Orochimaru's Invitation

"Bullying the weak is something I'm even better at!"

With the power to instantly kill a ninja, Taiichi's words sounded exceptionally domineering, and no one dared to take them lightly.

"Taichi Matsushita, don't push your luck."

"So what if I bullied you? Didn't you say this is war? Why is it that only you Cloud Ninja bully the weak with numbers, but I'm not allowed to bully the weak with strength? You're such a hypocrite, Killer B."

Taiichi didn't stand on ceremony with them. As he spoke, Body Flicker again, chasing Chunin another Chunin.

This time, Killer B was prepared and immediately used his Body Flicker to come to the rescue. With his Lightning Style activated, his Body Flicker was Taiichi's.

However, Taiichi possessed the Flying Thunder God Technique, and just as he was about to be intercepted, his figure vanished from his original spot and reappeared far away from Killer B, charging towards another Chunin once more.

"Boom!" Another punch landed, and another Cloud Village Chunin flew out.

"Taichi Matsushita, if you've got the guts, fight me one-on-one."

Killer B roared in fury, but Taiichi ignored him completely. As the number of Flying Thunder God Kunai increased, his movement became more varied. Even under the protection of Killer B and the other four Jonin, the remaining two Chunin were all Chunin by Taiichi's constant attacks.

Only then did Taiichi finally stop. There was no other way; Chunin were far too weak for Taiichi. If he were given the chance to attack, he would be killed in one move.

After the last Cloud Village Chunin, Killer B calmed down. He and the other three Jonin formed Swastika Formation, their eyes fixed on Taiichi.

"Why are you staring at me like that? I'm just doing what you say. Besides, this war was started by your Cloud Village. If you look at me like that, people who don't know the situation will think I'm a bad guy."

Taiichi to miss an opportunity, continued to provoke Killer B, seemingly wanting to take on all of them one-on-one.

However, Killer B, having calmed down, also showed his attentive side. He ignored Taiichi's provocation and instead looked at the Uchiha ninja who was receiving treatment in the distance.

"That Uchiha ninja must be too badly injured to use the Flying Thunder God Technique!" Killer B looked at Taiichi and spoke normally, which was unusual for him.

Ignoring Taiichi changed expression, he directly ordered the three Jonin, "You go and kill that Uchiha ninja, I'll hold Taichi Matsushita."

"I was hoping to play with you guys a little longer, but it seems like that's not going to happen now."

Taiichi instantly appeared next to Uchiha Koen. Although he couldn't use the Flying Thunder God to teleport, after receiving treatment, he could easily escape.

"Killer B, I'll remember this. You Cloud Village ninjas will have to watch out from now on."

After saying that, Taiichi spread out the wings materialized from his Chakra, and with a violent flap, he took off carrying Uchiha Koen. He swayed and dodged the Kunai and Ninjutsu that attacked from behind. Taiichi flew higher and higher, farther and farther, until he disappeared from sight.

On the ground, Killer B's face was dark. Although they destroyed Konoha's Outpost No. 9 and killed 7 Konoha ninjas in this First Shinobi World War, they only lost 4 Chunin.

But Killer B couldn't be happy at all. Putting aside the humiliation of being tricked by Taichi Matsushita, just how to deal with Taichi Matsushita's retaliatory attacks afterward was enough to give him a headache.

"Go back first and report what happened here to your elder brother!"

After saying that, Killer B led the way and ran quickly towards the Cloud Village Camp.

Konoha's frontline Camp.

Taiichi carried Uchiha Koen back to the Camp at top speed. After handing Kouhan over to his Shadow Clone for treatment, his main body immediately went to Orochimaru.

"Outpost No. 9 is finished. When I arrived there, it had already been destroyed by the Tailed Beast Bomb. In the end, only two people escaped."

Taiichi briefly recounted what he had seen to Orochimaru, then wanted to hear what new arrangements Orochimaru could make.

"Heh, Taiichi, have you noticed? Cloud Village is getting impatient." Orochimaru's tone was indifferent, but his eyes were extremely sharp, like a venomous snake locking onto its prey.

"Indeed, our original plan was to proceed steadily and gradually erode all of Cloud Village's strongholds in the Land of Hot Water. Now, with their targeted attacks, the situation is about to deteriorate into a war of attrition, which will result in significant losses for us."

Taiichi could see it clearly too. Don't be fooled by Konoha's current desperate calls for reinforcements; they were simply caught off guard by Cloud Village. Konoha quickly adjusted their troop deployment, and aside from small teams like Killer B's, Cloud Village wouldn't be able to launch such an easy sneak attack on Konoha's forces.

"Taiichi, you're not used to war yet. The battlefield is like this, changing in an instant. Human life is like grass on the battlefield. We can only protect our comrades in the big picture. On the specific battlefield, we must not hesitate because of these losses. That would be irresponsible to the other ninjas."

Remember, on the battlefield, you must not be soft-hearted; you must fight when you must fight, and you must be willing to sacrifice when you must sacrifice.

"Yes, thank you for Orochimaru's instruction. I can distinguish between what's important and what's not." Taiichi humbly accepted the instruction, and there was nothing shameful about admitting his shortcomings.

"What about Outpost No. 9? It's extremely important."

Orochimaru stuck out his long tongue, licked his lips, and chuckled wickedly, "Cloud Village didn't occupy these strongholds either. I'll notify all the guard units behind to abandon the defense of the strongholds and station them all in the wilderness. They only need to perform guard duties; they don't need to engage the enemy in direct combat."

He turned to Taiichi, "As for direct combat, I will assemble several elite squads, just like the Cloud Village, specifically to hunt down their ninjas who venture out, and see who will give out first."

Taiichi nodded in agreement. After spending so much time on the battlefield, he understood that there weren't many conspiracies and tricks on the battlefield; most of the time, it was just a back-and-forth clash of forces.

The decisive battle will begin when one side can no longer hold out. Just like now, the two sides are no longer aiming to seize strongholds, but instead hunting each other's ninjas, which is nothing more than a more direct war of attrition.

Taiichi took out 10 specially made Flying Thunder God Kunai from his Ninja Tool Pouch and handed them to Orochimaru: "These are Flying Thunder God Kunai that I specially researched. They can be used to contact me directly in an emergency. Make sure each combat team has one, so I can provide timely support when they encounter danger."

Orochimaru looked at the Kunai in his hand with a look of surprise, picked one up and examined it carefully. From Taiichi's description, he knew that this thing must have been developed by Taiichi to save the lives of his teammates or relatives.

After all, this thing can summon Taiichi, so it can also be used as a trap to kill Taiichi. If you don't have a certain level of trust in the other party, you would never hand over such a deadly thing to someone else.

"That's a really good idea, combining Shadow Clone and Sealing Jutsu to develop a technique that can transmit information in real time. But how did you achieve that?"

Orochimaru truly lives up to his Orochimaru, the most powerful scientist in the Hokage world. Just by looking at Taiichi's technique, he grasped the general idea behind its development.

He looked up at Taiichi, his eyes filled with the joy of seeing a kindred spirit. Ignoring the fact that this was the Central Command Tent, he directly extended an invitation to Taiichi: "Taiichi, it's such a waste to use your talent for fighting and killing. Have you ever considered studying the true meaning of Chakra with me and pursuing the ultimate mystery of life?"

Taiichi was also stunned, not expecting Orochimaru to make such an invitation. However, considering Orochimaru's research fanaticism, it wasn't that strange. Moreover, at this stage of Orochimaru, it seemed that cooperating with him wouldn't be a bad idea.

"Lord Orochimaru, I've also been pursuing the true meaning of Chakra. Improving my strength will allow me to better research these things. As for joint research, I'm certainly willing. If you have any projects in the future, please be sure to contact me; I'm very interested in these topics."

Taiichi spoke frankly; he genuinely admired Orochimaru's research spirit, and he thought it would be very interesting to do scientific research with Orochimaru if given the opportunity.

Orochimaru's research spirit is commendable, but his attitude towards experimental subjects is somewhat poor. If there's an opportunity, one should definitely try to dissuade him.

Orochimaru flashed his first bright smile since they met that day. He took two steps forward and patted Taiichi on the shoulder for the first time. "Alright, I just hope you won't refuse when the time comes, Taiichi."

In the following period, Konoha and Cloud Village engaged in one offensive and defensive battle after another, but overall, Konoha held the advantage.

At first, the Cloud Village was also puzzled as to why, even though the two sides were evenly matched, the Cloud Village always suffered more defeats.

After carefully questioning the survivors of First Shinobi World War, they finally discovered that they had still lost to Taichi Matsushita.

Konoha seems to have found a way to contact Taichi Matsushita at any time, so whenever their ninjas encounter an enemy they cannot defeat, they call for support immediately. With this kind of support available at any time, how can an ordinary elite squad withstand Taichi Matsushita's attacks?

Therefore, in the ensuing battles, Cloud Village not only failed to achieve their goal of killing Konoha's forces, but also suffered heavy losses themselves.

In less than a month, Cloud Village completely lost all its strongholds in the Land of Hot Water, and the entire frontline Camp had to retreat back to the Land of the Land of Moon.

However, this situation was finally alleviated after the Cloud Village sent another thousand troops as reinforcements. The Cloud Village also changed its previous aggressive stance, no longer seeking to take the initiative to attack, but instead began to fight a defensive counterattack.

This change by Cloud Village was exactly what Konoha wanted. After more than two months of intense fighting, not to mention ordinary ninjas, even someone as energetic as Taiichi was extremely exhausted in such an environment.

They were constantly providing support here and there. On one occasion, Taiichi provided support to five battlefields in a single day.

For more than a month now, not only has he not been able to research the Adamantine Sealing Chains to develop new Ninjutsu, but the Chakra stored in his Yin Seal has not increased but decreased instead.

If they keep fighting like this, I don't know Taiichi will be the first to give up; he's just too exhausted.

With the Cloud Village halting its advance, the Konoha also tacitly slowed its offensive, and the entire Northern Battlefield fell into an eerie calm.

Both sides are trying to buy time to rest and recuperate, and to alleviate the physical and mental exhaustion caused by the long-term war.

While the fighting raged fiercely on the Northern Battlefield, new developments were also taking place on the Southern Battlefield.

After the Cloud Ninja left, Sunagakure not only failed to recover effectively, but also became entangled in a conflict with Mist Village. This left them with no energy to take any new actions against Konoha. The only thing Sunagakure could be thankful for now was that Konoha did not take advantage of their misfortune.

It's not surprising that Konoha isn't interested in this. Now that Konoha has completely taken over the Land of Rivers, all the mission requests from the Land of Rivers have temporarily fallen into Konoha's hands.

Geographically, further ahead lies an endless desert. Faced with such geographical conditions, only a fool would think of continuing to advance. After all, not everyone is like Taiichi and Minato, who can unleash 100% of their full strength even in the desert.

Therefore, drawing on the experiences of First Shinobi World War and Second Shinobi World War, Konoha's current policy towards Sunagakure is: if you don't come to attack me, I won't bother with you.

Therefore, the entire Southern Camp is currently quite relaxed, with everyone spending most of their time on self-training, apart from daily patrols.

That noon, Yohei and his companions had just returned to Camp after completing their training for the day when they were intercepted by a messenger ninja.

"Yohei Uchiha, urgent mission."

"Haha, brothers, finally a mission! I've been so bored!" Yohei laughed heartily. Although there was no danger, these days were indeed boring, especially since they were on the front lines. Apart from daily training, they had nothing else to do.

Kakashi, Obito, and the others also wore smiles; it wasn't just Yohei who was bored, they were just as Yohei.

Yohei took the Mission Scroll, examined all the Secret Rune, and confirmed its authenticity before preparing to open it.

But then a hand pressed down on Yohei's hand, stopping him from doing anything further.

"Yohei Uchiha, this is a classified mission. Only those carrying out the mission can know the details." The messenger ninja glanced at Kakashi and the others, then continued, "They are not the ones carrying out the mission."

Yohei Ping raised an eyebrow and asked again, "Is this a mission just for me? My teammates don't need to participate?"

"Confidential, but definitely not one of your team members." The response was formulaic, rigid, and cold.

Yohei winked at Kakashi and Saori, who nodded knowingly and pulled Obito and Rin away from the group, but they didn't go far, just watching from a distance.

Only then did Yohei open the scroll and begin to read.

The mission was simple, or at least it seemed easy; it was just a simple task to retrieve intelligence from a designated person at a specified location.

However, the mission location was quite far away, actually in the Land of Rain, which was quite unexpected for Yohei. What kind of intelligence required sending someone from the Land of Rivers to receive it?

However, a mission is a mission, and since the mission has already been assigned, Yohei has no reason to question it.

"I'll go back and pack some supplies, I'll be right back," Yohei said to the messenger ninja before turning and walking towards Kakashi and the others.

But he had only taken two steps when he stopped and turned to the messenger ninja who was following closely behind him. "Brother, I know the rules, keeping things confidential, but you don't need to keep following me like this!"

However, the messenger ninja remained silent, simply following Yohei's lead.

Helpless, Yohei could only ignore it and walked over to his companions. "Let's go back to camp. I need to pack our supplies; we're going on a long trip."