The Sand ninja heard the sharp whistle of projectiles behind him. He spun around, raised his kunai, and effortlessly knocked the two lightning-infused shuriken out of the air.
Yet, he felt no relief. Instead, a deep sense of unease washed over him, prompting him to subconsciously take a step back.
At that exact moment, a hand wreathed in lightning violently pierced through the earth wall he had just created!
If he hadn't stepped back in time, that hand would have plunged straight into his chest cavity!
But the enemy's near-miss was his lucky break. He forcefully stabbed his kunai directly through the invading hand, then leapt high over the wall!
Wind Release: Wind Cutter! The invisible blade of wind sliced cleanly across Hagoromo's neck. In the next second, the Sand ninja expected to see his opponent's head rolling across the ground!
But the deeply satisfying sight never came. Instead, a cold voice whispered right next to his ear.
A second Hagoromo had appeared at his side. In his hand, he held the very long sword the Sand ninja had thrown just moments ago.
With his attention completely fixated on the Hagoromo in front of him, the Sand ninja had completely missed the attack from his flank.
With a casual thrust, the sword pierced straight through his heart.
Meanwhile, the "Hagoromo" who had just been decapitated vanished with a poof of white smoke.
It was just a simple Shadow Clone Jutsu.
The enemy's final thought was, Ah, so it was a clone. Even as his life faded, his eyes held only regret that he hadn't killed his target, rather than remorse for dying.
He should have regretted letting a moment of carelessness cost him his life. But he didn't.
So, the question was: when exactly did Hagoromo cast the clone?
It was simple. The moment he tripped and fell face-first into the dirt.
Right before casting his Fire Release, he had simultaneously woven the signs for the Clone and Transformation jutsu. He created the decoy and hid his true body, setting up this final, fatal strike.
This had been a troublesome opponent. Hagoromo had burned a massive amount of chakra to kill him.
After taking a moment to steady his breathing, Hagoromo began to fall back. He needed to recover his chakra reserves.
In a massive battle like this, mindlessly charging forward until you ran dry was a guaranteed death sentence.
Falling back behind Konoha's main lines, Hagoromo transitioned to a sniper role.
He picked off enemies from a distance by hurling shuriken and kunai. Thanks to his precise throwing skills and sharp calculations, his efficiency was terrifying.
By constantly repositioning and launching surprise attacks from the rear, he averaged one kill for every five to seven throws.
He kept this up until his ninja pouch was nearly empty. Finally, Konoha's reinforcements arrived.
But unlike previous skirmishes, the Sand ninja didn't retreat when the fresh troops showed up. Instead, they attacked even more fiercely.
Something was wrong. Retreating to cut their losses would have been the correct tactical choice.
With the reinforcements, Konoha now held an overwhelming numerical advantage. Yet, the Sand ninja continued to fight to the death.
They were fighting like they had nothing to lose.
A strong sense of foreboding gripped Hagoromo. Why would the Sand adopt such suicidal tactics?
They were actively throwing away their own manpower. This had to be a conspiracy.
Hesitant, Hagoromo chose not to rush back to the front lines, even though his chakra had somewhat recovered.
He needed to conserve his strength for whatever sudden emergency was about to drop.
On average, Konoha ninja were slightly higher in quality. But even if the combatants were perfectly matched, Konoha's 2-to-1 numbers gave them a crushing advantage.
At this rate, the Sand forces would be completely wiped out.
That is, if they really refused to retreat. Yet, even as their casualty rate hit seventy percent, the Sand ninja fought on.
By now, the reinforcements had been on the field for an hour and a half. Almost every Konoha ninja had realized something was horribly wrong with this suicidal stand.
Suddenly, Hagoromo heard a faint, distant roar.
It sounded like a monstrous beast. And it was coming from the direction of the Land of Fire.
Hagoromo's blood ran cold. His worst fears were about to be confirmed.
He quickly tracked down his captain. Fortunately, the Hyuga was still alive and in one piece.
"Captain Hyuga! Did something happen at the headquarters?"
Hagoromo didn't know if this captain was from the Main or Branch Family, or exactly how far his Byakugan could see.
"I don't know. My Byakugan can't see that far," the captain replied grimly. "However... I can faintly sense a massive chakra signature over there. I've never seen chakra like that before."
"It's almost like..."
The captain trailed off, but Hagoromo knew exactly what he was about to say.
Like a Tailed Beast. Even if these ninja had never seen one in person, they had all heard the terrifying legends.
Right then, a massive flash illuminated the sky above the Konoha headquarters!
It was a specialized flare used for relaying critical information. Four more flares shot up into the sky in rapid succession.
It was an emergency distress signal. Without a doubt, the headquarters was under attack!
The situation had to be unimaginably dire. And suddenly, the Sand ninja's suicidal charge made perfect sense.
Their only goal was to pin down Konoha's main forces and prevent them from reinforcing the base.
Hagoromo and Captain Hyuga exchanged a glance, reading the sheer dread in each other's eyes.
"Disengage from the enemy! Fall back and reinforce headquarters immediately!" Someone on the battlefield roared the order.
There was no time to verify who it was. The second Hagoromo heard it, he spun around and sprinted toward the HQ at full speed.
Honestly, even without the order, he would have run back. There weren't many enemies left here anyway, and the headquarters was in critical danger.
More importantly, Kushina was there.
Konoha's intelligence department had completely failed. They never anticipated this 1,000-man assault was merely a feint.
The Sand had been fully prepared to sacrifice an entire battalion for this distraction. That meant the strike force attacking the headquarters had to be unprecedentedly powerful.