Southern Front

"Captain Kurotsuchi, I remember there was a Sunagakure ninja with the Scorch Release technique named Pakura. Did he participate in this First Shinobi War?" Yichen asked his first question after digesting this astonishing news.

The original work doesn't describe Pakura, the female hero of the Sunagakure, very much. Yichen couldn't even accurately assess her strength and didn't know if Pakura at her peak had reached the Kage Level.

Kitsuchi recalled the intelligence and said, "The intelligence didn't mention it. The information we've received so far is only a rough outline; the detailed battle report hasn't come through yet. What? You know this Pakura?"

Yichen shook his head, not saying anything more about Pakura, and instead asked, "After Konoha's crushing defeat on the battlefield in the Land of Rivers, have other countries taken any major actions? Has the village given any new instructions? What countermeasures does Konoha have?"

Kitsuchi said, "Things happened too fast, and all parties haven't reacted yet, but they should all take corresponding actions."

Yichen nodded and said, "It seems we can't leave the camp for the next few days and must wait for orders from the village."

Kitsuchi said in unison, "Yes, especially you, Yichen. You have the best mobility. At this time, if the village sends elites to the Southern Front to put pressure on Konoha, you will be the village's top priority."

"Understood, I will control the intensity of my cultivation and remain on standby at all times." Yichen nodded.

"Alright, go settle your three new disciples. The village's orders may arrive any moment now." Kitsuchi gave Yichen last instruction before waving him away.

After leaving Kitsuchi's office, Yichen led Ogura Saki and the other two to a corner of the Training Ground, where they found Tomoko and the other two training. Because Kitsuchi had reduced the patrol area and adopted a defensive posture, many people in the camp were not out at this time, Yichen's three disciples happened to be among them.

After introducing the two groups of disciples, Yichen prepared a training plan for the three new disciples.

Unfortunately, although the three of them were still quite weak in their basic skills, Yichen wasn't sure how long this departure would take. The Southern Front was dangerous, and it wasn't convenient to take them along. Therefore, Yichen had no choice but to teach them the Ninjutsu he had originally planned to instruct them on later.

Yichen shared his insights on training the Body Flicker Technique with Takuya and devised a training plan for Takuya. This disciple's Ninjutsu talent was truly lacking, so Yichen had to break down the Body Flicker Technique and train him step by step.

Takuya's Ninjutsu talent is very poor, partly because that's just how his talent is, and partly because he lacks guidance.

Originally, Yichen planned to teach Zhuo Si step by step, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough time, so Takuya had to figure it out on his own first.

As for Matsutani Shinya's training, Yichen focused on the basics. This child had wasted a lot of time on this problem and needed to build a solid foundation.

In addition, Yichen conducted an attribute test on him, and it turned out that he was a rare individual with three attributes: water, wind, and earth.

This surprised Yichen, as having three attributes is generally considered a good thing for a ninja. After all, developing new attributes is very difficult for a ninja.

However, having three attributes also means that none of them are particularly outstanding, which can be a disadvantage when learning Ninjutsu in the early stages.

In layman's terms: This is a hero who comes later in the game.

The problem is that Matsutani Shinya, and he couldn't develop properly in the later stages; he was just a piece of trash.

To prevent Matsuda Shinya from slacking off, Yichen forcibly assigned him a task, giving him nine scrolls at once, three C-rank Ninjutsu Yichen each attribute.

Although Matsuda Shinya lazy, Yichen believed that with these nine Ninjutsu keeping him occupied, he should have some motivation to train.

Of course, Yichen didn't expect him to learn these Ninjutsu in a short time, after all, this guy hadn't even practiced Nature Transformation.

Of the three new disciples, Yichen was most satisfied with Ogura Saki. Ogura Saki's greatest strength was her wisdom. The little girl knew how to think, saw things very clearly, and had extremely high learning efficiency.

Yichen also tested her Chakra nature and found that her Chakra nature was wind and fire, with wind as the main element and fire as the secondary element. Considering that Ogura Saki also wanted to pursue the path of Chakra fusion, the first thing Yichen thought of was the Scorch Release.

This is also why Yichen suddenly remembered the Sunagakure's Scorching Release Yukata.

Yichen also gave Ogura Saki three C-rank Ninjutsu of each attribute, letting her figure them out on her own, hoping that she could accelerate her understanding of Nature Transformation through the descriptions of these three Ninjutsu.

Unfortunately Yichen doesn't possess Wind Release, so there's not much he can do to help Ogura Saki in terms of Nature Transformation.

The other three were all experiencing C-rank Ninjutsu for the first time, so Yichen wasn't too worried and asked Tomoko and the other two to keep an eye on them.

With a new disciple, Yichen couldn't neglect his three veteran disciples. He checked on the cultivation progress of Tomoko and the other two again, and only felt relieved after confirming that they hadn't gone astray.

Half a day later, the village's order came down as expected, sending Yichen to the Southern Front to support Saka, while ordering the East Front Camp not to act rashly and not to provoke Konoha and Cloud ninja.

Upon receiving the order, Yichen flew to the South Front Camp immediately.

When Yichen arrived at the South Front Camp, Ikura had already arrived. Like Ikura, Yichen had come leisurely with three disciples.

The South Front Camp was closer to the village, so Ikura arrived at the camp earlier than Yichen. In addition, Yichen had been waiting for orders from the village on the eastern front for quite some time, so when Yichen arrived at the Southern Front, Ikura was already helping Advisor Saka with some matters.

This time, the village also sent some reinforcements to the Southern Front, numbering about a thousand, all of whom were elites, with original Anbu members making up 30% of them. Combined with the ninjas already on the Southern Front, the total number of Iwa ninja on the Southern Front now exceeds ten thousand.

When Yichen arrived at the camp, the reinforcements from the village had also arrived.

Saka convened a pre-battle mobilization meeting with all the Jonin.

Yichen did not hold any official position on the Southern Front; he was part of the forces directly under the Command Center headquarters, a typical idle person.

Ikura's original position was deputy commander of the Western Army, but as the war escalated Ikura was transferred to deputy commander of the Southern Army, ranking only after Saka.

Therefore, Ikura was the host, and there were many trivial matters to attend to.

Seeing that the meeting was about to start, but Ikura was still buried in thick documents, Yichen asked curiously, "Didn't you just arrive at the front? How come you have so much to deal with? I didn't have this much to do when I was at the East Front Camp."

Ikura rubbed his temples, looked up, Yichen said, "It's all because of this escalation of the war. The village has sent a large number of reinforcements, and there are many things to arrange. But I'm not familiar with the previous setup of the camp, so I have to carefully review the documents that Advisor Saka handled before."

Yichen was speechless. It was clear that Saka, the actual commander of the Southern Front, was intentionally grooming Ikura. While Kitsuchi also valued him, he wasn't being trained according to the standards of a future Tsuchikage. Therefore, Yichen had never experienced the kind of busyness Ikura was going through.

Shaking his head, Yichen left Ikura's office and entered the conference room ahead of time.

Most of the people in the conference room had already arrived. Yichen walked to his seat, sat down, and began to look everyone over.

This meeting was attended by all Official Jonin, not even Special Jonin. Yichen didn't recognize most of these people and couldn't confirm which of them were Jonin and which were Elite Jonin.

However, one of the people sitting opposite Yichen looked somewhat familiar to him. After a moment's thought, Yichen remembered: Han Five-Tails Jinchuriki.

As Elite Jonin, and Elite Jonin had developed Kekkei Genkai, Yichen also held the position of deputy commander of the Eastern Army. Therefore, Yichen's position was quite high, similar to that of Han, the Jinchuriki. The people ahead of Yichen had not yet entered, so Yichen and Han were the two with the highest status in this meeting room.

Han, this Jinchuriki, probably doesn't have much to do usually, which is why he arrived early, just like Yichen.

Yichen sized up Han, only to find that without using Sensory Ninjutsu, he wouldn't be able to tell that Han was Jinchuriki.

"I wonder if I can detect the Five-Tails' presence using Sensory Ninjutsu," Yichen wondered.

Yichen sized up Han, and Han was also observing Yichen. Yichen was very famous, but many people had only heard of him and had never actually met him, but Han was different.

The Five-Tails within him were trapped by the Five Elements Sealing Jutsu developed by Yichen. Therefore, Han valued Yichen far more than others, and would pay more attention to news about Yichen than to others.

Furthermore, Han had been staying in the village and was not allowed to go out. One of the important guarantees that allowed him to come to the front line this time was Yichen.

With Yichen's current Sealing Jutsu skills, as long as Han doesn't completely lose his mind and cause the Five-Tails to go berserk, Yichen alone can seal him.

This is also an important reason why the village transferred Yichen to the Southern Front.

After waiting a while, everyone arrived, and Saka and Ikura also entered the conference room together.

Saka first gave everyone a brief overview of the current situation.

"As you all probably know, there was a major battle between the Sunagakure and Konoha in the Land of Rivers a few days ago. Elder Chiyo the Sunagakure Village returned to the battlefield, and the new generation Rasa also demonstrated Kage Level combat power, in addition to Ebizo, who controlled the Third Kazekage Puppet."

"Three Kage-level ninja from the Sunagakure have joined forces to launch a fierce attack on Konoha Hidden Leaf Village's camp in the Land of Land of Rivers. Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin and the Orochimaru 'Konoha commander, hastily provides reinforcements."

"As a result, the Sunagakure suffered fewer than 200 casualties while leaving more than 3,000 Konoha ninja behind."

"At the same time, Konoha has also lost the Land of Rivers as its forward base, and has now retreated to Kikyo Castle on the border of the Land of Fire."

"Orochimaru and his Summoning Beast Manda were both injured in this First Shinobi War, and the Konoha forces were severely weakened."

"However, Sunagakure aren't going as smoothly as they seem on the surface. According to reliable intelligence, the Third Kazekage Puppet was severely damaged, and Ebizo was also seriously injured under Orochimaru's targeting. He has now been sent back to Sunagakure for treatment."

As he spoke, Saka glanced at Yichen. He naturally knew that Yichen had obtained the Third Kazekage Puppet. However, he was not yet clear about how Yichen had obtained the Third Kazekage Puppet.

Ebizo was able to unleash Kage- Puppet Technique Kage-level Combatant with the Third Kazekage Puppet, so how did Yichen manage to snatch the Third Kazekage Puppet from Sasori of the Red Sands, whose puppetry skills were even higher?

This is actually related to mutual restraint. Although the Third Kazekage Puppet can greatly enhance a Puppet Master's combat power, it only gives him the power of Kage Level.

Sasori of the Red Sands has not yet fully reached the Kage Level; he is still only a quasi-Kage.

In addition, flying ninjas like Yichen are the most difficult for Puppet Master to deal with, so this can be considered a slight counter to Sasori. In fact, if the Third Kazekage Puppet hadn't been able to fly, Sasori would have been completely helpless against Yichen.

The situation on the battlefield in the Land of Rivers was completely the opposite.

In large-scale warfare, the wide-range attack and defense of Iron Sand is too difficult to counter. Moreover, the Third Kazekage Puppet is perfectly suited to counter the iron weapons of the Konoha ninja. This prevents Orochimaru from dealing with the barrage of Iron Sand attacks by dodging like Yichen.

Therefore, ninjas like the Third Kazekage, who excel in large-scale offense and defense, are least afraid of group battles.

It was precisely because of this that Orochimaru ultimately chose to trade blows with Ebizo, even managing to destroy the Third Kazekage Puppet.