Half a year had passed since Tsunade launched her Medical Ninja training program, and the results had been fairly good. A full fifty medical ninja had been dispatched to battlefields across the front...
The genin among them had all been promoted to chunin.
The dozen or so academy students, however, had not been allowed to graduate early...
Although early graduation had become more common at the Ninja Academy over the past year, all these students belonged to the Yamanaka Clan, and the youngest was only eight. Sarutobi did not dare let them graduate outright!
If anything really happened to them, the Yamanaka Clan would never accept it.
Meanwhile, Akaseki's mission in the Land of Hot Water was also going smoothly.
This place had originally been a buffer zone between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire, intended to keep the war contained. Situated in the northern Land of Rivers, southwest of the Land of Rain... it had been forcibly carved out by the two great nations and made independent as the Land of Hot Water.
If Konoha and Sunagakure had still controlled it jointly, Konoha would have had trouble turning the buffer zone into an "outsourcing ninja village." But now...
The Land of Wind had been overrun!
Although Sunagakure had put Konoha under considerable pressure and drained its resources, it had long since lost the capacity to concern itself with Yugakure between the two nations. The fighting was concentrated deep within the Land of Wind, near Sunagakure itself. Yugakure was practically "behind enemy lines" now, and harassing it would serve little purpose.
Thus, Yugakure had accepted the outsourcing agreement without any resistance.
The Land of Hot Water was even more pleased with the arrangement. Its daimyo had originally been nominated by Yugakure's leader and installed with the backing