February arrived quietly, and the western part of the Land of Lightning was bitterly cold, with fine snowflakes fluttering down from the leaden clouds.
The frigid weather, like an invisible shackle, enveloped the entire western war zone of the Land of Lightning, with many places covered in snow.
The magnificent snow-covered landscape, though beautiful, also foreshadows an increasingly harsh and difficult combat environment to come.
But overall, this climate has certain advantages for the Land of Night.
Because the eastern part of the Land of Night is covered in ice and snow all year round, many ninjas and Samurai who landed on the mainland of the Land of Lightning were already used to fighting in the harsh winter environment.
Moreover, compared to the frozen eastern part of the Land of Night, the winters in the Land of Lightning, while also harsh, are just at normal winter temperatures.
However, ninjas and Samurai who have mastered Chakra can fight without regard for the environment unless it is extremely harsh.
The ninjas and Samurai of the Land of Night would not be so naive as to believe that this level of snow and wind would reduce the fighting power of the Hidden Cloud Village.
Rather, it's the harsh winter weather that provides an advantage for the Land of Night's ninjas and Samurai.
Especially the Samurai, many of whom come from the eastern part of the Land of Night and grow up in the harsh winter, can integrate their Swordsmanship into this special snowy environment, adding some deceptive effects, making it easier to kill enemies.
The effect might not be very noticeable if it were applied to three or five Samurai, but if thousands of Samurai received the same boost, the improvement would be considerable.
In order not to waste such favorable timing and location, Yayoi decisively ordered the Samurai troops to attack, speeding up the sweep.
The Hidden Cloud Village seemed to be aware of this as well. The small reconnaissance teams they dispatched rarely engaged in direct combat with the Land of Night. Instead, they gathered intelligence and waited quietly for the harsh winter to pass before considering a counterattack.
After nearly two months of renovations by Yayoi, Maple City has been completely transformed into the temporary operational center for the Land of Night's entry into the Land of Lightning.
Many unnecessary items in the city were either demolished or uprooted and loaded onto cargo ships to be transported back to the Land of Night along with other supplies.
It must be said that the industrial capacity of the Land of Lightning is quite remarkable. The various types of equipment they produce are not only numerous but also of very good quality.
Take those long-haul cargo ships carrying goods, for example. They also use a unique local Chakra technology, which allows them to far exceed the cargo capacity and speed of conventional cargo ships.
This is a unique technological path in the ninja world; the rise of many industries is closely related to the emergence of Chakra, a type of energy.
Especially when it comes to some cutting-edge technologies, such as energy, information, medicine, materials and other fields, they are basically all related to Chakra.
In short, without Chakra, many advanced technologies cannot be used, nor can they continue to develop.
The reason ninjas are important is that even the lowest-ranking Genin are living, renewable 'energy pools'.
For example, right now, Yayoi extracts Chakra from the captured Hidden Cloud Village prisoners to maintain their minimum survival ability, and then collects this Chakra to use to control puppet troops.
That's right, although it's impossible to transfer Naraku here, it doesn't mean that Yayoi can't use puppet tactics.
Ultimately, Naraku's abilities are merely an extension of his true power.
However, Naraku this aspect with the earth's ley line energy, which gave him special enhancements, allowing him to control a wider range and a greater number of puppets.
With the Chakra provided by the Hidden Cloud Village prisoners, Yayoi took out all the supplies she had on her at once—a total of about 1,500 Mass-Produced Ghost Puppet.
Yayoi then temporarily created a remote control device and sent people to build signal towers in the surrounding area to receive and release Chakra signals for remote control.
These 1,500 Mass-Produced Ghost Puppet, centered on Maple City, have a maximum range of activity within a radius of 50 kilometers.
This will cover important nearby resource points, as well as key seaports and parts of the sea, freeing up a lot of manpower for ninjas and Samurai and greatly reducing their burden.
In the core area of Maple City, a huge silver-gray signal tower stands tall, rising from the ground.
The signal tower is shaped like Obelisk Tower, with its outer shell made of specially treated stone. A slightly concave disc receiving antenna is placed on top and rotates continuously at the top of the Obelisk Tower.
If Sensory closely, you can sense the disc-shaped receiving antenna at the top of this Obelisk Tower, which rotates while remotely releasing Chakra towards signal towers in all directions, and at the same time constantly receiving Chakra signals transmitted back from signal towers in various places.
At the base of the Obelisk Tower is a specially designed prison.
Hundreds of Hidden Cloud Village were imprisoned inside. With only the bare minimum to sustain their lives, their Chakra was constantly being drained by the Obelisk Tower above, becoming the energy source for controlling the puppet army.
Occasionally, Yayoi would also transfer some of her own Chakra; otherwise, it would be difficult to control the puppet troops for patrol and combat for an extended period of time by relying solely on the Chakra provided by these prisoners.
Not far from the obelisk signal tower was Yayoi's temporary command post, which she had set up in Maple City.
This place was originally a grand nobleman's mansion. After the nobleman fled, he requisitioned it. He then carried out extensive renovations on the mansion, setting up traps and mechanisms in most parts. Only a small part was used for living and holding meetings, and its original appearance is no longer visible.
Yayoi sat in the temporary office at the command post, receiving a constant stream of intelligence reports.
These intelligence reports included information from the Land of Lightning, the Land of Night, and also from the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost.
Of course, the movements of ninjas from other countries such as the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind were also reported, so that Yayoi could quickly understand the changing situation on the battlefields in various places and make correct judgments.
However, Yayoi's attention was more focused on the Land of Lightning and the lands of Hot Water and Frost Countries at this time.
After his lightning-fast attack, the Cloud Hidden Cloud Village of the Land of Land of Lightning were almost completely demoralized. Recently, they haven't even bothered to probe, instead cowering and defending their lines.
Conversely, the Hidden Cloud Village on the battlefield Hot Water and Frost Countries were in high spirits. According to Kakuzu's report, both Konoha and their own Land of Night were struggling on that battlefield.
Moreover, it wasn't just the frontal battles that were proving difficult; the flanking battles led by Izayoi, against the Hidden Cloud Anbu, were also quite intense.
It can only be said that as one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, Hidden Cloud Village not only maintains a strong force domestically, but its main force on the main battlefield is also incredibly powerful.
Without the alliance of Konoha, the Land of Night might not have been able to deal with Hidden Cloud Village so easily on its own.
However, on the other hand, without the assistance of the Land of Night, Konoha would not have been able to withstand the combined attack of so many ninja villages.
The allied forces of Konoha and the Land of Night were complementary allies during this period, and there was no situation where either side was holding the other back.
"That Shamon guy really picked a good time..."
Yayoi glanced at the western part of the Land of Fire on the map. Since last month, Konoha and Hidden Sand Village had been engaged in fierce battles in smaller countries such as the Land of Rain and the Land of Rivers.
Due to the great distance and the shortage of manpower, Yayoi did not have a deep understanding of the battle situation there.
At this point, he could only trust that Konoha could withstand the pressure from Hidden Sand Village.
As for mediation? Yayoi felt that she didn't have that much influence with the Shamon. Hidden Sand Village was clearly trying to take advantage of the situation, and they would never let go until they got enough benefits.
Between nations, there is cooperation, conflict, and war; it is rare to find a purely friendly relationship.
" General, a message has arrived from the Land of Hot Water."
A ninja from the Special Assault Department walked in, looking travel-worn, and delivered a scroll containing intelligence.
Judging from the markings on the scroll, it was written by Tobirama himself, as it bears the prominent words "To be opened by the General".
"Thank you for your hard work. Go and rest for a bit."
Yayoi nodded to the messenger ninja and took the scroll.
The Special Assault Department led by Izayoi not only carries out the important task of blocking the Kumogakure's Anbu on the flanks, but also coordinates with Yuroketsu's Intelligence Integration Department to undertake the important task of timely intelligence transmission in emergency situations.
After all, the Special Assault Department are just like the Anbu of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, undertaking extremely difficult special tasks under special circumstances, which are not something that ordinary ninjas can handle.
Yayoi opened the scroll, and the handwriting style appeared familiar.
The Tobirama contained very little information for Tobirama.
The first thing was to greet him warmly.
Secondly, he wanted to acquire a large number of Explosive Tag, hoping to get some of the Land of Night's Explosive Tag reserves to him.
"Well..."
Yayoi looked slightly embarrassed.
The second one is easy to understand. On the battlefield against the Cloud and Cloud-Mist Allied Forces, Tobirama used the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu to summon undead puppets for self-destruction attacks. It wasn't that the technique itself had an explosive effect, but rather that it was a Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags Technique used in conjunction with the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu, requiring a large number of Explosive Tag.
When Yayoi first heard that Tobirama used the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu on the battlefield, he thought he had misheard. In his mind, he had always thought that this was Forbidden Jutsu used by Orochimaru.
However, considering Tobirama's own style, Yayoi is not surprising.
As for the first one, that was an undeserved disaster.
The ninja force that Sunagakure used to attack the Land of Fire was a special force composed of Puppeteer.
Caught off guard, this caused considerable losses to Konoha.
In particular, each of the puppets controlled by these Hidden Sand Village Puppeteer could be detonated. Initially, the Konoha Ninja were unaware of this and rushed forward to destroy the puppets, only to have them instantly self-destruct as soon as they got close, harming many Konoha Ninja were unaware of the truth.
Several Konoha Jonin even died from the self-destruction attacks of Hidden Sand Village's puppets.
After finally breaking through the puppet defenses, many of the Hidden Sand Village Puppeteer dropped their pretense and charged forward, displaying incredibly powerful Taijutsu that left the Konoha Ninja completely bewildered.
Although Konoha's western defenses managed to hold out in the end and tested out many of the Hidden Sand Village's puppet troops' deadly moves, the cost was extremely high.
So, it's very difficult to guess where such insidious and troublesome Puppeteer come from for training and graduation.
Yayoi, however, said she wouldn't take the blame.
His relationship with Hidden Sand Village is mutually beneficial; they can't just shift the blame to him because the puppet army caused trouble for Konoha.
Furthermore, didn't the combined Wind Release force he specifically deployed to Kakuzu's Kakuzu completely suppress the combined Lightning Release Ninjutsu of Hidden Cloud Village?
This caused many Hidden Cloud Village, renowned for their Lightning Release Nintaijutsu, to Jonin and hesitate to charge into battle. Otherwise, the battlefield Hot Water and Frost Countries would have been even more difficult to fight.
Yayoi didn't take Tobirama's complaints to heart. Instead, she considered how much of the Land of Night's Explosive Tag reserves could be allocated to Konoha without affecting herself.
After all, Konoha's fighting force is indispensable in dealing with the main force of Hidden Cloud Village led by the Raikage.
However, Yayoi did receive some good news. Seeing how hard Konoha was struggling to withstand the pressure, it seemed that the main force of Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Hot Water and Frost Countries was not planning to immediately return to defend and support the Land of Lightning.
"As a result, the internal divisions within Hidden Cloud Village may be greater than imagined, and even the pro-war faction may not be able to fully unite..."
Yayoi stroked her chin, feeling that she could be bolder in her actions in the Land of Lightning.