I, The New Hokage of Konoha - Chapter 247
“Enemy attack!”
Sharp shouts echoed within the Mist Ninja Camp.
Upon hearing this, the first reaction of the other Mist Ninjas was disbelief.
“Enemy attack? Where did that come from?”
“Is this some kind of joke? How could the Water Land be under attack?”
“Someone must be causing trouble on purpose!”
…
Just as the Mist Ninjas were mocking and discussing, reality immediately gave them an answer.
At that moment, hovering over the harbor, a large group of Konoha Village ninjas controlled their flying ninja tools and dove down.
The next moment, accompanied by sharp and loud explosions, round black spheres were thrown from the hands of the Konoha Village ninjas and rained down evenly on the numerous ships, turning them into live targets.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Thousands of spheres landed on the ships, and intense explosions erupted from within them.
With no resistance, many ships were instantly reduced to wreckage.
Rolling black smoke and burning flames quickly transformed the harbor’s appearance.
“How is this possible?”
Seeing this scene, many Mist Ninjas on the shore were stunned.
Weren’t these incoming people supposed to be their allies? Why did they suddenly launch an attack?
“They are Konoha Village ninjas!”
Some sharp-eyed Mist Ninjas noticed the Konoha Village forehead protector insignia on the heads of those flying with ninja tools.
“Konoha Village?! How dare they initiate a war?”
“Don’t they know their own situation?”
“Do flying ninja tools have such a large combat radius? How did they fly here?”
…
The Mist Ninjas never expected that their own territory would one day suffer such a fierce attack, especially from the Konoha Village. They had always been the aggressors, and the Konoha Village had been on the defensive. They never imagined that it would be reversed today.
“What are you standing around for? Hurry up and protect the ships! Shoot down all those Konoha Village ninjas in the sky!”
At that moment, the hastily arrived Mist Ninja commander shouted angrily when he saw his subordinates standing there in confusion.
As the local commander, he was well aware of the importance of the ships outside the harbor to the Mist Ninjas in the upcoming war. They absolutely could not let the Konoha Village destroy them.
With the Mist Ninja commander’s participation, the Mist Ninjas quickly formed a battle formation and rushed out of the harbor, creating water splashes.
A small number of them used water jutsu to extinguish the fires on the ships, while most of them threw ninja tools or used ninjutsu to attack the Konoha Village ninjas in the sky.
Seeing this scene, the Konoha Village flying squad captain, who had carried out the air raid, ordered through radio communication, “Cease the dive. Everyone ascend and engage freely.”
“Yes!”
In an instant, after the first round of attacks, the Konoha Village flying squad, which had descended to a lower altitude, immediately climbed upward.
Soon, in the eyes of the Mist Ninjas, the Konoha Village ninjas with flying ninja tools became smaller and smaller until only tiny outlines continuously circled in the sky. The ninjutsu and ninja tools they had just used naturally missed.
“How can we fight this?” one Mist Ninja muttered.
Even the Hokage in the village couldn’t reach such high targets.
Just as the group of Mist Ninjas felt helpless, the Konoha Village ninjas in the sky were not idle. They quickly threw a large number of bombs again.
Although their accuracy was not as good as the previous dive bombing, under the blanket attack, they still achieved significant results, destroying many of the Mist Ninjas and causing great damage to the ships, which were live targets.
As a result, the Mist Ninjas, who had rushed out of the harbor only a few minutes ago, returned to the shore in a sorry state.
The feeling of being unable to hit the enemy but being hit by them, and all their efforts being in vain, made them extremely frustrated.
In the end, the Mist Ninjas, who were experiencing the massive advantage of air-to-ground warfare for the first time, could only watch as the ships outside the harbor, whether they were steel warships or wooden sailboats, either sank to the bottom of the sea or were engulfed in flames, ending in a tragic fate.
Among them, the Mist Hidden Village commander, who was in great pain watching all this unfold before his eyes, took a deep breath and quickly ordered his communicator, “Quick! Inform the village! The Konoha Village is bombing the Namek Harbor, and the losses to our ships are severe!”
…
Mist Hidden Village, Water Shadow’s office.
As the fourth Great Ninja War, agreed upon by the Five Nations Alliance and entering its final countdown, the Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi, was extremely busy commanding all military deployments. Suddenly, a hurried set of footsteps could be heard approaching from afar.
Mei Terumi raised an eyebrow in confusion, and soon, a communication squad member, panting heavily, ran over and said, “The Konoha Village has bombed Water Shadow, the Namek Harbor, and there are heavy losses among the ships gathered outside the harbor.”
Namek Harbor? Konoha Village? Aerial attack?
Before Mei Terumi could make sense of these unexpected words, more hurried footsteps approached this time, two at once.
“Water Shadow, the Ogura Harbor has been bombed by the Konoha Village! Many ships were destroyed!”
“Water Shadow, the Nayo Harbor has been bombed by the Konoha Village! The ships are heavily damaged!”
Soon, two more communication squad members reported in rapid succession.
As the words fell, the three communication squad members looked at each other.
On the other side, Mei Terumi and her assistants, Ao and Chojuro, quickly grew solemn.
A few minutes later, Mei Terumi finally understood the situation completely and furrowed her brows tightly. “The Konoha Village initiated the war ahead of us? Did our information leak?”
The Five Nations had agreed to launch the final assault three days later, but the Konoha Village had caught them off guard on the second day. Mei Terumi immediately suspected a traitor.
“It shouldn’t be! Only the top officials of the Five Nations knew the exact timing of the war. With all their advantages, they wouldn’t betray us,” Ao commented while stroking his chin.
As long as the Five Nations still existed, the top officials would continue to enjoy immense benefits. Even if they had merit as undercover agents, their treatment in the new environment afterward would not be as good as before. The top officials of the Five Nations understood this very well, and they would not betray intelligence for personal gain.
“Let’s not dwell on it. Even if the Konoha Village made a clever decision, we should focus on the situation at hand. After all, Hagoromo Otsutsuki has the capability,” Mei Terumi said thoughtfully, recalling the image of Hagoromo Otsutsuki she had seen over five years ago.
Speaking of her ideal marriage partner, she had all her desired qualities. However, she had been too slow. Hagoromo Otsutsuki had already married and was now an enemy of the Mist Village.
Mei Terumi shook her head slightly and returned to the topic at hand.
“I never expected the first attack on the Water Land’s mainland to come from the sky. I’m familiar with flying ninja tools, but given the long distance between the Fire Land and the Water Land, even if the Konoha Village’s flying ninja tools took off from the Land of Waves, they shouldn’t have reached the Water Land.”
With these words, the people present furrowed their brows deeply.
They were accustomed to concentrating their forces as ninjas and fighting among themselves, so they were unfamiliar with other forms of combat.
Even in aerial combat, although the Mist Ninjas had formed a small flying squadron, they were still figuring out the best way to use it, and they had not even considered using mobile sea bases for air raids.
Furthermore, the secrecy surrounding the Konoha Village’s aircraft carriers was very high, and they had always kept them hidden in their former base for flying ninjas. Even the new aircraft carriers only appeared to be giant steel warships to outsiders, cloaked in a thick fog.
As a result, other nations’ spies focused primarily on ninja-related intelligence and did not pay much attention to this aspect.
In their experienced eyes, no matter how big those steel machines were, they would still be clumsy and unwieldy compared to agile ninjas. They were nothing more than easy targets.
At this moment, even though they were unsure of how the Konoha Village had managed this aerial attack, the Mist Ninjas decided to respond as best as they could.
“The fact that the Konoha Village was able to attack our harbors without our knowledge suggests that the Land of Waves, Kusagakure, Tanigakure, and Urakaku Island have already been taken,” Ao analyzed.
Upon hearing this, everyone fell into a thoughtful silence.
The Konoha Village had struck too quickly, putting them at a clear disadvantage in terms of geography. Moreover, their ships, which were supposed to be used for the upcoming campaign, had all been destroyed.
This punch was both precise and ruthless.
“For now, all we can do is drive the Konoha Village’s flying squad away as soon as possible and salvage as many ships as possible,” Ao continued. “Maintaining flying ninja tools requires a continuous consumption of chakra. The Konoha Village’s current state is not optimal, so Water Shadow, I suggest immediately dispatching our own flying squad to drive away the Konoha Village. In addition, we need to send someone to track the Konoha Village’s group to find out why they can fly here. If possible, capture them all!”
“We must capture them all!” Mei Terumi nodded with a serious expression. “Otherwise, the Mist Ninjas will be powerless in the near future.”
Mei Terumi could imagine that if they didn’t have a countermeasure against the Konoha Village’s aerial attacks, the Konoha Village’s flying squad, which could launch air raids on the Water Land’s mainland at any time, would prevent any ship from leaving the sea. By then, the joint attack plan they had discussed at the Five Nations Summit would be a joke.
“Our flying squad should depart immediately! And we need to increase the construction of flying ninja tools in the coming days. Inform the Daimyo’s Office of this matter and ask them to provide more funding.”
“Yes!”
Chojuro, serving as the secretary, immediately began to write quickly.
Mei Terumi then looked at Ao and said, “To find out why the Konoha Village was able to launch an aerial attack, we’ll need your Byakugan, Ao. You’ll personally take care of this.”
“Understood!”
Ao nodded solemnly and promptly left.
Finally, after issuing all the necessary orders, Mei Terumi could breathe and rubbed her temples.
Starting off on the wrong foot was truly troublesome!
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