Launching Another Attack
During their exchange, both sides tacitly avoided mentioning the dead Konoha Ninja. Since the start of the Shinobi World War, everyone had been prepared to die, and it was foreseeable that the war would not end so quickly, with many more likely to perish in the future.
After crossing the Land of Fire Border, the Aoba City stronghold was already in sight. In less than two hours, the group returned to the Konoha frontline outpost.
"Shuichi's squad has completed their mission and has important intelligence to report!"
After informing the ninja at the entrance, Shuichi and Mitarashi Kiyohi went directly into the command center.
Upon seeing them, Orochimaru immediately took the mission report and began to examine it. Then he said, "Tell me in detail how you encountered the enemy."
Mitarashi Kiyohi's squad, lacking strong reconnaissance capabilities, failed to discern the layout of the Sunagakure encirclement. After explaining the situation of their attack, they left the central camp, leaving only Orochimaru, Shuichi, and Nara Shikaku in the room.
"I didn't expect Sunagakure's deployment to be so aggressive. It seems you've stumbled right into their territory." Nara Shikaku and Shuichi shared information about the other teams.
It is now the fourth night since the mission began, and nearly half of the Konoha squads have completed their missions and returned.
To Shuichi's surprise, only a few teams encountered Sunagakure; the others did not run into any enemies and returned safely after completing their reconnaissance mission.
The task of analyzing the specific intelligence was the commander and strategist. After handing over the enemy ninja's corpse to the Medical Unit, they quickly completed the battle merit registration.
Shuichi's squad executed their first war mission flawlessly. They cooperated excellently throughout the mission, with each member playing their best role, and now they have complete confidence in each other.
"Shuichi Jonin, Lord Orochimaru requests your presence!"
After only one day of rest, Shuichi suddenly received a message from the messenger.
"Why so fast? Is there another mission?"
Although he was surprised, he could only rush to the meeting point as soon as possible.
Upon arriving at the camp, Shuichi noticed that Namikaze Minato was also there. After exchanging greetings, they were both called inside.
Orochimaru, seeing them enter, immediately issued a new mission: "You've come at the perfect time. Your two teams will temporarily merge into one, with Minato as the captain. Set off immediately to conduct a deep reconnaissance of the area around the Southern Sichuan Ridge, and at the same time, find a way to strike the vanguard of Sunagakure."
Shuichi and Minato gathered around the map, Nara Shikaku pointed and said, "This is the location where Shuichi-kun encountered Sunagakure, this is the location where Seinichi's team encountered the enemy, and the other points are other Konoha Squad..."
On this huge map of the Land of Rivers, two locations are marked with densely packed red dots.
One is near the Southern Sichuan Ridge in the northeast, another is in the southern part of the Land of Rivers, but there are almost none elsewhere.
"It's strange, my squad hasn't encountered any enemies." Namikaze Minato frowned, pointing to the center of the map. "My squad and Shuichi-kun's squad have gone about the same distance inland. It seems the Sunagakure's choice of strongholds is unpredictable."
"Yes." Nara Shikaku confirmed his guess. "According to my analysis, the choice of Sunagakure's base location will definitely revolve around two key points: one is the resource-rich area of Land of Rivers, and the other is advantageous terrain in war."
"Minato, the reason you haven't encountered any enemies is probably because the central region of the Land of Rivers doesn't meet the strategic needs of Sunagakure, so they abandoned it."
"So, what about our operation this time...?"
"The main objective is to counter the Sunagakure's attack," Orochimaru said solemnly. "Our main force has arrived, and soon we will advance into the Land of Rivers to establish a base. The Sunagakure previously tried to weaken our main force through aggressive invasion, and I don't want them to retreat so easily."
Shuichi understood Orochimaru's strategy. Both sides knew that the average combat strength of the Konoha Squad was significantly higher than that of the Sunagakure squads. Therefore, the enemy obtained intelligence by sacrificing Genin and then had multiple squads gang up to attack Konoha.
Now that Konoha has seen through their plan, it's estimated that the Sunagakure Squad ahead will retreat soon, as Konoha's main force is about to arrive.
Therefore, Orochimaru had Shuichi and Minato Namikaze's team work together, and there were several other Konoha teams in similar situations; they were all Konoha's top forces.
The reason for the urgency in using these teams, which combine reconnaissance and strength, to intercept and avenge the Sunagakure is that the Sunagakure may change its tactics, and the opportunity may only last a few days.
"Then, Senior Minato, my squad will be here soon. Shall we depart immediately?" As soon as he left the command camp, Shuichi entered mission mode.
"We'll be leaving in five minutes. Thank you for your help, Shuichi-kun." Namikaze Minato also looked serious.
Not long after, this formidable team secretly left Aoba City and headed straight for the battlefield in the Land of Rivers.
All seven members were elites from Konoha. With the addition of several reconnaissance ninjas and intelligence gathered from the Land of Rivers, they arrived at the vicinity of the Southern Sichuan Ridge at top speed.
"The enemy reacted quickly; we haven't encountered any more search teams along the way," Shuichi said, as they were leading the way since they were previously in charge of this area.
After arriving at the location where they had last encountered the enemy, they conducted a large-scale reconnaissance but failed to find Sunagakure, which allowed them to preliminarily determine that the enemy had retreated some distance.
"Hmm..." Namikaze Minato pondered for a moment, then decided to continue deeper. With their strength, they were perfectly capable of withstanding an attack from multiple Sunagakure. "Let's cross the Southern Sichuan Ridge first."
"Jaw, it's up to you now."
"Leave it to me!" Inuzuka Tsume took a palm-sized sandworm from Aburame Shibi's hand. It was found on Shuichi's squad killed the Sunagakure Jonin.
According to the research of the Aburame Clan, this should be the key to how the enemy tracked Konoha Ninja using the scent of Smoke Bomb.
The sandworms are dead, but Konoha's secret techniques are all-encompassing and without blind spots. The Inuzuka Clan's sensitivity to scent is unparalleled in the Shinobi World, and they are extremely skilled at pursuing targets over long distances.
Inuzuka Tsume picked up the insect, sniffed it, and then held it in front of the big yellow dog, Kibamaru's, nose. "Kibamaru's sense of smell is better than mine. If the two of us work together, we can ensure that we can track down the enemy's whereabouts as soon as possible."
After completing their preparations, the elite team of seven rushed out of the Southern Sichuan Ridge area and headed rapidly towards the Sunagakure base.
The team now includes Inuzuka Clan, Aburame Clan, and Hyuga Clan, totaling four ninjas with exceptional reconnaissance abilities. They can cover all areas, from far to medium to close range, and are fully capable of entering and exiting the Sunagakure's control area seven times over.
After traveling 20 kilometers, Aburame Shihei suddenly spoke up, "My insects are reacting at the 11 o'clock direction; it must be the smell of that smoke."
Namikaze Minato was taken aback; it was actually Aburame Shihei who spotted the enemy first. "Shuichi-kun, didn't you use all the enemy's Smoke Bomb back then?"
"Yeah!" Shuichi had no choice. "I could have brought one back, but a member of another team was injured, so to avoid being caught by Sunagakure, I had to throw it away."