In the sky, when Qingming witnessed this scene, he hesitated not at all. He immediately raised his hand, formed seals, and performed a ninjutsu—Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique!
Whoosh~
A burst of flames erupted from his mouth, instantly transforming into three fire dragons, which charged toward the battlefield.
In the scene, two Konoha Chuunin, who had originally planned to advance and assist their fallen comrade, saw the fire dragons and immediately abandoned their attack, darting to the side.
Similarly, the four Mist Ninjas quickly dodged to the side.
Seizing this opportunity, Qingming's shadow clone dashed into the forest. After circling around a large tree and confirming that no one was paying attention, he raised his hand and dispelled the "Shadow Clone Technique."
At the same time, the three fire dragons crashed into the ground, two of them missing their targets, but one of them directly struck the traitor, burning him to a crisp.
And that, of course, was Qingming's intention.
Once burned to a crisp, even if someone wanted to extract information from his corpse or mind, it would be impossible.
This wasn't due to Qingming's paranoia, but his caution.
He didn't have to think too hard to guess that after this event, Danzo's focus on him would definitely increase.
Judging by the final reaction of the snake, it was highly likely that Danzo had already begun suspecting Qingming's Sharingan.
After all, the snake immediately recognized his Sharingan as the Mangekyo Sharingan.
However, there was nothing to be done about it.
Although Qingming was always careful when using his Mangekyo Sharingan, once it was used, it inevitably left traces.
These subtle signs may not be noticed by individuals or smaller organizations, but to a large ninja village like Konoha, those were glaring clues. With enough effort to investigate, they would surely be able to deduce several possibilities.
At first, there might have been multiple potential explanations, but as he continued to take action, the traces would increase, and the possibilities would narrow down. In the end, the probability of them deducing that he had the Mangekyo Sharingan would be almost certain.
Needless to say, after this, Danzo's suspicions would likely grow stronger in that direction.
But for him to completely refrain from using the Mangekyo Sharingan, that was impossible.
Qingming's goal in improving his strength was so that he could act freely, doing whatever he wished. If he couldn't use his abilities when needed, then what was the point of all that training? He might as well give up.
Therefore, it was impossible for him not to use the Mangekyo Sharingan.
Thus, both sides were now racing against time.
Fortunately, due to his cautiousness over the past two years, Qingming still maintained control over the situation.
So, he wasn't particularly worried.
Shaking his head to clear the thoughts, Qingming stopped dwelling on them. He cleaned up the aftermath and then turned his attention away from the battlefield, resuming his assault on other Mist Ninjas.
About twenty minutes ago, the Mist Ninjas stationed at the rear to cut off their retreat had finally broken through the shadow clones he had left behind and arrived at the main battlefield.
At that time, his shadow clone at the main battlefield had not yet departed.
Thus, even though the Mist Ninjas arrived, the morale of Konoha's side remained relatively intact.
However, a few minutes later, his shadow clone, responding to his call, departed from the battlefield.
Although he had given instructions before leaving, the Konoha ninjas could not help but feel uneasy, especially when the Mist Jonin increased their offensive. The situation only worsened from there.
It was at that moment that casualties began rising quickly, and within just a few minutes, over thirty people had been killed.
As morale began to crumble, the reinforcements from Sano Nobuhisa arrived.
This, at least, managed to stabilize the situation, though barely.
The reason it was only barely stabilized was that Sano Nobuhisa had arrived in haste, and didn't bring many forces with him.
Thus, even though Qingming's main body had joined the battle, they were still at a disadvantage.
However, Qingming guessed that the Mist Ninjas wouldn't continue fighting for long.
There were two reasons for this: First, reinforcements for Konoha were steadily arriving. The Konoha teams near the Black Stone Base had already received Sano Nobuhisa's orders and were heading toward the battlefield.
Once all these reinforcements arrived, it would no longer be the Mist Ninjas surrounding them; it would be Konoha encircling the Mist Ninjas.
At that point, the situation would be entirely reversed, and the Mist Ninjas would be in a dire position.
As long as the Mist's command wasn't foolish, they wouldn't allow this to happen.
Second, after the failure of the oil harbor counterattack, the Mist Village's strategy along the entire front had shifted from offense to defense.
This was an inevitable shift. Perhaps the Mist Ninjas currently had some advantages due to their intelligence, but ultimately, they would have to follow the overall trend.
Thus, Qingming was confident that they wouldn't continue the fight for much longer.
And as he predicted, after about thirty to forty minutes of chaotic fighting, seeing that they couldn't break the Konoha forces and realizing that more reinforcements were arriving, the Mist Ninjas finally gave up.
At a certain moment, a sharp whistle rang through the air in a rhythmic pattern.
Upon hearing this, the Mist Ninjas immediately formed teams and began to withdraw from the battlefield.
Some Konoha ninjas tried to pursue, but under the joint command of Qingming and Sano Nobuhisa, they had to stop.
The reason behind this decision differed for both of them. For Qingming, it was simply to avoid any unforeseen complications.
Although he had largely understood the entire situation, the information he had gathered came only from the minds of two Root ninjas, and no one could be sure that they knew everything.
What if Danzo had some sort of hidden backup plan? That could lead to trouble.
Therefore, after the Mist Ninjas retreated, Qingming chose to remain cautious and not take any rash actions.
For Sano Nobuhisa, it was a matter of caution.
This battle had already come out of nowhere. Had it not been for Qingming's direct request for help, he might not have acted so quickly.
Now that the enemy was retreating, his priority was to clarify the situation before taking further steps, rather than blindly chasing after the enemy.
This aligned with his role as the commander of the base.
…
Half an hour later.
In the sky, Qingming flapped his wings and flew rapidly. As he approached the ground, he dispelled the "Wind Style: Wind Wings" technique.
The next moment, he landed steadily on the ground.
Seeing this, Sano Nobuhisa hurried forward and asked, "How is it?"
"They've most likely really retreated. I left a shadow clone following them, so don't worry about them making a surprise return."
Qingming responded calmly.
"Is that so?"
Sano Nobuhisa paused for a moment before saying, "Then we can leave now."
"Mmm."
Qingming nodded.
The two then discussed for a while and unified their troops. Under Sano Nobuhisa's command, they quickly cleaned up the battlefield and headed toward the Black Stone Base.
After spending about half an hour, they finally arrived at the Black Stone Base in the afternoon.
Looking at the familiar buildings of the base, Qingming felt a sense of nostalgia.
However, before he could even reflect further, Sano Nobuhisa pulled him, along with several accompanying Jonin, to the meeting room to go over the details of what had transpired.
At the same time, preparations were made to report the matter to Nara Keiko.
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