Ōnoki's Grand Gamble

The Iwagakure elders pondered for a while before ultimately nodding.

The last time they had lured the enemy deep in, Iwagakure had taken out the Third Raikage. Though their losses had been severe, they had still come out ahead overall.

Before the Third Raikage stayed behind alone to cover the retreat, Cloud had suffered no shortage of casualties.

"Sunagakure was already riven by internal conflict over the Third Kazekage's disappearance, leaving them badly weakened. They also suffered considerable losses when they attacked Konoha afterward to get a share of the spoils."

"This time, Konoha has wiped out another portion of their forces. Do they still have the strength to provoke Iwagakure?"

"If we are truly concerned, we can send envoys to Kirigakure to seek cooperation."

"There is little conflict of interest between Iwagakure and Kirigakure, while Sunagakure and Kirigakure frequently clash over interests in places such as the Land of Tea. There is plenty of room for cooperation."

"Therefore, we can also pull out part of the forces defending against the Suna Ninja."

"If we scrape together some more from within the village, we can form a force of a thousand men."

"I know this is a gamble."

"If we win, Iwagakure's future development will reach a new level and create unprecedented glory."

"If we lose, Iwagakure will be the first to withdraw from the Great Ninja War, gaining practically nothing."

"I have decided to gamble. What about you?"

Ōnoki's face was filled with resolve. His body floated in the air as his sharp eyes swept over the room from above.

"Gamble!"

"Let's do it!"

"All in!"

"..."

The expressions of Iwagakure's elders shifted. After several breaths of inner struggle, every one of them agreed.

"Very good."

"Since we are opening a new front, we will need a new logistics supply route."

"Once we push into the Land of Fire, the front line will be stretched out. The logistics route may even determine the success or failure of this grand gamble."

"This... cannot be allowed to fail!"

Ōnoki flew to the map hanging on the wall behind him. His fingertip turned into a long, thin stone rod and tapped a place name.

The Iwagakure elders focused their eyes on it. The place was called Kannabi Bridge.

Studying the terrain surrounding the bridge on the map, the Iwagakure elders all nodded in approval.

To establish a new logistics supply route through the Land of Grass, there was no way around that bridge.

"Alright, let's refine this plan."

Ōnoki lightly floated back to his seat and spoke in a deep voice.

The Iwagakure elders began freely offering their opinions.

Some might wonder whether a mere bridge truly warranted such absolute importance.

In truth, it did.

Although the river beneath Kannabi Bridge was not especially wide, neither was it narrow, and its current was swift.

Not every ninja could climb trees or walk on water. That required precise Chakra control, something that ordinary ninja could generally only manage at the intermediate or advanced level.

Moreover, walking on flowing water was different from walking on still water. The faster the current, the greater the difficulty.

In the original story, Sasuke learned to walk on calm water, yet it still took him several days to master it, leaving him battered and disheveled.

What kind of education had Sasuke received?

He came from a prestigious clan, received a complete Ninja Academy education in peacetime, ranked first at the Ninja Academy, had Kakashi personally instruct him, and was an elite capable of facing the Mist Chunin Demon Brothers one against two without falling behind.

In the five great ninja villages—no, among the vast majority of Genin throughout the entire ninja world—most knew nothing beyond the Three-Body Technique. In close combat, they fought with taijutsu; at medium and long range, they merely threw Kunai and Shuriken. They could not even bear to use Exploding Tags.

Exploding Tags were not cheap. Ordinary Genin generally treated them as trump cards.

The quality of the twelve rookie ninjas in the original story did not represent the quality of most Genin. The inconspicuous extras, the faceless background characters, were the true standard for Genin.

Furthermore, during the Great Ninja War, every major ninja village was expanding its forces and preparing for battle. With little time for growth, the quality of Genin declined even further.

Yet most of the Land of Earth was a vast Gobi formed by high mountains and rock, with scarce water sources.

Iwagakure also favored overwhelming numbers, casually deploying thousands or even tens of thousands at a time. The quality of such troops was easy to imagine.

Was it not asking too much of Genin of that caliber to require them to learn water walking, which demanded considerable Chakra control?

Put simply, if their Chakra control was insufficient, they could forget about ever learning it in their lifetimes.

Thus, if the bridge were destroyed, Chunin and Jonin might still be able to cross, but Genin could only stare at the river and sigh.

Yet Genin were the main force of every major ninja village. Chunin could barely be considered experts, while Jonin were genuine experts—the most elite ninja in a village.

Put more plainly, Genin were equivalent to soldiers in an army, Chunin to squad leaders, Special Jonin to centurions, and Jonin to junior generals.

Without the vast main force, what could a small number of experts accomplish?

Unless they were experts capable of manifesting a Complete Susanoo, even Kage-level Experts could not act with impunity in a war.

If walking on water was not possible, could they use Earth Release techniques to build a bridge?

The answer was still no.

In the original story, the three Jonin using Earth Release at Kannabi Bridge had not caused much of a commotion.

Though those three Jonin were somewhat lacking and might have been promoted only recently, they had at least crossed the threshold of Jonin.

If even a Jonin's Earth Release could only achieve that much, what about a Chunin's?

Furthermore, Earth Release usually needed favorable terrain to unleash its power, and there was no soil on a river.

Extending a bridge from both riverbanks required enormous Chakra reserves and extremely precise Chakra control. Very few people met those requirements.

A small bridge was one thing, but building a large bridge required no little technical skill. Even in modern times, constructing a major bridge involved a huge amount of preliminary preparation and strict adherence to standards. The slightest problem could cause it to collapse.

When it came to building bridges, Yamato's Wood Release was actually more suitable than Earth Release.

If someone possessed the strength Kitsuchi had during the Fourth Great Ninja War Period, they could force it through with brute strength. But Kitsuchi had not yet grown to that level.

Ōnoki might very well have been able to do it, but how could the Tsuchikage possibly go all the way to Kannabi Bridge to guard or build a bridge?

There were still many matters requiring Ōnoki's judgment.

Therefore, for Iwagakure, Kannabi Bridge truly could not be lost!

As the days passed, Uchiha Gen received no deployment orders and honestly remained in the clan grounds to train.

As a rising new genius of the Uchiha Clan, he did not need to worry about ninjutsu.

When the war began, the Uchiha Clan's old patriarch had ordered that the clan's stored ninjutsu be fully opened to its ninja, provided they possessed the corresponding strength to learn them.

With the Special Jonin strength acknowledged by Uchiha Yashiro, Uchiha Gen was already qualified to learn B-Rank Techniques.

As the foremost noble clan in the ninja world, the Uchiha Clan naturally possessed more than just Fire Release techniques. It had standard techniques of the other four elements as well: wind, earth, lightning, and water.

Once this opportunity passed, it would be gone. After the war ended, he would have to serve the clan and earn merit before he could learn more ninjutsu.

He had to take this chance to fleece the clan hard!

Uchiha Gen's progress in learning Fire Release techniques left Uchiha Yashiro, who was temporarily handling the clan's affairs, dumbfounded.

Learning one B-Rank Fire Release technique and one B-Rank Genjutsu a day?

Wasn't that fucking outrageous?

Uchiha Yashiro had not believed it at first. Only after Uchiha Gen demonstrated it personally did he have no choice but to believe.

Utterly devastated by the blow, Uchiha Yashiro eventually granted him permission to browse and learn any techniques within his authority.

In truth, Uchiha Gen had cheated—or rather, he had only cheated halfway.

When learning Genjutsu, Uchiha Gen truly was aided as if by divine help.

Perhaps because he had lived two lives and possessed the Soul-Soul Fruit, the Genjutsu collected by the Uchiha Clan posed no difficulty for Uchiha Gen. Training in them was as easy as eating and drinking.

Uchiha Gen's talent for Fire Release techniques was fairly good, but still within normal bounds.

The reason he could use them was because he secretly cheated by merging Zhurong into his Fire Release, using it to raise the temperature, expand the range, and control the form. His actual mastery was insufficient.

With Uchiha Yashiro's permission, Uchiha Gen memorized every Fire, Wind, and Earth Release technique collected by the clan, planning to learn them slowly in the future.

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