Kirigakure Becoming Increasingly Passive

Nara Rukawa was quite efficient; once Uchiha Sou made his decision, he immediately disseminated the orders.

Personnel in various "war zones" received the information and promptly began their respective plans and preparations.

And when they truly began to act, Kirigakure deeply experienced what it meant to have the "intensity turned up."

Perhaps it was because the resistance organizations in each "war zone" and the Konoha ninja had long been itching for a fight, or perhaps it was because Kirigakure's suppression efforts across the land had left such a deep impression on the people.

Therefore, when the operation began, Kirigakure truly got a rude awakening—they were caught completely off guard.

All sorts of ambushes and sabotage operations left them truly overwhelmed; whether it was roads, bridges, or various facilities, nothing escaped this wave of attacks.

Even worse, using supplies they had seized from Kirigakure in their daily lives, the resistance directly used bows and arrows combined with explosive tags to launch long-range attacks on Kirigakure's strongholds and facilities.

It could be said that once the full-scale operation began, Kirigakure's rear was subjected to a saturation attack from the civilians of the Land of Whirlpools!

Every few days, the Mist Ninja would experience the "enthusiasm" of the people of the Land of Whirlpools.

After all, compared to the economic exploitation Kirigakure had inflicted on the Land of Whirlpools, their physical brutality had been even more severe.

With such a cause, the current consequences of the Land of Whirlpools' civilians' actions were only natural.

Moreover, the civilians of the Land of Whirlpools truly put on shocking displays for the Konoha ninja; at times, they didn't even care about their own lives!

The Konoha ninja who led and trained them saw these civilians use their own lives to carry out these missions more than once.

They would voluntarily use their own lives to cover the retreat of others, and they would strap explosive tags to their bodies, detonating them after being surrounded by Mist Ninja.

Even those civilians responsible for logistics, in order to successfully deliver food to the front-line personnel, had to avoid the searches of the Mist Ninja and be wary of the bared fangs of various wild beasts.

Yet they had no complaints about this; many even received food stained with blood—all of it protected with their lives!

The ninja from Konoha were stunned by such fighting spirit and cohesion.

Fortunately, these people of the Land of Whirlpools had a very high level of favorability toward Konoha, and their respect for Konoha ninja far exceeded that of other regions.

This caused many Konoha ninja to begin to change their views on the civilians of the Land of Whirlpools.

Furthermore, because of this comprehensive operation, many Konoha ninja hidden behind enemy lines began to seek out resistance organizations, which also strengthened the forces in the various "war zones."

In addition, the "project managers" of the major "war zones" firmly remembered Uchiha Sou's instructions.

As time went on, the intelligence and information of the Mist Ninja were continuously probed and intercepted by them.

Even if this intelligence had delays and contained a fair amount of false information, it was still enough to be useful.

Beyond that, they were constantly expanding their areas of control, while work such as punishing collaborators, public propaganda, and camp construction was all proceeding steadily with remarkable results!

"Those damn guys, they've truly gone mad!"

However, compared to the major changes on the side of the Land of Whirlpools, the situation on the side of Kirigakure appeared exceptionally passive and helpless.

The extent to which those civilians were willing to throw away their lives far exceeded their imagination, and under such suicidal ambushes and sabotage, they had suffered huge losses.

Even though they had sent people to strictly protect major supply depots and important transportation hubs, the "suicide attacks" of the resistance organizations, combined with the "formatting" of the roads along the way, left them staring in disbelief. The important hubs were fine, but the roads elsewhere looked as if they had been plowed three feet deep!

The smaller supply depots were even more unlucky; the supplies inside were either looted or directly destroyed, and by the time support troops arrived, the attackers had already fled.

Under these circumstances, Kirigakure's space in the Land of Whirlpools was being continuously squeezed.

Various roads were destroyed and small supply depots were raided, which meant their supplies either couldn't be delivered or were delayed.

This caused the morale on the front lines to continuously decline, and most crucially, they had no particularly good way to deal with the current situation.

Solving the current problem was actually not difficult: organize large-scale troops to directly sweep through these resistance organizations.

The "Human Purge Plan," right? They were very familiar with this work, but the problem was that the manpower required to organize such a sweep was truly significant!

The front line was already stretched thin; while there were few Konoha ninja, their combat power was by no means weak, which meant they had to constantly replenish reserve troops to maintain their combat effectiveness.

If they were to pull personnel away now to organize large-scale sweeps and encirclements, the already unfavorable situation on the front line would only go from bad to worse.

But if they did nothing, their situation would only become even more dire; for a time, the Kirigakure command center was shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere.

"Now is not the time to discuss how crazy these guys are. I've brought you all here to think carefully about how to respond to the current situation."

Karatachi Yagura looked at the Mist Ninja before him, frowning as he spoke. At the same time, there was one more question he needed to understand clearly.

"How are the teams led by Juzo Biwa and Raiga Kurosuki doing? Why hasn't there been any news for so long?"

"They..."

A Mist Ninja frowned, and only after a long moment did he speak helplessly.

"They have currently lost contact. We have tentatively classified them as missing. As for the specifics, we..."

"Are they really just missing?"

Karatachi Yagura's brow furrowed even deeper upon hearing this; this was certainly not good news for him.

But he could be certain of one thing now: if someone could deal with the teams led by those two and ensure not a single one of them escaped, then Konoha must have sent some ruthless experts in!

Aside from this issue, Karatachi Yagura also thought of another matter: the report they had "sent" to Konoha regarding these enemy-line ninja training resistance organizations without authorization.

After that information was sent over, it was as if it had sunk into the sea; Konoha had not provided any response whatsoever.

This made Karatachi Yagura involuntarily wonder if Konoha truly intended to abandon the Land of Whirlpools and start raising venomous insects in this godforsaken place.

That shouldn't be right; if they really wanted to abandon it, they wouldn't have let them land during the Second Shinobi World War, would they?

"Why on earth is this happening? Could it be that Orochimaru has entered?"

Karatachi Yagura suddenly had a terrifying thought, and the more he pondered it, the more he felt it was actually possible!

The reason there was no reaction from Konoha was likely because the person who issued and executed this order was the Konoha commander himself.

And the one with the strength, ability, and prestige to organize and execute all of this was very likely that fellow, Orochimaru.

Furthermore, while it wasn't impossible for others in Konoha to silently wipe out the entire squad of Raiga Kurosuki and Juzo Biwa, in the Land of Whirlpools theater, it seemed only Orochimaru could do it!

"If that is the case..."

Karatachi Yagura did not know if his wild speculation was correct, but regardless of whether it was true or not, whoever could accomplish all this was no ordinary person!

Thinking of this, Karatachi Yagura had an idea—a much crazier idea.

"Recall all the other members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist from the front lines and provide them with an elite squad."

"My lord, they are indeed strong, but..." The Mist Ninja couldn't help but ask in a low voice upon hearing this, "Is it necessary to do this? And with so few people..."

"It is necessary, and they don't need to be enough; what I want is for them to lure out certain people." Karatachi Yagura said indifferently, "Tell them I only want results, and at the same time, tell them who they might have to face."

Having said this, Karatachi Yagura paused slightly.

"It is Orochimaru. I think they will be very interested."