Time passed by.
In the blink of an eye, the battle had been raging for over forty minutes.
And Seimei had been stalling for nearly ten minutes. Finally, the situation on the battlefield started to change.
First, there was some commotion on the outskirts of the battlefield, especially among the Iwa ninja far from the base.
Then, some Iwa Jonin, seemingly having received some news, started organizing their forces to retreat after a brief struggle.
Seeing this, Seimei narrowed his eyes.
He looked at the two Iwa Jonin who were stalling with him and said with interest, "Hey, your comrades seem to be retreating. Aren't you leaving?"
"What?"
The two Iwa Jonin were startled. They immediately glanced at the other Iwa ninja and indeed saw some of them starting to withdraw.
Clearly, they hadn't noticed this before.
But this was normal.
Although Seimei was stalling for time, he wasn't just going through the motions. To gain more proficiency, he was using his Swordsmanship at full strength.
Therefore, these two had to focus entirely on dealing with him; otherwise, they could still die by his sword.
So, it was normal for them not to notice the movements of the other Iwa Jonin.
Just as they were wondering why, several sharp whistles of varying lengths suddenly sounded on the battlefield.
'This is the retreat signal!'
The two Iwa Jonin's expressions changed slightly. They exchanged glances and immediately counterattacked Seimei.
Seeing this, Seimei roughly guessed the meaning of the Iwa ninja's whistles.
At this time, their proactive attack didn't mean they wanted to fight him to the death, but rather to create space for their retreat.
After all, if they were constantly suppressed by him, they wouldn't have a chance to retreat even if they wanted to.
'It seems that Nara Shikaku's plan has succeeded. I just don't know if it's the same as what I thought...'
Thinking this, Seimei swung his short sword, easily blocking the continuous attacks of the two Iwa Jonin in front of him.
And whenever they tried to retreat, he would counterattack, preventing them from disengaging.
This made the two Iwa Jonin anxious.
On the contrary, Seimei remained calm, keeping the two Iwa Jonin at bay, neither overly aggressive nor passive, focusing on one word - delay!
This was the same tactic the two Iwa Jonin had used against him earlier, and now he was using it against them, returning the favor.
This made the two Iwa Jonin extremely uncomfortable.
Soon, a minute passed.
As Seimei was dealing with the increasingly agitated two, a voice suddenly appeared in his mind.
It was Yamanaka Tokikaze.
At this moment, he was using the Yamanaka clan's Mind Transmission Technique to inform all the Konoha Jonin on the battlefield of the latest situation.
At the same time, he also conveyed Nara Shikaku's latest orders.
Seimei listened carefully for a moment, and soon a "just as I thought" expression appeared on his face.
His guess was correct. Nara Shikaku indeed had his own plan, and his appetite was quite large. He actually intended to wipe out this elite Iwa ninja unit.
Currently, more than three-quarters of the personnel in the base had been mobilized by him, and they had already surrounded the Iwa ninja troops on the battlefield.
The commotion among the Iwa ninja earlier was because they had discovered the encirclement and were hurriedly trying to retreat.
As for why even they, the Jonin, hadn't been informed in advance...
It could only be said that the plan was formulated too hastily.
By the time they finished the investigation, ensured there were no threats from the Iwa ninja in other directions, and started implementing the plan, the battle here had already been going on for quite a while.
And at that time, Yamanaka Tokikaze wasn't nearby. They couldn't send people to inform everyone individually, could they? That would be too easy to leak information!
So, Nara Shikaku decisively postponed the notification.
Seimei could only shrug. What else could he say?
They, the Jonin, were considered the pillars of the village, but in this world-encompassing war, they were also just higher-level cannon fodder.
So, saying anything was pointless.
Anyway, as long as his strength was sufficient, he could handle any situation calmly.
In the end, strength was the foundation that determined everything.
Just like now, even without knowing the full picture, he could rely on his strength to hold his ground on the battlefield and wait for the situation to become clear.
As for those who were weaker...
They could only blame their own bad luck.
While Seimei was distracted listening to Yamanaka Tokikaze, the two Iwa Jonin seized the opportunity and disengaged from the fight at the cost of minor injuries, quickly retreating into the distance.
Seeing this, Seimei thought for a moment but ultimately didn't pursue them.
He sheathed his short sword and, following Nara Shikaku's orders, started organizing the nearby Konoha ninja, preparing to cooperate with the teams from other directions to encircle and annihilate the Iwa ninja present.
...
Two hours later.
The battle ended.
Everything happened so naturally.
Except for less than ten who managed to escape, the rest of the elite Iwa ninja unit was wiped out.
In fact, the moment the Iwa ninja failed to discover Nara Shikaku's plan in advance and were surrounded, everything was already doomed.
Indeed, this Iwa team was elite, but the Konoha ninja who had fought their way here were no pushovers either.
Moreover, Nara Shikaku had mobilized nearly three-quarters of the base's personnel, giving them a significant numerical advantage over the Iwa team.
Coupled with the encirclement and the advantage of being prepared, the outcome was self-evident.
Even though the Iwa ninja fought desperately throughout the process, they only managed to kill a few more Konoha ninja, which couldn't change the overall situation. Most of them still died.
Looking at the corpse of the young Iwa Jonin on the ground, Seimei shook his head and said, "It seems you didn't survive in the end."
This person was none other than the Iwa Jonin he had severely injured.
And beside him was the corpse of the middle-aged Iwa Jonin.
Even in his final moments, he was still protecting the young Iwa Jonin. Unfortunately, there were too many Konoha ninja this time, and his little tricks were useless.
With such a burden by his side, how could he not die?
As he was lamenting, a Konoha Chunin ran over and respectfully said, "Seimei-sama, Captain Nara wants you to go to the meeting room for a meeting in an hour."
"In an hour?"
Seimei pondered for a moment and replied, "Alright, I understand!"
He also wanted to know why the Iwa ninja suddenly launched this attack, and it seemed that many of them weren't from the nearby bases.
As for how he was sure of this...
The reason was simple. Ever since he had made a name for himself, the Iwa ninja from the nearby bases, especially the lower-ranking ones, recognized his face.
After all, no one wanted to be targeted by the "Demon Sword."
However, when he arrived at the battlefield, only one of the four Iwa Chunin he first encountered recognized him.
This was problematic. He couldn't think of any other possibility besides these people not being from the nearby bases.
Moreover, the Iwa ninja who participated in this surprise attack were clearly not at a level that the nearby bases could muster, so there must have been reinforcements from other locations.
But now, with Iwa facing pressure from Suna and Kumo, how could they send reinforcements here?
There must be something he didn't know that was causing him to not understand Iwa's decision.
However, this meeting should be able to answer some of his questions.
(End of Chapter)