Heading to the Battlefield

"You're here, Feiyu."

The Third Hokage wore a genial smile, looking every bit the kindly elder as he regarded Uchiha Feiyu, that troublesome thorn.

The Third Hokage had long known that Uchiha Feiyu had injured Anbu ninja, but the old man clearly did not care about that.

What surprised the Third Hokage was that Uchiha Feiyu, who usually never showed much drive, actually seemed somewhat energized this time. His serious bearing was quite unlike his usual self.

"Lord Hokage, do you have a mission for me?"

Uchiha Feiyu's question left the Third Hokage somewhat stunned. If he remembered correctly, this was the first time this cowardly Uchiha had ever asked about a mission.

"Uh... it's nothing, really... I just wanted to ask whether you have any interest in raising your ninja rank?"

"I heard that your team encountered a Sunagakure squad during your last mission. Feiyu, you directly killed their squad leader and two members. According to the follow-up investigation, you took down one Special Jonin and two veteran Chunin."

"With your current strength, continuing as a Genin would truly be a waste. So I intend to raise your ninja rank. What do you think?"

"After my ninja rank is raised, I won't be able to stay with my team, right?"

Uchiha Feiyu spoke calmly. The Third Hokage nodded helplessly. There was simply no way to conceal such a thing from him.

"In other words, Lord Third Hokage wants me to go to the battlefield?"

"Yes. The fighting between Konoha and Sunagakure is no longer as intense as it was at the beginning. If you are willing, you can go there and gain some experience."

"With your current Elite Jonin-level strength, you're basically unlikely to encounter any serious danger."

Uchiha Feiyu ignored the Third Hokage's persuasion and asked directly:

"The commander of the ninja forces fighting the Sand Shinobi should be Lord Orochimaru, correct?"

"That's right. It's Orochimaru."

The Third Hokage found Uchiha Feiyu's question somewhat strange. After receiving his answer, Uchiha Feiyu nodded and said:

"If that's the case, then I have no problem joining the war. When do I leave?"

Uchiha Feiyu's decisiveness caught the Third Hokage off guard, making him hesitate instead.

This kid is so eager. Could he be planning something? If this Uchiha earns great merit on the battlefield, would it disrupt Konoha's current distribution of power?

Although Uchiha Feiyu had no foundation within either the Uchiha Clan or Konoha, he was still an Uchiha. If he truly displayed unrivaled strength and gained tremendous prestige, there was no small chance that the Uchiha Clan would rally around him.

After all, Uchiha Feiyu was young and talented, and his surname only added to the Third Hokage's concerns. It was hardly strange for him to think that way.

But sidelining the combat strength of an Elite Jonin during a war over such suspicions would undoubtedly be unwise. Besides, judging by Uchiha Feiyu's former personality, if he truly intended to sideline him, the other party would probably go along with it and never contribute throughout the entire war.

With that in mind, the Third Hokage ultimately nodded.

"I didn't expect you to be so much more proactive this time, Feiyu. Rest for another two days, then set out with the force reinforcing the frontlines the day after tomorrow."

"And..."

Smiling, the Third Hokage took out a Chunin flak jacket.

"From this moment on, you are a Chunin!"

After informing his team leader and two companions and having a farewell meal, Uchiha Feiyu put on his Chunin flak jacket and joined Konoha's force heading to reinforce the frontlines three days later.

The entire force was not very large, numbering just over a hundred people. Ninja themselves did not favor large-scale corps combat.

At the head of the force was a Jonin, with two Special Jonin serving as his deputies. The Chunin, who counted as middle-level management, numbered only ten in total. As for the nearly hundred Genin, they were all experienced adult ninja.

Unless things had reached a desperate point, Konoha clearly would not send very young ninja to the battlefield. Everyone understood the principle of killing the chicken to get the eggs.

Generally, unless they were exceptionally gifted, ninja under fourteen mostly handled logistical work during the early stages of a war and would not enter the main battlefield.

They were all ninja. The force of over a hundred advanced in silence, and after roughly a day, they reached Konoha's current frontlines.

The place where Konoha and the Sand Shinobi were currently fighting was not within either nation's borders, but in the Land of Rivers. The smaller nations between the great powers were originally buffer zones, and whenever war broke out, they inevitably became battlefields.

That was why small nations such as the Land of Rain naturally hated the great powers. After all, whenever war erupted, the great powers lost ninja reserves, while the small nations were practically smashed to pieces.

The frontline position had a very familiar name—Kikyo Mountain. Uchiha Feiyu vaguely remembered that there had been a Kikyo Mountain Battle in his previous life's Naruto, and Konoha had won it as well. At least he did not need to worry about a battle as brutal as the war against Iwagakure Ninja.

In the war against Iwagakure Ninja, Konoha had truly been driven to the brink. Had Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God not come to the rescue, the ninja on the main battlefield would likely have been wiped out. Even after their eventual victory, fewer than one in a hundred ninja remained. It had been unimaginably brutal.

Even though Uchiha Feiyu was desperately short on lives for sacrifices and also wanted to gather souls, he was not insane enough to want to join that kind of battle.

After arriving at the frontline camp, the Jonin leading the force and the two Special Jonin went to report to Orochimaru, the frontline commander. The ordinary Chunin and Genin were promptly dispersed and reassigned.

Uchiha Feiyu was still considering how to meet Orochimaru when the Jonin emerging from the Frontline Command called out to him directly.

"Chunin Feiyu, Lord Orochimaru requests your presence in the command room!"

Uchiha Feiyu's eyes lit up at those words, and he immediately headed for the Command Post.

He realized that he might have underestimated the weight carried by Elite Jonin-level strength. After all, in the original story, most combatants seemed to be no weaker than Elite Jonin, but in reality, ninja of that level were exceedingly rare throughout an entire ninja village.

What Uchiha Feiyu did not know was that even on this frontline battlefield, there were only four ninja at the Elite Jonin level. That was only because the war had just begun and manpower was still relatively abundant.

In another two or three years, once the other ninja villages began moving as well and the fighting intensified, each front would have, aside from its Kage-level commander, at most two or three Elite Jonin as support.

That was why, even though Uchiha Feiyu was only a fourteen-year-old boy and held merely the rank of Chunin, Orochimaru would still summon him personally.