Danzo's Command Errors, the Battle Stalemate

Kushina turned the room she slept in into one with a hidden compartment.

She dug a passage downward from the hidden compartment and made a lounge, coming here to sleep every night while leaving a shadow clone in the bedroom to pretend to sleep.

In the Land of Rain, the downpour still showed no sign of stopping.

Konoha and Amegakure were locked in fierce battle.

Danzo was so worried that he had lost quite a bit of hair.

Because he had discovered that under Hanzō's leadership, Amegakure was simply a tough bone to chew.

The overwhelming momentum he had expected never appeared. Amegakure had forcibly bogged down Konoha's ninja army.

This was something Danzo had never dared imagine.

Yet Amegakure had done it.

After Konoha's army entered the Land of Rain, the battle became deadlocked.

What gave Danzo the biggest headache was Hanzō's poison.

Whenever he appeared, large numbers of Konoha ninja were poisoned to death alive.

Fortunately, Konoha had Tsunade. As she continuously developed antidotes, Konoha's casualties gradually began to decrease.

Even so, Konoha had no way of taking Amegakure in a short time.

The one-sided war from the plan had failed to materialize. Instead, Konoha had been dragged into a swamp.

"How is the situation?"

"Not ideal."

Orochimaru frowned as he gazed at the curtain of rain, considering how to break the current deadlock.

Damn!!

How was that old fool Danzo even commanding this? He was just messing everything up.

Under his leadership, batches upon batches of Konoha ninja had gloriously sacrificed themselves.

Yet he was the commander-in-chief. No matter how many complaints Orochimaru had, he could only swallow them.

"I never expected Amegakure to be this powerful. It seems the Old Man was right. If Amegakure is allowed to keep developing like this, it will always be a threat."

Jiraiya had long lost the swagger he had when he first arrived at the battlefield. Not only did he look disheveled, but he was so exhausted that he lay on the ground, too lazy to move.

Tsunade shot him a disdainful look and questioned him.

"But the intelligence you gathered differs greatly from the strength Amegakure has displayed."

"You can't blame me for that, can you?"

Jiraiya sat up from the ground, gave a silly grin, scratched his hair that was covered in mud, and said gloomily,

"You should ask our esteemed commander-in-chief about that. It isn't my responsibility."

"But is it really appropriate for you to leave the camp and enter the battlefield?"

"What isn't appropriate about it?"

Tsunade glared at him, folded her arms, and frowned.

"I don't want to see that old bastard's sour face. Besides, the antidote for Ibuse's deadly poison has already been formulated. The medical ninja in the camp can handle the rest."

Tsunade would rather fight on the battlefield than stay in camp and face Danzo's sour face all day.

The Third Hokage's choice to make Danzo the battlefield's commander-in-chief had been completely wrong.

Letting Danzo play schemes and carry out assassinations was his specialty.

But letting him command a battle was utter nonsense.

See? Orochimaru was unhappy, and Tsunade was uncomfortable as well.

Only Jiraiya could laugh it off.

Even if he had opinions, he would not voice them. After all, he did not have Tsunade's temper, nor did he have her status.

"So I've heard you left your disciple in the village?"

Orochimaru suddenly turned to look at Jiraiya. The smile on Jiraiya's face slowly froze, and he sprang up from the ground, cursing,

"What right do you have to talk about me? Isn't Nawaki also left behind in the camp?"

"Heh heh."

Orochimaru's laugh was slightly hoarse, and the look he gave Jiraiya was full of gloating.

"What the hell are you laughing at? I..."

Why did his back suddenly feel chilly?

Jiraiya was in the middle of swearing when he suddenly sensed that something was wrong. His back felt icy cold. He immediately realized something and slowly turned around, only to see Tsunade staring at him expressionlessly, her fist slowly rising.

"Yamete!!"

With a miserable scream, a human-shaped imprint appeared directly on the rock. Jiraiya was embedded deeply within it, impossible to pry out.

While Jiraiya was still getting beaten up, Minato joined the squad Chiyue and Uchiha Mikoto were in, greatly improving the squad's mission efficiency.

With war arriving, a large number of ninja had gone to the front lines. Coupled with the unrest everywhere caused by the war, the village received far more commissions and missions.

Many ninja squads were run ragged, but Chiyue's squad remained the same as ever.

They occasionally accepted a mission. The rest of the time, they either rested or trained, unlike the other squads that were so busy.

"Lord Hokage, this is the application form for the Chunin Exam."

Because of the war, Konoha's standards for the Chunin Exam had been lowered considerably. They were no longer as cumbersome and strict as they had been during peacetime.

At this time, the Chunin Exam had only two stages. As long as one passed the written examination and the combat examination, one could smoothly advance in ninja rank.

"Leave it there."

Ever since the war broke out, the Third Hokage had been overwhelmed every day. All kinds of troublesome matters had piled together, and every one of them required his personal attention.

The Hokage's Office had practically become the Third Hokage's home. He even ate and slept in the Hokage's Office.

After reviewing the documents on his desk, the Third Hokage let out a breath and picked up the Chunin application forms to inspect them.

He reviewed them one by one, stamping those confirmed to have no issues.

"Jiraiya has gone to the front lines. It seems that child Minato stayed in the village."

At that moment, the Third Hokage suddenly remembered Jiraiya specifically asking him to look after Minato more.

So he pulled out Minato's file.

Only then did the Third Hokage discover that Minato had joined Chiyue and Uchiha Mikoto's two-person squad, turning it into a standard three-person genin squad.

"Hm?"

When he saw the number of missions the squad had completed, the Third Hokage frowned.

Were one or two digits missing from these mission numbers?

Chiyue Squad: thirteen D-Rank Missions completed, twenty-eight C-Rank Missions completed.

Was he sure a digit had not been omitted?

It had been nearly a year since Chiyue's class graduated. Among ninja squads from the same class, they had completed at least a hundred D-Rank Missions and quite a few C-Rank Missions. Yet his squad had completed only this few missions. Something was clearly off.

"Go investigate Chiyue Squad's mission completion records. I need the accurate numbers."

"Yes."

An Anbu ninja flashed out of the Hokage's Office and went to retrieve the files.

Before long, the files were delivered from the Mission Department to the Third Hokage.

"These three children."

After comparing them, the Third Hokage immediately smiled. Nothing had been written incorrectly. The files were correct. Chiyue Squad had completed so few missions because they had gone out so rarely.