Haseo led a unit of ninja departing from Konoha, traveling through the night toward the easternmost front line of the Land of Fire.
What they were tasked to protect was a vast sea.
The eastern defensive and surveillance zone was much like it had been during the last war. After all, the Land of Fire only needed to remain vigilant against Kiri across the sea.
However, Konoha's external situation had changed slightly compared to the previous war. This time, the Uzumaki clan had already integrated into Konoha internally, meaning that it had lost an important external support point—the Land of Whirlpools as a nation could no longer provide assistance to Konoha.
Having had constant external support in the past and now being fully integrated—this shift naturally carried both advantages and drawbacks; from a wartime perspective alone, its full implications couldn't be precisely evaluated.
Furthermore, northeast of Haseo's assigned frontline was the Land of Iron—a territory declared neutral by the Ninjutsu World according to agreement. Compared to the entire border of the Land of Fire, the defensive zone assigned to Haseo's unit wasn't particularly long.
During the previous conflict, Kumo ninja entering the Land of Iron caused a series of troubles, so even if another shinobi war broke out, under normal circumstances, nobody would dare provoke the samurai lightly.
That was certainly good news for Haseo.
If there were no combat missions and the task was purely one of surveillance, the number of personnel under his command was more than enough to handle it comfortably.
In addition to regular combat ninja, Haseo's force also included a medical team composed of three squads totaling twelve members. Overall, the proportion of medical ninja wasn't high, but just enough to manage—considering how scarce medical ninja were during wartime, Haseo had little reason to complain.
The group departed in the evening and advanced steadily. By noon the next day, they had already reached their mission location. After all, when a large group of ninja traveled together, their speed could never match solo or small-unit travel, and besides, Haseo hadn't ordered them to move at maximum speed either.
Upon arriving at the eastern coastal area of the Land of Fire, instead of resting immediately, the unit instantly deployed formations.
They split into reconnaissance units and fanned out along the Eastern Front according to prearranged positions. Although their primary objective was to monitor Kiri, due to limited combat strength, Haseo eventually stipulated that Konoha ninja must not cross the north-south longitudinal axis of the Land of Whirlpools. As a result, their maximum scouting range started from the Land of Whirlpools itself and extended eastward as far as their reconnaissance methods allowed.
"This will have to do. We're working with very limited manpower. Although hiding the command headquarters is necessary, exactly how effective that concealment can be really depends on Kiri's counter-reconnaissance capabilities."
Haseo chose a dense forest roughly five kilometers inland as the location for his command headquarters—even though his force wasn't large, a group of 150 ninja was still considered a half-company in these times.
Ninjas were supposed to operate in small, precise units. Naturally, a streamlined command system was required for such a large-scale gathering.
"If the terrain could be just a bit higher, that would be ideal. However, given that the seaside mostly consists of open beaches and alluvial plains, this spot is already pretty decent," said Uzumaki Shikou standing beside Haseo. Although relying solely on topography and vegetation couldn't completely block enemy reconnaissance and detection, even visual concealment was better than nothing.
"There's another important factor too," Haseo added. "If it's a good spot for us to scout from, it's just as likely to be spotted by the enemy. The same goes for the location of the command headquarters—'the perfect position' means the enemy will find it easily as well."
Uzumaki Shikou nodded. "Then if we're choosing this spot, I'll go ahead and set up defensive barriers and camouflage barriers against detection first. Once these outer barriers are set up, we'll activate the centralized chakra detection jutsu patterns, and finally, we can begin building the basic infrastructure of the command center."
Large, centralized chakra-sensing techniques were a technology that Konoha hadn't fully mastered during the last Great Ninja War. Precisely speaking, it was a new technology developed after the Uzumaki clan arrived in Konoha, through cooperation between the village and other research and development departments.
No one could deny how advanced this technology was. Once this detection barrier was activated, it would cover an area extending westward from the Land of Hot Springs, nearly crossing the midline of the sea separating the Land of Fire and the Land of Water.
Any notable chakra activity within the range would show up on our sensors. Compared to traditional point- and line-based detection methods like the Uzumaki's sensing or the Byakugan's perception, this regional scanning technique offered vastly enhanced systematic functionality.
Yet, although technically advanced, this kind of massive "radar" wasn't revolutionary by any means—in fact, in some ways, it reflected a decline in ninjas' abilities. After all, during the previous great war, something like this had been entirely unnecessary for Konoha.
Why? Because back then, almost nothing stirred across the entire ninja world without escaping the Second Hokage's awareness. His perception alone surpassed the range of such scanning techniques beyond comparison.
And not only that—it was faster, sharper, and gave immediate results without delay.
In a way, using the Second Hokage as a living radar by unearthing him wouldn't have been a bad idea. Although the Second Hokage didn't even have a grave, Haseo believed he satisfied all the conditions required for Impure World Reincarnation.
Unfortunately, messing with life and death violated fundamental human ethics. The Third Hokage deeply respected his teacher and certainly wouldn't allow the deceased to be disturbed again. To take it further, if they were going to dig up the Second for radar duty, why not dig up the First as well for frontline combat? Where would it end?
The First's wife was still alive. Would the grandson of her deceased husband really go that far? Messing with the dead like this—it's practically defying the heavens.
Too bad… No, wait—nah, scratch that. The current Detection Jutsu Pattern works just fine, so no need to feel bad about it.
He spread his Detection Jutsu Pattern open like a massive radar. Within the radar's detection range, he filled it with ninja squads serving as mobile observation points. The Detection Jutsu Pattern's powerful sensing ability provided the first layer of protection for the scout ninjas, while the scouts fed more detailed intelligence back into the detection barrier. Together, they formed a complex and systematic wartime information network.
Communication between ninja squads and between the squads and the command headquarters was another matter. Summoned beasts or tamed birds could theoretically handle everyday communication needs, but in the most urgent situations, Haseo planned to summon Katsuyu for the reconnaissance units.
Although individual Katsuyu couldn't instantly communicate telepathically like walkie-talkies, once one Katsuyu dismissed its summoning, all the intelligence it had gathered would return to the original Katsuyu's consciousness—that was basically equivalent to retrieving the intelligence itself.
In truth, Katsuyu's ability to infinitely split and re-fuse was kind of unreal.
As for overall team setup, considering this surveillance mission was long-term in nature, and unless Kirigakure launched a large-scale attack, the operation might last all the way until the end of the war. To ensure sustainability, Haseo divided all 150 ninjas into three groups, allowing two groups to carry out missions while one rested, rotating accordingly.
If you broke it down by day, these ninjas were looking at years of nonstop routine—working sixteen hours daily and resting only eight.
Put like that, even ninjas aren't all that impressive anymore—if modern humans pushed themselves just a little harder, they'd be matching ninja-level endurance.
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