"I came from the Land of Earth to provide support. At the moment, I'm the only reinforcement." Uchiha Iori replied.
He glanced around, saw that the treatment was nearly complete, and put away his Noble Phantasm.
"What? You're the only one? But... surely..." The ninja looked stunned.
But when he surveyed the battlefield and estimated how long the fight had lasted, then looked at Iori's nearly spotless appearance, his doubts gradually gave way to astonishment.
He realized that Iori had effortlessly killed two Jonin and six Chunin in an incredibly short time.
His strength should be on par with the Sannin. At the very least, on the Land of Wind front, only Orochimaru could have done something like that.
"May I ask which of the village's Jonin you are?" the Chunin asked hopefully.
The front line was at a severe disadvantage, and morale was being held together only by rumors that reinforcements from the village were on their way.
If they fell short of expectations, morale at the front might collapse.
"My name is Uchiha Iori. I'm just a newly promoted Jonin," Iori said.
But when he saw the Chunin's eyes begin to dim with disappointment, he added, "I was in the Land of Grass before this. I infiltrated an Iwagakure Ninja position and killed the Five-Tails Jinchuriki."
The Chunin's eyes lit up. Though he didn't know much about the powerful shinobi of other nations, he knew of the Tailed Beast Jinchuriki, the ultimate weapons.
"Sir, my name is Yukawa Tsunayoshi," the Chunin said. He roused his comrades, then led them in restraining the Sunagakure Ninja and staunching their bleeding. He also sent word of Iori's arrival to headquarters.
Iori retrieved the weapons he had thrown and looked over the busy shinobi.
"Sir, please follow me. Lord Orochimaru is waiting for you," Yukawa Tsunayoshi said respectfully. He had just received a reply from headquarters.
The message ordered him to bring the captured Sunagakure Ninja and the village's Jonin reinforcement back to camp.
"All right, let's go." Iori didn't waste time and set off with him.
After slipping past several Sunagakure Ninja search parties, Iori and the others entered through a secluded cave entrance. They triggered a stone slab opened by a seal and finally reached Konoha's camp.
The camp was brightly lit, and the Medical Unit was working at full capacity, yet it still couldn't treat all the wounded.
With the overall front line at a disadvantage, both medicine and medical ninjas were in short supply for Konoha.
For Iori, this was a perfect opportunity to build his reputation. But first, he needed to pay Orochimaru a visit and find out why the front in the Land of Wind had ended up in this state.
Following Yukawa Tsunayoshi's lead, Iori made his way to the heart of the camp.
Although the camp had been hastily assembled and lacked sufficient resources, its overall layout and the placement of its guards were excellent. Orochimaru truly was a seasoned commander.
"Lord Orochimaru's tent is just ahead. Please go on without me from here," Yukawa Tsunayoshi said, stopping and pointing to the tent.
The camp was under strict lockdown, and Chunin weren't allowed into that area. Yukawa Tsunayoshi couldn't go any closer.
Iori nodded and thanked him for showing the way, then continued alone into Orochimaru's tent.
Inside, Iori saw Orochimaru sitting in the middle of the tent. His complexion was always pale, but he looked noticeably weaker than usual.
"You must be Uchiha Iori. I've read your reports. Since Jiraiya sent you here, I'll be leaving the front line in your hands from now on."
Orochimaru's voice was low and hoarse, with a trace of exhaustion. He did indeed look seriously injured.
"Lord Orochimaru, may I ask what happened? Why were you and Lady Tsunade defeated?"
Iori asked curiously. He knew about Tsunade's hemophobia, but he couldn't understand how the Sunagakure Ninja had found out about it.
As for Orochimaru being badly wounded, that made even less sense to him. Of the Sannin, Orochimaru might not have been the strongest, but he was undoubtedly the best at staying alive.
With his self-developed Orochi-Style Soft Physique Modification and Orochi-Style Substitution Technique, Orochimaru should have been almost impossible to seriously injure, let alone leave him unable to recover.
"It was the Ketsuryūgan. A clan your Uchiha Clan sealed in Hell Valley long ago. For some reason, one of their Jonin escaped from Hell Valley."
"When the Fourth Kazekage attacked, he suddenly used the Ketsuryūgan's genjutsu against me. After I used a secret technique to drive the two of them back, I discovered that my soul had been damaged."
Orochimaru explained what had happened. As a commander, he loathed enemies who fell outside his expectations.
But as a researcher, he was also quite interested in the Ketsuryūgan Kekkei Genkai.
"As for Tsunade, since the village was willing to send you here, I won't hide it from you," Orochimaru continued, his voice tinged with helplessness.
"After her younger brother, Nawaki, and her lover, Dan Katō, died, she developed hemophobia. The moment she sees blood, she loses the ability to fight."
Orochimaru's expression darkened at the mention of Nawaki. Nawaki had been one of his beloved students, too.
It was Nawaki's death that had once again made him feel how fragile human life was and driven him to pursue immortality even more fervently.
"Before, Tsunade was at the front, mainly responsible for neutralizing the poison of the Sunagakure advisor Chiyo and treating the seriously wounded. Though she couldn't see blood, she could guide the medical ninjas and use Katsuyu to heal people."
"But for some reason, word of her hemophobia leaked out. The Sunagakure Ninja who attacked the Medical Unit cut themselves and splashed blood in front of Tsunade."
"Tsunade had wanted to protect the Medical Unit, but once she lost her combat ability, she became the one who needed protection."
"After we lost our commander, the Sunagakure Ninja split Konoha's forces apart. Fortunately, the command system hadn't been completely destroyed."
"The Jonin seized the opportunity to organize a counterattack and led us back here."
Orochimaru still felt a lingering fear when he thought of what had happened. He had come within a hair's breadth of seeing his dream of immortality end on that battlefield.
"Now, as you can see, our front line has suffered heavy losses. Tsunade and I have lost most of our combat strength. We have only thirty-three Jonin and five hundred Chunin left who can still fight."
"Our enemies are the Fourth Kazekage, Chiyo, the One-Tail Jinchuriki, that Ketsuryūgan shinobi, as well as eighty Jonin and eight hundred Chunin."
"We're still holding on because they're casting a wide net, trying to take out our forces while suffering as few casualties as possible."
Uchiha Iori thought it over. [Chiyo's poison doesn't matter; I can heal it. I don't even need a Noble Phantasm to deal with the One-Tail. The Mangekyo will do. The same goes for the Ketsuryūgan shinobi.]
[That leaves the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa. He's a nobody, too. So my priority should be figuring out how to build my reputation while revealing as little of my strength as possible, so I can deal with any malice from within the village.]
After saying goodbye to Orochimaru, Iori decided not to use his Noble Phantasm to heal him. On the one hand, it was best to keep a trump card in reserve. On the other, it would help him seize power: only if Orochimaru remained injured could the initiative pass into Iori's hands.
After leaving the tent, Iori headed for the Medical Unit.