Chapter 58

"Everyone! Brace for impact!" The elite Iwa Jonin quickly waved hand signs at inhuman speed while kneading his chakra by a huge amount. "[Doton: Otoshibuta]" (Earth Release: Dropping Lid) He summoned a giant, boar-shaped, earthen lid high in the air that fell on the Iwagakure team, trapping them and also essentially defending them from the explosion.

"Kaboom." The moment the first explosive tag was triggered, the ash ignited, causing a huge explosion. Although the elite Jonin from Iwa was quick, he was not quick enough to save all his comrades. Close to ten Iwa Shinobi got caught in the initial blast, while the rest were able to escape the blast using various earth release techniques. The moment the elite Jonin released the summoning, the Hyuga members and the other Leaf Ninja had already moved close enough to engage in melee battle. The Leaf Ninjas, under Hiashi's leadership, started aggressively attacking the enemy ninjas without even considering their own safety. Such relentless attacks were too much for the Iwa Shinobi to handle.

The few Aburame Shinobi particularly targeted the Iwa Bee users and quickly engaged them in combat. "[Hijutsu: Mushitatsumak]" (Secret Technique: Insect Tornado) A large swarm of beetles and bees rapidly started clashing with each other. From the initial clash, it was evident that the Aburame held a distinct advantage. The Iwa elite Jonin, who noticed this, led a few Jonin from his side to quickly intercept and kill the Aburame members. However, before he took a few steps, Hiashi and a group of Hyuga elite intercepted them. Hiashi directly went in for the kill to take down the outpost leader. "[Hakke Hyaku Nijūhasshō]" (Eight Trigrams, One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms).

The Iwa elite Jonin was completely caught off guard, as he didn't expect a Shinobi of Hiashi's caliber to launch such an assault. Even though both held the status of Elite Jonin, Hiashi was someone who had taken half a step into Kage class. So the moment Hiashi caught the enemy ninja within range, he launched a deadly barrage of continuous attacks.

The other Iwa Shinobi who wanted to save their leader were intercepted by the other Hyuga members. By the time Hiashi ended the attack, the lifeless body of Iwa elite Jonin hit the ground with a thud. The Leaf Ninja, who saw their vice commander eliminate the outpost leader, had their morale shoot up. They were already attacking relentlessly, but now everyone had entered berserk mode.

The Konoha Shinobi quickly started overwhelming the enemy; however, Hiashi gave a quick command for the entire Leaf troop to retreat. Although in a close-to-berserk state with bloodlust running high, none of the Leaf Shinobi disobeyed. They quickly retreated while picking up their injured comrades, even those with mortal injuries who might die in a few minutes or so.

Just minutes after the Leaf team retreated, an army of close to four hundred Iwa Shinobi rushed into the outpost. Earlier, while they were on a mission to try and intercept the recently deployed elite Leaf squad, they heard a huge explosion. They were about two dozen miles away, so they quickly rallied and came in to support, knowing there was an Iwa outpost here. But what they saw was contrary to their expectations. The entire outpost was almost burned to the ground, with more than five dozen Iwa corpses strewn across the recent battlefield.

The leader of the Iwa army stepped forward and questioned an Iwa Jonin who had survived the assault. "Sir, it's the elite Leaf Shinobi team, led by Hiashi Hyuga himself. They just left a minute ago, carrying their injured. They should have at least close to two dozen injured Shinobi," the Jonin explained, blood streaming down his face.

"How many of them were there? Give me a count now!" The Iwa leader was not worried about the injured comrades, as the medics had started working to save the ones that could be saved.

"Sir, they were close to a hundred, not more." The now-defeated Jonin gave the number, and the Iwa leader's face bloomed with a cruel smile. "Quickly mobilize everyone; we might land ourselves a big fish today." The Iwa leader turned to his deputy to pass down the order.

"This might be a trap. Our original report puts their numbers somewhere close to two hundred members, including Hiashi Hyuga, who formed the elite Leaf Squad," the deputy suggested after he understood that their leader wanted to give chase.

"So what? They have only two hundred in total, and they already have injuries among them. For all we know, we might outnumber them one to three. Are you still afraid of such odds?" The Iwa leader was irritated when his deputy questioned his order, but he knew his deputy was a smart man. So he added an additional command. "Send a small team to relay this information back to the main camp so that we will have reinforcements in case we need them later." At the leader's command, the deputy quickly relayed the orders, and the entire troop, except for a few medical ninja left behind to treat the injured, started their pursuit.

Hiashi, who was moving in the direction of the Leaf camp, had already arranged for a few of the Hyuga ninjas with superior speed to administer the healing scrolls to the ones who were mortally wounded. Also, the other Leaf Shinobi used the lower-level scrolls to quickly heal their injuries while on the run. It only took a dozen or so seconds for most of them to get back to their fighting state.

Hiashi quickly instructed one of the Aburame to send a message to their camp immediately. In the last assault, the Leaf side lost six Shinobi, while the Iwa lost close to sixty. If not for the medical scrolls, Hiashi would have had to lose close to two dozen more; that's how effective their scrolls and medicines provided by the Nara clan were.

"Leave the ones lying on your back as they are; let the enemy think that we have seriously injured ones amongst ourselves. That way, they are sure to pursue." The now-healed Leaf Shinobi laid back down on their comrades' backs while quickly trying to restore their chakra levels for the upcoming engagement.

Within minutes, the Iwa army found tracks of the now-retreating Leaf team, and the Iwa leader quickly ordered the entire team to speed up to catch the Leaf ninjas. About ten minutes later, Hiashi and his team reached the section of the forest where the rest of the Leaf squad lay in ambush. Hiashi deliberately maintained a pace such that the Iwa team would be able to close in on them once they reached the ambush area.

The Iwa leader, who was moving rapidly, could now see the Leaf team retreating with their comrades on their backs. He couldn't help but give a wide grin. However, his deputy felt that something was wrong and was about to warn the leader. Still, the leader ignored him and asked the entire team to speed up.

"Haha, there they are! Surround them and kill them! I have already called for reinforcements, so we chase them until we are deep into enemy lines." The Iwa leader already considered Hiashi's head as his own contribution, as they were now deep in Iwa-controlled territory, and he was confident in catching the enemy's Vice Commander before he made it back to their lines.

Just when he was relishing the fact of his future success, his deputy suddenly tackled him out of the way. "Now," somewhere from deep within the forest, Mayumi screamed at the top of her voice, and a series of explosions and traps were set off back to back. With the forward momentum, almost half of the Iwa army was caught within the vicinity of these traps. The traps set by Torune were extremely lethal.

Before coming to war, Kazuki had personally taught him to rig his explosive tags with poison fog, and the poison fog was created with his own rinkaichu. So, anyone who came into contact with the fog would get in direct contact with rinkaichu poison, and such a delivery method was almost as lethal as getting in direct contact with Torune himself. This was a cruel and ruthless way of disposing of their enemies. The Iwa leader was completely surprised by the ambush. If not for his deputy, he would have rushed into the enemy trap headlong like the others.

"You dumb moron, why didn't you listen?" His deputy's voice sounded from somewhere behind him. His face turned ugly because his deputy was berating him. He turned to yell at his deputy, but what he saw made him stop. His deputy, who had used an earth spear technique to cover himself in defense, still lost his left leg while trying to save him. Normally, the deputy, who was an elite Jonin, would have accurately calculated the blast radius of the explosion tag.

Unfortunately, the explosion tag the Iwa leader triggered was set by Torune and personally handcrafted by Kazuki. Most of the things that Torune used were from his team. One could say that Gai, Itachi, and Kazuki were personally sponsoring Torune's Shinobi career, as he had only recently started earning. Before they left for war, as Torune could not afford a lot of stuff and even the Aburame clan was not that well off, Kazuki and the rest dumped a hell lot of items to help him during the war.

"Idiot, snap out of it. We need to retreat and regroup; that poison fog is dangerous." With these words from his deputy, the Iwa leader quickly collected himself and started shouting down orders.

"Everyone quickly fall back and regroup. Stay away from the poison fog. Pull out the ones who are injured; take care not to come into contact with the poison." The Iwa commander barked at his team. Almost the entire trap area was now covered with purple fog. Amidst the screams and shouts, the Iwa leader made a quick estimate and counted that he had lost close to a tenth of his team to the explosion.

Everyone who was caught in the midst of the poison fog was already frothing from their mouths, succumbing to the poison. The ones who came into contact with the fog in the vicinity quickly reacted. Some had no idea what to do; however, the more experienced veterans ruthlessly cut parts of their own bodies that came into contact with the deadly poison. Some even flinched and cut off their own limbs so they could survive and continue fighting. However, the ones who were unlucky enough to get the poison in vital areas could only wait for their deaths to embrace them.

In all, the Iwa team lost close to sixty odd Shinobi due to the ambush, and a majority of them fell victim to Torune's lethal Rinkaichu.

"Quick, use wind jutsus to blow away the fog." The Iwa leader, who had now composed himself, passed down a command. But the poor fellow didn't know that the trap was just the beginning of the Leaf Shinobi's counterattack. "[Fūton: Daitoppa] "(Wind Release: Great Breakthrough) Before the Iwa Shinobi could blow away the poison fog, the strategically placed Leaf Ninjas blew the fog in such a way as to engulf the now-regrouped Iwa Ninjas.

This made the Iwa ninjas steadily retreat. But what they didn't expect was that close to two hundred Leaf Shinobi just started attacking the Iwa ninjas running through the poison fog as if the poison fog was just for decoration. Even if the Iwa ninjas wanted to retaliate, however, they couldn't because the poison fog was quickly moving in their direction, as a few Sarutobi Shinobi were redirecting the poison fog that the few Iwa Shinobi who knew Wind Release were trying to disperse.

"Kill them all!" Hiashi took the lead to launch into the now-broken Iwa line with various battle cries. The Konoha Shinobi descended through the poison fog upon the Iwa ranks, trying to slaughter and gain as many battle contributions as they could. The squad that Hiashi had brought along for this particular mission was among the best elites of the Hyuga and Sarutobi clans. In short, these Ninjas were some of the best killing machines that the current Leaf Village could field, excluding the Kage-level Ninjas. They reaped through the now disorganized Iwa ranks, who were trying to fall back and regroup.