Moreover, the Land of Wind camp was nothing like the simple withdrawal carried out by the Iwagakure. In the eyes of the A jōnin leading the team, danger lurked everywhere. It was obvious that the Land of Wind had laid traps.
He could tell at a glance because, after years of dealing with them, he knew well that the Land of Wind excelled at using nearly invisible wires combined with explosive tags to create lethal snares.
At first glance the camp looked normal, but under the refraction of sunlight, several spots reflected faint glints — the telltale signs of thin wire.
Realizing this, the jōnin imdiately warned:
"Don't go deeper. The Land of Wind set a lot of traps during their retreat!"
If even he could spot this many at a glance, then the traps hidden in the dark must be far more nurous. In other words, the Suna had practically emptied their entire stockpile.
For them to expend so many resources on traps ant only one thing — they weren't circling around for a surprise attack. They were genuinely abandoning the war and retreating.
Once these resources were used as traps, they would have almost no ninja tools or explosive tags left for future battles. Under such circumstances, attempting to ambush or kill A shinobi would be nothing but wishful thinking.
After all, in direct combat, ninja tools were consud rapidly. No one started a battle by imdiately spamming ninjutsu — you might not even hit anyone, and you'd waste massive amounts of chakra. The opening phase of any battle always belonged to shuriken and explosive tags.
Aside from throwing techniques, the first clash usually involved explosive tags to disrupt enemy movent and force chakra expenditure.
And yet the Land of Wind had used up all their reserves. That could only an they had no intention of continuing the offensive.
The jōnin understood this, and his subordinates were no fools either. One of them analyzed aloud:
"Captain… this looks like a full withdrawal. Did sothing unexpected happen? They were clearly in an advantageous position."
The others were equally confused. The Land of Wind had held the upper hand — retreating made no sense, and spending so many resources to cover their withdrawal made it seem as if tens of thousands of troops were chasing them.
Normally, an orderly retreat alone was enough to prevent chaos during an ambush. But now they had burned through nearly all their ninja tool supplies, suggesting they had encountered an enemy or force too terrifying to resist — sothing that required heavy traps just to ensure a safe return ho.
But among the countries currently involved in the war, who could possibly threaten them?
Iwagakure's situation was unknown. The A itself had already suffered heavy losses. Konoha might still hold an edge, but it too had taken hundreds of casualties. With only around four thousand shinobi remaining, losing a few hundred more would drop them to barely three thousand.
There was no way such a force could pressure the Land of Wind into retreating like this.
As for Agakure — they lacked the strength entirely. The traps they had set around the Land of Wind camp for surveillance were already their limit. Their national power was weak, and most of their forces had already been deployed near Lake Tajima to block Konoha.
How could they possibly threaten the Land of Wind?
And the Land of Wind's intelligence network was excellent. They certainly knew the A lacked that capability. Their distant surveillance couldn't even gather accurate information, let alone pose real danger.
After thinking it over, the jōnin wondered — could it be that the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth had fallen out and beco enemies?
If that were the case, internal pressure and the strength of the Land of Earth might explain a retreat.
But even then, the Land of Wind wouldn't need to lay this many traps.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure it out. Yet he didn't dare pursue further. The retreat had been executed with extre precision, leaving behind no useful clues and giving small squads like theirs zero opportunity to chase.
If they pressed on recklessly, they wouldn't gain intelligence — they'd simply die before ever seeing the enemy.
These traps weren't harmless either. Hidden weapons and explosive tags were lethal. Even an elite jōnin struck by one could instantly lose mobility.
And once a single trap was triggered, it could set off a chain reaction. Even elite jōnin might lose their lives.
Their squad, anwhile, was led by a re jōnin, with most mbers only at chūnin level. Continuing the pursuit wouldn't be bravery — it would be stupidity.
After a mont, the jōnin said:
"We can't stay here. Let's withdraw and regroup with Akamatsu-sama."
No one objected. They all understood that continuing the chase ant blind death with no chance of gathering information.
The squad quickly left the vicinity of the Land of Wind camp.
...
Two hours later, they finally returned near Lake Tajima, to the temporary A encampnt.
Chaos greeted them.
Wounded soldiers were being carried back nonstop. Bodies were piled up and taken to the rear hills for imdiate burial.
It was clear that this interception battle against Konoha had not gone in Agakure's favor.
They had entered the fight with overwhelming superiority in high-level combat power, and their total numbers hadn't been much lower than Konoha's. Furthermore, with Lake Tajima — the largest lake in the Land of Rain — nearby, the water-style specialists of Agakure should have held a natural advantage.
Yet now they finally understood:
Compared to Konoha's elite forces, where bloodline clans were everywhere, these ordinary A shinobi — lacking powerful bloodline abilities — still faced a vast gap in combat strength.
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