Gather intelligence, determine the enemy's area of activity, familiarize themselves with the terrain... draw up battle plans, put them into action... kill.
For the next stretch of time, this was practically Yubi and Sasori's daily routine.
They constantly traveled across the battlefields of the Land of Grass, attacking Konoha's fighting forces.
Although they never wiped out many people at a time, and none of their victories counted as particularly significant, the Konoha Ninja who died at their hands over time added up to no small number.
Gradually... it was not just Konoha that learned people from Sunagakure were ambushing their units throughout the Land of Grass.
Even Iwagakure caught wind of it... a three-man Sunagakure squad was highly active behind Konoha's front lines.
Among them, there seemed to be two outstanding youngsters.
On the battlefield, age was not the sole measure of a ninja... although Yubi and Sasori were very young, as enemies... neither Konoha's ninja nor those from other villages would underestimate them.
Strength... was what mattered.
Before they knew it, half a year had passed in the blink of an eye.
Over those six months, Yubi truly experienced the hardship of fighting on a battlefield for an extended period.
To avoid Konoha's attempts to lure them into a trap... they had to exercise extreme caution in every operation, checking repeatedly that it was safe before striking.
It could be said that, regardless of how difficult a target was to kill, they were risking their lives at every moment.
Even though they constantly shifted their area of operations within the Land of Grass, fearing a response from Konoha's local forces, the Land of Grass was not large to begin with. As they remained active for longer... the potential dangers they faced grew as well. If Konoha wanted to commit resources to dealing with them, it would not be difficult.
As such, the three-man squad had to remain highly sensitive to battlefield intelligence and rumors... even the slightest stir demanded vigilance.
There was also... the limited amount of supplies they could carry. As time passed and combat depleted their stocks, life for the three of them was harsh as well... early on, they could still loot things like soldier pills and ninja tools from corpses or seize them.
Later, however, going hungry became commonplace.
They also had to remain under constant mental strain.
Inside a camouflaged cave.
Yubi leaned against the wall, idly playing with his scalpel.
Beside him, Sasori was maintaining his puppet parts.
As they spent more time together, Yubi's understanding of puppeteers deepened.
For an outstanding puppeteer, beyond the fundamentals-the ability to control puppets... what mattered more was the ability to build them.
With the same puppet, other puppeteers might only be able to install or design a handful of mechanisms, but Sasori could arm it to the teeth.
And neither the puppet's own "strength" nor its effectiveness in battle would suffer greatly from having too many mechanisms installed.
Sasori truly deserved to be called a genius puppeteer.
From an entire component down to a single wooden board... Sasori knew it all inside out.
The materials used to design and construct puppets... commercially available items suitable for puppets, as well as... planning different puppets' fighting styles, types, and functions in his head beforehand, then realizing them perfectly, and so on-he displayed all these supplementary abilities to the fullest.
Simply perfect.
On some level, even Yubi felt... it really was art.
Just like medical ninja, who needed extensive medical knowledge in addition to being able to use medical ninjutsu and demonstrate its formidable power.
Of course, the key to Sasori making the Puppet Technique so distinctive in his hands was his "talent" as a ninja.
Everything mentioned above... concerned only the puppets themselves.
Otherwise, even if he could create extraordinary puppets, it would be pointless if he struggled to use them.
There was a reason Yubi thought this.
During this time, Sasori had deliberately sought his advice as a medical ninja on aspects of "human anatomy"... clearly, Sasori wanted to apply that knowledge to human puppets.
Although he could already create human puppets, they differed only in appearance and possessed no "special properties."
What Sasori wanted... was a "core" that could drive a puppet to use the ninjutsu it had possessed in life.
That inevitably involved the mysteries of "life."
This was Yubi's specialty.
Even though Sasori had built some foundations thanks to Chiyo, he was still... nowhere near Yubi's level.
Naturally, Yubi was also happy to help Sasori create a "puppet core" ahead of time... so whenever the two had nothing to do, they would discuss it and experiment in private.
Of course, all of this was done behind Arai's back.
"I've never been away from the village this long before..."
Yubi sighed.
Hearing this, Sasori remained unmoved, assembling the puppet parts one by one and sealing them into a scroll.
"Judging by recent developments on the battlefield, Iwagakure probably doesn't intend to fight Konoha to the bitter end. They're very likely to withdraw."
After finishing up, Sasori slowly rose and spoke dispassionately, his face as expressionless as ever.
"I really want some of Uncle Masao's vinegar rice balls... I've almost forgotten what they taste like."
Yubi licked his lips.
"..."
Sasori.
By now, Sasori could not even be bothered to comment on Yubi anymore.
"In the blink of an eye, we're both ten. Time really flies..."
Yubi sighed again.
"What exactly is inside that head of yours? Don't forget... you're still on a battlefield."
Sasori said coldly.
"I know."
Yubi grinned, baring his teeth.
Just then, both their expressions changed.
A birdcall came from outside the cave.
Hearing it, Yubi knew their captain, Arai, had returned, and responded with an imitation call.
A moment later, after confirming everything was clear, Arai came in from outside.
"The village received word that several battle lines at the rear of Iwagakure's battlefield have already pulled back."
Arai said.
The main reason their three-man squad had operated relatively "smoothly" over the past six months was that several villages were sharing intelligence on Konoha.
Information from Sunagakure and Iwagakure alone would not have allowed them to last this long.
That included intelligence purchased from the underground black market.
These were all commonplace on the battlefields of the shinobi world.
On the surface, this Shinobi World War was extremely brutal, yet it also supported many organizations that made their living selling intelligence.
This was also one reason so many ninja from other countries and rogue ninja were currently appearing in the Land of Grass.
"So it's ending..."
Although Yubi had anticipated it, he still voiced the thought.
With that, as far as open warfare between ninja villages went,
only Kumogakure and Konoha would remain.
In the end, Iwagakure had failed to gain anything at Konoha's expense.
It also showed that, as one of the Sannin, Orochimaru was not only powerful himself, but also an exceptionally capable battlefield commander in terms of military strategy.
It could be said that, judging solely by contributions to the village during this Second Shinobi World War, Orochimaru undoubtedly deserved enormous credit.
Orochimaru contributed during the future Third Shinobi World War too... by any reasonable standard, he was more than qualified to inherit the Hokage position... what a shame... A thought flashed through Yubi's mind.
Perhaps this was also one of the reasons Orochimaru left Konoha.
Even after doing so much, he still received no recognition... it seemed even Konoha's ordinary citizens had little fondness for him.
To a large extent, Yubi's plans in Sunagakure drew on the example of Orochimaru's failed bid for the Hokage position.
Beyond achievements... building a good reputation among people was also very necessary.
Minato Namikaze, Naruto... both were like that.
"Let's go... erase our traces. The mission is officially over."
"We need to leave ahead of them. Otherwise, once the two villages withdraw and Konoha has forces to spare, they'll inevitably set their sights on us!"
Arai said.
"All right."