Uchiha Sou had grown so much over the past six months that even he hadn't expected it.
His Sharingan had advanced from A-rank Level 3 all the way to A-rank Level 10, and he was only a little experience away from reaching the next stage!
The speed of his growth left Uchiha Sou amazed, but on closer inspection, it made perfect sense.
After all, he'd earned it by risking his life!
With Shisui there to back him up, whenever he encountered an enemy, he'd activate his Sharingan and charge in to fight them head-on with Taijutsu.
Weaker enemies were no problem. They gave him less proficiency, but still far more than he'd get by using the Body Flicker Technique to take them out instantly.
When he faced a powerful opponent, though, he often ended up in a sorry state, covered in injuries from their attacks.
Still, there was no denying that this kind of training had improved his Sharingan at a truly insane rate.
He could clearly feel himself growing more proficient with every use of the Sharingan. Controlling those eyes was becoming easier and clearer.
He even believed he'd feel the same way without his cheat, because improving the Sharingan required constant training.
The only difference was whether you had the potential and talent to keep developing your Sharingan!
"No wonder Uchiha Madara liked to take his time even when he was crushing weaklings. Even that was a way to improve his strength."
He remembered how, after being revived from Impure World Reincarnation, Uchiha Madara had faced the Shinobi Allied Forces. He could have wiped them out in one go.
But he hadn't. Instead, he'd performed a display of "Uchiha Style Taijutsu" in front of everyone, showing the world what it meant to dance.
At first, Uchiha Sou had thought the guy was just showing off. Now, he suspected there was more to it than that!
Besides the tremendous improvement to his Sharingan, his Taijutsu had also benefited greatly from this training.
It had started out at C-rank, but had now risen to B-rank and reached Level 9. That improvement had delighted him.
Now he was sure that, even if he faced those two damn Mist Ninja who had attacked him six months ago, he could take them down with ease!
"Still, I'm probably a long way from Uchiha Madara's 'dance.'"
Uchiha Madara didn't have a system, but Uchiha Sou could use his own cheat to make an educated guess.
In his view, Uchiha Madara's ninjutsu was at least A-rank, and his Taijutsu was probably S-rank or even higher!
Uchiha Sou knew that comparing himself to a being who was practically a god was a little presumptuous.
But as someone with a cheat—and a member of the Uchiha Clan—if he didn't measure himself against Uchiha Madara, he'd be lacking ambition.
Fortunately, he'd always been an ambitious person.
"I wonder how Kirigakure will respond to this full-scale operation."
After finishing his training, Uchiha Sou returned to his lodgings and tidied up. At the same time, he considered what might happen during the full-scale operation.
He was confident his plan would yield a good result. After all, everything was going according to plan so far.
But he was still worried about what would happen once the fighting started. Their biggest problem, when all was said and done, was that they didn't have enough manpower.
By manpower, he didn't mean ordinary people. They had nearly ten thousand trained troops!
The Land of Whirlpools was full of refugees displaced by the war. When Uchiha Sou and the others arrived in this town, all the refugees passing through chose to stay, giving them a large population to draw from.
The resistance groups had also been reaching out to them, and they had their eyes on other villages and towns as well. Before long, they had gathered plenty of civilians who had received basic training.
And those people had been carefully selected. If they counted the elderly, children, and women as well, the total would have been far higher!
But even the largest group of civilians would suffer devastating losses against ninja, and the civilians hadn't had much time to train.
Uchiha Sou didn't even want to imagine the casualty ratio if they encountered a proper ninja force.
"So we still have to be cautious. Our only real option is to focus on surprise attacks."
Thinking of this, Uchiha Sou sighed softly. At least their job was to tie down the enemy. If things went badly, they could always retreat into the mountains.
"Ikeno, when do you think the war will end?"
"How would I know, Wada? But I think it'll be over soon."
"I hope so. It's been going on for so long."
"You're just eager for it to end so you can go home and get married, aren't you?"
On a narrow path through the woods in the Land of Whirlpools, a logistics squad of several dozen people was heading toward the front lines.
They stayed alert as they traveled, but whenever they had a moment to spare, they couldn't help chatting.
After all, they were in territory controlled by Kirigakure, and this area was very different from the front lines.
They could still be attacked here, but their assailants were only resistance fighters made up of civilians. That kind of threat was nothing to them.
They didn't need to stay on edge, worrying that Konoha Ninja might attack at any moment and take their lives.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
They were walking along when suddenly, the sound of objects cutting through the air came from all directions. They immediately went on guard.
"Tree branches?"
When they saw what was flying toward them, they couldn't help sneering.
They knew another attack by the resistance fighters was probably underway.
Without hesitation, they drew their kunai or ninja swords and scattered in different directions to get out of harm's way.
But the moment their formation broke, their expressions changed. They could all feel heat spreading around them.
"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique!"
A fire dragon surged toward them, splitting their formation apart. At the same moment, the sound of something cutting through the air rang out once more from above.
This time, what flew at them wasn't tree branches. It was a volley of sharp kunai!
"Watch out! Ninja!"
The Mist Ninja, who had been so nonchalant just moments before, finally came to their senses. But it was already too late.
Their formation had been split apart, and they couldn't support one another.
And because they hadn't been taking the situation seriously, they weren't in a position to evade properly. They had no time to deal with this wave of attacks!
In an instant, several Mist Ninja who hadn't been prepared were pierced by kunai and killed on the spot!
At that moment, the surviving Mist Ninja saw a sea of people surrounding them. Most were civilians.
But at the front stood several ninja wearing Konoha uniforms!
Newbie here—please bookmark and follow!
Before you continue