Naruto: Hyuga Warlord

"Abandoning annihilation to switch to a tail-chasing pursuit—that's your suggestion?"

Inside the command headquarters of the Sunagakure ninja forces, Kai Sahiga Jonin was greatly surprised by the Chief Strategist's recommendation.

"Yes. The defeat of the intercept units has significantly impacted the encirclement forces. If we continue with the original operation plan, there's a high chance that..."

Tegan Jonin, the Chief Strategist of the Sunagakure ninja forces, hesitated mid-sentence.

Though left unsaid, Kai Sahiga understood his meaning.

To put it plainly, the already fearful Suna forces—long haunted by the legend of Konoha's White Fang, Sakumo Hatake—had once again suffered a major blow to their morale, especially the eastern border units who had already been deeply frightened.

And under these circumstances, even if he ordered his ninja forces to keep fighting the remaining Konoha units until both sides wiped each other out, though victory would surely belong to the great Sunagakure, the real question was—was it worth it?

The ninja force currently under his command was an elite unit carefully selected from thousands of border-stationed Suna shinobi!

They had launched a surprise attack under ideal circumstances. Even after crushing the command center of Konoha's advancing unit, the remaining Konoha ninja still managed to hold out until now. To be honest, this had far exceeded both his and the entire Suna command staff's expectations.

"Have you considered the consequences of proceeding this way?"

Kai Sahiga Jonin fired back.

As a Sunagakure jonin, Kai Sahiga naturally understood his village's usual methods thoroughly.

In short, in a resource-starved village like Suna, there was absolutely no room for mistakes.

This was perfectly understandable—being the poorest among the Five Great Countries, the Land of Wind simply couldn't afford many errors. In the pursuit of extreme efficiency and return on investment, they often became overly hasty in seeking quick results, usually choosing to ignore certain slightly subtle but severe future consequences—for instance, standardizing puppet techniques as the core combat unit of the hidden village.

"Tegan Jonin pointed out the problem. "The number of jonin casualties within our main force has already surpassed half,". "Most critically, our concealed sniper units have remained completely silent; and regarding the intercept units, only lower-ranked genin and chunin managed to escape back."

Kai Sahiga Jonin leaned back tactically, directly voicing what Tegan had only implied.

"The border combat units would face an extremely dangerous situation."

The 700-strong ninja force currently under his command had originally been formed by drawing elites from the 3,000-strong eastern border stationed forces of the Land of Wind—it was the cream of the entire military structure.

And those jonin who had died in battle were originally squad commanders within their respective original units!

A fifty-percent casualty rate among jonin ranks was already crippling damage.

Even after the war, when temporarily assigned personnel returned to their former divisions, half of those squads would inevitably lose their jonin leaders—who served as their tactical cores—which would instantly cause a drastic reduction in battlefield effectiveness.

"Kai Sahiga Jonin truly has a keen eye."

Though their ranks were barely lower, Tegan Jonin still knew how to offer a well-timed compliment: "Our forces can't afford heavy casualties anymore!"

Moreover, if the battle continued, the Border Unit would lose its semi-independent status entirely—that was the real catastrophe!

This was the cost of Sunagakure's ruthless pragmatism.

In Sunagakure, anything deemed useless faced ruthless abandonment—be it individual ninja, collective units, or even the Kage himself. If someone had no use, they were finished.

While Sunagakure wouldn't go so far as Kirigakure in slaughtering discarded villagers outright, life wasn't easy for any ninja cast aside—after all, resources within the village were extremely limited!

"The Border Unit represents 3,000 ninja families, carrying the hopes of parents, children, and entire clans."

Sighing softly, Kai Sahiga Jonin spoke with a slightly gentler tone but chose not to voice the most critical thoughts on his mind.

Tegan Jonin remained silent.

After some time, a Suna ninja rushed into the Command Headquarters, reporting urgently: "Honored Sirs, Konoha ninja have already broken through multiple defensive lines! The front line requests tactical guidance!"

"What's going on?"

Promptly showing a trace of genuine surprise, Kai Sahiga Jonin looked just as unaware as anyone else until now.

The dispatch ninja stayed silent, and an icy quiet quickly filled the headquarters.

"This might be a trap. I suggest recalling scattered squads first and concentrating our forces for pursuit—it would be safer that way."

Gritting his teeth, Tegan Jonin decisively took responsibility.

"Reasonable."

Nodding, Kai Sahiga Jonin added, "Since experienced Tegan Jonin recommends this course of action, proceed to inform all units!"

"At once!" barked the dispatch ninja, bowing sharply before turning and sprinting off.

As for whether to continue the pursuit after recalling the scattered units or whether the Konoha ninja might escape faster and become untraceable during that time—these were no longer concerns for him.

"The Hidden Sand has retreated?"

Noticing the sudden change in the Sand forces, Soushu Hyuga—one who pierced through multiple blockades as the vanguard of Konoha's Reinforcement Unit—was equally quite surprised.

"Could there be a trick?"

Hamako Yechame shared the same ominous feeling too.

After fierce fighting, only five members remained from the reinforcement team, while fewer than sixty survivors from the previously advancing Konoha units successfully regrouped. The numbers favored Sunagakure nearly nine to one against the surviving Konoha forces.

To be honest, with this kind of numerical disadvantage, unless Sunagakure goes all out, aside from a few jonin like Hyuga Soushu and Yechame Hamako, no one else would have the slightest chance to escape alive.

But here's the thing — even though,

"Regardless of whether there's a trap or not, I personally believe we should retreat as soon as possible."

Though Hyuga Soushu remained cautious, while continuously using his Byakugan to monitor Suna's movements, he still added this suggestion.

"That's right!"

Yechame Hamako nodded without hesitation, immediately calling on the remaining members of the Advancing Unit to regroup and begin an orderly withdrawal.

Although every survivor among the Konoha Ninja Forces' vanguard had been injured during their breakout, the hope of survival still drove them to push themselves to use up every last drop of chakra, galloping homeward toward Konoha with great hope.

Meanwhile, including Hyuga Soushu, five reinforcements were also monitoring Suna's movements and performing rear guard duties. At the same time, they took out all their final supplies — bandages, healing elixirs — and handed them over to these Konoha ninjas who had already exhausted their resources.

Thus, as Suna watched with a mix of reluctant resignation and subtle relief, although Soushu's group still couldn't figure out why Suna suddenly withdrew; taking the "if not now, when?" approach, the retreating speed of Konoha's remnants kept increasing, quickly disengaging entirely from the Suna forces.

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