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Chapter 190: Tactics of Defeat
"Samehada, give me chakra."
A wave of chakra was channeled and Sasuke quickly activated his Explosive Blade Plate, imprinting a large number of temporary detonating talismans. Samehada's chakra reserves had been largely depleted in defeating Iwagakure's demolition unit, but fortunately, he had captured several Iwa ninjas along the way. With their chakra, Sasuke used his plate like a printing press, rapidly producing the talismans.
"Tekudo, you will be in charge of the first layer of traps."
"Yes, Captain."
Tekudo, carrying a large box of talismans, led his squads and quickly departed. However, time waited for no one. Seeing their left flank open, the Iwagakure ninjas intensified their retreat. Sasuke had only managed to create less than one hundred thousand improvised talismans, barely completing a three-layered trap.
To minimize casualties, the Umino forces did not directly block the main route, but positioned themselves at the foot of the mountain to the left. From this dominant position, they continued their tactics of kunai with detonating talismans.
Hiruzen was at his best, and his leadership was unusual in the ninja world. Iwagakure's commander, Higashino, was a formidable figure, but his strength was limited. Faced with Hiruzen's relentless advance, he could only fight and retreat.
Pursued from the front and ambushed from behind, Iwagakure finally collapsed, leaving thousands of their shinobi wishing they had more legs to escape. Meanwhile, more bad news arrived: the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, besieged by the Konoha Sannin, had transformed into a full tailed beast, unable to distinguish between friend and foe.
Iwagakure had considered retreating on the right flank to avoid the ambush, but now they had no other option. In their opinion, Sasuke's trap offered a much safer retreat route than the right flank, where the tailed beast was unleashing its Tailed Beast Bombs.
Soon, Iwagakure faced the Umino forces. As expected, they chose to avoid direct attack, using the hills as a defensive wall and launching explosive kunai.
"Don't stop, keep retreating," Higashino ordered. He considered Sasuke's five hundred soldiers a minor nuisance; the real threat was Hiruzen's thousands of troops in the rear.
The Umino forces acted like a meat grinder, shredding the Iwagakure army in their path.
"How many detonating talismans does this Konoha Demolition Squad have in storage?" Higashino cursed, seeing the seemingly endless stream of kunai.
He finally realized that something was wrong, but before he could adjust his tactics, the ground shook. The retreating vanguard had fallen into the detonating talisman trap. An explosion so terrifying must have detonated tens of thousands of them simultaneously.
The price of talismans had risen significantly. Ten thousand of them would cost seventy million ryo. This trap alone must have cost several hundred million. Had Konoha Village found gold?
The trap had only caused casualties of one or two hundred men at most, most of them low and mid-level. Distributing the hundreds of millions of ryo, each ninja would have cost millions. With that money, their village could train dozens of ninjas.