Chapter 24: The end of the first major conflict
So with nowhere to run the hidden stone and lose almost half of the remaining shinobi before Kitsuchi and the others manage to retreat to the land of Earth. Orochimaru decided not to pursue the fleeing shinobi.
At the end it was the night when the hidden leaf gained his first victory against the hidden stone.
...
The end of the first major conflict
Sakumo Hatake took deep breaths to calm himself down. His mission has turned out to be a disaster. As a shinobi of the hidden leaf he had gone through many difficult missions in his life. But by far it was the hardest of them all. She didn't know who leaked the information about their mission to destroy the rear logistic base of the hidden stone. Or maybe the hidden stone was simply too cautious....
"No, even if they were cautious, they shouldn't have any means to know our exact location. Someone from our side has leaked this information. But what should we do now ?" Sakumo asked himself. Their team was attacked once they were 20 miles inside the land of Earth. It was an entire Amush team led by the five tails jinjuriki, Han. The location where they were ambushed was perfectly in favour with the Iwa shinobi. They will have to travel two more miles to reach their logistic camp and then destroy it by planting the 1000 paper bombs he was carrying with him. But will it be worth it ? His entire team except for himself has been captured. And if he was not wrong then they have taken them to the logistic base nearby. With his level of stealth skill, he could easily go past their security and plant the paper bombs before destroying the entire camp. Considering that it has only been 10 minutes since he has been separated from his team, he had roughly 20 minutes left to complete his mission. If the stone shinobi found out about their plan from his captured companions, then with the increased security he wouldn't be able to complete his mission.
Now there are two things he could do in the next 20 minutes.
He could either complete his mission and return alone or he could go and save his teammates and return without completing the mission and take the blame for the failure. If he completed the mission then the hidden leaf will get a lot of breathing room in the upcoming war against the hidden sand. But in that case he will have to sacrifice his entire squad. With a heavy sigh, Sakumo finally made his choice. He was ready to take all the blame and accept any punishment from the hokage. But no matter what he could never abandon his teammates.
With his final decision, Sakumo moved swiftly. Determination filled his heart as he went towards the ambush team which was moving through the rocky terrain, with his captured squad members.