Chapter 344: Retreat Is the Best Strategy!

Meanwhile, at the Narrow Passage defensive position at the entrance to Sunagakure—

“What… exactly is that?!”

Elder Ebizō was observing the situation at the Shashan Temple defensive position through a pair of binoculars. What he saw was nothing short of a one-sided slaughter, and he couldn’t help letting out a disbelieving exclamation.

“It should be some kind of special weapon newly developed by Konoha.”

A hoarse voice sounded beside him.

Elder Chiyo appeared at Ebizō’s side.

“Elder Sister, you’re here! Then Bunpuku…”

Ebizō lowered his binoculars and turned toward Chiyo, but he swallowed the rest of his words when he saw who was standing behind her.

The One-Tail Renchūriki, Bunpuku, was standing there.

Bunpuku no longer had the frail, dying appearance he had possessed before.

Although he was still old, his spirit was vigorous and his eyes were clear. Judging from his current condition, living for several more years would not be a problem.

However, Bunpuku’s expression was somewhat dejected, and his entire demeanor was unusually gloomy.

“This… succeeded?”

Ebizō was overjoyed.

Although the One’s Own Life Reincarnation technique had been successfully developed, it had never actually been tested in a real situation.

The price of One’s Own Life Reincarnation was simply too great. Chiyo could not possibly use her own life for an experiment. Therefore, before it was actually used, nobody could guarantee that the technique would work.

But Bunpuku was standing here now.

That meant One’s Own Life Reincarnation had succeeded.

And with Bunpuku joining them, their chances of defending Sunagakure had increased somewhat.

“It could be considered a success.”

Chiyo sighed before turning her attention toward Shashan Temple and changing the subject.

“I heard the reports. Konoha used some unknown weapon to completely destroy the Shashan Temple defensive line. How is the battle going now?”

Chiyo had been occupied in the rear with the operation to restore Bunpuku’s life. Although she had also been monitoring the battle, naturally, she did not have as detailed an understanding of the situation as Ebizō, who had remained here throughout.

Moreover, Chiyo had never expected the Shashan Temple defensive line to withstand Konoha’s assault in the first place. Therefore, she wasn’t particularly surprised that Konoha had broken through it so quickly.

“Very bad.”

Ebizō answered bluntly.

“Konoha’s new weapon is extremely powerful. The casualties it inflicted among the Sand shinobi at Shashan Temple are actually secondary. The most important thing is that it destroyed the large-scale weapons stationed there, allowing the Konoha shinobi to charge onto the defensive position with virtually no resistance.”

“The number of shinobi Konoha sent this time isn’t particularly large, but their quality is excellent. Most of them are jōnin, and even the weakest are elite chūnin. Against our genin, it’s practically a slaughter.”

“At the current rate, I’d estimate that those Konoha shinobi will wipe out the remaining defenders within half an hour at most.”

Chiyo’s brows furrowed slightly.

She had expected the situation to be bad, but she hadn’t expected it to be this bad.

Chiyo asked again, “What about reinforcements? How long until our reinforcements can return to Sunagakure?”

“The fastest units won’t be able to return for another three or four hours.”

Ebizō sighed before delivering another piece of bad news.

“Earlier, Rasa sent someone back to report that the numbers of Konoha’s forces didn’t add up. More than a thousand shinobi were missing, so he ordered us to find out where those people went.”

“I had people contact the various outposts throughout the Land of Wind. We’ve discovered that we’ve already lost contact with several of them. Multiple mining areas and cities have also been attacked by unidentified shinobi.”

After a pause, Ebizō’s expression became somewhat strange.

“There’s something else. The Land of Wind’s Daimyō’s palace was also attacked. The entire palace was looted.”

Chiyo froze.

“They attacked the Daimyō?”

“Not exactly.”

Ebizō shook his head.

“They practically went mad looting the wealth of the nobles, but they didn’t really kill many people.”

“However, the Daimyō’s people were thoroughly frightened, and they’ve already sent a formal complaint to Sunagakure.”

Chiyo sneered upon hearing this.

“They never burn incense until they need to pray at the last moment. We had to practically beg him for funding before, and he kept making excuses and refusing to provide it. Now that he’s been attacked, he suddenly remembers that Sunagakure exists!”

Among the Five Great Shinobi Countries, the best relationship between a hidden village and its Daimyō was undoubtedly the one between the Daimyō of the Land of Lightning and Kumogakure.

The two sides were so closely aligned that they might as well have been sharing the same pair of trousers.

By contrast, the worst relationship was between the Daimyō of the Land of Wind and Sunagakure.

In the eyes of the Land of Wind’s Daimyō, Sunagakure’s very existence was unnecessary. The two sides had clashed repeatedly over the years.

Sunagakure’s inability to obtain sufficient financial support from the Daimyō was one of the primary reasons the village was so impoverished.

“Sigh… It seems Konoha has made up its mind this time. They intend to completely crush Sunagakure.”

Chiyo sighed again.

Then, as though she had suddenly thought of something, she spoke.

“Retreat.”

“Hm?”

Ebizō froze, thinking he had misheard her.

“Elder Sister, what did you say?”

“Retreat.”

Chiyo’s gaze gradually hardened as she repeated herself.

“Under the circumstances, Sunagakure cannot be defended. Retreat is our only option.”

“Why?”

Ebizō was puzzled.

“Don’t we still have Bunpuku? With him here, we might still be able to hold out until the reinforcements arrive.”

Chiyo shook her head.

“I already had Bunpuku communicate with the One-Tail, Shukaku.”

“Shukaku refused to help Sunagakure. It even declared that if it were to emerge, Sunagakure would be the first place it would come for.”

“So Shukaku is an enemy to us, not an ally.”

Ebizō was extremely unwilling to accept this, but he had no choice but to acknowledge the reality.

After all, this wasn’t the first time.

Whenever Shukaku had managed to escape in the past, it had almost always immediately sought revenge against the very Sunagakure that had captured it.

Several decades ago, Shukaku had been captured by Sunagakure itself. The village had not purchased it from Konoha.

Therefore, among the Nine Tailed Beasts, Shukaku could be said to be the only one that had never experienced the methods of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.

And because of that, Shukaku’s hatred for Sunagakure was no less intense than the Nine-Tails’ hatred for Madara Uchiha.

Chiyo continued:

“The reason Rasa and the others didn’t immediately retreat to Sunagakure once the situation became hopeless, and the reason they’re still holding out now, is because they’re trying to buy us time to react.”

“With Konoha’s new weapons, the large-scale weapons we’ve deployed at the Narrow Passage will suffer the same fate.”

“The fall of Sunagakure is inevitable.”

“So rather than allowing the next generation—the future seeds of our village—to die here for nothing, we should take those seeds with us and leave Konoha nothing but an empty city.”

“At worst, we can regroup with our reinforcements and take the village back later.”

After a pause, Chiyo’s tone suddenly changed.

Her voice became ice-cold.

“Moreover, only by leaving can Bunpuku make full use of his abilities.”