Surprise Attack

"Father, why are you here?"

In the woods outside the nameless town, Might Guy stared at Might Duy in disbelief, while Shiranui Genma, standing to the side, wore an equally stunned expression.

Today was supposed to be their patrol day; although they had wanted to head to the front lines to join the resistance forces and put some pressure on the Mist Ninja, their original eight-man squad had been ordered to stay behind. Even if they had their own ideas, they had no way to carry them out for the time being, as they were still very obedient to Uchiha Sou.

However, while they were on patrol, they suddenly received word from the local villagers. These villagers, who were also patrolling and keeping watch, told them that someone suspected to be a Konoha ninja was heading their way.

This naturally piqued their curiosity, so the two of them hurried over, but they never expected that the person they would find was Might Guy's father, Might Duy!

At this moment, Might Duy was looking at his son with excitement; after so much effort, he had finally found him.

"Of course I came to find you!"

Might Duy laughed and gave Might Guy's shoulder a firm pat before speaking loudly.

"I have been searching for Orochimaru-sama to see if I could find out where you were. I never expected you to be carrying out such a dangerous mission, and Orochimaru-sama gave me the same assignment, so here I am! Guy, let's do our best together!"

Hearing his father's words, Might Guy fell silent for a moment, not knowing what to say.

Beside him, Shiranui Genma quietly moved a bit further away, his hand stealthily reaching into the ninja tool pouch behind him as his gaze turned vigilant.

"Duy-san, may I ask you a question?" he asked softly. "How did you know about this place?"

"Hmm?" Might Guy was also taken aback by Shiranui Genma's question, and he turned his gaze toward Might Duy.

"The villagers told me," Might Duy said with a smile, though he knew he needed to be serious now. "You guys are really cautious; I was the same way when I first met them. But I went through layers of verification, and it was the ninja over there who told me you were in this direction."

"Is that so?"

Might Guy said, sounding uncertain, while Shiranui Genma's expression grew even more guarded.

"Then, Duy-san, did you encounter any enemies on your way here?"

"Enemies?"

Might Duy seemed to notice Shiranui Genma's attitude, but he didn't take it to heart. He certainly knew Shiranui Genma; he was his son's teammate. Besides him, there was another teammate named Ebisu, though it was strange not to see him.

"Speaking of which, where is your other teammate, Ebisu? Never mind, I didn't encounter any enemies. Perhaps I was just lucky."

Upon hearing the name Ebisu, Might Guy and Shiranui Genma exchanged a quick glance, their vigilance intensifying.

Although he could say that name, it was basically certain that the man before them was indeed Might Guy's father. Ebisu was not a famous person, and the two of them were the same; no one would really go out of their way to investigate their situation.

But since their group had caused such a stir in the Land of Whirlpools, it was impossible that he hadn't encountered any enemies. There could only be one explanation!

"Quite alert, aren't you, brats?" At that moment, a voice suddenly echoed all around them.

This voice caused the expressions of Shiranui Genma, Might Guy, and the civilian patrol to change drastically, and even Might Duy, who had been smiling the whole time, stiffened.

Turning around, they saw seven or eight ninjas wearing Kirigakure uniforms standing in the trees, gazing down at them from above!

"It seems we really had a harvest this time. Even if I don't know if this is just a regular resistance group or your main headquarters, but..."

"This didn't waste the days we spent following this idiot around!"

"Captain, this is the casualty report for this operation."

Outside the town, Uchiha Sou stood lazily on a hillside, looking into the distance, while Uchiha Shizuka and Shisui stood behind him.

Unlike the quiet Shisui, Uchiha Shizuka kept handing documents to Uchiha Sou, which gave Uchiha Sou a bit of a headache. Nara Rukawa had too much on his plate, running around busy every day, so naturally, some tasks had to be delegated to others. Since Uchiha Shizuka was not only capable but also a fellow clansman, having her handle the reporting work was perfect.

"Thank you for your hard work."

Uchiha Sou took the documents casually, though he would have preferred to be training or carrying out missions. After all, his Sharingan was only 30 points of proficiency away from reaching the Mangekyo he dreamed of.

However, he knew this wasn't the time to be impatient. There must be a balance between work and rest, especially now that the plan had just begun; he had to keep his focus on the important matters.

"We lost that many people?"

Opening the file, Uchiha Sou began to read carefully, but soon he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. The Full-Scale Harassment Plan had been in execution for a month, and so far, the results were quite good.

Although a bunch of "small fry" couldn't truly clash head-on with regular ninja troops, by utilizing their familiarity with the terrain and their advance preparations, they fully exploited the "hit and run" principle, which had caused significant trouble for the Mist Ninja.

As of now, they had already destroyed or seized quite a bit of supplies that the Mist Ninja were planning to transport to the front lines.

This forced the Mist Ninja to increase the number of personnel for defense and supply transport, and these additional people were either pulled from the front lines or drawn from the reserves.

But regardless, this increased their costs, and the loss of supplies also had some impact on the frontline troops.

However, the losses on Uchiha Sou's side could not be called small either; the ninjas were doing alright, but those civilians in the resistance organizations were not so lucky.

Just like genin on the front lines, they were very likely to die from stray AOE attacks, perhaps even more so than the genin.

The combined injuries and deaths of the resistance organizations across various "war zones" had already reached several hundred!

This gave Uchiha Sou a headache; if fighting while retreating resulted in this, what would happen if they were unlucky enough to encounter a large-scale sweep? Wouldn't it be a scene of utter devastation?

"It seems I need to increase their training and require the local ninjas to be more cautious and careful."

Uchiha Sou pondered for a moment before speaking, and Uchiha Shizuka immediately began to record it, though she kept stealing glances at Uchiha Sou while she wrote.

Just as Uchiha Sou did not know her, her understanding of Uchiha Sou was limited only to the concept of him being a clan genius.

"Also, the recruitment for the resistance organizations cannot stop; we need more people to better disrupt the supplies of Kirigakure... hmm?"

But just then, Uchiha Sou stopped mid-sentence, and Shisui, who was at his side, quickly stood up.

The town's alarm bells were ringing wildly, and in the distance, flames were shooting into the sky; the roaring sounds could be heard clearly even from where they were!

"Is someone attacking?" Uchiha Sou murmured, but just as he intended to go take a look, Shisui spoke up.

"Captain, take Sister Shizuka back; I'll go check it out." As he spoke, he didn't wait for Uchiha Sou to refuse and dashed straight toward the front.

His actions made Uchiha Sou shake his head slightly, but just as he intended to take Uchiha Shizuka away, a voice suddenly rang out.

"It really is unexpected; the commander here is actually a brat like you."