The next day, in Konoha's camp, Mochizuki Hui glanced at the intelligence report in his hand and let out a quiet sigh.
The Third Raikage, he realized, was more resilient and composed than he had anticipated.
Perhaps, Hui thought, I should have killed him yesterday.
"Let's proceed as planned. I'm counting on everyone here to stand firm. If you all hold your positions, I promise I'll end this war as swiftly as possible!"
The shinobi around him responded with fervour, one even addressing him with formal respect. "We won't let you down, Lord Hui!"
The man, a seasoned shinobi in his thirties, looked at Hui with respect and admiration. Despite Hui being only sixteen, his achievements in this war had transcended age, earning him deep reverence among his comrades.
After all that had happened since the war began—especially yesterday's battle—Hui's presence now commanded absolute respect from everyone in the Konoha forces.
Many in the ranks had started to see him as their future leader, a figure destined to be Hokage.
The course of the war had shifted in an unexpected direction.
Originally, this was supposed to be a straightforward confrontation: Kumogakure would attack, aiming to push through Moonfall Mountain and enter the Land of Fire, while Konoha would defend, trying to hold them back.
But now, the battle had turned into Kumogakure merely trying to contain Hui at the mountain while awaiting reinforcements from the other hidden villages for a combined assault.
Kumogakure's shinobi, even after the Third Raikage's morale-boosting speech, couldn't shake the terror Hui had instilled in them.
They lacked the will to truly fight and had shifted to merely going through the motions. They would feign attacks, unleash a few jutsu, hurl some ninja tools, and then swiftly retreat to the main camp.
If they lingered too long, they risked encountering Hui or one of his shadow Avatars—a prospect none of them looked forward to.
Over the past two days, three different battalions had encountered Hui and his avatars. Out of the three thousand shinobi in those units, five hundred were killed before the survivors managed to scatter and flee.
Had they stayed to engage Hui in earnest, all three thousand would likely have perished. But for Hui, this low kill rate was frustrating.
In two days, he had only managed to eliminate five hundred. At this pace, it would take far too long to deal with the remaining eight thousand shinobi from Kumogakure.
Worse yet, the Third Raikage had noticed Hui's attempts to hunt them down and swiftly adapted.
He consolidated his forces, reorganizing them into three large battalions of three thousand each, rotating their attacks on Konoha's defences from different directions each day.
However, these were more like superficial skirmishes, just enough to show Kumogakure's presence. The battalions would retreat after a brief display of force, huddling back together near Moonfall Mountain.
Under these conditions, Hui's Avatars couldn't charge directly into the ranks of three thousand shinobi, especially since Kumogakure's forces would retreat at the first sight of him.
When his Avatars did unleash Sage Jutsu from a distance, Kumogakure's troops would scatter and flee, barely giving him a chance to inflict casualties.
And while Hui himself could fight within their ranks, even he couldn't prevent them from scattering, which severely limited the number he could effectively eliminate.
Hui found himself almost laughing at the absurdity of it all. Was Kumogakure pushing him to invade their camp directly?
However, he dismissed the idea. With nearly ten thousand enemy shinobi concentrated in one place, even he couldn't risk going in alone.
With little choice left, he returned to his new jutsu development, working on a technique that could deal with Kumogakure's turtle-like defensive strategy.
This tactic was frustrating, and even his allies in Konoha's forces found themselves shaking their heads in disbelief.
The Konoha shinobi, expecting a brutal battle with high casualties, had been ready to give their lives in defense.
But to their surprise, despite facing an opponent nearly four times their size, they had lost less than a hundred men over the past four days, while Kumogakure had suffered over a thousand casualties.
This outcome was unimaginable. They had faced nearly ten thousand enemy shinobi with minimal losses and had Hui to thank for it.
Even the Uchiha clan seemed to be rallying around him. The clan leader, clearly impressed, approached Hui to discuss Kumogakure's latest tactic.
"Hui, what do we do now? Kumogakure's forces have holed up in their camp, refusing to face us directly. They're just trying to stall for time until the other hidden villages win their respective battles and can join them here."
Hui nodded and replied calmly, "Don't worry. They won't be able to keep us tied down here forever. As I said before, I intend to end this war quickly and then move to support the other fronts. I'm close to completing a new jutsu, and once it's ready, I'm confident I can force Kumogakure into surrender single-handedly!"
Hui's confidence was unshakeable.
Besides working on his new technique, he also awaited the final step of his plan: a decisive blow to Kumogakure's supply lines. He had quietly positioned Sakumo Hatake and his team to cut off Kumogakure's provisions.
Hui knew that a force of nearly ten thousand shinobi needed constant supplies to maintain combat effectiveness. If Sakumo succeeded in severing that lifeline, Kumogakure's forces would soon collapse.
Three days passed, bringing word of Hui's encounter with the Second Raikage to the other hidden villages.
The entire ninja world was in an uproar.
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