Chapter 319: Ruthlessness!

After the first round of assaults, Suna had 8 ninjas against Konoha's 6. But when Ibiki and Genma killed their opponents, they equalized the numbers. And after Kakashi and Fujin killed their opponents, it became 4 Vs 6. All Suna ninjas realized the inevitable result of that fight.

The Puppeteer observed the situation. His heart ached at the fact that 24 of his fellow ninjas had been killed in less than a couple of minutes. He looked at Kakashi, who had stopped disguising himself, hatefully and shouted, "Retreat!"

The Suna ninja in the rear immediately left the base. The ones fighting Yugao and Ken also tried retreating but were stopped by Ibiki and Genma. At the same time, Fujin and Kakashi moved towards the Puppeteer. However, their eyes widened and both stopped.

The Puppeteer made the confrontation hand seal. His crocodile puppet exploded! Numerous hidden mechanisms were fired in all directions! Even the two Suna ninjas in the room were targeted. At the same time, purple gas began spreading out.

Fujin and Kakashi were shocked at the brutality of the attack. The first person who was hit was the Puppeteer himself. His body was turned into a pincushion!

Both Kakashi and Fujin immediately jumped underground. So did the remaining 4 Konoha ninjas and one of the two Suna ninjas. But, surrounded by four Konoha ninjas, he was killed as well.

Kakashi and Fujin ignored that ninja and immediately travelled far away from the base before exiting the ground. Fujin immediately spread his chakra field. A frown formed on his face as he said, "I can't sense him. He must be good at Wind Instantaneous Body jutsu!"Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

Kakashi nodded and said, "The Puppeteer provided a good opportunity for him to escape. Who'd have thought that he'd be so ruthless."

Fujin nodded. There were numerous people who could act ruthlessly against others who are weaker or helpless. But to be the same with themselves was extremely rare.

In half a minute, their allies crawled out of the ground as well. Ibiki looked around and asked, "He managed to run away?"

Kakashi nodded. Ibiki sighed, "This means that the mission wasn't entirely successful. With him on the run, we won't be able to use this base as a trap to catch and kill any Suna ninjas that might return here."

Kakashi replied, "They had managed to send a message out. It would have been tough to do that even if we killed him. It's fine. I'm just glad that all of us are alright. The fight was much tougher than I had anticipated."

Everyone nodded. Despite the overwhelming victory, the fight was very close. One mistake could have caused a few deaths on their side.

Ibiki turned his attention towards Fujin. Though there was no expression on his face, he was shocked by Fujin's abilities. He thought, 'This kid is very good. I thought that he'd be the weakest in the group. But he is second just to Kakashi.

Ibiki's clone responded, "Yeah, but Fire Capital doesn't really have Jiraiya. We can't snuff them out. Finding them will be difficult unless they make a move."

Genma's clone chuckled and said, "It's fine. We will let Lord Hokage worry about it."

Involuntarily, Kakashi, Genma and Fujin's clones nodded while Ken and Yugao's clones looked at him with a deadpan expression.

As no one had any ideas, Kakashi's clone sealed the dead bodies into a seal that Kakashi had handed him. Though the dead bodies didn't have any memories, the bodies themselves could provide a lot of information. All the remaining clones dispelled themselves while Kakashi's clone handed him the scroll before dispelling.

After getting the memories, Kakashi sighed and said, "Let's wait here till Lord Hokage sends another squad with the mission to either create a new base or set up a parameter. Until then, let's keep an eye out. If any Suna ninja returns, we will neutralize him and check his memories."

Everyone nodded. They dispersed into teams of two and kept an eye out for anyone who'd stumble there.

A bit after Midnight, Hiruzen received the message from Kakashi's summon. Since he was expecting the message, he stayed in his office. He read the report and analyzed, 'One ninja managed to escape. And he also sent a messenger bird. Looks like keeping this a secret from Suna won't be possible. We can't use this base to lure more ninjas from Suna and kill them.'

A frown formed on Hiruzen's face as the situation caused him a headache. According to Shikaku's plan, Kakashi's squad should have killed all the Suna ninjas. After reading their memories, they would impersonate them and lure more ninjas from Sunagakure and kill them, creating a death trap for Sunagakure. By the time they realized, their losses would have already exceeded the acceptable levels and they would be forced to back off.

He analyzed, 'Now Sunagakure has two choices. In addition to the squad that we killed earlier and the two killed in the Fire Capital, 35 Suna ninjas have met their demise in the Land of Fire. They can either stop, or they will attack using different routes. Either by creating a new base, or more likely, giving individual missions to every ninja as we did.'

Hiruzen sighed and muttered, "I should have sent stronger ninjas there. Preferably a squad full of Elite Jounins."

Unfortunately, such a squad was rather difficult to assemble. Most of the Elite Jounins in Konoha were Clan Leaders or retired from active duty. They wouldn't agree to participate in such a small matter. The few Elite Jounins he could deploy were already stretched thin due to other important matters. For instance, Renjiro was currently in the Land of Water while Eagle was in the Land of Birds.

He shook his head and thought, 'Leave it. Even that wouldn't have been a guaranteed success. They probably were on guard against such a situation. The result we wanted was too idealistic. I'm sure Shikaku has planned for such a situation.'

Without any hesitation, Hiruzen decided to pass the headache to Shikaku. He deployed four Anbu squads to relieve Kakashi's squad and maintain an eye around the base.

Unlike Hiruzen, a certain person couldn't pass his headache to someone else.