The Village's Commendation Order (Part Two)

Eastern Front Camp.

Taiichi led the way, walking in front, with Hyuga Hiashi behind.

To onlookers, however, this scene did not seem out of place.

Along the way, many ninjas who saw them bowed and saluted the two, especially showing respect to Taiichi in front.

The two arrived at the Central Army Tent without any hindrance. Without even announcing their arrival, Taiichi lifted the tent flap and strode inside, followed Hyuga Hiashi.

"Lady Tsunade, you wanted to see me?"

Taiichi pretended not to know anything and looked at Tsunade with a serious expression.

Tsunade knew Taiichi was up to something the moment she heard Taiichi speak, and she readily agreed.

"The village's commendation order has arrived, along with specific instructions for you. Take a look!"

After saying that, he tossed the scroll to Taiichi.

Taiichi casually caught it, not even looking at the Root ninja, and began to read it aloud. He swayed his head and read with intonation, expressing the praise and encouragement for the frontline ninjas to the fullest extent. Even his own orders at the end were emphasized and read aloud.

"Upon the issuance of this order", "accompanying", "immediately", "other arrangements"

"This messenger ninja, I read it without a single mistake, didn't I?"

Taiichi's tone was sincere, and he even had a slight smile on his face.

The Root ninja was confused, but since Taiichi's question was valid, he nodded affirmatively.

"Who are you, spy planted by? How dare you forge the Hokage-sama's orders!"

Taiichi suddenly roared, interrupting everyone's train of thought.

"Surrender now, or this will be your burial ground!"

After saying that, he unleashed his full aura, and his surging energy locked onto the Root ninja.

That ninja was merely a Special Jonin, and he couldn't withstand Taiichi's mental attack. He immediately froze on the spot.

Taiichi instantly closed in and slammed his hands together, striking the Root ninja's chest.

Everyone only saw the runes flash by, and before they could react, the ninja had already collapsed limply in Taiichi's hands, clearly having been sealed away.

"I am not a spy, the order is genuine."

The Root ninja had collapsed to the ground, was still confused about what was happening, but he still instinctively tried to defend himself.

"Whether it's true or not, I'll personally take you to see the Hokage-sama. I want to see if this outrageous order is the Hokage's intention or someone else's ulterior motive."

At this moment, everyone understood Taiichi's intention: he was passing the buck back to the Hokage, letting the Hokage choose how to handle the situation.

Regardless of whether this order was the Hokage's original intention, the fact that it came from Root means that the Hokage did not want to get involved in this matter.

Now that Taiichi is escorting this so-called "spy" to the Hokage, he is clearly forcing the Hokage to give him and all the ninjas on the front lines an explanation.

Regardless of the Hokage's choice, the one who will suffer the most is definitely the person present at the scene.

Everyone looked at the collapsed ninja with pity, but when they remembered that he was Root ninja, they immediately understood that a Root member was not worthy of sympathy.

"Lady Tsunade, I'll take him back to Konoha now. I'll leave things here to you."

"Go with peace of mind, the front lines will be fine!"

Everyone understood that the content of the order should be fine; it was just that the Root itself was demonstrating its existence, which made the recall seem like an escort.

In other words, Taiichi will be leaving the East Front starting today, and they will lose one of their top combatants.

When Taiichi disappeared before everyone's eyes with that Root ninja, everyone felt an inexplicable pressure. It was an unknown pressure. At that moment, everyone realized how important Taiichi was to them, and how he had shouldered such a heavy burden for them.

When Taiichi reappeared, he had already arrived at his home in Konoha.

Looking at the half-dead Root ninja he was carrying, he didn't hesitate. To avoid any unforeseen complications, he rushed to the Hokage Building immediately.

Along the way, many people cast curious glances at him.

In Konoha, there are many people who can scale rooftops and walls, but those who can carry someone while doing so are truly rare.

Soon, Taiichi arrived at the Hokage's Office, knocked on the door, waited for a response, First Gate, and walked in. Taiichi was very polite and gave Hiruzen Sarutobi a lot of face.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was currently engrossed in reviewing stacks of documents at his desk.

It's unclear whether he was aware that standing in front of him was none other than Taichi Matsushita, whom he so desperately wanted to be transferred back.

Taiichi wasn't in a hurry. He just stood quietly in the office, looking around. The Root ninja in his hand had its consciousness completely sealed, and now it looked like a corpse.

Perhaps it was because Taiichi's gaze was too unrestrained that Hiruzen Sarutobi finally stopped what he was doing and raised his head.

The scene that caught his eye gave him a headache. Taiichi seemed to have grown quite a bit taller in the three months since he last saw him, but the ninja in his hand made him frown.

But for now, he can only pretend he knows nothing.

"Why are you back so soon? And are these Konoha ninjas?"

Taiichi wasn't going to follow Hiruzen Sarutobi's lead. He ignored Hiruzen Sarutobi's question and instead, in a boastful manner, hurriedly said...

"Hokage-sama, I've caught a spy who forged the Hokage's orders."

As he spoke, he shook the ninja in his hand, indicating to the Hokage that this was the guy he was talking about.

"He's offended every Jonin the entire Eastern Station Camp; everyone has a lot of complaints about him."

The subtext of this statement is that my actions represent the interests of everyone in the entire Eastern Camp.

As a seasoned political strategist, Hiruzen Sarutobi could easily discern the meaning behind Taiichi's words. His pupils contracted slightly, revealing his inner turmoil.

At this moment, Taiichi handed over the commendation order again. "Hokage-sama, look, this commendation order was actually drafted by Root. Who doesn't know that our Konoha's commendation orders are drafted by the Hokage's Office? This spy is really unprofessional."

Hiruzen Sarutobi accepted the commendation order, his lips twitching involuntarily. He had indeed signed the order, but to avoid suspicion, he hadn't even looked at it beforehand, since the contents had all been agreed upon beforehand.

He was surprised that something could go wrong even with something like this. He opened the commendation order and quickly read through it.

When he saw the sign that read "agreed upon by the Root Group," he merely raised an eyebrow and cursed Mitokado Homura for being foolish for trying to make his presence known at such a time.

But after reading to the end, and feeling the tone of the commands and the guards, he finally understood why a commendation order had caused such a commotion.

Let alone Taiichi, even an ordinary Jonin would find this humiliation unbearable. They were fighting for their lives on the front lines, only to be treated like this by someone behind their backs. Wouldn't this chill the hearts of all frontline ninjas?

No wonder Taiichi dared to say that the entire Eastern Camp supported him.

At this moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi wished he could summon Mitokado Homura and put on a good fight. He wanted the two to fight, but you have to have some methods. Even Danzo wouldn't do something so blatantly hostile.

But there was no other way; he had to clean up Mitokado Homura's backside for her.

His gaze fell again on the Root ninja, and noticing that he hadn't made a move, his heart tightened, and he asked in a low voice, "You killed him?"

"How could that be? This is an important witness; the living are of course more valuable than the dead!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi breathed a sigh of relief. It was good that he hadn't been killed; there was still room for maneuver.

So far, all the struggles have remained behind the scenes. Although everyone is fighting, nothing has escalated to a life-or-death situation. Therefore, he doesn't want Taiichi to be the first to break the tacit understanding, otherwise his opinion of Taiichi would be different.

"Don't worry, Taiichi, I will give you a satisfactory answer to this matter. Leave this spy to me, and you will never see him again."

Taiichi smiled; in this matter, he still trusted Hiruzen Sarutobi's reputation.

"And what about the commendation order?"

He remembered that the previous commendation order had given generous rewards to those on the front lines, and he didn't want his outburst to reduce everyone's rewards.

Hiruzen Sarutobi gave him a speechless look and said irritably, "Alright, I know. I'll have someone in the office send a supplementary commendation order to the front lines."

"That's wonderful! The ninjas on the front lines will be incredibly grateful to know that the Hokage-sama cares about them so much."

Once the goal is achieved, Taiichi will naturally say some nice things.

"You brat—" Hiruzen Sarutobi pointed at Taiichi and laughed, "Now that you're back, stay in the village and rest. We'll give you something to do later."

This is an exchange. However, after fighting for so long and running around all day, Taiichi is tired of it all. It's good that he can rest now.

He knew very well that even more formidable enemies awaited him.

"Alright, Hokage-sama, I'll be going now."

Watching Taiichi's figure disappear into the office, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a mix of emotions. His child had finally grown up and had his own ideas. Now he didn't even call him "Hokage" anymore!

"Go and fetch Mitokado Homura!"

He said this with a hint of anger in his voice; he needed to vent the anger he had just suffered at Taiichi's hands.

Ignoring the ensuing heated exchange in the Hokage's Office, Taiichi had already returned home.

Now that he has no missions or official duties, he has more time to train himself and fulfill his long-held wish to travel throughout the Ninja World, to experience nature and hone his Chakra Nature Transformation.

Surely no one really thinks he'll stay obediently in Konoha. As a user of the Flying Thunder God and a master of Shadow Clone Jutsu, he might not be able to create countless clones, but having several clones travel around is a piece of cake for him.

In his own Training Ground, Taiichi set up an isolation Barrier and stepped inside to begin his Sage Mode training.

From initially needing 5 minutes to enter Sage Mode, it now only takes 3 minutes, filling Taiichi with renewed motivation.

His current goal is simple: he doesn't need to enter Sage Mode instantly like Senju Hashirama, but he should at least keep it within 10 seconds.

His requirements aren't very high; I believe that with more practice, there won't be any problems.

While Taiichi was busy training in Sage Mode at home, Jiraiya from the Land of Rivers was in trouble.

Initially, he received orders from the village to take advantage of the conflict between Mist Village and Sunagakure to launch an attack on the Land of Wind, thereby forcing Sunagakure to surrender.

Jiraiya had just seen the order and thought it was excellent, and also highly feasible.

Just as the entire Southern Camp was overjoyed at being the first to force an enemy ninja village to surrender to the war zone, something happened that left the entire Southern Front completely dumbfounded.

The Sunagakure Village mobilized the entire village to assemble a force of 2,000 men, and they all threw themselves into the battle against them.

The Konoha team had barely entered the Land of Wind when they were ambushed by this team.

Their madness was indescribable; anyone who didn't know better would think it was Konoha that attacked Sunagakure, rather than Mist Ninja sabotaging the Land of Wind from behind.

Central Army Tent.

Jiraiya looked at the battle reports that were being compiled one by one, he couldn't help but rub the bridge of his nose with his right hand.

It was terrible; we've never fought such a brutal battle since the start of the war.

Whether in small-team or group combat, Sunagakure displayed a reckless attitude. In just three days, both sides suffered more than two hundred deaths, and Konoha's death toll was significantly higher than Sunagakure's.

Such intense exertion had exceeded Jiraiya's limits. He came to force Sunagakure to surrender, not to lead his subordinates to their deaths.

"Shikaku, what do you think Sunagakure is thinking? Such intense exhaustion is not beneficial to either side?"

Jiraiya took down two more squad flags representing his own squad from the map, which were the two squads that had been lost in the intelligence report.

"Is Sunagakure trying to force Konoha to back down?"

Shikaku looked at the map; on the jagged battlefields, battles were taking place every moment.

"Forcing us to submit is wishful thinking on the part of Sunagakure. At worst, we'll hold our ground and wear them down. We don't believe we can't outlast Sunagakure."

Jiraiya and Shikaku looked at the strategist who had spoken, sighed, and remained silent.

At this moment, another staff officer couldn't stand it any longer. He nudged his colleague with his elbow, pointed to the sky, and remained silent.

No one present was stupid; the staff officer quickly understood the implication and immediately fell silent.

Sunagakure time, and neither do they.

Sunagakure had Mist Village causing trouble behind their backs, and they also had constant urging from the village's higher-ups.

Both sides are essentially in the same predicament, each wanting to force the other to back down first so that they can free up troops to support other areas.

"Report the situation to the village. This situation is no longer something that the frontline can decide on its own. We must wait for the village's response."

Moreover, a significant portion of our high-end combat forces have been drawn away, and we are now struggling against Sunagakure. This should all be included in the report.

Jiraiya ultimately made the decision, and the three advisors did not hesitate, immediately accepting the order to draft the report.

Just as Jiraiya was about to take out the next document to review, a strange calling resounded in his heart.

This is Reverse Summoning, the third summoning today. He didn't respond the first two times because the situation wasn't right, but I didn't expect it to happen a third time so soon.

Looking at the pile of documents on the table that needed to be reviewed, and thinking that there was nothing else of great importance, Jiraiya decisively created a Shadow Clone. His main body quickly responded to the summons and vanished into thin air.

The commotion immediately drew the attention of the three advisors. Jiraiya, the Shadow Clone, had a dark expression on his face, looking like he was being treated like a beast of burden.

"I'm going out to run some errands, I'll be back later."

The three looked at each other, at a loss for words, and could only continue with their own tasks.