Over one hundred meters away from the battlefield.
Jiraiya slowly sat up from the ground. He clenched his fists—the nauseating weakness had finally disappeared.
Moreover, the wounds that had been bleeding were already sealed by Tsunade using Medical Ninjutsu.
"Thanks, Tsunade!" Jiraiya leapt up and said to her.
Tsunade gave a slight smile, and both turned their gazes toward the battlefield.
The Iwa Ninja unit, originally consisting of over a thousand members, had now been reduced to less than a fifth under Konoha's overwhelming strength.
At this moment, the battlefield displayed scenes of several Konoha ninjas surrounding a single Iwa ninja.
With Kai Uchiha and Sakumo Hatake continuously weaving through the battlefield, even the elite Jonin among the Iwa forces had already fallen or sustained heavy casualties.
What remained now were merely a group of Iwa Ninjas at the Chunin level.
The trio showed no intention of entering the fray and simply watched from the sidelines.
"Your disciple really isn't an ordinary brat."
Tsunade spoke toward Jiraiya, her eyes fixed on Minato within the battle. With her experience, it wasn't hard to notice how—
Even now, in the thick of war, he was still pinpointing the enemy's weak points before landing killing blows.
This sight even made Jiraiya, his master, feel a slight chill.
Though he was Minato's mentor, he hadn't personally taught him much.
This version of Minato was something entirely new to him.
Orochimaru's gaze also settled on the young boy, though his focus differed subtly from the other two.
...
Half an hour later, the battle ended.
As the last Iwa ninja fell to the ground with despair in his eyes, every Konoha ninja involuntarily exhaled in relief.
At that moment, Tsunade rushed into the battlefield, reaching a wounded Konoha ninja. She formed hand seals, and her hands emitted a faint chakra glow as they covered his wounds.
"All ninjas who understand Medical Ninjutsu should do their best to treat the injured! Others, look for the remains of fallen comrades!"
Tsunade's commanding voice snapped them out of their relaxation and brought everyone back on task. Hearing her orders, several ninja immediately began searching around for severely injured comrades nearby, beginning treatment.
Clearly, all these individuals possessed knowledge of Medical Ninjutsu.
Minato glanced around. At this time, Konoha had not yet established a system assigning a Medical Ninja per squad.
In fact, the village lacked a dedicated system for training such ninjas, which made those skilled in Medical Ninjutsu extremely rare.
"Tsunade-sama must have already submitted the proposal for establishing a Medical Ninja training institution to the Third Hokage. But most likely, she was rejected."
Minato thought inwardly. As a former Hokage, he was well-versed in Konoha's history—particularly the key developments like the Ninja Academy, Anbu, Root, and the establishment of the Medical Ninja system.
He remembered that in the Land of Hot Springs, Sakumo had mentioned something similar to him, but back then, he had not yet regained his memories and failed to see its full significance.
However, around the time after The Second Great Ninja War, Konoha would enter a relatively prosperous phase and implement Tsunade's proposal.
By that time, however, Tsunade had already left the village,
because of the successive deaths of Nawaki and Dan.
Usually, once a battle was over, you'd want to get out of there as fast as possible — but this time was different.
Konoha faced pressure from three directions. One side had been completely destroyed, Amegakure had no reason to wage war against Konoha, and Suna dared not cause trouble for them within a short period of time.
"Darn it! Did several comrades die?"
After stopping the wound of an injured person, Tsunade glanced at the medical ninja who were still working and cursed.
Among the fallen Konoha ninjas, there were several who knew Medical Ninjutsu.
"Ahh, I don't want to die!"
At this moment, a ninja screamed while lying in his comrade's arms. Although the battle had ended, his injuries were too severe. Even Tsunade could not save him now.
So, under everyone's watchful eyes, he passed away unwillingly.
Facing him, Tsunade gritted her teeth hard. If only her Medical Ninjutsu were more refined, or if the medical equipment she brought along hadn't all been destroyed during Iwa's attack.
"The battle results have been tallied. Our casualties are approximately one hundred and fifty, with over twenty still buried beneath the rubble field, currently being searched for."
More than ten minutes passed before the war tally came in. Upon hearing it, Jiraiya nodded grimly.
Although this truly was a great victory for Konoha — compared to Iwa, their casualties were merely one-seventh of the enemy's — it wasn't something worth celebrating.
They came all the way from Konoha to fight in the Land of Rain… but they wouldn't be going home.
The battlefield search lasted for over two hours, and the bodies of over one hundred and thirty Konoha ninjas were gathered.
"Let's move out."
The remaining eight hundred or so ninja divided into two groups to carry the bodies of the fallen Konoha ninja, following Jiraiya's order.
Everyone immediately left the area.
As for the thousands of Iwa ninja bodies scattered across the Rubble Field, nobody cared...
Such sights had become all too common across the entire Land of Rain.
...
Several hours later, the Konoha group found shelter: several caves hidden beneath rocks. Although small, they were enough for temporary rest.
Before that, however, one final task remained.
One hundred meters outside the cave, Konoha ninja used Earth Release techniques to dig a massive pit capable of holding nearly two hundred people, into which were placed the one hundred and thirty-some recovered bodies of Konoha ninja.
Due to the war, it was impossible to bring back all their bodies to Konoha, leaving them no choice but to handle things on-site.
Before burial, each of the living took one personal item from the fallen — if they made it back to Konoha alive, those items would be returned to their families.
These served as their keepsakes.
Boom!
A dozen ninjas unleashed Fire Release, flames erupting and instantly consuming over a hundred corpses.
Each of these ninjas carried, to varying degrees, confidential information about the Hidden Village, especially since one of them belonged to the Uchiha clan.
That was why even after death, their bodies had to be cremated before they could be buried.
The living gathered around in silence; most had never seen a battlefield until today, and a sense of melancholy and unease lingered in their hearts.
Because next time, it could be their own bodies lying among the dead.
As ninjas, they fought for their nation and village.
Dying in war was their fate — and even in death, their final resting place would be far from home.
...
...(to be continued.)
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