Chapter 434: Finally Awake
The war did not stop for introspection, but Arthur made time for it.
He stood amidst the screaming steel and exploding earth with his feet planted in the mud. He crossed his arms. To an outsider, he looked like a statue amidst a landslide.
But he wasn’t just standing there. He watched the movement of chakra and bodies behind closed eyelids. He did not need to see with his physical eyes to understand the collapse of his strategy.
This game of war was akin to chess, and he was losing precious pieces.
His face remained blank. The muscles in his jaw did not tighten. His breathing did not hitch. Yet, beneath that calm veneer, he was quite livid. Livid because the work he had tried so hard to achieve was being destroyed by clumsy hands.
He tallied the cost. Two clones were dead, and one was incapacitated.
Those were not simple clones, disposable and cheap. They were complex constructs, forged from significant reserves of his own life force and resources. Creating them was an exhausting endeavor.
Even then, the success rate to create one was never absolute. He had discarded failed attempts before. And to see three perfect creations wasted in such short order was a complete disaster.
The losses were as such: Ryugetsu had been sealed by Pain, Kaito had fallen to Jasper, and John detonated himself.
Kaito’s defeat was the most surprising. That clone was built for speed, yet he had lost to Jasper. Jasper was a player, and Kaito knew little of the man’s specific capabilities.
Ignorance was a dangerous thing in war, and it had cost Arthur Kaito.
John’s death was different. That clone had triggered his own explosion as a fail-safe. It was a tactical withdrawal to ensure that Arthur’s information would never be leaked.