346 Chapter 343 : A Clash with no Winners!

Outside the barrier, Kitsuchi began checking in on the ninjas who were caught in the explosion. He thought, 'I thought I could make him let his guard down and kill him in one blow. But it looks like Yoshiki disagreed with my analysis. Makes sense considering the massive losses we took. I miscalculated badly in this fight.'

Not a single ninja was alive in the pit dug up by the explosion. The reason was that whoever was alive quickly escaped after the rocky bird forced the Konoha ninjas away. They entered the village before appearing back on the surface.

Everyone had minor injuries due to the Geyser Creation jutsu and the explosion tags. Only three had critical injuries.

One ninja had a hole in his right thigh, another was missing his left arm and the third had a huge chunk of flesh and bones missing on the right side of his chest.

Fujin's last attack managed to kill the 5 injured ninjas while killing two more and injuring 3. Two ninjas managed to get deep enough into the ground just in time. The medical ninjas hiding inside the barrier quickly began healing the injured ninjas.

In a few minutes, Kitsuchi and the rest dug out the Iwa ninjas that had been killed underground. They found 16 dead bodies that had one or more holes in them. There were 3 more spots where blood and minced flesh and bones had mixed, forming a gory sight. The Iwa ninjas understood that a ninja died at each spot. The worst was that spot that Kurogane had targeted first. The sight of the gore made even the most experienced ninjas nauseated!

Kitsuchi stood still realizing the losses they took. The Iwa ninjas around him had solemn expressions. They had trained intensely for months to kill Fujin. However, after encountering him, nothing good happened. Not only did Fujin manage to escape uninjured but a lot of Iwa ninjas died!

Kitsuchi asked everyone to gather the remains of the fallen Iwa ninjas and went inside the barrier. He met up with Yoshiki. Yoshiki looked at him and said, "It's fine. You didn't have all the information. You won't experience such a failure the next time."

Kitsuchi sighed and said, "There might not be a next time. His summon can fly at a high speed. We can't trap him even if we know about this information unless Lord Tsuchikage makes a move himself. Not to mention, Konoha will be very careful next time."

Yoshiki didn't say anything. He agreed with Kitsuchi's analysis and only said those words to lift his spirits.

Kitsuchi glanced at the village once and said, "Make preparations to leave. We will destroy all the seals and evidence that might be linked to us. We will retreat after everyone is healed."

Yoshiki nodded and looked at his students. Everyone nodded and got to work. A few seconds later, an Elite Jounin approached Kitsuchi and Yoshiki and said in a grim tone, "We have tallied our losses."

Kitsuchi, Yoshiki and a few ninjas around them had dejected expressions. The ninja said, "We found 36 dead bodies. 34 of them were killed by Fujin and 2 by his summon."

A hint of anger could be felt in his voice as he said, "And there are a few more ninjas whose bodies were minced by that beast's attack. We tallied the missing ninjas and calculated that the place with the largest amount of blood and flesh should have had 5 ninjas. So 11 more ninjas should be dead. We lost 47 capable Jounins in this clash!"

He clenched his fists very tightly as he finished speaking. The nails dug into his palms, making them bleed! He wasn't alone. The remaining Iwa ninjas couldn't believe the losses they took in that fight! Almost half the ninjas that participated in the attack had died! And they didn't kill or maim even one Konoha ninja!

Kitsuchi gritted his teeth. He thought, 'I wanted to use this opportunity to train a special Elite army unit. But 47 are dead and another is handicapped. To think that I would lose 40% of the ninjas I trained in one blow! Damn it!'

He hated Fujin a lot at this moment. However, he couldn't do anything but sigh. He wasn't stupid enough to make a move that would cause Iwagakure more losses.

He thought, 'Along with losing so many ninjas, we will also face the consequences of our earlier actions. Just like the Land of Grass, the Land of Waterfall will hate Iwagakure as well and would closely align with Konoha.

With the Land of Rain having Hanzo and Suna being allied with Konoha, Konoha has completely secured their western borders. And Kiri is embroiled in a civil war. At this rate, only Kumo would be in a position to attack Konoha. Of course, that is if Suna doesn't betray Konoha.'

He looked towards the direction of the Land of Wind and thought, 'I never imagined that after being humiliated so badly in the last war, Sunagakure would become the kingmaker in the next war!'

Kitsuchi was surprised by the conclusion he reached. However, he stopped thinking about the future and turned his attention to the present. He ensured that all the injured ninjas were being treated and the dead bodies were properly stored in seals to be brought back.

After storing the dead again, Kitsuchi looked at the scrolls in his heart with a heavy heart. He wondered, '47 lives just to gain information on a fourteen-year-old ninja who is very close to becoming a fearsome rank S ninja in the future. Is it worth it?'

Kitsuchi couldn't say for sure.

Though the Iwagakure ninjas were upset that they had losses while Konoha didn't, Fujin wasn't pleased by the result either. In fact, he was even more upset than Kitsuchi. Kitsuchi at least gained knowledge about the skills Fujin kept hidden until then. But Fujin had no gains at all.

While this wasn't the first time he had to run away from a fight, it was the first time that Fujin was so disgusted by a fight.

He thought, 'This feeling is almost as bad as when I had to escape from Darui. Though my life isn't under any threat this time, it feels like I was paraded naked in front of an entire city. Bastards knew almost every move I would make in advance!

Fortunately, Roshi didn't see Goro, or else I might have been in grave danger. At the very least, these three would have died. Though I am not very attached to them, I don't want to develop a reputation for being someone who runs while his teammates are killed. Though I could live with such a reputation, it will create a lot of inconveniences for me in Konoha.'

While Fujin wasn't too concerned about his reputation unlike some others, he understood the importance of maintaining a good reputation. He still had a lot of more important knowledge and resources that he wanted from Konoha.

If he had a good reputation, Hiruzen would not make it very difficult for him to get it. But if he had a bad reputation, then getting them from Hiruzen would become very difficult. Not to mention, he was no longer as young as he was during his Academy or Genin days. Trying to use his 'innocence' to get rewards from Hiruzen would no longer work.

Fujin sighed internally thinking, 'But now, they know almost everything about me. The only thing that is definitely a secret is my Lightning Release. One of my clones even used the Wind Style Genjutsu. I can only hope that no one figures it out.

Though I did manage to kill many Jounins, that doesn't give me any benefit. If anything, it might make Iwagakure want to kill me even more. I'd prefer keeping my skills a secret rather than killing some ninjas that don't pose me any direct threat.'

If it wasn't for the fact that Fujin had already exposed his secrets, he wouldn't have bothered to even kill them. But since they were, he was forced to make use of those secrets to make Iwa suffer some losses. If he hadn't, then he would have been the only one to experience losses and Iwa would have come after him again after making even more preparations and a better plan.

Just like Fujin, his teammates were also silent and in thought. During the entire battle, forget about killing, they hadn't even managed to injure one ninja!

Bunjiro thought, 'I felt that I was getting stronger. But every single one of them was stronger than me. I didn't think that I would still be so weak!'

Fumito and Yugao had similar thoughts. They knew how ridiculously fast Fujin was and that he could have escaped if he was by himself. They thought, 'We were the reason why Fujin didn't escape and had to fight against such terrible odds. Though things turned out well this time, it might not always be the case.'

At the same time, all three thought, 'We need to become stronger. We need some time off so that we can train and catch up with Captain.'

[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]

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