Can't Take It Anymore, Let's Go Head-On!

Early morning.

The Land of Whirlpools had a pretty good ecological environment—no smog, with trees, mountains, water, and truly crisp air!!

Or rather, the entire Shinobi World had an excellent ecological environment. After all, it possessed an advantage Earth lacked—Chakra, a non-polluting, recyclable energy source. As a result, wildlife here was quite abundant. Some animals even developed intelligence, refined Chakra, and evolved into rare creatures—summoning beasts.

Of course, there was also a small group with ancient inheritances and secret techniques that forcibly occupied places with decent greenery and fresh air, paid no taxes, did no work, and then, after living long enough, proclaimed themselves the Three Great Sage Regions.

Hozuki Gengetsu and Kirigakure's upper ranks sat around a round table. Everyone was yawning, dark circles under their eyes, looking as though they had overworked themselves all night.

Their spirits were terrible!!

"Ahem."

Hozuki Gengetsu coughed twice, signaling for them to pull themselves together. They were still at war—what was with these half-dead looks? Were they going to keep fighting or not?

Didn't want to? No, no, they had to fight even if they didn't want to!

Otherwise, wouldn't his grand mobilization to invade the Land of Whirlpools be a complete loss? Not only would he be stripped of his position as Mizukage, even his clan would have a hard time in the village!

So, whether they wanted to fight or not, they had to fight. Hurry up and raise your spirits. Once they succeeded, titles and riches would be theirs for the taking.

But everyone knew they were at war. Still, what would happen if you stayed up for three days straight while listening to firecrackers for three days straight?

Even the God of the Ninja World would probably break down!!

Not only were their spirits low, but their tempers were foul too!! Couldn't he see that the Kaguya Clan had started pulling out their bones? They were about to go mad. They had gone three days without a real fight, and all they hit was dust that went "Bang—." It was exhausting! The Kaguya Clan had never encountered anything like this before. In the past, all they had to do was howl, pull out their bones, and charge in to chop. But ever since they started chopping balloons, they felt that if this continued, they might not even be able to lift their bones anymore.

Now, Mist Ninja went red-eyed whenever they heard "Bang—."

They wanted to run!

Explosive Tags exploded, even clones exploded. After hearing it for three days, they felt awful all over.

They had become allergic to the sound of "Bang—"!!

And now they were being told to raise their spirits? What a joke. They did not even know where the Whirlpool Ninja were hiding. Every damn one of them was a Shadow Clone.

The Mist Ninja had something they did not know whether they should say.

They felt that, right now, one person could take on ten Whirlpool Ninja—even Jonin.

This was bullying! Even if they were that rich, they could not fight a war like this!!

Setting off firecrackers in the middle of the night was disturbing the peace!

Their spirits were so poor now that even using ninjutsu felt delayed, jerky and sluggish.

"..."

With dark circles beneath his eyes, Hozuki Gengetsu stared solemnly at the Mist Ninja present. This could not go on!! Now he understood what the Whirlpool Ninja were trying to do. They wanted to crush the Mist Ninja's morale. How sinister!!! Couldn't they see that their morale was already weakening?

What did war depend on? Tactics, money, and morale!!

Their morale was nearly depleted. How were they supposed to keep fighting afterward?

Did no one want to fight anymore? That would not do!! Did he, the Mizukage, have no pride left?

Mizukage's Assistant frowned as he looked at everyone present. The higher-ups were already like this, and those below were in even worse shape. As the ninja war approached its end, anti-war sentiment had already begun spreading among the ninja. Coupled with the fact that they had gained nothing this entire time, anyone would be sick of it.

"Perhaps we have fallen into a misconception?" Mizukage's Assistant said, resting his chin on both hands with a thoughtful expression.

"Oh? Go on. What misconception have we fallen into?" Hozuki Gengetsu hurriedly asked upon hearing someone offer a suggestion. Right now, what he feared most was silence. Any idea was better than none—never mind whether it would work, just put it forward first.

Distracting everyone a little was good too.

"The first reason the Mist Ninja have ended up in such a situation is that we underestimated the enemy," Mizukage's Assistant said seriously. Now was the time for the Mizukage's brain to do the talking.

"Yes!!"

"Yeees—."

"Mizukage's Assistant is absolutely right."

Yet everyone answered with thoroughly perfunctory expressions. He had said that days ago, and it had not done a damn thing!! The enemy still used Shadow Clones as they pleased!!

"The other reason is that this is their home ground," Mizukage's Assistant said. "The Whirlpool Ninja are more familiar with this place than we are, and they have a greater advantage when it comes to hiding."

"We do not even know what traps may be hidden there." Mizukage's Assistant swept his gaze across everyone present and said with a frown, "Have you noticed? Ever since we entered the Land of Whirlpools, nothing seems to have gone according to the original plan."

Simply put, they had been led by the nose—led by a bunch of blockheads. They had been too confident, assuming that a bunch of blockheads would only howl and charge straight in. Who would have thought they would actually use tactics? One blockhead might not be dumb, but a whole group of blockheads was definitely dumb. After all, howling was contagious!

Yet somehow, the blockheads of the entire Land of Whirlpools had managed to stay clear-headed. That was absolutely not Uzumaki-like!!

Everyone nodded. Indeed, that made sense.

From the moment they came ashore until now, the plan had been altered beyond recognition. They had originally intended to charge directly at that group of howling blockheads, but the enemy had stopped fighting head-on and switched to harassment.

But plans could not keep up with changes! What if they charged in for a head-on fight again and fell into a trap?

Seemingly seeing everyone's concerns, Mizukage's Assistant spoke again. "Everyone is wary of the Uzumaki Clan's traps, but..."

"Have you considered that our situation is no longer the same as when we first came ashore?"

Not the same? What was different?

Maybe they all looked like their kidneys had failed. That was certainly different. It felt as if their bodies had been hollowed out.

Seeing everyone's strange expressions, Mizukage's Assistant nearly sprouted black lines across his forehead. What were they all thinking about?

"People. The number of people is different," Hozuki Gengetsu suddenly replied with a solemn expression. He seemed to understand something.

People? There were indeed far fewer people! They had all died to Explosive Tags. That was the Mizukage's negligence!

He had to take responsibility! Pay up!!

Seeing that the Mizukage had understood, Mizukage's Assistant nodded seriously. "Indeed, we have lost many people, but..."

"Those remaining are all elites, so our situation is different now."

This time, everyone seemed to understand. So that was it!!

A large number of cannon fodder had died, but that did not matter! The Land of Whirlpools had few people and weak strength. Kirigakure could still take them head-on. Even if there were traps, with so many of them, they could react in time.

"That is right. To break the current situation, we can only disrupt the Land of Whirlpools' arrangements," Mizukage's Assistant said solemnly. They could not keep being led by the nose, or the Mist Ninja might end up getting completely crushed!!

"But how do we break the current deadlock?" the Mizukage asked with a frown.

"Go head-on!!!"

There is one more update. Please wait; it should be done around three o'clock!!!!