In a small town within the area controlled by Kirigakure in the Land of Whirlpools, a group of children chased one another through the streets, laughing and playing.
They shouted loudly, their faces bright with happy smiles.
Even the adults watching them couldn't help smiling.
"Slow down. Don't fall and hurt yourselves."
Some of the adults said with smiles, though it was clear they were very glad to see this.
After all, six months ago, anger and grief had been the only expressions on their faces!
Six months ago, everything had changed when a group of ninjas calling themselves Konoha Ninja arrived.
At first, they hadn't believed these Konoha Ninja could change much. After all, there were so few of them.
But once they settled in the town, things began to change.
Under the command of a boy who looked only thirteen or fourteen but was the leader of the group, they began bringing in refugees from other places.
Then they started teaching them how to use weapons, how to keep a low profile, and how to cause trouble for the Mist Ninja!
Even though ordinary people like them knew that such training couldn't truly give them the strength to fight ninjas,
driven by their deep-rooted hatred of Kirigakure, they still chose to study and train. Before long, they realized that the training really did help.
One day, while they were out hunting during a break, they spotted a Kirigakure unit in the distance.
Using what they had learned, they figured out where the unit was headed and assessed its numbers. They immediately went to alert the Konoha Ninja, then ran ahead to set traps along its route.
In the end, they surrounded and wiped out the small unit of more than thirty Mist Ninja!
They were overwhelmed with excitement and filled with confidence. After all, they had finally gotten revenge.
That victory filled them with gratitude and trust toward the Konoha Ninja, so they became even more eager and diligent.
As time went on, more and more people came to the town. Even the local resistance groups began cautiously reaching out to them.
This further boosted their fighting strength and filled them with even more confidence!
"All right, stop watching."
At that moment, one of the adults watching the children spoke up.
"We still have training today. If we want to protect their smiles, we need to work even harder!"
"Exactly! We're still far from ready. We need to work harder!"
"Let's go! We'll do our best to help the Konoha Ninja drive these damn invaders out of our homeland as soon as possible!"
While the civilians were fired up, Nara Rukawa was in a house in the town, struggling to gather and process all sorts of information.
To be honest, the reason he preferred combat missions was that he didn't like dealing with this kind of work.
But he had never expected to run into a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and get captured. After being rescued, he'd somehow ended up doing this work all over again.
He couldn't even object. Among all the Konoha Ninja operating behind enemy lines, only a handful could handle these tasks.
Besides, he didn't trust such important matters to anyone else, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and accept it.
But as time went on, he started to regret it.
At first, there hadn't been many people, so there was little information to gather and few matters to handle. But now, resistance groups kept coming to them.
Then there were the prisoners they'd rescued based on their intelligence, as well as the Konoha Ninja who'd been intercepted while traveling behind enemy lines on missions. Their numbers had grown enormously!
All told, there were more than a hundred of them!
Most were Chunin and Genin, with only two or three Jonin, but they had enough strength to launch a small-scale campaign.
Naturally, they couldn't all squeeze into such a small town. Uchiha Sou had proposed a solution.
"We should send the capable people here out to other places."
At one of their meetings, Uchiha Sou, the "commander" behind enemy lines, spoke up.
The Jonin themselves had been rescued, and they suspected that Orochimaru might have given Uchiha Sou and the others their orders. The group had no intention of revealing the truth.
Besides, Uchiha Sou and the others had done a good job, so the Jonin had no desire to seize command.
As for the proposal to split up their forces, the Konoha Ninja were initially concerned. But after thinking it over, they realized it was probably the best approach.
The town had long been overcrowded, and gathering everyone in one place didn't fit their plan to strike at the Mist Ninja.
So sending people elsewhere to train civilians, or taking command of resistance units and training them, had become a practical and sensible choice.
After some discussion and planning, the more than one hundred ninjas stationed there were split into several teams and sent to other places.
Their headquarters, however, remained in the nameless town. Uchiha Sou was still their overall commander, and Nara Rukawa and the others stayed behind to handle things at the base.
They were also fortunate that some of the prisoners they had rescued were ninjas from the Inuzuka Clan and Aburame Clan. That let them send messages using insects and the Summoning Technique.
Otherwise, once they were separated, it would have been difficult to stay in touch.
"Have you gathered the reports?" After finishing the documents in his hands, Nara Rukawa turned to Uchiha Shizuka beside him.
After half a year of recuperation and treatment, Uchiha Shizuka had nearly recovered.
Even now, she was still amazed that she had survived.
Back then, she had been in such a desperate situation. She couldn't bear to let Shisui, whom she thought of as her little brother, die on the soil of the Land of Whirlpools, so she had blocked that blow, ready to die.
But she hadn't expected another Uchiha to save her—and that Uchiha was a clan prodigy, Uchiha Sou, who rarely spoke with his clanmates!
Uchiha Shizuka had once thought his personality made him cold and arrogant.
But after chatting with Shisui, she'd realized that Uchiha Sou didn't seem to be like that.
According to Shisui, he was wise, kind, and powerful.
And during the six months she spent recovering, she had watched the nameless town undergo tremendous changes. It had made her very curious about this clan prodigy.
Unfortunately, they hadn't met. Her condition had been poor, and Uchiha Sou was too busy.
Now that she had recovered, she wanted to do what she could to help. In the end, she passed Nara Rukawa's assessment and came here.
"I've finished sorting them out. Here's the summary of the intelligence, along with reports on the training in the other locations."
At Nara Rukawa's words, Uchiha Shizuka answered at once and handed him the documents. Afterward, she couldn't help asking, "Mr. Rukawa, are we about to make a move? These reports—"
"That's not for us to decide. Even the Jonin can't decide, because Uchiha Sou is in command here."
Nara Rukawa shrugged. Then he headed outside, but seemed to remember something and added, "Still, remind everyone to stay in shape for now. We've spent so long getting ready and made so many preparations. If we don't move soon, I doubt we'll get a good reception when we return."
Only after saying this did Nara Rukawa make his way toward the back of the town. He reached his destination before long.
When he got there, he saw two figures fighting in an open space.
They were moving so fast that even Nara Rukawa could only see a blur of afterimages.
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