Chapter 58 The action begins

The next day.

night.

In the drizzle, a large group of Konoha ninjas were moving forward rapidly.

Qingming raised his head and glanced around. It was crowded with people. He estimated that there were hundreds or even thousands of people.

Except for the ninjas who stayed behind at the base camp and front-line outposts, Orochimaru mobilized almost all the ninjas he could mobilize.

This shows how powerful this action is!
It was not until noon today that Qing Ming received the mission notification and learned that the goal of this mission was to attack a stronghold in the Iwagakure Village.

It would be impossible for Orochimaru to attack an ordinary stronghold with so much effort.

In fact, this stronghold is the largest material transfer center of the Iwagakure Village in the Rain Country, responsible for providing various materials to two-thirds of the battlefield.

Once this stronghold falls, the Iwagakure Village will not be able to organize any decent attack in the next one or two months.

It was also at this time that Qing Ming vaguely understood why Orochimaru had asked them to launch an all-out attack before.

Firstly, they probably wanted to inflict losses on both sides so that the Iwagakure Village would dispatch personnel to the front line, thus leaving the rear empty, thus paving the way for the current action.

This is an open conspiracy. Even if the Iwagakure Village notices something unusual, it must send more people to the front line, otherwise Orochimaru will definitely launch a second all-out attack.

By then, who knows, the fake will become real and the battle line will be pushed towards the Iwagakure side.

This will make the situation even more unfavorable.

Therefore, the Iwagakure Village could only dispatch personnel to the front line to make up for the lack of combat power on the front line.

At this time, Orochimaru, after some investigation, determined that the goal had been achieved.

Then, some of the personnel were quietly transferred back, thus briefly creating a numerical advantage.

This is the reason why he dared to launch this surprise attack.

There is also a second mission objective during the all-out attack, which is the mission that Qingming is carrying out - to destroy the reserve supplies in the enemy's stronghold.

This might be the foreshadowing of Orochimaru's shortage of supplies in the Iwagakure Village after this battle.

In addition, there is the Sand Village. Qingming estimated that Orochimaru had already made arrangements to ensure that the other party would not take advantage of the situation.

"Tsk tsk, it's really a chain of events!"

With a sigh in his heart, Qingming quickened his pace following the main force.

According to the plan, after they arrive at the designated location, they will be divided into three teams, two of which will be responsible for blocking the enemy's reinforcements, and the third team will be responsible for attacking the stronghold head-on.

what?
You said the intelligence had not been leaked, so why did we still have to block the enemy's reinforcements?

Please!

As long as the Iwagakure Village is not blind, they will definitely notice their large-scale actions.

Even if they don't discover it along the way, the Iwagakure Village headquarters will get the news once the battle starts.

If a ninja wants to pass on information to the outside world, there shouldn't be too many ways. Moreover, for such an important base, there must be a channel to contact the headquarters in an emergency.

Therefore, it is almost inevitable that the enemy will provide support.

In this case, were all the preparations Orochimaru made in vain?

The answer is of course no.

Everything Orochimaru did was just to create a time difference so that the Iwagakure Village could not make an effective response in the first place.

And this is enough.

Next, the competition will be about the hard power of both sides.

If you don't have the hard power, even if you use all kinds of strategies, it won't be of much use.

It is just as the saying goes, in the face of absolute strength, any conspiracy or trickery is futile.

All Orochimaru could do was to tilt the balance of victory slightly towards Konoha.

······
Shake.

More than ten hours passed.

The time came to the next morning.

The sky is bright.

Qingming and his group stopped in a dense forest. The route for this mission had been planned long ago, and there were no accidents along the way.

Next, they will rest here for a day, and after nightfall, they will continue their journey under the cover of darkness.

In this way, we can arrive at the designated location around tomorrow morning.

After that, after a short rest, the raid will be launched before noon.

This arrangement may be a bit tight in terms of time, but it is also necessary because if it is delayed any further, the risk of exposure will rise sharply.

In order to catch the Rock Ninja off guard, the only thing to do was to attack as quickly as possible.

······
The next day.

morning.

Qing Ming and others arrived at the designated location smoothly.

After a short rest, the team was divided into three parts.

Qing Ming and Mizutani Shizuko followed a team of 300 people and headed to the first blocking point.

This is a river valley corridor, with mountains on both sides, a long river in the middle, and relatively spacious sandy land on both sides of the river.

This corridor connects to the headquarters of Iwagakure Village in the Land of Rain and is the shortest route to that logistics base.

If the Iwagakure headquarters comes to support, they will most likely go this way.

Their mission is to delay the enemy's reinforcements here so as to buy time for the three teams to attack the Rock Ninja stronghold.

As the largest and most important logistical base of the Iwagakure Village in the Land of Rain, there are quite a few troops stationed there with strong combat effectiveness.

As a result, coupled with the advantage of fighting at home, even if they had more troops than the enemy, it would be impossible for them to break through in a short period of time.

Therefore, the blocking mission is destined not to be easy.

It is conceivable that this will be another brutal war.

With this thought in mind, Qing Ming said to Mizutani Shizuko beside him, "Don't be too far away from me later."

"Ah."

Mizutani Shizuko nodded obediently. She did not pretend to be hypocritical and say that she did not need protection. She also did not let hatred get the better of her and shout for revenge for Furukawa and Ryosuke.

Qingming was very satisfied with this.

Although he had said before that he would not be a babysitter for anyone, if his companion was so sensible, he still didn't mind helping out.

After all, there were only two of them left in Class 17. If the other one died too, he would be left alone.

······
Time passes minute by minute.

As noon approached, Qing Ming glanced at the time and muttered to himself, "It should have already started over there."

Unfortunately, this place is some distance away from the battlefield over there, so even if there is a fighting over there, they can't hear it here.

At this moment, the leader sent a message, asking everyone to wake up, pay attention to the movements around them, and be ready to meet the enemy at any time.

Hiding in the woods on both sides, Qingming, like other Konoha ninjas, held a kunai, breathed the air carefully, stared at the river corridor, and waited quietly for the enemy to appear.

However, one minute, two minutes
Five minutes, ten minutes
One hour.
Two full hours passed and the enemy still did not appear.

Qingming could clearly sense that there was some slight commotion in the team.

But it was quickly suppressed.

In a daze, another half an hour passed.

At this time, everyone had been waiting here for two and a half hours.

I don’t know whether it was because the Iwagakure Village reacted slowly, or because Orochimaru’s arrangement worked, or if they simply did not choose to take this shortcut.

In short, the enemy reinforcements never appeared.

But even if we changed the route, there would be people watching us, so it would be impossible that there would be no news at all.

Just when everyone was nervous, a figure suddenly ran over from a distance and went straight into the jungle.

Then after a while, the leader sent a message that the enemy would arrive in three kilometers and asked everyone to be prepared.

(End of this chapter)