Chapter 75
Nara Suzaku turned around to find the eyes of every Konoha ninja on him. With Tsunade absent, he was now the highest-ranking officer in the Konoha unit.
Strategy, planning, and assessing situations were what the Nara clan excelled at. Facing Neiki and the Kirigakure, the Konoha ninjas wanted Suzaku to tell them whether they could still fight, and if so, how.
The supposedly trusting gazes carried an underlying urgency, weighing heavily on Suzaku's mind.
By now, more than half of the 200 Konoha ninjas were dead or injured, most of the casualties from the chaotic battle with the Kirigakure ninjas. The actual number of ninjas killed by Neiki wasn't that high.
However, in the ninja world, casualty statistics are considered more than just numbers. The gap in strength between a Genin and a Jonin was so vast that casualties had to be evaluated based on the ninjas' ranks to reflect the battlefield situation accurately.
The Kirigakure inflicted more casualties on Konoha than Neiki, primarily because the fight against Kirigakure lasted longer. Also, most of the fallen were weaker Chunin and Genin, who were considered expendable in any ninja village.
It's not that the villages didn't value their lower-ranked ninjas, but the harsh reality was that inexperienced ninjas were always the first to die. Konoha only needed to ensure their expendable forces were lost at a slower rate than the enemy's.
Neiki, on the other hand, was different. Alone, he hadn't killed many, but his targets were always high-ranking Konoha ninjas. Lower-ranked ninjas couldn't even get close to him without being effortlessly cut down.
So far, Neiki has killed more than half of the Jonin on this mission, a painful loss. Although they still had the strength to suppress Neiki, his mastery of the Flying Thunder God Technique made direct confrontation nearly impossible.