A hundred meters away from the battlefield, Jiraiya slowly sat up from the ground. He clenched his fists, feeling the sickening weakness finally fade away. Not only that, but his bleeding wounds had also been healed by Tsunade's medical ninjutsu.
"Thank you, Tsunade!" Jiraiya exclaimed, jumping up and turning to her.
Tsunade smiled, and the two of them turned their gaze toward the battlefield. What had once been a massive force of thousands of Rock Ninjas was now reduced to less than a fifth of that number, overwhelmed by Konoha's superior strength.
At this point, Konoha ninjas were ganging up on the remaining Rock Ninjas, finishing them off one by one. Uchiha Kai and Hatake Sakumo moved swiftly through the battlefield, their targets mostly the remaining elite Jonin among the Rock Ninja ranks—most of whom had already been killed or severely wounded.
Now, the Rock Ninja forces were mostly comprised of Chunin-level ninjas.
The three Sannin did not rejoin the battle, opting instead to observe from the sidelines.
"Your disciple certainly isn't an ordinary kid," Tsunade commented to Jiraiya. Her eyes were focused on Minato, who was still fighting with sharp precision. It wasn't hard for someone of her experience to notice his skill. Even at this stage of the war, Minato was constantly identifying the weakest point in each opponent's defense and killing them with a single blow.
Even Jiraiya, Minato's teacher, was slightly intimidated. He hadn't spent much time directly training Minato, and this was the first time he'd witnessed his abilities in action.
Orochimaru, too, had his eyes on the boy, though his observations differed from the others'.
Half an hour later, the battle was over.
The last Iwagakure ninja fell to the ground with a look of despair, and all the Konoha ninjas breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Tsunade rushed onto the battlefield, heading toward a wounded Konoha ninja. She formed seals with both hands, and a faint light of chakra glowed in her palms as she began healing his wounds.
"All ninjas with medical training, tend to the wounded. The rest, search for the bodies of our fallen comrades!" Tsunade's voice pulled the Konoha ninjas back to the present. Upon hearing her command, several ninjas began looking for their seriously injured companions and doing what they could to help.
These few were the rare ones who knew medical ninjutsu.
Minato watched. In this era, Konoha hadn't yet established a formal system that assigned a medical ninja to each team. There wasn't even an institution in the village dedicated to training such ninjas, which made medical specialists extremely rare.
"Tsunade-sama must have already proposed creating a medical ninja training institution to the Sandaime Hokage, but it was likely rejected," Minato thought. As a former Hokage himself, he was well-versed in Konoha's history, including the establishment of the ninja schools, Anbu, Root, and the medical ninja system.
He remembered a conversation with Sakumo in the Land of Hot Springs about something similar, though at the time, he hadn't fully recovered his memory and didn't quite understand its significance.
It wasn't until after the Second Ninja War that Konoha entered a stronger phase and likely adopted Tsunade's proposal.
By then, however, Tsunade would have already left the village, heartbroken by the deaths of Nawaki and her lover.
After a battle, it was normally best to leave the area as soon as possible, but the current situation was different. Konoha had faced pressure from three forces simultaneously. Now that one had been completely destroyed and the Rain Village had no reason to continue fighting Konoha, the remaining Sand Ninjas wouldn't dare provoke them again anytime soon.
"Damn, how many people died?"
Tsunade cursed as she glanced at the medical ninjas working nearby. Among the dead Konoha soldiers were several who had known medical ninjutsu.
"I don't want to die!"
A Konoha ninja, lying in his companion's arms, screamed. Despite the battle being over, his injuries were too severe, and not even Tsunade could save him.
In full view of everyone, he passed away, unwilling to accept his fate.
"The results of the battle have been tallied. We lost about 150 ninjas, with more than 20 still buried under the rubble and being searched for," someone reported ten minutes later.
Jiraiya listened, nodding solemnly.
Although this was a victory for Konoha, and their losses were only one-seventh of the Rock Ninja casualties, it wasn't something to celebrate. Those Konoha ninjas had come with them to the Land of Rain to fight, but they would never return home.
The battlefield search continued for over two hours, and the bodies of more than 130 Konoha ninjas were recovered.
"Let's go."
Jiraiya gave the order as the bodies of the fallen were evenly distributed among the surviving 800 ninjas. Everyone immediately began to leave.
No one paid attention to the thousands of Rock Ninja corpses lying scattered across the battlefield. There were too many scenes like this throughout the entire Land of Rain.
A few hours later, the Konoha forces found a temporary place to stay—some hidden rock caves, not large but sufficient for them to rest.
But before they could rest, there was one more thing to do.
A hundred meters away from the rock caves, Konoha ninjas used Earth Release ninjutsu to create a massive pit large enough to accommodate nearly 200 people. The bodies of the more than 130 Konoha ninjas they had recovered were placed inside.
Because of the ongoing war, it was impossible to transport all the bodies back to Konoha, so they had to deal with them on the spot.
Before burial, the living comrades took personal items from the dead, tokens to be returned to their families back in Konoha—these were the fallen ninjas' last keepsakes.
Blazing!
A dozen ninjas used Fire Release, and the flames quickly engulfed the more than 100 corpses.
Each ninja, especially those from clans like the Uchiha, carried secrets that needed to be protected, even in death. So, even when buried, their bodies had to be cremated.
The living ninjas gathered around the burning pyre, heads bowed in silence. For many, this was their first experience on the battlefield, and their hearts were heavy with melancholy and unease.
They knew that next time, it might be them lying there.
As ninjas, they fought for their country and village. It was their fate to die in war, and even in death, they could only be buried in a foreign land.
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