"Lord Kurotsuchi's father Kitsuchi, this is the loss report summary for this week."
An Iwagakure intelligence shinobi wore a bitter expression as he handed over a scroll. Kurotsuchi's father, Kitsuchi (Kitsuchi), unrolled it and took one look—his blood pressure spiked. His grip tightened so hard the scroll creaked.
"Take a look for yourself, old man!"
Grinding his teeth, he tossed the scroll at Rōshi. Although he called him "senpai," there was zero respect in his tone.
"One week. It's only been one damn week! And we've already lost over 300 shinobi!! That's one fifth of our total forces on this front!"
"In other words, if we keep fighting like this for another month, our entire Iwa camp will be completely wiped out!"
Faced with Kitsuchi's furious roar, Rōshi kept his head down and couldn't get a word out.
He had personally taken command in the attempt to hunt down Uchiha Feiyu. It was during that chase that his status as a jinchūriki had been exposed—and in the end, he still failed to capture Feiyu, while a large number of elite Iwa shinobi died.
Now, Iwa's dire position on the battlefield could be laid at his feet for at least half the blame.
"We can't keep this up. Prepare for a decisive battle—and once it's over, we pull out of River Country."
Kitsuchi made his decision crisply.
On this front, Iwagakure's regular combat strength was already clearly weaker than both Konoha and Suna. A drawn-out war was unwinnable. But if they initiated the final battle early, they could at least preserve more of their forces for retreat.
This was never meant to be their main battlefield; expectation of victory here had always been low. The goal was simply to bleed the other two villages a bit. That was already a success.
If they just ran without a final clash, they'd likely provoke relentless pursuit from both Konoha and Suna, and the losses would be even worse.
The officers in the command tent exchanged glances, then one asked:
"Then which side are we choosing as the target for this decisive battle?"
With limited strength, Iwa could only choose one village to focus on. As soon as the question was asked, Kitsuchi answered without hesitation:
"Of course it's Konoha. They're our real enemy. We've always focused on them to ease the pressure on the main front."
"Iwagakure's little dirt-moles are getting desperate."
Orochimaru let out a cold chuckle as he examined the intelligence scroll in his hand, his tone dripping with contempt.
He passed the scroll around the Konoha command tent. It was Iwagakure's formal challenge to a decisive battle—a "let's all meet at this time and this place and brawl it out" sort of declaration.
"I thought they'd skip the formalities and just attack our base directly."
Uchiha Feiyu laughed, speaking from his seat nearby. Akimichi Torifū, who was currently busy eating, snorted.
"You think those rock-brains don't want to hit our base? They just can't find an opening."
A shinobi camp was nothing like a crude military barracks; its defenses rivaled a stone fortress.
Ninjutsu wasn't just for killing—used for construction, it was terrifying. Earth Release walls rising straight from the ground, sealing arrays hidden in dark corners, barrier jutsu monitoring the entire camp, ballistae loaded with kunai tied to explosive tags, chained trap fields of buried paper-bomb formations underground…
To take a camp like this head-on would require at least twice the enemy's strength. For Iwa in particular, they'd be lucky to even scratch the walls before their regular shinobi got wiped out.
After Iwa's first failed surprise attack, Konoha had greatly tightened security around the perimeter. Even if Iwa wanted a sneak attack now, they had no real chance.
"So what do we do? Accept or refuse?"
Feiyu glanced around at the assembled jōnin and asked. Orochimaru collected the scroll back, eyes narrowed.
"If those dirt-moles are intent on dying… it would be rude not to oblige them."
"A large-scale battle, huh… Looks like I'll be able to harvest quite a few souls this time. It's just a pity that sacrifices to the altar have to be intelligent beings killed by my own hand. Otherwise, I'd probably be able to gather several hundred strands of black qi from a single clash like this."
Feiyu stood on a hillside, watching a scattered Iwa squad across the way, sighing inwardly.
"What's wrong, Feiyu-kun? Is this your first time experiencing a real large-scale battle? Getting a bit nervous?"
Orochimaru's voice drifted lazily over. Feiyu didn't even turn his head.
"Nervous? Not really. It's just… this kind of 'decisive battle' is different from what I imagined. I thought everyone would gather into one big mass and fight it out."
"How would that be possible?" Orochimaru actually laughed at that.
"Forget Kage-level shinobi—any random jōnin has at least one large-area jutsu. If low-ranked shinobi all cluster together, they're just lining up to be target practice for the elites."
"Even so-called 'large-scale battles' are still fought as squads—soldiers vs soldiers, officers vs officers. The battlefield is just saturated with shinobi. Even if we deliberately spread out the engagement zone, it's still the most chaotic type of battle. Even a jōnin might be taken out by some random kunai from who-knows-where."
Feiyu nodded. It really was like veterans fearing stray bullets the most—obvious firing lines were easy enough to avoid, but the shot you never saw coming was the one that killed you.
"So Feiyu-kun, even though you're strong, you need to be careful. Especially at your age—you'll definitely be a priority target for Iwa."
Feiyu chuckled quietly.
"In that case, I'm actually looking forward to it."
It had been nearly a month since his reconnaissance of the Iwa main camp. After absorbing the experience of numerous Iwa souls, Feiyu had gone through yet another qualitative leap in power.
If Iwagakure still judged him by what he'd been a month ago… they were going to pay for it.
As Orochimaru and Feiyu chatted, a monstrous surge of chakra erupted behind Iwa's lines. A massive ape-like beast rose at the edge of the battlefield.
For this decisive clash, Iwa had naturally brought their jinchūriki again. Since he'd already been exposed, there was no longer any need to worry about "keeping balance."
The gigantic tailed beast began gathering chakra—the energy condensed into a vast black sphere, which it slowly leveled at their hillside position and fired.
Facing the incoming Tailed Beast Bomb, Orochimaru's face hardened. His hands flashed through seals, and his palms slammed onto the ground.
"Summoning Technique—Triple Rashōmon!"
Three enormous gates burst from the earth.
With a thunderous crash, the Tailed Beast Bomb's trajectory was forcibly deflected by the demonic gates, skimming past the hillside and soaring up into the sky.
◇ I'll drop one bonus chapter for every 10 reviews (leave a review/comment!)
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 60 chapters ahead on P@treon: patreon.com/KageNaruto