The Shift in the War

As night fell, the Konoha camp fell silent. No one knew that the master and apprentice were secretly discussing bloodline research. Every ninja was trying their best to recover their strength so that they could survive the battle later. Only a few guards were on guard in the shadows.

After a large-scale attack, the Konoha Ninja's advance slowed down, but they exerted a stronger sense of pressure on the Sunagakure.

Most of the teams reorganized and formed larger groups of 8 to 10 people, with each group staying close to the others.

This way, although the coverage area was much smaller, it was much more foolproof. The small-scale raid by the Sunagakure immediately suffered a setback and then there were no further major incidents.

Although Shuichi complained that he was exhausted, he still joined the Konoha Ninja after resting.

Since his teammates were all assigned to multi-person combat units, he could only continue to attack alone, not directly participating in the frontal battlefield, but instead returning to his old job of reconnaissance.

"Ace pilot requests combat readiness!"

A thousand meters above the sky, a pure white bird moved slowly, skimming the clouds, while Shuichi hand, surveying the scene below.

"The Sunagakure forces have regrouped; I wonder what their next move will be."

When the White Giant Bird ran out of chakra, he unrolled the Scroll and drew Sky Blue Giant Bird to complete the repositioning, and began to continue tracking the location of the Sunagakure's main force.

There seemed to be no movement within the Sunagakure camp for several days, which may have been due to a heated argument.

When the battle reports from the front reached Shuichi, they only showed that they had sent out an elite squad to scout, but they immediately withdrew after encountering Konoha in the distance.

"They ran away?"

One morning, Shuichi, who was the first to be dispatched as a scout, was shocked to find that the northern base in the Land of Rivers Sunagakure was empty, and judging from the time, they had retreated under cover of darkness the night before.

After sending a message to Orochimaru, he flew straight west towards the Land of Wind, wanting to see where the main force of Sunagakure had moved to.

After flying for a long time, Shuichi finally found the other person in a hilly area.

In terms of distance, Sunagakure abandoned about half of its northern territory, giving up a large portion of their gains.

"Decisive enough! It seems the pace of the war is about to change!"

Shuichi ran back as fast as he could to inform Orochimaru, but as soon as he entered the commander's room, he found the Hokage lineage's faction gathered together.

"Oh, everyone's here!" he greeted politely. "I just caught up with Sunagakure's new base. They're stationed in the Akita Territory. The only two entrances and exits should be strictly sealed off, so I came back without checking closely."

The atmosphere in the room was somewhat heavy. Orochimaru, seeing him return, said, "News has come Jiraiya Jiraiya's side that Iwagakure has begun its military campaign in the Land of Grass, Kumogakure also took action at almost the same time. It seems they have been closely monitoring the developments in the Land of Rivers."

"Does this mean the village is going to be attacked from three sides?"

"No, those two villages don't intend to launch a full-scale attack for the time being," Nara Shikaku explained, though his expression was also very serious. "The scale of the war has decreased, but the situation is not optimistic. It could very well turn into a protracted war of attrition, and we must be mentally prepared."

After listening, Shuichi understood that such a major war with the Land of Wind was a rare occurrence, because no ninja village could maintain a long-distance logistical route for an extended period.

The war has now been going on for more than three months. The funds provided by the Daimyo of the Land of Rivers have been exhausted. Konoha has also achieved some success, pushing back half of the territory that Sunagakure had seized. The central region is now completely empty, and it is not worthwhile to chase after it anymore.

As he pondered the course of the war, Shuichi felt as if he were being watched. Following his gaze, he saw Tsunade's delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, her eyes fixed on him with a hint of malice.

"What's going on?" he groaned inwardly. "When did I offend this person?"

Completely unaware that Orochimaru had tricked him, Shuichi could only helplessly ask, "Tsunade- senpai, is there something you need that's been staring at me?"

Seeing that everyone's attention was on her, Tsunade couldn't very well cause trouble for Shuichi on the spot. "Kid, I heard you're quite capable. You'd better keep it up, or you'll disappoint your teacher." After saying a few words with an ambiguous meaning, she turned her head to the side.

Orochimaru glanced around, then acted as if nothing had happened, continuing with his battle arrangements, "The village has ordered that the large-scale war be temporarily suspended..."

By this stage, Konoha had essentially accomplished most of its strategic objectives: first, to eliminate the threat posed by Sunagakure to the Land of Fire Border; and second, to restrict their access to the Land of Rivers' resources.

Now, the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning have also begun invading neighboring smaller countries. Although the situation is not as intense as that of the Land of Wind, it is causing more distress to the Konoha High Command. This will be a long and drawn-out war.

Therefore, Sunagakure retreated and refused to leave the remaining territory, leaving Konoha with no good solutions but to clean up the mess and create trouble for them.

A few days later, the Konoha Ninja first launched a large-scale operation to clear the roads of the Land of Rivers, erasing the supply routes previously established by the Sunagakure, and then advanced all the way to the edge of the enemy's controlled territory.

"Boom!" Several Konoha members used Earth Release to destroy the foundation of a small hill, completely blocking the road leading to the outside world. Similar things happened in other locations as well.

After completing the blockade of Sunagakure, the second phase of the operation was to find the forces that had gone into hiding after the war began. Forces like the Valley Ninja Village and the Hannya Clan were forced to return to their original territories.

Because Konoha suffered many casualties in the war, they have no intention of showing any mercy to these people. If you don't come out, then we will destroy your entire territory. There is no third option. It's up to you what you want to do.

After doing all this, the village did not make a big show of withdrawing all its troops. Several small teams were still active Land of Rivers, and the Anbu agents also took action.

In general, various forces, large and small, were brought into the open to confront Sunagakure, while Konoha turned to causing trouble in the shadows. Their resources had to be used by Konoha Ninja, and anyone who dared to take advantage of the chaos should just disappear.

After the situation stabilized, the Konoha army was finally able to return to the village to rest. About two-thirds of the Jonin captains left one after another, and it is estimated that they will soon be busy on two other battlefields. The long war can only be said to have come to a temporary end.

In the Hokage's Office, Shuichi stood in front of his desk, the Third Hokage puffing out smoke, clearly troubled by the situation in the Shinobi World.

"You've done a great job this time." Sarutobi Hiruzen felt his judgment was spot-on; promoting a Special Jonin had yielded such a significant result. "It shouldn't be a problem to officially promote him to Jonin after a while, but Jiraiya..."

"Wait, Lord Hokage!" Shuichi immediately called out, "I was just helping out on the battlefield in the Land of Rivers. The assassination of the Sunagakure Medical Unit was done by the Anbu, it has nothing to do with a kid like me."

"Cough, cough..." The Third Hokage choked on his breath. Orochimaru had already reported this matter, and this guy was still lying. "What do you take the village for? We Konoha Ninja don't leak information about our teammates. Besides, even the two advisors don't know about this. I'll keep the information confidential, so you don't need to worry about it."