Free Web NovelChapter 254: What A True Blitzkrieg Really Was!
On the third day of the pursuit, Toroi finally seemed to have used a series of carefully arranged interception lines to corner Shinichi’s unit into a valley only fifteen kilometers away from the Village Hidden in the Cloud.
As soon as the news returned, A personally led elite troops from the other side, preparing to complete the encirclement.
However, just as Village Hidden in the Cloud’s attention became fully focused on that valley, Shinichi Higashino and his team somehow reappeared outside Village Hidden in the Cloud and launched another surprise attack against the once again weakened village.
It turned out that Shinichi Higashino had never actually been cornered in the valley at all. The Shinichi Battalion that Toroi had chased all the way into a dead end was nothing more than an illusion created by the Shadow Clones of Shinichi Higashino and his teammates.
Meanwhile, the real Shinichi Higashino had already led his real team on a massive detour. While the Village Hidden in the Cloud’s attention was entirely focused on the suppression operation, they once again slipped to the edge of the Village Hidden in the Cloud.
The temporarily rebuilt Raikage building was smashed apart with a single strike, and the newly recast statues of the previous Raikages were broken into several pieces amid the flames.
By the time Yotsuki A and Toroi abandoned their prey in the valley and rushed back to the village in madness, Shinichi’s unit had already vanished without a trace.
In just four short days, they entered and exited the Village Hidden in the Cloud four times!
Under the leadership of Captain Shinichi Higashino, this force, which had yet to receive an official designation, would sometimes split into smaller groups to infiltrate and maneuver, and at other times regroup to launch concentrated strikes.
Every action was like dancing on the edge of a blade, every attack precisely timed to exploit the gaps in the enemy’s reactions.
In the heartland of the Land of Lightning, a nation that revered martial combat and was famed for military strength, and right before the Village Hidden in the Cloud, one of the Five Great Ninja Villages renowned for its lightning offensives, they perfectly demonstrated a textbook-level lightning guerrilla war that shocked the entire Shinobi World!
The news swept through the Shinobi World like a storm.
Whether it was the Village Hidden in the Stones, which had not yet officially entered the war, the Village Hidden in the Mist, which watched from across the shore, or the various smaller nations and ninja villages, it seemed that the eyes of the entire Shinobi World had suddenly focused on that land where thunder endlessly roared.
There, a young man named Shinichi Higashino used a method bordering on art itself to deliver an immensely shocking explanation to the entire Shinobi World of what a true Blitzkrieg really was!
This series of relentless, humiliating blows finally completely enraged the Village Hidden in the Cloud.
And just at this moment, a secret letter delivered through special channels from the Village Hidden in the Stones was placed upon the desk of the third Raikage at the frontline.
No one knew the contents of the letter, but after reading it, the last trace of hesitation in the third Raikage’s eyes vanished, replaced instead by a determination to gamble everything.
He immediately issued an order that made every frontline commander’s heart tremble: the northwestern border legion, which had previously been strictly monitoring the Land of Earth and guarding against the Village Hidden in the Stones taking advantage of the situation, was to immediately withdraw its defenses on a large scale!
Only a symbolic minimum force would remain to maintain basic vigilance, while every other elite troop would change direction and join the encirclement campaign against Shinichi Higashino!
Even that was not enough.
The third Raikage also activated a large-scale wartime mobilization order for Genin. More than seventy percent of all adult Genin, regardless of whatever basic duties they had previously performed in the village, were now all incorporated into the search and pursuit sequence, cooperating alongside Chunin and Jonin forces in hunting down Shinichi Higashino.
Although the mobilized personnel were all adult Genin and were only tasked with assisting Chunin and Jonin, this still meant that among the three great ninja villages of Fire, Lightning, and Wind that had already entered the war, the Village Hidden in the Cloud became the first village to formally push large numbers of Genin onto frontline combat missions. Combined with Toroi’s earlier search forces, the total exceeded ten thousand men!
Regardless of the cost, without leaving any room for retreat, even at the risk of leaving the northwestern defenses empty, they were determined to completely trap and kill the Konoha ninja named Shinichi Higashino, along with the ghost-like unit under his command!
For a moment, it seemed that Shinichi Higashino, the legendary young ninja who had moved freely through enemy territory over the past few days and entered and exited Village Hidden in the Cloud four times, had finally fallen into an inescapable, desperate situation.
Land of Fire, Daimyo’s palace.
"This Shinichi Higashino, I absolutely love him!"
The Fire Daimyo slammed the document in his hand onto the desk and burst into loud laughter. Rising to his feet, he paced back and forth through the spacious study, unable to hide the smile on his face.
After walking a few laps, he could not resist picking up the intelligence report again for another careful read. His gaze repeatedly lingered on phrases like entered and exited Village Hidden in the Cloud four times, the statues of the previous Raikages destroyed, and the Raikage building smashed twice.
The more he read, the more satisfying it felt.
Although every Shinobi World War seemed on the surface to revolve around the great ninja villages, making it appear unrelated to the official authorities of each nation, especially national leaders like the Daimyo, in reality, the outcome of every war directly affected their fundamental interests.
If one were to ask who in the entire Shinobi World least wanted war, it would definitely be the Fire Daimyo himself.
The Land of Fire possessed the most fertile land in the Shinobi World, the densest population, the most prosperous commercial networks, and the most stable production... it already had everything it needed and had long since passed the stage of accumulating wealth through warfare and plunder.
Even if they won, how much profit could they squeeze from those impoverished neighboring nations?
But if they lost, they would lose rich, fertile lands. The risks and rewards were completely disproportionate.
Other nations might be poor enough to require war to divert internal conflicts or seize resources, but the Land of Fire did not need that.
What the Fire Daimyo desired most was stability and peace.
As long as the situation remained stable, the lands under his rule could continue operating, and wealth would continuously be produced and accumulated.
But once war broke out, no one knew what kind of waves it would stir up, what variables it might create, or whether it might even shake the nation’s foundation. Meanwhile, he would have to continuously spend money, spend money, and spend even more money!
Therefore, the astonishing results achieved by Shinichi Higashino’s surprise force deep within enemy territory held significance far beyond the military level. freewebnovёl.ƈom
It dealt a heavy blow to the Village Hidden in the Cloud’s morale, greatly alleviated the pressure on the frontline, and could even shorten the duration of the war and restore stability more quickly. This was precisely what he most wanted to see.
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