Strategic Adjustment

When Rasa, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the others arrived at the First Line of Defense Heaven in Sunagakure, they only saw a dilapidated ninja village that had been completely looted.

Rasa stood expressionless on a mountaintop at the edge of First Line of Defense, gazing at his home reduced to ruins, remaining silent for a long time.

Beside him, Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to say a few words of comfort, but he didn't know how to start, and in the end, he could only let out a sigh.

Many days later, the guards who had been escorting the two men completed their reconnaissance and returned to report to them.

"Lord Kazekage, a great battle has taken place in the First Line of Defense Canyon. Based on the situation, we have lost," one of Rasa's guards said with a hint of tears in his voice.

"Judging from the battlefield traces, it's possible that none of our comrades who fought the Iwa Ninja Army at First Line of Defense managed to evacuate."

"They were attacked from both sides, and ultimately they were all either killed or surrendered."

Rasa trembled upon hearing this, but he forced himself to remain calm and asked, "Do you know the approximate casualty figures?"

The guard shook his head and said, "The battlefield was severely damaged and ravaged by the Tailed Beast Bomb, so it's impossible to get specific figures, but at least several thousand people died in battle."

Rasa took a deep breath. Several thousand people—as the Kazekage, he knew exactly what several thousand people meant to the Sunagakure.

He asked, "Go check out the nearby resettlement sites and see how many people have been relocated."

"Also, let's check on Ryosuke and Gaara's situation."

"Yes." The guards quickly dispersed after receiving the order.

Upon hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi also wanted to know about the situation of the Sunagakure, so he stayed behind to wait for their reply.

After a while, several guards returned one after another, along with many Sunagakure who had been transferred in advance, including Baki.

Baki brought back news that Gaara was safe and sound, but there was no news of Ryosuke.

"Lord Kazekage, Ryosuke has ordered me to evacuate the civilians and children ahead of time. He is leading approximately five thousand ninjas to intercept the Iwa ninja at First Line of Defense."

"But even after the battle ended, not a single person escaped."

At this moment, Rasa's last shred of hope shattered. Unable to hold on any longer, he spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.

Several guards rushed forward to help Rasa up.

Rasa said to Baki, "Baki, gather everyone together and go to the south to choose a place to establish a new ninja village. Let's abandon this place."

"Send more people to negotiate with the Iwa ninja. As long as the Iwa ninja are willing to let the Sunagakure go, all other conditions are negotiable."

With tears in his eyes, Baki said, "Yes."

Afterwards, Rasa took the initiative to bid farewell to Hiruzen Sarutobi and left First Line of Defense.

Hiruzen Sarutobi watched Rasa leave, he suddenly had a feeling that he was witnessing the beginning of a new era.

The fall of Sunagakure had an unimaginable impact on an old man like Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"The Iwa ninja are getting stronger and stronger. The fall of a Great Ninja Village is something that has never happened before," Hiruzen Sarutobi thought to himself.

"Was my policy of supporting the so-called Second Lord all these years wrong?"

"It was because I was always busy with internal strife that Iwa ninja had the opportunity to rise to power."

At that moment, a series of figures flashed through Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind: Kagami Uchiha, whom he and his close friends Danzo secretly sent away.

White Fang, killed by public opinion.

Orochimaru, whom he himself had driven away.

Cloud ninja and Iwa ninja Jiraiya while trying to follow in Orochimaru's footsteps.

Minato Namikaze and his wife died while sealing the Nine-Tails.

Shisui Uchiha after losing his Mangekyō Sharingan.

This could be Fugaku Uchiha may have already died at the hands of his own people.

And then there's Itachi Uchiha, who's about to become a scapegoat and defect.

Hiruzen Sarutobi finally felt a pang of regret. "If only all these people were still here, if only Konoha could be as united as Iwa ninja."

"Second Lord, I have failed your trust. I shouldn't have sacrificed those heroes who shed blood for the village for my own selfish desires."

At this moment, one of Hiruzen Sarutobi's guards stepped forward and asked, "Third Lord, shall we return to the village?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's somewhat listless eyes slowly focused on the person in front of him, then he nodded and said, "Let's go back."

After taking one last look at the Sunagakure, which had been abandoned by Rasa, Hiruzen Sarutobi, accompanied by a few guards, embarked on his journey back to Konoha.

Hiruzen Sarutobi made a wasted trip, but he still felt like something was blocking his mind.

While Hiruzen Sarutobi was still rushing back, the Konoha Army that Tsunade had agreed to mobilize for Rasa had already reached the border between the Lands of Fire and Earth.

However, Tsunade had already received intelligence from Hiruzen Sarutobi that Sunagakure was gone. Therefore, the Konoha Army did not cross the border.

The army only stayed at the border for a short time. Once it was confirmed that the Iwa ninja had returned, Tsunade recalled the entire army.

Meanwhile, Yichen had already flown back to Iwagakure with Sokai, Izumi Uchiha, and the twenty-odd Uchiha Clan children that Kakashi had rescued.

Izumi Uchiha temporarily stay outside Iwagakure. In order to accompany Izumi Uchiha, Sokai will also temporarily move out of the Kitsuchi family and arrange temporary accommodation near Izumi Uchiha.

Those twenty-odd children, like the previous ones, were scattered and raised by Yichen among some commoners and Genin and lower families in Iwagakure.

After Ōnoki led his army back, Yichen convened a High-Level Meeting.

In the Tsuchikage's Office, Yichen glanced at everyone, then smiled at Sokai, who was attending a meeting for the first time and seemed quite uncomfortable, and said, "Sokai, relax, don't be nervous."

"You're still young, it's okay if you don't understand now. Just learn how the older generation handles things."

Sokai nodded, but was still a little nervous. Allowing Sokai to attend the High-Level Meeting was tantamount to giving him the status of an Honorary Advisor.

This wasn't done because of Sokai's strength; Sokai isn't truly at Kage Level yet. It was done to show the entire Ninja World.

Konoha relentlessly rejected the Uchiha, ultimately resorting to massacring the entire largest clan in the Ninja World.

However, Iwa ninja was willing to accept the Uchiha, and even when the Uchiha Clan had just been wiped out and had nowhere to go, they made an Uchiha a high-ranking member. This was a direct challenge to Konoha.

Therefore, Ōnoki and the others treated Sokai very politely. From this moment on, the children of the Uchiha Clan would be treated no worse than those of the Uzumaki Clan in Iwa ninja.

The Uzumaki Clan hasn't even produced a single true leader yet.

Sitting next to Sokai was Matsutani Shinya, Honorary Advisor with the same status as him.

Matsutani Shinya quietly said to Sokai, "Junior brother, don't worry about what Teacher Yichen and the others are saying. Just listen. Attending these kinds of meetings is easy; you can just take a nap and it'll be over."

Even though Sokai was silly, he was still amazed by Matsutani Shinya's amazing thought process. He stammered and asked in a low voice, "Is this really okay?"

Yichen tapped on the office door and said, "Of course not. Don't learn from this lazybones; learn from Senior Han instead."

Han, standing to the side, scratched his head awkwardly. Although he had attended several High-Level Meeting, he hadn't actually done anything.

He felt that although Matsutani Shinya's words were a bit strange, the essence seemed to be correct.

Ignoring the three Honorary Advisor, Yichen asked Ōnoki, "How are the arrangements going with the Land of Wind?"

Ōnoki said, "I have left 1,500 ninjas in the Land of Land of Wind and chosen a well-located oasis to establish Land of Wind branch."

Yichen glanced at the location Ōnoki was pointing to, frowned, and said, "The Land of Wind is really big. This branch has to manage half of the Land of Wind. The pressure is still too great."

"How about this, we'll allocate a small portion of the Northern Land of Wind to Nagato of the Land of Rain."

"The Akatsuki Organization are our allies. Our rash attack on Sunagakure violated our agreement. This territory will serve as compensation."

"We'll choose a new location in the western part to establish a branch."

Ikura said, "Shouldn't we also send a gesture to Kirigakure?"

Yichen shook his head and said, "That's exactly the topic of today's meeting. We'll discuss it later."

"Even after taking away a large portion, the area managed by the Land of Wind branch is still too large; 1,500 people are not enough."

"Furthermore, the construction of the new branch will require a large number of people. How about this, we'll transfer another thousand ninjas from the village."

"The other branches have likely suffered some personnel losses this time, and some were also diverted to the Land of Wind branch, leaving some vacancies."

"These vacancies will be left open for now, and filled after the next batch of the Ninja Academy students graduate."

After speaking, Yichen looked at Tomoko and asked, "Is this manpower adjustment sufficient?"

Tomoko nodded and said, "That's enough. There were a lot of new graduates last year. Although we suffered some losses in the Land of Wind and the Land of Bears these days, it's still acceptable."

"However, once the research on that Little White Ball you mentioned last time begins, it will inevitably require a large number of people to be drawn from various departments, and then we won't have enough manpower."

Yichen nodded and said, "Don't worry, the Little White Ball research won't require that many people all at once, and it won't need that many people at the beginning either."

"By the time the research group expands, the next batch of graduates will have already graduated."

Tomoko nodded and said, "By the way, last year's graduates have grown very quickly in the practical combat in the Land of Wind and the Land of Bears."

"Should we arrange for the new graduating class to graduate early? This large area in the Northern Land of Wind still needs us to clean up."

"Mountain bandits, wandering ninjas, and missing-nin are all excellent practice targets. We shouldn't waste such a large area."

Yichen thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Then let's arrange for them to graduate early. We'll also move the Chunin Ninja Exams forward. Let's make the arrangements in the next few days."

Tomoko nodded and said, "No problem."

Yichen continued, "Did Rasa send someone over to negotiate? If we ask the Sunagakure for more things this time, Rasa will definitely give them to us."

Kawakita said, "We've emptied out the entire Sunagakure, so Rasa doesn't have anything worthwhile left."

Yichen said, "That's easy. Let Rasa use gold dust to pay the war reparations."

"Let's use the amount I vaporized using Light Release in Konoha."

"Tell Rasa, tell him openly that from now on, we Iwa ninja will no longer target Sunagakure."

"Not only that, we Iwa ninja will also help Sunagakure retain its position as one of the Six Great Ninja Villages."

Ikura and Kawakita exchanged a glance, thinking, "As expected, the Third Lord guessed correctly."

Yichen continued, "We don't need to worry about the Sunagakure anymore. At least for the next few years, Sunagakure won't pose a threat to us. During this time, even if the Konoha and Cloud ninja have the opportunity to severely damage us, the Sunagakure will have to think twice before intervening."

"Don't release those thousand-plus Sunagakure prisoners yet. Keep them to help us build our branch. If necessary, they can also give our new recruits some training."

"We'll put them back in two years when the Sunagakure have recovered."

Ming asked with some concern, "Should we release them all? Won't that be like letting a tiger return to the mountain?"

Yichen said, "Releasing them back now would be like releasing a tiger back into the mountains. The Sunagakure is currently facing its greatest manpower shortage."

"But in the next few years, even if the Sunagakure is short of funds, it will replenish its ranks with a large number of new recruits. Once the Sunagakure has replenished its ranks with new recruits, we will release these more than a thousand people back."

"Later, Rasa will have to worry about how to feed these people. He'll only be worried about the lack of missions, not enough to go around with all these suddenly extra ninjas."

"Alright, let's talk about Konoha. Do you have any accurate intelligence from Konoha? Is anything happening in Kajiyamari? Has he sent back any useful information?"

Saka shook his head and said, "Kajiyamari and the others are under house arrest. All their external channels have been cut off, and they can only contact the village through Summoning Jutsu."

"The Kajiyamari can't get any information about Konoha. All we can get now is information that Konoha deliberately releases to the public."

"The Uchiha Clan has been wiped out. Konoha has announced that Fugaku Uchiha, Shisui Uchiha, and all other Uchiha clan member are dead."

"Only the brothers Itachi Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha remain of the entire Uchiha Clan. Konoha pinned the blame on Itachi Uchiha, and it's said that this was even endorsed by the sole survivor Sasuke Uchiha."

After Saka finished speaking, everyone glanced at Sokai, who was looking down and dejected, but no one deliberately interrupted the discussion for Sokai's sake.

Yichen nodded and said, "Shisui Uchiha is probably not dead, but the chances of Fugaku Uchiha being alive are slim."

After a pause, Yichen said, "But if we do this, I wonder if Fugaku Uchiha's eyes will be transplanted to Shisui Uchiha."

Saka was taken aback; he hadn't expected that.

Yichen asked, "Where is Kakashi Hatake? I killed a squad of Konoha Anbu and framed him. Has Konoha released any information related to him?"

Saka shook his head and said, "No, I haven't received any information related to Kakashi Hatake."

Yichen thought for a moment and said, "Find a way to make this public in Konoha, so that Kakashi can't stay in Konoha anymore."

"We can ask Danzo for help with the publicity; Danzo should be happy to help us. By the way, do you have any recent information about Danzo?"

Saka said with a strange expression, "Yes, a lot. It's mostly Danzo's own propaganda."

"The intelligence claims that Danzo alone easily repelled the large army led by Ikura and Kawakita."

Ikura and Kawakita exchanged a glance, both speechless. They circled the border between the Lands of Fire and Earth, put on a show, and then headed to the Land of Bears.

The two of them hadn't even seen Danzo's face, yet Danzo had the nerve to spread this news.

Saka continued, "It's being said in Konoha that our original target was Konoha. But Danzo drove us back, so we settled for Sunagakure instead."

"Furthermore, Danzo also suggested that Tsunade, being a member of the Senju Clan, was jealous of the Uchiha Clan, which is why she allowed the Uchiha Clan to be wiped out by Itachi Uchiha."

"Danzo then proposed to personally train Sasuke Uchiha, but it seems that this did not come to fruition."

Yichen smiled and said, "Danzo is surprisingly capable. I'll help Danzo out in the negotiations with Konoha."

"Continue to increase Danzo's prestige in Konoha; if necessary, we can even ask Konoha for less compensation."

Tomoko blinked and asked, "Konoha's compensation? We didn't have a real battle with Konoha, and besides, Konoha wasn't defeated. Why would they agree to give us compensation?"

Yichen smiled, offered no explanation, and said, "Let's send someone to talk to them first."

"Next, let's discuss the Mist ninja, or rather, the village's future Strategic Direction."

"Following the attack on Sunagakure, the situation in the Ninja World has changed once again."

"The temporary withdrawal of the Sunagakure is inevitable, which means the alliance between Konoha, Cloud ninja, and the Sunagakure will no longer exist."

"With the enemy alliance gone, it's hard to say whether our alliance with Akatsuki Organization and Mist ninja can still be maintained."

"Logically speaking, the Mist ninja might abandon us now and cooperate directly with the Konoha and the Cloud ninja."

"But I don't know what that old fox, the Mist Village Leader, is thinking. We still need to test the Mist ninja's attitude."

"That's why I didn't invite the Mist ninja to this operation, and I didn't give them any of the Mist ninja when we were dividing the cake."

At this point, Yichen paused, giving everyone time to process what he had said.

After a while, Yichen continued, "Next, let's discuss our key targets for future suppression."

Saka said, " Of the Six Great Ninja Villages, Sunagakure has already been suppressed; Akatsuki Organization we're trying to win over."

"Regardless of whether the Mist ninja Village ultimately sides with us or not, it cannot be our target for suppression. The Kirigakure is too far away."

"In that case, we really only have two choices: either suppress Konoha or suppress Cloud ninja."

Yichen nodded and said, "That's right, who do you all think is the most suitable candidate?"

Ming asked, "How many Three Kage-level ninja do Konoha have now, with three from the Cloud ninja?"

Ōnoki said, "The Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo. Besides these three, the situations of Kakashi Hatake and Shisui Uchiha are uncertain."

"Furthermore, although Itachi Uchiha and Orochimaru are missing-nin of Konoha, they will still stand on Konoha's side in crucial moments."

"This remains true even if Kakashi Hatake defectes."

After listening to Ōnoki's words, Mei looked at the strong Iwagakure and said, "So, Konoha's strength is actually not weaker than ours."

Apart from Roshi, all the Iwa ninja with Kage Level strength are here.

They are Yichen, Ōnoki, Ikura, Kitsuchi, Kawakita, Han, Matsutani Shinya, and Sokai.

Sokai is still a bit of a stretch.

The total number of Kage Level in Iwa ninja is slightly higher than that in Konoha, but Iwa ninja also have more enemies, so they have almost no advantage against Konoha.

Ming then said, "It seems that suppressing Konoha is too difficult; we can only choose Cloud ninja first."

Saka, however, said, "You can't calculate it that way. Although Konoha no longer has the Uchiha Clan, it still has Danzo. Konoha is still not united."

"Furthermore, Itachi Uchiha and Orochimaru are, after all, missing-nin. Even if they are loyal to Konoha, they cannot be treated entirely as Konoha ninja."

"We're only suppressing Konoha, not waging a full-scale war against Konoha. There's absolutely no need to include these few missing-nin in our calculations."

"I think it's better to continue to divide Konoha than to suppress the united Cloud ninja."

Ikura and Kawakita both nodded, and Tomoko thought about it and agreed that Saka made sense. The others shared the same view.

Yichen looked around and said, "It seems everyone agrees to suppress Konoha. Then it's settled. From now on, the village's strategic objective will shift from Sunagakure to suppressing Konoha."

"When we suppressed the Sunagakure before, our method was to cripple its economy. Now, let's discuss what our focus should be when suppressing the Konoha Sunagakure."

This time, there was no need for discussion; almost everyone said in unison, "Internal strife!"

Yichen said, "Alright, we have a direction now. The main way to suppress Konoha is to instigate Konoha's Internal Strife."

"Let's discuss what specific methods we can use."

After a long discussion, Yichen said, "From now on, we will focus our attacks on Konoha using the methods we discussed today."

"Yes," everyone responded.

Then Yichen looked at Sokai and asked, "Sokai, what's the situation with Izumi Uchiha? Do you think there's a possibility she'll join Iwagakure?"

Sokai shook his head and said, "Not for now. Sister Izumi is still quite averse to the village."

"However, with those children we rescued around, she won't be hostile towards the village."

Yichen nodded and said, "How about this, Izumi Uchiha will stay outside the village. You can visit him more often Sokai."

"Take your younger siblings to spend more time with her. Not just your Uchiha kids, but also the Uzumaki children, Neji, Yakumo Kurama, and the others."

"If she wants to see the children, she can enter the village with you."

Sokai nodded and said, "I understand."

Yichen said, "Alright, let's leave aside the heavy topics and talk about what everyone has gained this time."

Everyone looked at Ming first.

Mei smiled slightly and said, "The large amount of supplies brought back from Sunagakure has been tallied. This is the village's biggest gain in recent years."

"Even the poorest of the Great Ninja Village, Sunagakure, has accumulated far more wealth than Yugakure."

These supplies are currently still in the Land of Wind. I plan to allocate a portion for building Land of Wind branch, and transport the rest back.

This amount of supplies will be enough for Little White Ball to experiment with for quite some time.

Everyone smiled.

Seeing this, Yichen took out several scrolls given to Fugaku Uchiha and said, "These contain the wealth accumulated by the Uchiha Clan. I plan to take out ten percent and give it to Sokai."

"Allow Sokai release to be allocated for training those Uchiha scattered throughout the villages."

"The rest will all be confiscated. Of course, some Contribution Points will be given to the Uchiha Clan, which these children can exchange for Ninjutsu when they grow up."

Everyone nodded.

Tomoko asked curiously, "Teacher Yichen, where did you get these scrolls?"

Yichen said, "It was given to me by Fugaku Uchiha. He asked me to take care of his two sons."

"If I have the chance in the future, I'll brainwash Sasuke Uchiha, tell him the truth about the massacre of his clan, let him know his brother's suffering, and stop him from hating his brother. Consider it repaying the favor I owed to Fugaku Uchiha."

Everyone:...

I have never seen such a shameless person.

Telling Sasuke Uchiha the truth—is that taking care of him? It's pushing him into a fire pit!

If the Konoha High-ranking officials knew that Sasuke Uchiha knew the truth, would they still allow him to grow unchecked?

However, no one spoke. Instead, they pretended to look at the scrolls with curiosity, seemingly very curious about the wealth accumulated by the Uchiha Clan.