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Chapter 37: The "Precarious" Stone Drum Mountain Defense Line
Battles between shinobi still very much depended on terrain advantage.
The defensive line that Konoha shinobi had established along the eastern coastal region mostly relied on mountain ranges as their foundation. Although mountain climbing posed no real difficulty for shinobi with their superhuman mobility, choosing to set up defensive positions on hills wasn't meant to make traversal difficult for these superhuman warriors. The main target was the Mist shinobi's Water Style techniques.
Mist shinobi using Water Style techniques generally fell into two categories.
First, when they had readily available and abundant water sources nearby. In this case, they only needed to expend a small amount of chakra to manipulate and control existing water sources to execute various Water Style techniques.
Second, when no ready water source was available. This required expending large amounts of chakra to transform and generate water sources. Compared to the first scenario, this undoubtedly consumed far more chakra.
Choosing high terrain to establish defensive lines while avoiding ponds, swamps, and lakes prevented the Mist shinobi from exploiting terrain advantages. At the same time, because the hills stood tall, any water sources the Mist shinobi generated by expending chakra couldn't accumulate and couldn't be recovered for repeated use. This greatly increased the cost of using Water Style techniques for the Mist shinobi, doubling their chakra consumption and diminishing their sustained combat capability.
However, terrain advantage ultimately had its limits. When the Mist chose the strategy of reinforcing their numbers, the slight advantage provided by terrain was instantly erased. The Konoha shinobi stationed at Stone Drum Mountain, a key defensive node, had tasted just how unpleasant it was to be vastly outnumbered.
Relying on superior numbers, the Mist shinobi had beaten them into steady retreat, all the way from the mountain's base to its peak. One more step back and they'd be retreating down the mountain's far side. Once the summit fell, they would completely lose their terrain advantage. More accurately, that advantage would transfer to the Mist shinobi.
At that point, the Mist shinobi could release Water Style techniques from their elevated position. Just imagining that cascading torrent made clear what kind of destructive power it would possess.
At the summit, inside a crudely constructed earthen fort, Konoha shinobi were gathering for an early morning meeting.
"We can't retreat any further," said the sole remaining jonin.
Before him stood seven companions: two special jonin and five chunin. Including himself, that made eight people total. These were the last defenders of the Stone Drum Mountain defense line.
Just five days ago, at this rather important node called Stone Drum Mountain, a total of sixteen squads had been stationed—sixty-four shinobi. By today, multiple squads among those sixteen had been completely wiped out. The remaining squads had suffered devastating losses, leaving only these final eight people still holding their ground.
The only good news was that their supply reserves were sufficiently abundant.
"If we abandon the summit, facing the Mist shinobi's Water Style techniques, we'll have absolutely no ability to fight back. At that point, the Mist shinobi will be able to penetrate unrestrained through the Stone Drum Mountain gap deep into the plains and forests beyond..."
"The Mist shinobi are coming up!"
The jonin's motivational speech was cut short by the special jonin from the Yamanaka clan.
He turned his head and looked at the jonin, who'd forgotten his words after being interrupted and now wore an expression of constipated agony. He sighed. "Alright, captain, forget those high-sounding words. Everyone who's held out this long has long been prepared to sacrifice themselves for the village. Save your energy and prepare to kill a few more Mist shinobi to accompany our fallen brothers!"
"I..."
The inarticulate captain struggled for several seconds before saying dryly, "Today I'll kill at least three Mist bastards."
The Yamanaka special jonin said irritably, "Captain, couldn't you say you'll take down at least ten Mist shinobi to boost everyone's morale?"
"But Mist shinobi really aren't that easy to kill. Even saying I can kill three means I'm planning to take someone down with me in a mutual destruction."
The captain answered somewhat aggrieved.
Looking at their honest, straightforward captain, the Yamanaka special jonin couldn't help but laugh first. Then the others joined in laughing. The originally oppressive atmosphere dispersed completely. Looking at their captain who'd resolved himself to die, their morale somehow soared.
Less than twenty seconds passed before Mist shinobi figures began appearing in their field of vision—over twenty in total. Moving with practiced coordination, they launched an attack on this final earthen fort standing atop the summit.
But before they could close to effective jutsu attack range, they were met with a storm-like blanket of shuriken strikes. That in itself wasn't particularly troublesome. The real problem was that mixed among the dense shower of shuriken were kunai with explosive tags dangling from their ends.
"I've got this!"
A Mist jonin leading the group stepped forward voluntarily, forming hand seals.
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
In the next instant, water suddenly gushed forth from the slightly damp earth. Using the upward impact force of the spray, it constructed a water wall over three meters tall.
The shuriken struck the water wall and were deflected, completely unable to penetrate its defense.
But the explosive tags hanging from the kunai detonated. Accompanied by muffled thunder-like explosions, the water wall was blown to pieces. Though the Mist shinobi stood far enough away to avoid casualties, the distance between them and the earthen fort hadn't shortened by an inch.
This was shinobi siege warfare.
The Konoha shinobi, disadvantaged in numbers, relied on terrain and cover to suppress the numerically superior Mist forces. With just shuriken, kunai, and explosive tags, they forced the Mist to deploy defensive jutsu, consuming the Mist shinobi's chakra.
The Mist shinobi had no choice but to use Water Style techniques for defense.
Because once the explosive tags mixed among the shuriken detonated, the shuriken propelled by the explosion's shockwave scattered like unpredictable buckshot in all directions.
That was truly difficult to defend against!
Unlike the Konoha shinobi who could achieve results relying on ninja tools, the Mist shinobi without terrain advantage or cover couldn't effectively counterattack using shuriken, kunai, and explosive tags. Their effective range when throwing ninja tools upward was too short, and the Konoha shinobi had an earthen fort reinforced with Earth Style techniques and protected by barrier jutsu for shelter.
To break through the earthen fort, they'd need either high-powered jutsu or continuous bombardment with explosive tags—neither easily accomplished.
In short, this battle still had fight left in it. It wouldn't end so easily!
At the same time, inside a dilapidated earthen fort halfway up the mountain, nearly fifty Mist shinobi were stationed. The one leading them was tall and corpulent, with long orange hair. When he opened his mouth, two rows of sharp fangs were visible, and on his back he carried a weapon wrapped layer upon layer in white bandages.
His name was Suikazan Fuguki, a member of the Mist Village's feared Seven Ninja Swordsmen, wielder of the Great Sword Samehada. He was a famous master of the Hidden Mist Village.
But this renowned master of the Hidden Mist Village was currently facing trouble.
"Suikazan Fuguki, what exactly have you been doing these past few days? With the power you command, you should have been able to conquer Stone Drum Mountain three days ago. Why has it dragged on until today? And even today you're not going all-out to breach the Konoha shinobi's defense line. What exactly are you scheming?"
A youth with white hair, purple eyes, and exceptionally delicate features sat perched on the wall, interrogating Suikazan Fuguki, who was old enough to be his father.
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