More than twenty Kirigakure ninja charged out of the camp, racing at top speed toward the trajectory from which the Golden Juice had been thrown.
One of the Nara clan members sensed it instantly and shouted, "Retreat!"
The five Nara ninja withdrew at once, vanishing into the darkness.
Meanwhile, the five corpses remained slumped motionless beside the catapult.
When the pursuing Mist ninja spotted the catapult and the silhouettes, they immediately hurled shuriken, kunai, and senbon. In an instant, the five corpses were riddled with holes like sieves.
Only when the Mist ninja closed in to inspect them did their expressions change in shock.
"These—these are our people!"
"This one is Isaka!" one Mist ninja cried out in disbelief as he stared at a corpse. "He was my friend—how could I meet him here?!"
"Mine too—he's from our village!"
"So is this one!"
The Mist ninja fell into chaos. Many instinctively moved forward, trying to retrieve their comrades' bodies.
But just as more than twenty of them reached the corpses, a faint sizzling sound reached their ears.
At first, no one reacted.
Then an elite jōnin's face turned deathly pale. He leaped backward and shouted,
"Everyone retreat! Explosive—!"
He didn't finish the sentence.
Explosive tags plastered beneath the corpses' clothing detonated simultaneously.
A thunderous blast tore through the night sky. The shockwave shredded everything nearby—bodies were torn apart, limbs and flesh scattering everywhere. Even the nearby catapult was blown to pieces.
When the smoke cleared, the air was thick with blood and gunpowder.
From the dust, a few weak groans struggled to rise—only to be swallowed by a deathly silence moments later.
The jōnin who had barely escaped clenched his fists, his face twisted with fury.
"Damn Konoha… I'll slaughter every last one of you!"
On a distant hill, the five Nara ninja glanced back at the blazing firelight. One of them said quietly,
"The plan succeeded. Let's go."
The mastermind behind all of this, however, was fast asleep in his tent.
When Wen Lan finally woke up the next morning, he immediately sensed something was wrong.
The moment he saw several ninja carrying a heavily injured, unconscious Kakashi, his heart sank.
Only then did he realize—
He had forgotten Rin.
He and Rin had never really known each other. He remembered Obito's revenge against Konoha, but had forgotten the true cause of that revenge.
Rin died.
Wen Lan rushed to find Uchiha Fugaku and demanded an explanation.
Fugaku explained that when Konoha reinforcements arrived, Kakashi and Rin had been deployed to the western front. That area was considered a peripheral battlefield—a feint zone where fighting was expected to be light.
But unexpectedly, they were hit by a surprise attack from a Kirigakure strike unit.
Rin was captured.
Kakashi infiltrated deep behind enemy lines to rescue her—but failed.
According to the rescue squad that brought Kakashi back, Rin died by Kakashi's Chidori, surrounded by a large number of Mist corpses.
Wen Lan frowned deeply.
At this point in time, Uchiha Madara had not yet died, and Yagura Karatachi had not yet been controlled by the Sharingan.
This incident was Madara's doing.
He had manipulated a Mist ANBU, sealed the Three-Tails, Isobu, into Nohara Rin, and then arranged for Obito to personally witness Kakashi piercing Rin's body.
The real objective had been to make Rin release the Three-Tails inside Konoha, causing massive destruction and pushing Obito into darkness.
But fate twisted slightly—and Madara still achieved his goal.
After learning everything, Wen Lan returned to his tent and stared at his palm.
His blood could create demons—but only the lowest kind, ones that feared sunlight.
And to create a demon, the person had to be alive.
Rin was dead.
That path was closed.
"…Sigh. I calculated everything—but missed this," Wen Lan muttered softly.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Skirmishes between Kirigakure and Konoha continued, but their scale remained controlled.
Then, suddenly, Kirigakure withdrew.
No reason. No statement.
After retreating, they completely cut off contact with the outside world and publicly announced a policy of isolation, as if the conflict had never happened.
Wen Lan knew exactly why.
Uchiha Madara was nearing death—and Yagura had been taken under control.
The Iwagakure front grew increasingly tense, so Sarutobi Hiruzen left only a small force to monitor Kirigakure while redeploying the rest to the Iwa–Konoha front.
The Uchiha clan was also reassigned to frontline support.
Yet when they arrived, something strange happened.
Konoha and Iwagakure… stopped fighting.
For seven straight days, the two sides faced each other in eerie silence, as if the war itself had vanished.
Inside the main command tent sat six figures:
Orochimaru, Minato Namikaze, Uchiha Fugaku, Hyūga Hizashi, Nara Shikaku, and Wen Lan.
This was a temporary military council chamber. Normally, Wen Lan wouldn't have been qualified to attend, but Orochimaru highly valued his strategies and personally approved his presence.
Orochimaru tapped the table with a finger, his face dark.
"This calm is too abnormal. Iwagakure wouldn't just sit still."
"They're likely verifying whether Kirigakure truly withdrew," Shikaku said calmly.
"To be honest, I've been puzzled as well. Neither side gained an advantage in the Konoha–Mist conflict, and neither suffered a decisive loss."
"Yet the Fourth Mizukage withdrew decisively—no hesitation, no explanation. I can't even figure out why."
Wen Lan leaned back in his chair, eyes half-lidded.
Of course he knew why.
Rin's death shattered Obito, pushing him toward the Eye of the Moon Plan.
Madara exploited that despair, using it to control Yagura and isolate Kirigakure.
Now, Kirigakure has become one of Madara's chess pieces.
Next would come Obito's revenge against the Mist.
As for Iwagakure's silence—it was merely them waiting to confirm that Kirigakure was truly out of the game.
Minato spoke gently, "With Konoha and Sunagakure allied, Iwagakure can't hold out alone. The war should end soon."
"But we still need to stay alert—in case they lash out before collapsing."
Orochimaru nodded slightly, then turned his gaze to Wen Lan.
"Mr. Wen Lan, what do you think?"
Wen Lan raised his head, lightly tapping the table with his finger.
The gesture looked almost comical for someone so young—but on him, it radiated composure.
"Strike first," Wen Lan said flatly.
"Whether Iwagakure plans to withdraw, negotiate, or continue fighting, the initiative must remain in our hands."
"They're checking on Kirigakure—but they're also catching their breath. One village fighting two is exhausting even for them."
"If we sit and wait until they recover, we'll be dragged around by the situation instead of controlling it."
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