Respite

Not long after the Team 7 left, the ninjas from the Konoha Border Outpost arrived one after another at the scene of the clash between the two sides' Anbu.

The Jonin the outpost looked at the area riddled with traps, his face grim. He knew that if he hadn't warned the pursuing Anbu Squad, the enemy would have already entered the Land of Iron. They wouldn't have been so careless as to walk right into Qingtian's traps.

Although there are no corpses left in this area, the bloodstains everywhere indicate that the pursuing Anbu Squad is likely dead.

Looking at his subordinates, whose faces were still filled with fear, the Jonin leader knew that Yichen and the others were in a very bad situation, but after hesitating for a long time, he still did not give chase.

"Clean up the battlefield, then we'll head back to the outpost." By now, their outpost is practically half-destroyed. They've lost seven squads, including ten Chunin- level ninjas. Half of the Chunin been lost, and more than a third of the Genin have been lost.

What was even more demoralizing was that an entire Anbu Squad, led by an Official Jonin, was wiped out, with not a single ninja escaping.

If it weren't for him being in charge, there might have been deserters at the outpost.

This is also one of the reasons why the Jonin did not pursue.

"I hope the village can resolve the White Fang issue soon and send reinforcements." As a Jonin, he had also felt angry about White Fang before. If he could vote on the Third Hokage's fate, he would definitely support the Third Hokage's resignation.

But now, as a rational Jonin, he's thinking more about stability. He hopes the Third Hokage can stabilize the situation soon.

Because if a new Hokage were chosen at this time, no one could guarantee that the new Hokage would be able to unify the internal forces of Konoha and reinforce the border in a short period of time.

Fortunately, his expectations were not disappointed. Two days later, the three newly formed Anbu arrived at the outpost.

Yichen was unaware of what had happened on the border of Konoha. He hadn't activated his full map vision and didn't know if there were pursuers behind him, so he could only lead his men and keep moving forward.

It wasn't until they entered the Land of Earth border and made contact with the local outpost that the Team 7 felt somewhat at ease.

Although the outposts weren't particularly strong in combat, they had the advantage of sheer numbers. For example, Yichen and his team had previously eliminated seven outpost squads. But if those seven squads had worked together, then the order of who eliminated whom would be reversed.

Facing 10 Chunin and 17 Genin at once, Yichen and his group might be able to take some down with them, but they definitely wouldn't win. Of course, it would be difficult for the enemy to stop them either, given the difference in their overall speed.

Therefore, Yichen decided to rest at the border for a day before returning to the village.

Yichen took out some food, and the four of them replenished their energy. Then, while resting, they began to sort out their harvest.

In this First Shinobi War, Yichen and his team obtained 31 Forehead Protector, which serve as mission credentials, 13 Chunin corpses, and 1 Jonin corpse. There will be an extra reward for this; since four of the corpses are Anbu, and one of them is Anbu Jonin, the reward will certainly be substantial.

The supplies obtained from the 31 people killed were also a considerable source of income. In particular, the various scrolls were an important way for ninjas to improve their strength.

Yichen counted them and found that most of the scrolls seized were various notes. After these were handed over to the village, the Intelligence Department might be able to analyze them and extract important information.

In addition, there were three Ninjutsu Scroll, which invigorated Yichen.

Yichen hadn't expected to acquire so many Ninjutsu at once. After thinking about it, he realized that perhaps the sudden turn of events with White Fang meant that the border ninjas weren't strictly adhering to wartime regulations, so some of them were still carrying Ninjutsu Scroll.

Konoha has a rich collection of ninjutsu; I wonder what those three Ninjutsu are?

With a glimmer of hope, Yichen opened the three scrolls.

One Fire Release, one Wind Release, and one Water Release. All three Ninjutsu are C-rank.

He was both happy and regretful. He was happy because two of the Ninjutsu suited his team's attributes: Wind Release suited Jun, Water Release suited him. He was regretful because Yichen had seen descriptions of these three Ninjutsu in the village, and they had already been collected by the village. Therefore, handing them over to the village wouldn't yield any additional contribution.

The Water Release Ninjutsu is Water Style: Water Wave. Yichen was quite satisfied; he still had too few offensive Ninjutsu. Not counting Mind Disturbance Jutsu and Body Bind Technique, he only had Water Style: Water Line Jutsu, Water Style: Water Pressure Line Jutsu, Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear, and the close-combat Breaking the Cold Current Technique.

Now, with the addition of the Water Style: Water Wave, his attack repertoire has been expanded. Most importantly, the Water Style: Water Wave is a group attack Ninjutsu; although its power is not great, it can be very useful in special situations.

Just like this time when facing a defensive formation of 6 Genin and lower, Yichen could only launch a sneak attack by taking advantage of the enemy's lack of knowledge about the Water Style: Water Pressure Line Jutsu, and did not have any group attack methods. In this respect, Yichen is not as good as Jun, who also has Wind Release: Breakthrough, which can be considered a ranged Ninjutsu.

The mission went more smoothly than expected and didn't take too long; the Team 7 returned to the village in less than a month.

After handing in the mission materials and loot such as corpses and original Ninjutsu Scroll, Yichen and his team were given a break. Yichen gave the Team 7 a 7-day leave, and after that, he decided to conduct a month-long intensive training program to improve everyone's strength.

Now, let's talk to Xiao about our insights from this battle and get some free combat analysis. Also, let him give us some advice on how to improve the combat strength of the Team 7.

Xiao was already used to Yichen's freeloading behavior. He first commented on Yichen and his teammates' performance in this battle, and then helped Yichen analyze the direction for improving the strength of the Team 7 in the future.

Then, satisfied, Yichen left the Anbu.

By this time, the situation in the Ninja World had stabilized, and most of the ninjas from the Four Great Nations who had harassed Konoha had withdrawn before Konoha could retaliate. Only a few small teams had been attacked by Konoha.

In this upheaval in the Ninja World, the Cloud ninja profited the most because they took the most direct action from the very beginning. As a result, most of the Land of Fire's outposts near the Land of Lightning were attacked. Many outposts were destroyed, the ninjas stationed inside were wiped out, and their supplies were looted.

In just about a month, Konoha lost thousands of ninjas, and seven or eight squads of elite Anbu ninjas were also lost.

Konoha was plunged into a severe shortage of ninjas in the post-war era. If it weren't for the large size of each Konoha and the rapid development during the years of peace after the war, Konoha might not be facing the question of how much damage it had suffered, but rather how to cope with the siege of the Four Great Nations.

Yichen was informed of this information by Xiao three days later. He was now Anbu Squad Leader, a position that placed him in the middle ranks of the village. Moreover, among the many middle-ranking members, the Anbu Squad Leader held a relatively high position. Therefore, the village would inform them of a lot of information as soon as possible.

Upon seeing this data, Yichen seemed to ponder. After some thought, he wrote a battle plan against Konoha and submitted it to Xiao.

After reading it, Xiao looked at Yichen with a strange expression. After sending Yichen away, Xiao carefully analyzed the battle plan written by Yichen, and then took the report to the Tsuchikage's Office Building.

As one of the most powerful figures in Iwa ninja and a captain in the Anbu, Owl's route to see Ōnoki was different from that of ordinary people. Anbu Captain had a special passage and did not need to be notified.

When Owl met Ōnoki was discussing the stabilizing situation in the Ninja World with several advisors.

Upon seeing Owl enter, Ōnoki and the others stopped their discussion and looked at Owl. Without saying a word, Owl placed Yichen's report directly on the Tsuchikage's desk.

Ōnoki and the other advisors were quite curious and passed the document around among themselves. Then they looked at each other, somewhat puzzled.

Finally, Ōnoki asked, "Owl, who wrote this report?"

He knew very well what kind of person Xiao was; he couldn't possibly have such bizarre thinking.

Xiao didn't hide anything and directly stated Yichen's real name. "It's Yichen."

Of the four advisors, the young female advisor was the first to speak up, asking the two older advisors, "Seniors, is what Yichen said true?"

She knew in her heart that this was probably true, but she still couldn't help but speak up.

The two older advisors nodded helplessly.

In summary, Yichen's report stated that although they had fought two Ninja World War against Konoha great effort, each time suffering heavy losses, the results were still less than those caused by Konoha's internal strife.

Yichen listed the losses of the four major powers and Konoha in the two wars. He also listed the losses of Konoha caused by the infighting between Madara and Hashirama, and the death of White Fang at the hands of Konoha's own people.

He also listed his guesses about Danzo's possible roles in the Land of Land of Whirlpools incident and the White Fang Incident.

Then, there was speculation that chaos might erupt during the future struggle for the Fourth Hokage in Konoha.

Furthermore, Yichen also deduced that the Konoha High-ranking officials had shifted the blame for the White Fang Incident onto the Uchiha Clan.

Yichen didn't have the casualty figures for the two ninja wars, so he couldn't provide data for comparison. However, he did create a table, indicating that the higher-ups should fill it in themselves and make their own judgments.

However, Yichen wrote down the number of Kage Level Konoha died in battle since the founding of Konoha. Apart from the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama the Cloud ninja rebellion, none of them died on the battlefield.

In contrast, the other Four Great Ninja Villages all saw the deaths of Kage-level experts.

In conclusion, Yichen said, "Don't be foolish and keep fighting Konoha to the death. Seize the opportunity to exploit Konoha's internal conflicts; you can achieve greater results."

After reading the report, the leaders of Iwagakure felt that all their efforts over the years had been a joke.

Ōnoki and the four advisors remained silent for a moment, and Owl, seeing this, also did not speak.

After a long pause, Ōnoki said, "This report is classified as top secret by the village. No one is allowed to divulge it except the five people present. From now on, adjust the village's strategy, focusing on tackling the internal conflicts within Konoha. Initial targets: the movements of Konoha Root, especially Danzo; and the movements of the Uchiha Clan."

After finishing his sentence, Ōnoki looked at Owl and said, "Owl, from today onwards, designate Yichen as a key candidate for development, and train him to be a future advisor or even the Tsuchikage!"

"Yes!" Upon hearing this, Xiao was about to ask for permission to leave when an elderly advisor spoke up.

"Since we've decided to train him, let's classify this report as an S-rank mission, and also allow him to exchange it for a B-rank Ninjutsu."

Ōnoki nodded in agreement, then waved for Owl to leave.

When Yichen went to the Contribution Office the next day to collect the reward for the previous outpost mission, he was informed that there had been an additional S-rank mission.

When Yichen inquired, the staff member said it was a direct order from higher-ups, and he didn't know the specifics of the task.

Since it was arranged by higher-ups, Yichen stopped worrying about it. Maybe the Barrier Team was up to something big again. He'd ask Class Leader Mizuhara next time.