregarded the people around him who had just come off the battlefield and had not yet rested. After overcoming his last bit of mercy, he gave the order for the next mission to the personnel in the command post.

"Now that I've made the task assignments, I don't care what you think. Whether you want to carry them out or not, you have to."

Orochimaru stared intently at Jiraiya and Tsunade, and continued speaking as if giving them a final warning:

"The Konoha forces are divided into three teams. The first team, led by Tsunade, will arrange for the wounded and some incapacitated ninjas to retreat to the final stronghold for rest and recuperation. The second team, led by Jiraiya, consists of 500 people. They will retreat 20 kilometers and then remain in place to regroup and prepare for battle. However, my mission is to engage the Iwa ninjas immediately upon contact. They can fight while retreating, but only up to 50 kilometers. They must hold out for at least three days. Listen carefully, I said at least three days. Even if everyone is sacrificed, they must hold out for three days. Only after three days can they retreat to the final stronghold. The third team, led by myself, will hold out for five days with the remaining 300-odd people, with a 10-kilometer limit on the battlefield. You teams behind them will have five days to rest and recuperate."

Jiraiya and Tsunade stared wide-eyed at Orochimaru's face, their expressions filled with shock and disbelief.

Orochimaru, on the contrary, revealed a hint of ease.

A slight upturn at the corners of his mouth—this was the expression of someone preparing to fight and die.

Jiraiya and Tsunade both understood what it meant for the third team to hold out for five days. Facing the most powerful initial wave of attacks from the Iwa ninja army and having to delay them for a full five days meant they had virtually no chance of survival. It was trading the lives of 300 Konoha ninja for five days of time.

Jiraiya opened his mouth slightly, but still couldn't say anything; it felt like his throat was being gripped tightly. He wanted to ask Orochimaru to switch teams, but he couldn't bring himself to say it. He knew that once Orochimaru made a decision, his orders wouldn't be changed, especially since they were going to fight to the death.

The real challenge now is figuring out how to relay orders to the Konoha teams, assign team roles, and instruct them to use their lives to hold off the main Iwa ninja force.

Hyuga Kanan has now gotten out of bed, preparing to go out and stretch his body, which is stiff from being unconscious for so long. He didn't suffer any fatal injuries; he simply collapsed from exhaustion due to excessive physical and mental exertion. Surrounded by the Iwa ninja forces, he had been constantly moving at high speed, while also keeping a close watch on the surrounding Iwa ninja territory, as they would occasionally launch surprise attacks, keeping him on edge at all times.

Soon the command reached everyone's ears, but as if all the Konoha ninjas already understood their fate, they showed no signs of dissatisfaction.

Over the past few days of fighting, they gradually realized that they, as rookies with such low strength, had been assigned to intercept the Iwa ninja's front-line combat force. Their team lacked any skilled leaders; only the three legendary Konoha ninja, the Sannin, were present. This made them fully understand that they had been assigned to a mission where death was inevitable.

Hinata Kanan stood to the side, silently watching the group of boys not far away.

Several young, rookie genin, trembling with fear, still managed to loudly ask their captain:

"I... I guess I can be considered a battlefield hero! Even if I wasn't very strong, I'm still a Konoha hero who died protecting Konoha!"

The captain looked at the innocent faces of the children, not even ten years old, and their trembling bodies. Their childish voices cried out in unison, asking him questions. For a moment, the captain didn't know how to answer. Should he tell them that they were all cannon fodder sent by Konoha, mere specks of dust, soon to be forgotten except by their families? That Konoha's memorial tablets would only record the names of powerful battlefield heroes, and that they, the cannon fodder, were unworthy of being on the memorial tablets, destined only to appear in some war record as a name for some unit?

Hyuga Kanan watched, also wondering what their team meant to Konoha. But in reality, Hyuga Kanan already knew the answer.

But Orochimaru appeared there, and seeing the bewildered leader and the resolute-looking child, he spoke directly:

"Your names will not appear on Konoha's memorial tablets, but will only exist in my heart. This is my answer to you as the commander!"

Everyone around looked at the gloomy-faced commander Orochimaru, and a slight smile appeared on their faces. Even the children seemed to understand something, and their eyes shone brightly.

They all knew that the commander would personally lead a portion of them to meet the enemy in this first battle.

Looking at Orochimaru's expression and words, Hyuga Kanan thought to himself, "No matter how rational Orochimaru is, he still has a sense of belonging to his comrades and is full of personal charm to those around him."

For these people who are about to die in battle, it would be enough if someone remembered them, especially someone as important as Orochimaru.

Hyuga Kanan was assigned to Jiraiya's team, which is the second batch of casualties.