The Situation

Yin Jie failed to find Uchiha Yasashiro and turned back into the house.

Though he had already realized that this was likely Konoha's frontline camp on the southwestern battlefield of the Land of Rain,

without someone familiar to guide him, he was still something of an "outsider," so it was best not to wander around recklessly.

Moreover, Konoha had done a remarkably good job building this camp. Even the house Yin Jie was temporarily staying in was fully furnished.

Of course, this place had actually been arranged for Uchiha Yasashiro, an Uchiha Clan jonin with a three-tomoe Sharingan, to rest in. Yin Jie was merely benefiting from Uchiha Yasashiro's favor.

Not long after Yin Jie returned to the house, his stomach began to growl. He had no choice but to head to the kitchen and find something to eat.

Meanwhile, an important combat meeting was being held in a house at the center of the town—the command post Konoha had established in the frontline camp.

The meeting had been called by Sakumo Hatake, Konoha's highest-ranking commander on this battlefield, and every participant was an elite jonin.

Uchiha Yasashiro, whom Yin Jie had been looking for, was among them as well. He sat upright, listening to Sakumo Hatake's deployment of personnel and assignment of missions.

Now that the fighting between Konoha and Hidden Rain had ended, Konoha could finally free up its hands to deal with Hidden Sand Village's increasingly fierce offensive.

Therefore, as the frontline commander, Sakumo Hatake intended to bring the war on his front to an end as swiftly as possible.

After communicating with the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sakumo Hatake devised a plan aimed at dealing Hidden Sand a devastating blow.

This was why the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had sent Tsunade to lead the elite shinobi of the various ninja clans here as reinforcements.

Although Hidden Sand Village had continuously sent more troops to the front during this period, most of those reinforcements were chunin and genin. Their number of jonin had not increased by much.

In fact, in terms of high-end combat power, they had always possessed only Ebizo, a single Kage-level powerhouse.

Of course, the puppet forces under his command posed a tremendous threat to Konoha's shinobi as well.

But in Sakumo Hatake's eyes, those were merely minor problems.

As long as Tsunade, assisted by other jonin, could keep Ebizo occupied on the battlefield, the current balance between Konoha and Hidden Sand would be broken.

After all, aside from Kage-level puppet masters like Chiyo and Ebizo, who could control large numbers of puppets, the other members of the puppet corps—even jonin—were no match for him.

It could be said that no one understood better than him how to deal with puppet masters!

Two words: slaughter them!

However, what Sakumo Hatake had not expected was that the reinforcements Tsunade brought were even more formidable than he had anticipated.

Thus, Sakumo Hatake made temporary adjustments to his original plan, preparing to deal Hidden Sand a major blow.

His revised plan was also simple.

A decapitation operation!

Tsunade, who had just earned the title of one of the "Three Ninja," along with several other jonin of some renown in the shinobi world who had arrived as reinforcements, would make appearances on the battlefield.

This would deliberately reveal to Hidden Sand that Konoha was heavily reinforcing its forces and seeking a decisive strategic battle.

That way, in order to maintain the battlefield situation, Hidden Sand would have no choice but to send equally powerful reinforcements.

After all, given Ebizo's intelligence and strategic judgment, he would certainly not dare allow Sakumo Hatake—who was exceptionally effective against puppet masters—to be freed up to move about the battlefield at will.

And among Hidden Sand's most renowned Kage-level powerhouses, aside from the Third Kazekage, known as the strongest Kazekage, there was Chiyo. Though she had been injured and placed at a disadvantage in her recent battle against Hanzo, the leader of Hidden Rain Village, she had still deciphered his poison and discovered the weakness of Hanzo's poisonous gas!

However, everyone knew that the Kage of a village, as the pillar that steadied a shinobi village, would not easily set foot on the battlefield under normal circumstances.

Therefore, Sakumo Hatake concluded that the one Hidden Sand would most likely send as reinforcement would be Chiyo—the target of this decapitation operation!

To ensure that everything went smoothly, as the frontline commander, he planned to personally lead the elite of the various ninja clans, including Uchiha Yasashiro, straight into the Land of Wind from the direction of the Land of Rivers. They would launch a surprise attack on Chiyo and the other Hidden Sand shinobi who came as reinforcements, crippling Hidden Sand in a single battle!

Of course, Sakumo Hatake could not have known then that Chiyo would not come to the front because her injuries had not improved much.

Although he ultimately succeeded in leading his forces to kill a group of reinforcing Hidden Sand jonin, including Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law, and did indeed strike a heavy blow against Hidden Sand to some extent, the subsequent course of the war did not move toward a swift conclusion as he had expected.

On the contrary!

After losing her son and daughter-in-law, Chiyo launched several extremely frenzied retaliatory attacks against Konoha.

Rather than ending, the war between Konoha and Hidden Sand grew even more intense in a short period of time!

But that was a story for later.