An ANBU barely stopped himself from celebrating as he witnessed their plan come to fruition. His hands, still warm from the chakra he had channeled into his fireball jutsu, trembled slightly with a mixture of adrenaline and relief.
The outpost was engulfed in flames, exactly as Jiraiya-sama had predicted. The defensive arrays had fallen like a sand castle, and now the fortress that had seemed impenetrable just moments ago was a blazing inferno.
Though, there was no time to marvel at their success. As per orders, he quickly regrouped with the other two jonins, the two jonin assigned to his team. Without a word, they exchanged nods and moved toward their secondary target—the eastern watchtower.
"Remember the plan," the ANBU whispered as they approached and the view of the watchtower became clear. As one would expect in such a situation, it was in chaos. The ninja were unable to think clearly what to do in this absurd situation. They were so focused on the fire that they forgot to keep watch on their surroundings, giving Konoha jonins a clear view of their position. "You two handle the chunins, I'll handle the jonin."
They went behind the watchtower, with the watchtower between them and the outpost. Since the enemy was focused on the outpost fire, they got the perfect opportunity to attack. The ANBU signaled, and the three Konoha jonin leapt simultaneously.
They crossed the distance to the tower in seconds, their movements silent despite their speed. The enemy spotted them only at the last moment, but by then it was too late.
"Konoha scum!" the Kumo jonin spat, electricity crackling around his kunai.
The ANBU didn't bother responding. His hands flashed through seals, and a wave of earth erupted from the floor of the watchtower, forcing the Kumo jonin to leap backward. Just as planned, the ANBU engaged the squad in ruthless combat.
The fight was brutal and fast. The Kumo jonin was skilled, managing to evade and counter with lightning-charged strikes, but due to the absurdness of the situation and the sudden attack, the Kumo jonin was always in a defensive stance.
And the time he countered one of the earth spears, he gave the ANBU the opening he needed. His tanto sliced through the air, meeting resistance briefly before completing its arc. The Kumo jonin's eyes widened in shock as he realized what had happened, then dimmed as he collapsed.
The ANBU turned to check on his teammates, just in time to see one of them delivering a final blow to one of the chunin. The other one had already dispatched his target and was helping his teammate with the last remaining chunin, who was putting up an admirable but ultimately futile fight.
"Clear," a call came out moments later. This watchtower was down.
The ANBU nodded grimly. "Take a breath, then we move to support Team Three." As they took a moment to rest, the ANBU remembered the arrangement for the watchtowers.
There were a total of 6 watchtowers surrounding the outpost, and 15 ninja in the outer formation. They had been divided into six teams, three teams consisting of 2 jonin while the other three had 3 jonin.
A team with three jonin could overwhelm a watchtower easily. Their orders were to eliminate their target quickly and then reinforce the teams with only two jonin.
The teams with two jonin just had to hold their ground till reinforcement arrived. This was done to prevent anyone from escaping, not to mention no one had even thought of running just after a few seconds the attack started.
Just as they were about to move to assist others in their fight, the barrier around the outpost went down. This just meant one thing—someone was about to run away from the outpost.
As if those thoughts were a cue, the Kumo jonins came out of the burning outpost, each having burning clothes on. In the fire, they looked like demons coming out of hell, ready to return the pain they were feeling, and that too tenfold.
From a cursory glance, one could easily tell more than 60 ninja had come out of the outpost. Still much more than Konoha's team number, but now the gap was not that big. 2:1 is hard but 8:1 is impossible even for experienced jonins.
The ninja who came out of the fire were all injured, and this would have been the perfect time for attacking them. Sadly, this would give the ninja at the watchtowers both chance and reason to run away.
By now they had already handled three watchtowers, with only three more remaining. The team went out to their next watchtower, all dividing to support one watchtower each, while the rest of the team went toward the sixty-plus ninja who came out of the burning fortress.
When one jonin joined the fights at the remaining watchtowers, where the situation was close to stalemate, the tide of battles changed faster than the mood of a teenage girl going through puberty and period at the same time. Konoha teams gained the massive advantage once again, eliminating the ninja before the situation went out of control.
With 9 ninja busy with watchtowers, the rest of the 21 Konoha jonin went out to create a loose circle around the outpost, not giving the enemy any chance to retreat, while Jiraiya entered the circle and started engaging the scattered ninja.
The enemy had scattered to not give Gamabunta any chance to target them all at once, but this now gave Jiraiya a chance to attack them one by one. Together they may have been able to put up a fight against him, but now in their already injured state, the difference was too much for them to overcome.
Seeing the elite chunins and jonins die like this, and understanding that they didn't have much chance to win this fight now, the Commander did the most logical thing anyone in his situation would do.
"Retreat, disperse and retreat, and if you can't, make sure they get what they deserve for daring to attack us!" As soon as his orders were released in the field, the Kumo ninja started scattering around like flies. Even after cutting their number, there were still 52 ninja remaining, an astronomically difficult odds to stop from running.
But Konoha ninja had something that Kumo didn't—presence of an S rank ninja.
Jiraiya created three shadow clones, surrounding the Kumo ninja in all four directions, while the rest of the jonin tightened the circle, not giving the Kumo ninja any chance to run away at all.
Though once again the saying—'A cornered beast is the most dangerous one'—became true. The Kumo jonin, who was among the few unfortunate enough to be on the losing end for not having better mastery of defensive jutsu, and have sustained major burns all over his body, lost all regard for his life when he was intercepted by a Konoha jonin. Knowing fully well that in this state he will not be able to put up a fight
His chakra coated his body in a field of lightning, a very toned-down version of Raikage's lightning cloak, achieved through sheer brute force and mastery of the lightning chakra.
With increased speed which dwarfed the Konoha jonin by a huge margin, he went fully offensive, dealing one blow after another to the ANBU ninja.
Though receiving the same amount of injury if not more due to lack of control in such a state, winning was never his goal.