Inside the capital of the Sarutobi Clan, it was only at this moment that they finally discovered the Uchiha had arrived at their doorstep, because they had been unable to contact the towns ahead and the nearest towns where war taxes had not been paid.
This caused a bit of panic among everyone. How could the Uchiha be so fast? Their army had only just gathered and hadn't even deployed yet. If the Uchiha took two more steps forward, they would really be heading straight for their capital.
By then, all their previous efforts would have been in vain. At best, they could defend the capital, but they would never be able to reclaim the territories conquered by the Uchiha.
Moreover, he had to sleep Tenten, but he couldn't sleep at all. He had to face the direct threat from the Uchiha all day long, which completely reversed the situation. He went from harassing the Uchiha Uchiha being harassed by them.
And most importantly, it's incredibly expensive; the war taxes collected will be gone in no time.
Fortunately, perhaps due to various reasons—maybe logistical problems, or insufficient funds— the Uchiha halted their offensive and gathered in a town closest to the capital.
Such unusual behavior caught them completely off guard. They wondered if the Uchiha were plotting something, and somehow they themselves had managed to find several reasons to Uchiha there.
Yukimichi Uchiha had originally planned to feign a situation, such as insufficient logistics, but before he could even begin to fabricate a story or release the news, Sarutobi had already taken care of the rest for him.
Regardless of anything else, the Uchiha have already reached our doorstep, that's a fact; the situation is dire, that's also a fact; we must accelerate the mobilization and deployment of our forces.
Yukimichi Uchiha: Yes, yes, speed it up! Yes, bring them all over here!
Thus, the Sarutobi Clan began a frantic troop mobilization, quickly gathering almost all their military forces from across the country to the capital and commencing their deployment.
What they failed to notice was that all their actions were being observed by the Uchiha. Did they really think the Hyuga Clan brought by the Uchiha were incompetent?
With the help of the Hyuga clan's exceptional reconnaissance abilities, Yukimichi Uchiha gained complete control over all the movements of the Sarutobi Clan.
He had a complete grasp of everything, from troop movements and deployments to logistical supply lines.
The Sarutobi Clan divided the 800 people they had brought in into four small units, one each in the southeast, northwest, and southwest.
The eastern squad was first moved southeast, allowing the Uchiha Clan to enter. Then, their retreat was quickly cut off, and troops from all four directions simultaneously surrounded and encircled the Uchiha Clan.
From the Sarutobi Clan's perspective, this plan was flawless. With an overwhelming advantage of 800 men, they could easily crush the Uchiha's 400 members. By surrounding them and demoralizing them, they could indeed very well defeat the Uchiha Clan.
However, in Yukimichi Uchiha's view, this plan was riddled with flaws.
First, if the Uchiha Shin have 400 members, let's assume there are 400. Even if the Uchiha Clan steps into your encirclement, how can you guarantee that the people from all four directions can quickly Uchiha surround them?
Any attack that isn't simultaneous is basically handing the Uchiha free prey. Given the Sarutobi Clan's military mobilization capabilities, is a simultaneous encirclement truly possible? That remains to be seen.
Even if they did manage to surround them simultaneously, isn't that underestimating the Uchiha a bit too much? With 400 Uchiha members trapped in a desperate situation, they could be easily broken through from any direction. Do you really think the Uchiha Clan is as weak as they are?
Unlike other clans, when the Uchiha Clan is in dire straits, almost every member doesn't think about how to escape, or that being in a desperate situation means certain death.
Everyone was thinking about how to survive being surrounded without losing anything; they had to at least trade one or two lives for one of them.
Trying to lower the Uchiha's morale by surrounding them is absolutely impossible. Neither Uchiha personality nor their underlying code would allow them to lower their morale.
Unless you surround the Uchiha's majority with a minority and demonstrate power several times greater than Uchiha, it's unlikely you can break Uchiha mentality.
Otherwise, even if 100 people surrounded and attacked one person, that Uchiha wouldn't experience a drop in morale.
He would actually feel incredibly proud, being able to be surrounded by 100 enemies – doesn't that just prove his strength?
The idea that they could use numerical superiority to psychologically intimidate the Uchiha is utter nonsense. From the Uchiha's perspective, with their Uchiha strength, isn't it perfectly reasonable for them to fight against overwhelming odds?
If it were a case of outnumbered opponents, they wouldn't even bother, feeling ashamed for bullying the weak.
In short, from the very beginning, the Sarutobi Clan's plan was doomed to fail.
Both in terms of the target audience and the implementation of the plan, there were flaws throughout, destined to exist only in fantasy and theory.
Under Yukimichi Uchiha's close observation, and after the Sarutobi Clan had almost completed their mobilization, Yukimichi Uchiha finally made his move.
These past few days, his Uchiha clansmen have been getting restless, Tenten clamoring to charge into battle and fight the Sarutobi Clan to the death.
Like a wolf that has been starving for days suddenly released from its cage, it displayed astonishing fighting spirit and speed.
This caused Yukimichi Uchiha. He estimated it would take about a day to reach the capital of the Sarutobi Clan, but he arrived in less than half a day.
Here, Yukimichi Uchiha must once again marvel at the strength of the Uchiha Clan —their unwavering resolve to neither fear the strength of their enemies nor pity their weakness. This is their ninja way.
Just as the Yukimichi Uchiha army arrived at their destination, the Sarutobi Clan successfully discovered them.
At this moment, Yukimichi Uchiha appeared to them like a headless fly, having unwittingly stepped into their trap without realizing it.
Yukimichi Uchiha: Hard to say...
After confirming that Yukimichi Uchiha had indeed led his team into their trap, almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief, followed by wild joy—the plan had succeeded!
The main force of the Uchiha Clan now has one foot in the grave.
If the plan continues to be implemented, this main force of the Uchiha Clan will be completely annihilated! The Sarutobi Clan can then avenge their humiliation against the Uchiha Clan.
Let's seize this opportunity to completely crush the Uchiha Clan!
The Sarutobi Clan is now completely unrestrained, celebrating wildly, and even dreaming of conquering the Uchiha capital.
Those who know the truth will understand that their plan to surround 500 Uchiha succeeded; those who don't might think they had surrounded and annihilated the entire Uchiha.
However, it's clear they overlooked the Uchiha's war potential. The Uchiha's current apparent small force isn't due to a lack of manpower; it's simply that the Uchiha Takashi doesn't want to exploit their nation's full potential.
In plain terms, there wasn't a full-scale mobilization; only a portion was mobilized, and the mobilization rate wasn't high. The Uchiha Clan was far from being on the verge of collapse.
If the Sarutobi Clan were to actually wipe out this Uchiha force, Uchiha Takashi could easily muster another force of several hundred men if he wanted to.
Therefore, the Sarutobi Clan's current dream can only remain a daydream in their imagination.