Time flew by, and more than an hour had passed.
The moon, which had already begun its descent to the west, was now nearing the sea's horizon. By all logic, this should have been the darkest hour before dawn.
However, because of the ongoing battle, the cliffs of Eagle's Beak were lit up like a burning inferno. Not even a trace of darkness could be seen beneath the blaze.
High above the battlefield, Haruki soared through the air. His Sharingan spun rapidly as he scanned for an opening. The moment he spotted one, his wings flapped, and he dived steeply from the sky.
What followed was a barrage of ninjutsu raining down from above, targeting the Mist ninja with brutal precision.
The assault lasted less than thirty seconds before Haruki pulled away again, not giving his enemies the slightest chance to track or retaliate.
Eagle's Beak was surrounded by the sea on three sides—an absolute nightmare for defense.
Even though the Mist Village had succeeded in their ambush tonight, they didn't relinquish their offensive advantage.
The battlefield had been split into three general fronts. Konoha's forces were nearly encircled on all sides.
Ordinarily, that would've been a death sentence.
But Haruki's flight-based jutsu completely flipped the script. What was originally a strategic disadvantage became a tactical edge.
Using the mobility granted by his flight, Haruki moved swiftly across all three battlefronts, launching surprise attacks on the Mist ninja from above, again and again.
Mei Terumi and the other Mist leaders desperately tried to catch him, but unlike him, they couldn't just soar over the battlefield with ease. They simply couldn't match his speed.
That gap gave Haruki the time he needed to inflict maximum damage.
Because of this, the unfavorable position Konoha found itself in had morphed into a perfect opportunity to stall and suppress the Mist's advance.
Of course, what Haruki saw from above wasn't a secret. Mei Terumi and the other victims of his ambushes saw it too.
So, they tried to regroup and consolidate their forces.
Unfortunately for them, Uchiha Tekka and the others—acting on Haruki's orders—refused to let that happen. They relentlessly harassed and disrupted the Mist units, preventing them from uniting.
In fact, Konoha's forces deliberately fragmented the battlefield even more.
This obviously made things more dangerous for themselves.
After all, it's one thing to have thirty ninja up against a hundred, and another for just three ninja to face ten. While both are technically a 1:3 ratio, the larger the group, the more chances there are for support and survival.
Even knowing this, Tekka and the others kept splitting up their forces, doing everything they could to give Haruki more room to maneuver.
And the better Haruki performed, the less danger they were all in.
It was a mutually beneficial trade-off.
That said, they weren't suicidal. They didn't split into teams of three. Generally, each unit was about ten people strong, going up against thirty Mist ninja.
In such situations, as long as Haruki found the right opening, he could swoop down and take out four or five enemies in one go.
A few successful passes like that dramatically reduced the pressure on Konoha's side.
With that breathing room, they could better handle the Mist's assaults.
Still, Haruki couldn't be everywhere. His stamina and chakra weren't infinite. There were many moments when a Konoha ninja fell before he could get there.
Especially after Mei Terumi and her generals realized they couldn't stop Haruki directly. They shifted tactics and distributed their forces across all fronts, making things even harder.
Even when Haruki seized the opportunity to assassinate two of the Mist's persistent elite jōnin, it wasn't enough to turn the tide.
There were simply too many Mist ninja involved in this operation.
Even so, Konoha's forces were managing. Barely.
At this point, it was just a matter of who would break first.
Another two hours passed.
The sky began to pale, hinting at the coming sunrise.
After nearly four hours of brutal fighting, both Konoha and the Mist had suffered tremendous losses.
From the sky, Haruki could see the battlefield clearly. Around the Eagle's Beak base, especially on the three coastal sides, the ground was carpeted with corpses—both from Konoha and the Mist.
The surrounding terrain was devastated. Even the forest where Haruki usually trained had been reduced to scorched wasteland.
BOOM!
Clang! Clang!
The familiar sounds of explosive tags and close-quarters combat rang out.
Haruki turned toward the source. A dozen Konoha ninja were locked in desperate battle against twice their number in Mist enemies, fighting with everything they had.
Yes, even now, the battle wasn't over.
Even though the Mist had already taken massive casualties, even though taking this base meant nothing without the ability to hold it… they still refused to retreat.
Haruki had a good idea why.
Just over an hour ago, he'd received a message from Kurozawa Naruki, asking about his situation and whether he could support another front.
But Haruki knew his own condition better than anyone. If he left, Eagle's Beak would fall. No question. So he refused without hesitation.
Still, the message gave him a clearer picture of the overall situation.
It turned out, their base wasn't the only one under attack tonight.
All three of their defense lines—including the northern front where Haruki was stationed—had been targeted in coordinated strikes.
Even more alarming, the Mist's intel had been eerily accurate. Their ambushes caught the Leaf completely off guard.
Some strongholds had already fallen. Others were barely holding on. Nara Keikō, the overall battlefield commander, was doing his best to coordinate reinforcements.
Putting all of this together, it wasn't hard for Haruki to figure out what was going on.
The Mist wasn't just trying to take territory—they were trying to pin him down.
It wasn't arrogance. It was simple fact: he was that important now.
Over the past month, he'd been a key player in every battle he'd supported. And he'd always produced results.
Naturally, the Mist had started seeing him as a serious threat.
So even if it cost them men, it made sense they'd try to bog him down here.
All of these thoughts passed through Haruki's mind in a flash.
He flared his wings and swept into a wide arc through the air, before shooting straight toward the embattled Konoha squad.
Compared to earlier, his flying speed and agility had clearly improved.
It wasn't an illusion—it was real.
After several hours of nonstop flying and combat, his Wind Release: Wings of Wind had leveled up from Lv2 (35/500) to Lv3 (310/1000).
The higher mastery gave him better control and sharper handling.
Compared to Lv2, Lv3 gave him a 50% speed boost.
His top speed had jumped from 20 meters per second to 30 meters per second—about 108 kilometers per hour.
That might not rival a passenger plane, but it was roughly equal to a car cruising down a highway.
The key difference? No traffic. No terrain restrictions.
Even better, the chakra cost at top speed hadn't increased much. That meant his control over his chakra wings had become far more refined.
You could even see it: the chakra wings on his back had shrunk to about 1.2 meters in length.
Normally, smaller wings mean less lift and slower speeds. But he was flying faster than ever.
That could only mean one thing: his control had reached a whole new level of precision.
Thanks to that, his flight was smoother, sharper—more dangerous.
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