Time to Stir Things Up 4K

The city gate was brightly lit.

The Leaf Village ninja army did not enter the attack range of the fortress. Uchiha Shingen ordered his troops to set up camp and allowed the noble caravan to pass through.

He didn't even send a spy.

He didn't taint his own interests with these nobles; they came and went as they always have.

As the nobles' procession approached the fortress, one by one, Cloud Ninja leaped down from the fortress.

Ninjas are often perceived as someone who jumps around all the time, but to truly reach the point where they can jump over high walls at will, one would need to be Chunin.

Jumping off a high wall is very different from leaping through the woods.

It's like when people are diving; some are incredibly cool, while others look like they're throwing bombs.

These people are here to check their identities.

The nobles traveling to Leaf Village mostly took the route through South Gate City, and all of them had credentials issued by South Gate City.

Meanwhile, the Konoha Ninja in the distance were setting up a temporary camp, ignoring the already opened gates of the fortified castle.

Regardless of whether it was a trap or not, what respectable ninja would go through the door?

Uchiha Shingen gathered the Jonin together.

No one doubted that it was impossible to capture the South Gate City.

With so many Jonin, no city wall is of any use.

A Jonin from the Hyuga Clan first introduced the Byakugan's observations of the South Gate City.

Chakra, there are indeed many ninjas in South Gate City. Based on experience, this number suggests that the enemy has no fewer than ten thousand members.

However, Chakra in this situation can be deceiving.

During the Warring States period, there was a ninja clan that, in order to deceive the Hyuga Clan Byakugan's perception, arranged for a group of weaklings to stimulate their physical potential through special methods, simulating Chakra beyond their normal levels, while the true elites would suppress their Chakra and secretly attack the back row.

Ah yes, I did it on my first playthrough.

He discovered that while the ability to discern subtle differences was undeniable when there were few people Byakugan, it became less clear-cut when there were many people.

We can still manage to squeeze out nearly half the manpower.

The five great villages were originally the first-line ninja clans, and none of them were unfamiliar with the Byakugan.

Like Cloud Ninja, the Rock Ninja have a particularly large number of lower-ranking ninja, numbering in the thousands, so it's not impossible for them to do this.

If it's the same as what Uchiha Shingen was thinking.

"The nobles will relay my words to South Gate City. Whether the Cloud Ninja believe it or not, we'll have a few more days," Uchiha Shingen asked the Jonin. "Right now, the main thing is to figure out the situation in the mountains. Does anyone know the details of the ancient trails in these mountains?"

"That's going to be difficult," someone said. "The passage has been abandoned for so many years. Even if the Cloud Ninja cleaned it up again, it will probably be hard to find."

To be honest, no one understood why Uchiha Shingen would take notice of an ancient path that had been neglected for decades.

After all, at this time and in this place, apart from Uchiha Shingen, no one had ever thought of annihilating the village.

On the contrary, these people were all very straightforward. They all believed that their mission this time should be the same as before: to take down South Gate City, and then, as long as Cloud Village did not surrender, they would continue to gnaw their way along the coastal passage.

Leaf Village and Cloud Ninja used to fight like this, but back then Cloud Ninja was still very strong. It would take several rounds in the Land of Hot Water for the Konoha Ninja to push through here.

Or perhaps the Cloud Ninja Army pushed into Hidden Hot Water Village.

However, wars usually end at this point.

The straightforward guys on both sides have never really had a chance to have a real big match.

Both sides share a common stance at the highest levels regarding the possibility of a high-intensity, protracted war breaking out.

No way! Let's do it somewhere else!

But that was at the higher levels; both sides' participating ninjas were still eager to truly test each other's mettle.

After discussing it with the others, Uchiha Shingen realized that they were indeed quite ignorant on this point.

It seems he'll have to do it himself.

"Then let's build the camp first. Don't worry about whether we need it or not, but make it big, and finish it tonight," said Uchiha Shingen. "It'll be dark. The Cloud Ninja don't have the Byakugan, so they won't be able to figure out our strength. Extend the camp into the forest."

Everyone was taken aback.

"I believe the elite Cloud Ninja are probably all in the mountains nearby, and South Gate City might be riddled with Explosive Tag. After all, exchanging a city for our ninjas is worthwhile."

Uchiha Shingen thought for a moment and said:

"We also need to create the impression that we have reinforcements. Send a portion of our troops into the forest every night and return to camp from the other side during the day. Don't make the route too fixed, so as not to be noticed by the Cloud Ninja."

"But if a battle takes place in the same area, the Cloud Ninja will still be able to detect it," someone said.

"It's alright, because headquarters will also be clearing out the Cloud Ninja in the mountains. If they're in the same area, the Cloud Ninja won't notice for a while. That's all, meeting adjourned, everyone get moving."

Chapter 8: The Trouble Begins (4K)

Uchiha Shingen stayed at the foot of South Gate City for three days.

He attempted to attack once during that time.

He went alone because it was just a trial.

He charged straight in with his Perfect Susanoo activated; the city walls were nothing. He single-handedly shattered the Cloud Ninja's frontline defenses.

With the power of his Rinnegan, he clearly judged the actual strength and combat power of the Cloud Ninja in South Gate City.

As he expected, the number of Cloud Ninja troops in South Gate City was far less than the intelligence indicated.

Slightly more than the number of Konoha Ninja, but not excessively so; an estimated eight thousand, exactly double.

However, the majority of them were lower-ranking ninjas, a proportion that was far from normal for the Cloud Ninja Army, and could even be described as excessive.

In addition, the nobles have not all left; most of them are still staying in the city.

This was exactly what Uchiha Shingen wanted.

So after breaking through the wall, he didn't go any deeper, but instead continued cutting in the same spot until there were no more living people around, then he called it a day and returned to camp.

I probably chopped off more than a thousand Cloud Ninja, I didn't count them too carefully, since they died too quickly, not even a single Jonin. But the Cloud Ninja's courage is commendable, even though their organization collapsed, none of them ran away.

It's confirmed: South Gate City was bait; the soldiers here are all dead.

Perhaps the entire seaside passageway is a trap; this is very Cloud Ninja, willing to take a huge gamble.

The spirit of the simple-minded old man has been well inherited.

In the history of the Hokage world, when ship technology was not yet advanced, large-scale military expeditions from the Great Peninsula region where the Land of Lightning is located to the Central Plains could only be carried out by land, regardless of whether they had Chakra or not.

From the perspective of the mainland, there are seven massive mountain ranges stretching from east to west. Starting from the present-day Land of Lightning, passing through the Lands of Frost, Field, and Iron, they extend to the Land of Waterfalls, dividing the three main plains represented by the Lands of Lightning, Fire, and Earth into three basically independent geographical units.

From the perspective of the Fire People throughout history, this barrier has long ensured that they were better able to resist invasions from the northern mountain barbarians. They did not care about the west; if the northern enemies wanted to enter their great plains, they had to cross this mountain range from north to south.

At that time, the coastal passage known as the "Seaside Road" was covered with swamps and severely flooded. The water was too shallow for carriages and horses to pass, and too deep for boats to sail. Even the most straightforward mountain barbarians could not march through it.

The point of contention between the two sides at that time was another ancient road.

The Poison Insect Road.

This mountain path is rugged and difficult to traverse, with an extremely harsh environment and teeming with poisonous insects.

This broken road, which was completely unfriendly to users, was used until the end of the Warring States period.

During the First Shinobi World War, Senju Muzoku actually had two plans. Plan A was to use the Impure World Reincarnation army to break through the Seaside Road head-on, and then use Ninjutsu to trigger a sea invasion, thus cutting off the possibility of the Cloud Ninja continuing to use the Seaside Road to fight against Leaf Village in the short term.

Plan B involves taking the route through the Poison Insect Road and then raiding their base from the rear.

It was surrounded by Impure World Reincarnation, didn't require supplies, and wasn't afraid of poisonous insects.

As we all know, both plans failed, and Senju Muzoku was ambushed by the First Raikage and a large group of Jonin.

In this playthrough, I used the remaining high-quality Impure World Reincarnation to blast away South Gate City, which was just a way to vent my anger.

Decades have passed, and the Poison Insect Road are certainly more pristine now.

After all, although the Poison Insect Road was abandoned during the First Shinobi World War, it still had its foundation and was still usable. Now, if no one repairs it, it will definitely be ruined.

However, given the manpower and financial resources of Kumogakure and the Land of Lightning, it is not impossible for them to rebuild.

Through the settlement of past debts with Kumogakure, Uchiha Shingen noticed a hidden expense in Kumogakure, a large sum whose whereabouts were unknown.

He might not be the only one interested in the Poison Insect Road.

That's good.

The overall commander of the war zone, Uchiha Shingen, actually did not like this position.

He spent the entire first playthrough fighting special operations battles. Legion battles would be much more difficult. As a commander, he would be responsible for the lives of his four thousand Konoha Ninja, which would restrict his actions.

Oh, you're asking why it's four thousand? If he were to pity the lives of the Foreign Legion members, that would be incredibly disrespectful to their professionalism; they're earning their money by risking their lives.

It's not appropriate to bring Konoha Ninja to the Poison Insect Road; he plans to bring a foreign legion.

He's not bragging, but with a large group of the Uchiha Clan and Hyuga Clan elites here, Jonin fewer than twenty Jonin, the Cloud Ninja in the opposite South Gate City simply wouldn't have enough to take them down.

The city was full of dead soldiers. Before their elite troops came out, these dead soldiers could still hold their own against the battlements and the nobles who hadn't left yet. Anyone who dared to launch an attack would be committing suicide.

The Cloud Ninja's fighting style wasn't invented by the Kumogakure, but rather it's a unique characteristic of their culture.

Ninjas truly became the main force on the battlefield in the mid-to-late Warring States period. Before that, in the Hokage world, wars were fought mainly by ordinary soldiers, just like on Blue Star.

The Greater Peninsula region is mostly mountainous with few plains. The mountain tribes living here mainly fight by traversing mountains and valleys, so they adopted the strategy of combining heavily armored soldiers with infantry archers. A group of burly men wearing several layers of armor could run with the sound of wind. Because the types of soldiers were simple, the tactics were also simple.

In general, the strategy involves sending the dead in front and the elite troops behind, delivering high output in a short period of time to intimidate the enemy and deliver a decisive blow.

With ninjas becoming the main force, the ninjas here also adopt a death-defying, charge-style critical strike style, stimulating the potential of their Lightning Release Chakra Mode, which perfectly matches the military style of the Land of Lightning.

The only difference is that the original "dead soldiers" became ninjas skilled in taijutsu, while the "elite soldiers" became Ninjutsu- based ninjas like the Yotsuki Clan. Alternatively, lower-ranking ninjas could be "dead soldiers," and higher-ranking ninjas could be "elite soldiers"—it's the same idea.

They need to be combined to unleash the critical strike the Cloud Ninja Army desires.

However, Kumogakure is probably the ninja village most accustomed to Susanoo right now; they are even more familiar with it than Leaf Village.

Of course, they also knew that their methods were completely useless against a fully-formed Susanoo.

Therefore, it's reasonable to use the seaside passage as bait to buy time for the main force.

For Kumogakure, this Ninja World War was not a national mission, but a battle for survival.

Uchiha Shingen felt that his guess was plausible.

As I said before, no one understands the Cloud Ninja better than him.

Upon returning to camp, Uchiha Shingen immediately convened a meeting, but this time, he also summoned the leaders of the Foreign Legion.

At the meeting, he got straight to the point, stating his strategy of having Konoha Ninja stationed there while the foreign legion followed him along the Poison Insect Road.

Uchiha Shingen was a big shot in Leaf Village and the commander-in-chief of the war zone, so no Konoha Ninja would question his orders. Moreover, his practice of going to the enemy's territory alone to verify intelligence was really impressive. Everyone said, "Whatever makes you happy, boss."

According to this strategy, after Uchiha Shingen opens the Poison Insect Road, he will return by Shadow Clones, at which point the Leaf Village ninja army will begin to breach the city.

The leaders of the Foreign Legion, however, were skeptical of this strategy.

Although no one has traveled this Poison Insect Road, everyone knows about it.

Even without enemies, going there is not an easy task.

If there are enemies, then they're truly risking their lives; they're willing to risk their lives, but hopefully they won't take such a high risk, as this deal feels like it's going to be a loss.

But since the person sitting in front of them was the White Ghost of Leaf Village, they didn't dare to refuse directly. So they went around in circles and suggested another option—could they increase the commission?

"Want more money? Think you'll lose out if you die?" Uchiha Shingen asked one of the leaders in front of him.

The leader immediately broke out in a sweat.

The Uchiha Clan as a whole doesn't quite fit the general public's impression of Konoha Ninja; they're too bloodthirsty and seem to enjoy it.

Uchiha Shingen is one of the best among them. Having been in the Ninja World for many years, it's clear that Uchiha Shingen is the kind of person who doesn't care about human life, making him very difficult to deal with.

Losing my life is a small matter; what I fear most is that the entire organization might be wiped out if I'm not careful.

He glanced furtively at the Sound Ninja's group; none of their leaders uttered a sound.

The leader of the Sound Village is Orochimaru. It is said that although Orochimaru betrayed Leaf Village, he still has an ambiguous relationship with Leaf Village.

There are even rumors that Orochimaru secretly intervened this time, using Leaf Village's ancestral Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu to summon the Ghost Senju, thus annihilating all the ninjas from the three major villages who were attacking Leaf Village Chunin Ninja Exams.

Many people now believe that Orochimaru's betrayal was a ruse, and that it was all a setup from the beginning, with the Sound Village actually being a branch base of Leaf Village.

"Don't be nervous, I'm not that kind of person," Uchiha Shingen said. "We're all allies, how could I not value your lives?"