The Boy's Arc: Deployment

In Konoha's Year 48, the Third Shinobi World War had already been underway for a year. Hidden Mist, which had originally remained in the probing stage, officially made its move against Konoha.

At the same time, the fighting between Stone Village and Cloud Village escalated. Even so, they still deployed large numbers of troops to attack Konoha.

At the borders, the fighting grew increasingly fierce. Hidden Sand's highest-level forces had all been dispatched, and Konoha was temporarily pushed into a disadvantage.

However, this was precisely the outcome Hiruzen Sarutobi and Orochimaru wanted. At Nara Shikaku of the Nara Clan's suggestion, the border front adopted a strategy of showing weakness to lure Hidden Sand in.

Under normal circumstances, they would never have fallen for it, but Konoha was now under siege from multiple sides. The situation was different.

A village under attack retreating again and again along its own border was simply too normal. There was no way to find anything suspicious about it.

But everything was too perfect. Konoha continuously stretched out the front lines with minimal casualties, and when Hidden Sand saw a chance to win, they pressed forward in one burst, causing their resource supply to fall behind.

Once their resource supply could no longer keep up, they would begin large-scale repositioning.

And large-scale repositioning was the best time to strike.

Right now, I was in the Hokage Building. Standing across from me was the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, while my big brother Sakumo stood at my side.

"Sakumo, Hidden Sand has already fallen into the trap. Now is the best time to cut off their supply chain in one decisive push. I'm leaving it to you and Qingyue."

"Yes! We guarantee the mission's completion!"

After leaving the Hokage Building, I felt slightly uneasy.

I was finally about to officially set foot on the battlefield. And our mission was to raid the enemy's supply camp. There would definitely be some noncombatants there, wouldn't there?

"Qingyue."

"Hmm?"

"This is what war is like. It isn't only those fighting on the front lines who are combatants. Everyone on the battlefield is a warrior. There are indeed noncombatants among them, but every shipment they send to replenish the front lines could take lives from our village. Besides, they started this war. If we lose the border, the next ones to suffer will be the ordinary citizens within the Land of Fire."

I hadn't expected Sakumo to see through what I was worried about at a glance. A good big brother was still a good big brother.

He was right. They were the aggressors. They were the ones who had started this war.

No matter what, the first thing I had to consider was protecting my own village. If I wanted to end the war completely, I first had to bring peace to my own village.

"I understand, Brother Sakumo. Sorry for making you worry. I'm fine now."

"That's good. Go home and prepare, then leave immediately. This will be your twelfth S-rank mission, and it may also be the most difficult one."

"Understood."

When I returned home, there was no one there.

My parents had already gone to the front lines. As expected, they had been assigned to different battlefronts.

Dad was on the battlefield against Hidden Rock, while Mom had been assigned to the battlefield against Cloud Village.

As for me, I was heading to the Hidden Sand battlefield at the border to sever their support chain.

Our entire family had been assigned to different battlefields. None of us could look after one another. Fate truly was cruel.

I fastened the ninja sword my father had given me to the belt Sakumo had gifted me, then tucked the ninja sword Kakashi had given me against my thigh alongside several other cheap ninja swords.

Finally, I checked the handmade medical kit Rin had given me. The sword guard still gleamed properly, and the pendant hung securely around my neck.

No problem. Everything was ready.

Over the past year, all the assignments I had taken had been as an acting Jonin. This time, I was finally going to the battlefield.

Just how far could my current strength take me? How much could I change this world's history? It would all begin with this mission.

After meeting up with Sakumo at the village entrance, we set off to raid Hidden Sand's supply camp.

Along the way, the two of us moved in concealment at the fastest speed possible, bypassing every major battlefield along the border.

Sakumo had intelligence on the enemy supply camps provided by intelligence ninja. Since their main forces were all at the front lines, the guards were unexpectedly weak.

The most important thing was how to infiltrate unnoticed, then destroy the entire camp.

"Stop."

Sakumo, who was running ahead of me, suddenly stopped. I immediately followed him and concealed my tracks.

"About seven hundred meters away at nine o'clock is the first place we need to attack. They have too many people for us to wipe them out all at once, but the supply camp can't possibly have that many guards. You know what to do, right, Qingyue?"

"Understood. We'll lie low nearby and observe them every day. Once their numbers decrease, we'll act immediately and destroy the supply camp."

"That's right. From here on, it's a war of endurance. Our actions absolutely cannot be exposed. We can't leave a single survivor. Our goal isn't to eliminate the enemy or obtain intelligence. It's to secretly and completely sever all their supply chains, leaving their front lines without the ability to fight."

Over the following days, Sakumo and I survived on simple rations... soldier pills, quietly following Hidden Sand's main forces every day and observing them.

Whether it was day or night, we absolutely could not be discovered. At the same time, we had to constantly monitor them.

The moment their numbers dropped to a certain level, we had to strike immediately, then head to the next location and repeat the process.

It was incredibly dull, so dull it drove one mad.

We slept only around four hours a day. At every moment, we had to watch for changes in their numbers and organize intelligence. Our only food was soldier pills and an extremely limited amount of water.

We did nothing else. We could not even refine chakra.

For my first time on the battlefield, there was no imagined scene of shedding blood and risking my life, no imagined battle against a powerful enemy where I gave everything and finally emerged victorious, nor any contemplation of the meaning of war...

There was only endless lurking, endlessly erasing my traces, only doing nothing.

Fortunately, I could still talk to Hill in my head.

"Teacher Hill, what does it mean when a man walks into a bar and asks for a glass of water, but the bartender suddenly pulls out a gun and points it at his head? Then he thanks him and leaves the bar? So the man asked for water because he had hiccups, and the gun scared him enough to cure them, so he thanked the bartender?"

Out of boredom, Hill and I kept playing Turtle Soup, taking turns coming up with scenarios to pass the time.

"That's how Turtle Soup works, Lord Qingyue. Back when I was lying in a hospital bed, I often chatted and played games with people online. That was one of the scenarios a friend came up with."

"All right, I give up. I haven't won a single round. Teacher Hill, do you have any other games? I feel like I could play until I die and never win once."

"How about chain storytelling?"

"That's good, that's good. Teacher Hill, you go first."

As a former novelist, I was far too familiar with chain storytelling. From a school confession to zombies, then suddenly reincarnating into another world and becoming an apocalypse novel...

That was how we passed ten days. At last, the opportunity came.

"Move."