Objectives and Before the Battle

The moment he received this intelligence,

the Kumogakure Jōnin commander frowned slightly.

As the Frontline Commander, he understood Lord Raikage's intentions very well. He merely wanted to probe Konohagakure's current situation as much as possible. Over the past three or four months, the intensity of their attacks had steadily risen, yet they had never launched a truly overwhelming offensive.

Kumogakure still harbored a certain degree of apprehension.

Konoha's previous troop deployments and mobilizations had all been within Kumogakure's expectations.

But the scale of this reinforcement had somewhat exceeded the Kumo Ninja's estimates.

There were more than a thousand reinforcements in total, with at least three hundred sent to the Hot Springs Mountain Outpost. Setting everything else aside, the numbers alone said a great deal. During the fighting of this period, Konoha had certainly suffered grievous losses, but the Kumo Ninja casualty rate had not been low either. It was roughly a sixty-forty split.

Now that Konoha had already deployed a large number of reinforcements...

If the Kumo Ninja wanted to maintain their previous level of attack, or even further pressure Konoha, they would inevitably have to mobilize an equal or even greater number of troops from their homeland. After all, they were the attackers, while Konoha was defending. The two sides had completely different tasks.

However, such matters were not something a mere Frontline Commander could decide.

After sealing the intelligence and arranging for intelligence personnel to report it back to the village, the Kumo Ninja commander dispatched several surprise attack squads. Taking advantage of nightfall, they launched another probing attack against Konoha's Hot Springs Mountain Outpost.

Their purpose was to gather as much intelligence as possible about Konoha's newly arrived reinforcements.

So they could make the necessary preparations

for the coming war.

Even paying a certain price for it was worthwhile.

The night raid came directly at them.

Although it somewhat exceeded Suzaku, Ido, and the others' expectations,

it had become routine over the past few months. Almost immediately after his initial surprise, Suzaku realized this was a probing attack by the Kumo Ninja. News of their group's arrival had undoubtedly reached Kumogakure, and these Kumo Ninja had been sent to assess the strength and composition of Konoha's reinforcements.

Once he understood that,

Suzaku was relieved instead.

He ordered them to encircle and wipe out the attacking Kumo Ninja with all their strength.

They were to leave as many behind as possible.

This overt display of strength was the proactive defensive strategy Suzaku had adopted. Before arriving at the front, Nara Suzaku, who clearly understood that Lord Hokage did not wish to expand the scope of the conflict, had already known that he needed to carefully control the scale of any clashes with the Kumo Ninja.

They needed to protect their village's interests,

while also avoiding overly provoking the Kumo Ninja.

The entire shinobi world knew it.

Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, the Kumo Ninja were the most irrational.

By "irrational," they meant their attitude toward war.

Konoha understood this best and had experienced it most deeply. Wasn't the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju's death directly related to Kinkaku and Ginkaku of the Kumo Ninja losing their minds back then?

Therefore,

in the wars that followed,

the major shinobi villages all had to act cautiously when facing Kumogakure.

No one wanted to provoke madmen.

The same was true this time.

If Kumogakure had not been so aggressive, the Third Hokage would never have been willing to dispatch so much strength to the northeastern front. Yet the more this was the case, the more it revealed Sarutobi Hiruzen's mindset. Suzaku's plan was simple: show the strength of his village.

Make the Kumo Ninja retreat in the face of difficulty as much as possible.

Even if the difficulty was indeed great and the odds of success extremely low,

the necessary posture still had to be displayed in advance.

If they could end this localized conflict at the lowest possible cost, that would naturally be the outcome Suzaku and the Third Hokage most wished to see. But the initiative still rested with Kumogakure's Fourth Raikage.

Tonight's night raid was the best proof.

The clash between the two sides appeared vicious, yet both sides had actually held back to some extent.

The Kumo Ninja had only dispatched a few small squads, while Suzaku had not even called up the reserve forces. Still, the fighting around the outpost was extremely fierce. Taijutsu exchanges were one thing, but once ninjutsu clashes reached B-rank or above,

they could truly shake the earth and mountains.

That was why Shōji had been unable to sleep at all.

Generally speaking, shinobi on the battlefield did not dare enter deep sleep. Even during rotating rest periods, they only slept lightly to recover their strength.

After experiencing it a few times, they would grow accustomed to such a routine.

Since it was Shōji's "first time," whether from nerves or excitement,

his sleepless night was entirely real.

By dawn,

Shōji stepped out of his tent looking somewhat listless. An Uchiha clansman only three or four years older than him, Uchiha Homura, happened to meet him head-on. Seeing Shōji's clearly dispirited state, Homura raised an eyebrow and said, "Looks like you didn't rest well yesterday, Shōji. Have you been away from the battlefield for too long and let yourself grow lazy? That doesn't seem like your style!"

He was one of the Uchiha clansmen who had fought alongside Shōji against the Kiri Ninja in the southeastern coastal region of the Land of Fire two years ago. However, his talent was still somewhat inferior to Shōji's. Not to mention the current Shōji, who had awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan after merging with Liu Heng's soul.

Even the original owner,

before Liu Heng's arrival,

had already awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

But Uchiha Homura was nearly twenty years old.

His Sharingan still remained at the Two-Tomoe stage.

His individual strength could only be considered at the Elite Chūnin level.

However, due to the power of Uchiha blood and the Sharingan, Uchiha Homura could still fight some ordinary Jōnin. His chances of winning could only be called low, but they were not nonexistent.

After all, the gap was not yet so overwhelming.

"Yeah, I'm a little nervous and a little excited. After all, for me—or for us—the meaning of this war is somewhat different, isn't it, Homura?"

Shōji gently clenched his right hand, then slowly released it. His words caused the Uchiha Homura before him to freeze slightly.

The smile on his face faded.

Homura looked at Shōji with an exceptionally serious expression, then said softly, "You really have changed, Shōji."

"Everyone changes, Homura. Because no one knows what they will encounter in the future, and I merely took that step ahead of time."

Precisely because they had fought side by side before,

Shōji understood Homura better than he understood the other clansmen.

He was also one of the companions Shōji planned to recruit in the early stages.