Chapter 52 — War Is Not Decided by the Battlefield Alone
The battle for Sound Mountain Fortress swiftly entered its final phase after Uzumaki Shion—under Oda Nobunaga's arrangements—awakened the Uzumaki clan's Bloodline Limit, Adamantine Sealing Chains.
When the two Fūma clan jōnin, Kageno and Hagiri, whom Nobunaga had positioned as a contingency, revealed themselves, they briefed the still-shaken Shion on the situation.
Then, taking along the newly awakened Shion—now someone capable of decisively altering the balance of a localized battlefield—they threw her directly into the front lines.
From that moment on, the Cloud Village's night assault completely collapsed.
One Cloud shinobi unit after another was sliced apart by the fortress's artillery fire.
Then, guided by Jūgo's real-time intelligence from the skies, Sound shinobi gathered localized numerical superiority and systematically annihilated each isolated Cloud unit.
Of course, the Cloud shinobi did not surrender passively.
Unwilling to accept defeat, they repeatedly attempted to regroup and break through—but every such effort was detected almost immediately by Jūgo.
And once discovered, elite Sound units like Kimimaro's squad would descend at speed, using their chakra armor's flight capability to suppress the attempt with overwhelming force.
As the battle dragged into its later stages, Cloud shinobi—utterly broken in morale—would rout the moment they glimpsed that white figure soaring across the sky.
The mere sight of Kimimaro was enough to erase any remaining will to fight.
And somewhere along the way, a title quietly spread through the battlefield:
The White Demon of the Sound Village.
Kimimaro himself, of course, had no idea such a name had been placed upon him.
Meanwhile, Uzumaki Shion—who had surged into prominence during the latter half of the battle—was no less dazzling.
Adamantine Sealing Chains was an ability that, in Uzumaki Kushina's hands, could effortlessly suppress even the Nine-Tails.
Though Shion had not yet reached such heights, the Cloud shinobi before her were hardly a natural calamity like the Nine-Tails.
Having found her own conviction and purpose—and driven onward by the spirits of the Sound shinobi who had died protecting her—Shion was no longer the helpless "public blood pack" she had once been in the Grass Village.
Her eyes burned crimson with resolve.
The decisiveness and power she unleashed caused even Kageno and Hagiri to look at her in astonishment.
Golden chains crisscrossed the battlefield, binding countless Cloud shinobi who still struggled in defiance.
Some were cut down by Sound shinobi blades.
But many more were crushed slowly and relentlessly as the Adamantine Chains tightened—
Blood mist bloomed with every step Shion took, drifting around her like a macabre halo.
With her immense chakra reserves, she moved at blinding speed across the vast battlefield—
Like an ill-omened crimson meteor.
Red hair.
Dark red blood mist.
Thus, another name spread without announcement:
The Scarlet Meteor.
"It's over."
Watching the battle decisively tilt in his favor from the central command room, Oda Nobunaga saw no path left for his opponent—Tsuchi—no miracle, no reversal.
The only minor regret was that this battle had produced just two titled heroes.
Wasn't the ninja world famous for giving everyone dramatic, over-the-top nicknames?
There were plenty of Sound shinobi who had performed brilliantly today.
"Advance the artillery forward in stages," Nobunaga ordered calmly.
"Let's take this opportunity to conduct a live-fire exercise in infantry-artillery coordination."
Shaking his head to dispel the untimely thoughts in his mind, Oda Nobunaga refocused.
To further expand the victory—and to truly cripple this Cloud Village force, buying precious breathing room for the next phase of the conflict—he issued another order.
The kunai launchers atop the fortress were to adjust their firing angles.
Their new target: the Cloud shinobi's rear formation, the very area they believed to be safe.
In an instant, chaos erupted.
With Dodai nearly collapsing from shock, and the night-raid forces already trapped in a living hell, the Cloud shinobi remaining in the rear were suddenly left leaderless and panicked.
As if misfortune were piling atop disaster, the so-called "safe zone" ceased to be safe at all.
Kunai and explosive tags rained down from above.
The rear guard attempted to hold out—but quickly realized it was hopeless.
Behind the walls of fire raised by detonations, Sound shinobi advanced in steady, relentless strides.
Each step forward of that burning barrier marked another slice of territory being carved away—ground that had once belonged to the Cloud Village.
It was the first time the Cloud shinobi had ever faced warfare like this.
Their morale—already shattered—had nowhere left to fall.
"Retreat… retreat to the Land of Hot Water's border."
Forcing himself to speak through a splitting headache, Dodai issued the withdrawal order.
He knew continuing the fight would only mean throwing more lives away.
Here—before this single fortress of the Land of Fields—the Cloud Village had already paid far too much blood.
"Woooo—bang! Bang! Bang!"
At once, the retreat horn sounded.
Fearing that some units might still be fighting unaware, three signal flares were fired into the sky.
The Cloud shinobi—who had marched in disciplined ranks and high spirits—did not hesitate.
They scattered.
Like birds fleeing a fallen tree, they broke apart into countless small groups, sprinting in all directions toward the Land of Hot Water's border.
Each shinobi ran with only one thought:
Run faster than the others—or be caught by the pursuing Sound shinobi.
"It's over…"
A soft sigh escaped Orochimaru's lips.
To be honest, even he had not expected the first phase of the war against the Cloud Village to end like this.
Watching the fleeing Cloud forces…
Watching the Sound shinobi give chase…
"Next time, you won't be this lucky," Orochimaru said coolly.
"This victory only happened because the Cloud Village didn't deploy any decisive forces."
"If this unit had included a jinchūriki—or a Kage-level powerhouse—your methods would never have worked."
He poured cold water over the celebration in full view of the exhilarated Sound shinobi.
It was tactless—but not wrong.
The explosive-tag bombardment had suppressed the bulk of the Cloud forces.
Kimimaro and the elites had neutralized their high-level combatants.
The strategy worked only because every piece held.
If even one link had failed, the Sound Village would have been forced into a brutal, direct clash—one decided by raw strength alone.
This time, the Cloud Village had deployed only conventional forces.
But next time?
What if the Fourth Raikage, A, personally entered the battlefield?
What if the Two-Tails or Eight-Tails jinchūriki appeared?
No one could honestly claim that the same three tricks would guarantee victory again.
"Are you worried about me, Orochimaru-san?"
Nobunaga smiled.
While the others in the command room wrestled with the grim implications of Orochimaru's words, it was clear that Nobunaga had already thought this through.
"Truly touching," he added lightly.
"To think Orochimaru-san would consider things from our perspective."
The words made Orochimaru's expression stiffen.
Before the snake could respond, Nobunaga stepped forward and activated the communications system.
"Drink deeply of the sweet wine called victory, heroes who have defended the Land of Fields!"
The battlefield answered with thunderous cheers.
Stepping back beside Orochimaru, Nobunaga calmly addressed the earlier question.
"Do you remember what I once told you?"
"This world of shinobi is not made up of shinobi alone.
And it certainly isn't defined by a single village called the Cloud."
"Very often, the outcome of a war is not decided solely on the battlefield."
"What happens beyond the battlefield can be just as decisive."