While the Leaf camp buzzed with preparations to ramp up the offensive against Sand, Rasa led his five surviving jonin back to their forward base. They kept the defeat quiet—only a handful of people inside Sand even knew about the raid in the first place. A little cover-up was enough to keep the rank-and-file from realizing their Kazekage had returned empty-handed.
If word of those losses spread, the entire Sand front would shake, and morale would crash even harder.
Still, some people had to know the truth.
After settling the five jonin, Rasa returned to the main command tent and found Chiyo and Ebizo already waiting.
"Failure?" Ebizo asked cautiously.
Rasa dropped into the main seat like a deflated balloon, exhaustion written all over him.
"Yeah. Only five jonin made it back." He straightened up, teeth clenched. "Leaf knew we were coming. They had an ambush waiting. We walked right into it."
Chiyo and Ebizo could picture the brutal fight just from those few words. Breaking out of a Leaf encirclement with that many elite forces must have been hell.
"How bad were Leaf's losses?" Chiyo asked. "With your strength and Gold Sand, they must have paid a heavy price too, right?"
Rasa's face darkened further.
"Almost nothing."
"Impossible!" both elders said at once, staring at him. "Did Jiraiya intercept you?"
That was the only explanation they could think of. If Rasa had been tied down by Jiraiya, he wouldn't have had time to unleash his wide-area techniques, and the fight would have felt this one-sided.
Reality was even more ridiculous.
"It wasn't Jiraiya," Rasa said, voice like gravel. "It was Matsushita Taiichi. That medical ninja we wanted dead—he's the one who held me off."
Chiyo and Ebizo looked at each other, stunned. Rasa then gave them the full story, including every detail of his fight with Taiichi.
The two elders sat in silence for a long moment.
"Nineteen jonin and over a hundred elite chunin," Ebizo muttered. That kind of loss—especially the jonin—was heavier than what they might suffer in a direct clash with Leaf.
As Sand's most famous strategist, Ebizo immediately saw the bigger picture. If the village's power players learned the real details, the fragile unity they had just restored would shatter. Sand couldn't afford chaos right now. If they fell into internal fighting, Leaf wouldn't even need to attack—they'd collapse on their own. Even Iwagakure might abandon their deal with Leaf and turn on the weakened Sand instead.
"This loss is on me—" Rasa started.
"It's my fault!" Ebizo cut him off sharply, taking full blame.
"My intel was incomplete. I failed to detect that Leaf had such a powerful fighter. Because of me, Lord Kazekage was nearly trapped, and so many of our people died. If Lord Kazekage hadn't pushed himself to the limit at the end, none of us would have made it back."
Rasa stared at Ebizo's calm face, a complicated mix of emotions swirling in his chest. He understood exactly what the old man was doing—sacrificing his own reputation to protect Rasa's position and keep the village stable.
"Brother, are you sure about this?" Chiyo asked quietly, concern in her voice.
Ebizo gave a small smile, his aged face surprisingly peaceful. "I'm already this old. I've had my fun. Consider this my final contribution to the village."
Rasa rose and bowed deeply to Ebizo—both gratitude and respect.
That same day, news spread through the Sand camp: the Kazekage had personally led a raid on the Leaf camp, but an intel leak and poor enemy assessment led to an ambush and heavy losses. Only the Kazekage's desperate final effort saved the last survivors.
The report was carefully worded—light on specifics, heavy on praise for Rasa. It protected his image and kept the camp from panicking.
The five surviving jonin wouldn't talk. Rasa had saved their lives. The ones who died couldn't say anything either.
The crushing defeat was quickly buried under other battlefield news.
Of course, the higher-ups knew the truth. Soon after, Ebizo's formal letter of resignation reached the village council. He took full responsibility for the intel failure and accepted whatever punishment they chose.
Even Rasa's political enemies had nothing left to say. An elder had stepped up and owned the mistake. Pushing further would make them look like they were undermining village unity.
The council's decision arrived at the front the same day: Ebizo was stripped of all official duties for his error but would remain at the front lines to atone through service.
When Rasa, Chiyo, and Ebizo received the notice, they all breathed easier. Losing his positions was acceptable for someone in Ebizo's situation.
But that was later. Let's rewind to the day of the battle.
Taiichi left the command tent in high spirits. Life at the medical camp was safe and comfortable, but after a while it got boring. Without real combat, he felt his progress slowing down.
He opened the mission scroll Jiraiya had given him and scanned the long description. Two words summed it up perfectly: cause chaos.
No specific targets. No strict rules. The mission was simple—do whatever it took to mess with Sand. Sabotage supply lines, assassinate key figures, even sneak into their village if he wanted. As long as he created problems for Sand, he had complete freedom.
Of course, with that freedom came responsibility. If he did something that caused an international incident, Leaf wouldn't bail him out.
These kinds of missions were usually reserved for trustworthy, reliable, and extremely powerful jonin. The fact that Taiichi received one showed just how much Jiraiya trusted his strength.
Taiichi was thrilled. Grinning, he headed back to the medical camp to finish today's treatments. Yesterday's battle hadn't caused many deaths, but the wounds from Gold Sand were tricky to heal. He needed to guide the other medical ninjas carefully.
Inside the command tent, Shikaku watched Taiichi leave with a thoughtful look.
"You sure about giving him that kind of mission?" he asked Jiraiya.
"You mean his strength or his character?" Jiraiya replied casually.
"I'm not worried about his strength. Taiichi held off the Fourth Kazekage—even I couldn't do that. But he's still young. His experience might not be enough. If he causes something big, the village might not be able to protect him."
Shikaku voiced a legitimate concern. Talented young shinobi with too much power sometimes made dangerous choices. One wrong move could create a crisis even the village couldn't contain.
Jiraiya laughed. "Relax, Shikaku. Taiichi might be young, but he's mature as hell. Who knows? He might even surprise us."
Shikaku didn't argue further. He had done his duty as staff officer. Deep down, he trusted Taiichi too. But when Jiraiya mentioned "surprises," his right eye twitched for some reason.
Surprises… please don't let them turn into shocks.
The next morning, Taiichi prepared everything. He left two shadow clones at the medical camp—each carrying twenty thousand chakra points—then walked out of camp with a carefree stride.
His plan was simple. Jiraiya had said they would increase pressure on Sand starting today, so Taiichi would help by hunting down isolated Sand teams, then push deeper into their rear to disrupt supply lines and ease the burden on the main force.
Ten kilometers out, he activated his chakra sensing. Everything within a two-kilometer radius appeared in his mind.
They were still too close to the Leaf camp. He sensed plenty of Leaf squads moving toward Sand territory, but no Sand forces yet.
Taiichi picked up speed and headed straight for the front line.
By the time he arrived, Leaf vanguard forces were already clashing with Sand patrols. Sand had clearly expected retaliation after yesterday's failed raid. Their patrol numbers had doubled, and their vigilance was much higher.
But as Taiichi neared the usual patrol zones, he saw signal flares shooting into the sky—Sand's calls for help.
The fighting had already turned fierce. Leaf was pressing hard from the start, overwhelming Sand's defenses. Most of the flares belonged to Sand, which told Taiichi everything he needed to know.
Taiichi's eyes lit up with an idea. Jumping into an ongoing battle would steal other people's credit. Instead, he could target the Sand teams rushing in as reinforcements. Those teams were confident enough in their strength to respond to distress calls.
Taking them out would help his side and complete his mission. Two birds, one stone.
Decision made, Taiichi headed toward the nearest flare.
From a distance, he could already sense the Sand team at that location was on the verge of being wiped out. They wouldn't last more than a few minutes.
He passed right by without stopping and kept moving south.
Sure enough, a four-man Sand squad soon entered his sensing range. Their direction matched the flare exactly—they were the reinforcements.
Taiichi grinned, a dangerous glint in his eyes. He adjusted his path and charged straight at them.
Two kilometers wasn't much for shinobi sprinting toward each other. In less than three minutes they would meet.
Taiichi drew his short blade and slipped behind a large tree just before they entered visual range. He vanished from sight but kept his sensing locked on them.
Fifty meters.
Twenty meters.
Ten meters.
Two meters.
The moment the lead Sand ninja passed the tree, Taiichi swung his blade in a clean horizontal arc. The man's head flew into the air before he even realized what happened.
Taiichi blurred forward with the momentum and drove his blade straight through the second ninja's heart.
The remaining two finally reacted, shouting curses as they charged with weapons drawn.
"Brave," Taiichi muttered, already moving. He spun, pulled his blade free, and golden flames ignited along the edge. With one smooth slash, a crescent of flame shot toward the nearest attacker.
The Sand ninja's eyes widened in panic, but it was too late. He tried to block with his kunai, but the flaming blade cut through it like paper and continued straight through his body.
He died still wondering why his kunai had failed him so badly.
Taiichi didn't even look at the corpse. He adjusted his stance and rushed the last survivor.
In just a few seconds he had killed three. The final ninja was completely terrified. When Taiichi closed in, the man could barely put up a fight before being cut down cleanly.
Four Sand shinobi eliminated. A solid start to the day.
And this was only one small corner of the battlefield. If you looked across the dozens of kilometers of front line, similar fights were happening everywhere—kill or be killed.
Taiichi sheathed his blade, already scanning for the next target.