While Menma's side finally let themselves relax and enjoy a quiet moment of celebration, the retreating forces of the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Mist were drowning in gloom. The Mist in particular had been shattered. With Mei Terumi and Ao both dead, the entire command structure collapsed. A few veteran jonin tried to step up and keep the troops together, but it was hopeless.
The Waterfall ninja pursued relentlessly, and the rout continued. The Mist lost count of how many died on the retreat path, armor and weapons abandoned everywhere. This battle had completely broken the Hidden Mist's spirit. It was the brutal result of a catastrophic miscalculation of the situation.
Neither Mei Terumi, Ao, nor any of the other Mist shinobi had expected the main battlefield to end so quickly. They never imagined Menma would arrive in time to turn the tide, and they certainly never imagined his strength would far exceed anything they had anticipated. Mei had assumed Menma was only slightly stronger than her—strong enough to beat the Fourth Raikage with help, but not overwhelmingly so.
Everything had gone far beyond their worst predictions. A fatality rate over fifty percent was already shocking, and most of the survivors who made it out were badly wounded. If Choza Akimichi, Kakashi, and Might Guy hadn't brought Leaf reinforcements to cover their withdrawal, the Mist would have suffered even heavier losses.
Yet the Mist shinobi felt no gratitude toward the Leaf. If anything, every single one of them burned with resentment. In their eyes, the Leaf had lied to them and led them into a trap. Otherwise, why had the main battlefield ended so fast?
Worse, their scouts quickly confirmed that the Leaf had suffered almost no meaningful casualties.
How could the Mist accept that?
Even if something unexpected had forced a retreat, couldn't the Leaf have come to help sooner?
The Mist threw all the blame squarely onto the Leaf's shoulders. They didn't bother considering any objective factors. But honestly, that was the most human and natural reaction.
So once the surviving Mist forces pulled back into Fire Country territory, they didn't even say goodbye. After a brief rest, the remaining jonin took command and marched east. They wanted nothing more to do with this place. Returning to their own village as fast as possible was the only sane choice.
They also stayed on high alert toward the Leaf the entire way and immediately sent word through secret channels to Elder Genji, begging him to send troops to escort them home.
At this point, they didn't trust the Leaf one bit.
Back at the Leaf camp, the moment the detailed reports arrived, everyone fell silent—especially Jiraiya. He truly hadn't expected the Mist to suffer such devastating losses.
Looking at Kakashi, Choza Akimichi, and the others who had brought the news, the legendary Toad Sage could only let out a long, helpless sigh.
He hadn't wanted the Mist to be hit this hard. It wasn't some deliberate betrayal or plan to sacrifice allies. They had simply been forced into a corner. The second they began their own retreat, Jiraiya had immediately ordered reinforcements to support the Mist. But Menma was simply too fast. No one on foot could outrun the Flying Thunder God.
"Lord Jiraiya, what should we do now? Should we just let the Mist leave the front lines like this?"
While Kakashi, Choza, and Inoichi stayed quiet, a young man wearing the standard Leaf flak jacket and a large pair of sunglasses finally spoke up. It was Yamashiro Aoba, a capable special jonin.
"Let them go," Jiraiya said, shaking his head slowly. "This joint operation really was our side that failed to follow the original agreement. The losses the Mist have taken are already far beyond what they can stomach. There's no point in making things worse. If we push them any further, we might spark an actual fight between us and the Mist. That's the last thing we need right now."
The relationships between the Five Great Villages had always been fragile. So-called alliances were the easiest things in the world to break. Even the smallest misunderstanding could cause massive damage. This situation was far worse than that.
Jiraiya asked himself honestly—if the Leaf had been in the Mist's position, he knew they would probably feel exactly the same way.
"Maintain the defensive line and keep constant watch on the Waterfall's movements. Send out more scouts. Strengthen the garrisons at every forward outpost to prevent any sudden raids. Also, send word back to the village immediately. And don't forget to warn the Hidden Sand. We can't let them get attacked either. Inoichi, with Shikaku still unconscious, I'm counting on you to handle coordination. Aoba, you'll assist him."
After a moment of quiet thought, Jiraiya gave his orders.
The Mist had already been defeated and clearly had no desire to keep fighting. With the Mist no longer pinning down the Waterfall's flank, Jiraiya judged that the Leaf couldn't afford to keep pressing alone either. At least not right now.
Unless they were willing to go all-in for a decisive battle, but that would open up far too many dangerous variables. This wasn't about courage or lack of it—it was about being responsible for hundreds of thousands of lives in the Hidden Leaf.
Jiraiya couldn't make that call on his own. He would leave the final decision to Tsunade back in the village. It wasn't just a matter of rank. Deep down, Jiraiya had always carried a certain hesitation, a softness that made him very much like his old teacher, Hiruzen Sarutobi—except Jiraiya never cared about power or personal gain.
The border situation settled back into an uneasy calm. The shadow of war still hung over everything, but the storm of full-scale battle had temporarily passed.
Menma never ordered the Waterfall ninja to continue the pursuit.
Jiraiya likewise pulled his forces back into a purely defensive posture.
From then on, both sides engaged only in small-scale reconnaissance skirmishes along the official border line. No clash ever involved more than two squads at a time.
The Hidden Leaf's grand, heavily publicized offensive had ended up fizzling out in a rather anticlimactic fashion.
At the same time, far to the southwest in the Land of Grass near the border with the Land of Wind, the Fifth Kazekage Baki—who had personally come to the front lines to command the Sand forces—received the urgent message from Jiraiya's messenger.
Baki's eyes went wide with disbelief.
Two major villages. Eight thousand shinobi.
Even with the Grass Village's forces tied down by his army, they still couldn't handle Menma Uzumaki and the Hidden Waterfall? And they had suffered a crushing defeat on top of it?
For a moment, Baki wondered if his eyes and ears were playing tricks on him.
He rubbed his temples, feeling a massive headache coming on. No matter what move he made now, it felt wrong.
The only thing he was grateful for was that he had never launched a full-scale assault. At most, there had been a few scattered local clashes. In the past several days, the total casualties on both sides combined hadn't even reached a hundred. The number of dead was even lower.
That was entirely because Baki had kept things tightly restrained.
Mui and Karin on the Grass side were even happier to see the stalemate continue. Even a weakened Sand Village was still a major power with over ten thousand shinobi and a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki. If they really pressed hard, neither Mui nor Karin believed they could win. The best they could hope for was to stall as long as possible until Menma secured victory on the main battlefield.
So the smell of war here had never been very thick.
Now that news of the Leaf and Mist's defeat had arrived, Baki felt even less desire to keep attacking.
Even though the Leaf hadn't officially announced a full withdrawal and still seemed to have most of its combat strength intact, the Fifth Kazekage had already made his decision.
"Pass the order! All forces withdraw to the Wind Valley stronghold immediately!"
The command was given without the slightest hesitation.
Baki had clearly decided to abandon any offensive plans.
He wasn't pulling all the way back to the village, just retreating several hundred miles to the Sand's largest forward base on the eastern border. It was a small gesture to honor their alliance with the Leaf. After all, they were still technically allies, and the Leaf had paid them quite handsomely. At least some face had to be maintained.
Not fully withdrawing was the last bit of leeway Baki was willing to give.
As for how the Leaf would see it, that was no longer his problem.
The order went out.
The Sand army began to move.
While some Sand shinobi grumbled about Baki's decision, they still obeyed under his strict command. Unlike the original timeline where Gaara had been pushed into the Kazekage role by Baki, Chiyo, and the others (he had the strength, but very little actual authority back then), Baki had been the Fourth Kazekage Rasa's most trusted aide. He was a veteran jonin who had participated in many major operations and earned real achievements. His prestige in the Sand Village was genuinely high. Long before this, quite a few people had already seen him as a strong candidate for the next Kazekage.
In this timeline, because of Gaara's capture and a series of different events, Baki had taken the position of Fifth Kazekage with the support of Chiyo and Ebizo. His personal strength was indeed inferior to Gaara's as a Jinchuriki, but his authority and respect within the village were rock solid.
His orders were followed by the vast majority of Sand shinobi. The handful of jonin with similar seniority also had to consider Chiyo and Ebizo's stance. No one dared act recklessly.
The massive Sand army withdrew in an orderly fashion.
The Grass scouts picked up on it almost immediately.
Baki hadn't even tried to fake anything or play mind games.
The Grass reconnaissance teams followed at a cautious distance to confirm the movement while immediately sending word back to their forward base.
The moment Mui and Karin received the report, neither of them looked surprised.
"So they really did pull back," Mui said with a small nod. "Looks like the Kazekage was only ever planning to act according to how things developed. The second Lord Menma won, he ordered a full retreat."
Compared to when Baki received the Leaf's message, Mui and Karin had gotten word from Menma much earlier. The moment they learned the Mist had been crushed and the Leaf had been forced to withdraw, the heavy weight that had been pressing on their hearts finally lifted.
It meant their side had completely seized the advantage in this war.
Even if the Sand tried to press forward now, neither of them felt any real fear. At worst they would fall back, and Lord Menma would rush over to support them immediately.
At that point, it would be the Sand's turn to pay the price.
To be honest, Mui had never expected things to develop this way in such a short time. He had been fully prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. After all, their opponent was the Hidden Sand—a major village that possessed a Tailed Beast. Fighting them head-on, any price was reasonable.
"This is the smart move on their part," Karin said, her expression unusually serious. "Since they're withdrawing, we don't need to do anything extra for now. I'll leave continued reconnaissance to you, Mui-san. The odds are basically zero, but we should still stay on guard in case the Sand is trying to trick us."
"Understood. Leave it to me," Mui replied with a firm nod.
The probability was close to zero, but basic precautions were still necessary.
As the order for continued scouting went out, so did the news of the Sand army's withdrawal.
At the same time, under Mui's instructions, word of Menma's victory—how he had crushed the Mist army and forced the Leaf to retreat—spread rapidly through the Grass forces on the front lines.
Every Grass shinobi breathed a sigh of relief, their faces lighting up with excitement. At the same time, their respect and awe toward Menma deepened even further in their hearts.