That afternoon, the Third Hokage ordered Shen Uchiha—the head of the Scientific Combat Division—to compensate for economic losses totaling 500 million ryō, citing property damage as the reason.
"I'll get you booted out one day," Shen Uchiha inwardly cursed after paying the fine.
"Er, that technique of yours… Was it…" the Third Hokage hinted vaguely.
Did he really think Shen would honestly confess just because he paid the fine?
"No way. You must be seeing things, old man," Shen immediately denied the baseless suspicion while subtly implying the other was regressing—how ridiculous his guess was!
The Third Hokage's eyes flickered; he realized this was something better left unsaid.
"Alright, alright. It must have been my mistake."
"Hmph. Not bad, old man. You're pretty reasonable."
The two were now in an unspoken understanding: you know my secret, but I refuse to admit it.
Who knew whether Konoha had any internal spies? If someone found out, maybe in a few days he'd be kidnapped!
Luckily, most of the witnesses at the time didn't understand what such environmental-changing ability truly implied.
As long as both the Third and Shen played dumb, this matter could remain buried.
"Aha, nothing else then. I should go. Didn't sleep much last night."
"Wait," the Third called out, stopping Shen, whose body was already halfway out the office door.
"Bring me that Sealing Scroll."
A sudden black figure leaping over the wall startled Shen slightly—it was Xiang.
Soon, Xiang placed a smaller scroll on the desk.
"This one?"
"Yes, this is it."
"Just like that? That's too easy."
"I'm letting you keep it overnight. Whatever you can pick up is up to you. If you want to see it again next time, you'll need another 500 million ryō."
Their underhanded, secretive exchange prompted both the Hokage and Shen to smirk in mutual understanding.
"Old man, isn't this considered abusing your authority?"
"I didn't. I only know if others discover it, it'll be considered stolen by you."
"Nonsense! Dozens of barriers—it'd take three or five days, minimum, to get through!"
"I knew you had intentions toward it all along. Confessed without even being asked, didn't you?"
After going at each other hammer and tongs, the two finally cooled down.
Shen noticed the outside window was nearly sunset, realizing they'd argued the entire afternoon away.
"Gotta go before Mom freaks out about dinner. Don't bother seeing me off, old man."
"I never planned to walk you out, you little rascal!" The Third shouted loudly at Shen's retreating back.
Then he felt, for the first time in a long while, completely relaxed.
Ever since receiving the frontline call last night, he'd been anxious nonstop.
It wasn't a bad move for a commander to personally leave base and conduct guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines—at least not in theory. But one wrong step, and they could find themselves surrounded instead.
Still, with large-capacity public transport available, evacuation wouldn't be a problem.
He was particularly worried that two of his disappointing apprentices, despite his repeated warnings, were still unable to grasp the situation and failed to retreat when they should have.
"I hope Orochimaru and Sakumo won't disappoint this old man!" The Third Hokage sighed, then resumed the official duties he had set aside for the entire day.
Meanwhile, chaos reigned in the Kumo military camp.
Sustained guerrilla strikes from all four directions—east, south, west, and north—left the Kumo ninjas exhausted and frustrated.
Yet Yi, serving as commander, calmly sipped tea while carefully studying the topographic map.
"The west and the north are both plains; Konoha and Yugakure will definitely reserve their stronger forces for the east and south."
Clearly visible to any sharp-eyed observer was the fact that the troops attacking the southeastern fronts couldn't move far away from the Land of Lightning. Therefore, sending out strong ninja was an entirely reasonable choice.
"At midnight tonight, let's test their alertness!"
Yi decided to send small units as bait to see whether those four opposing commanders would actually fall for it.
Deep within the night-shrouded Land of Lightning, on a high mountain some ten kilometers away from the Kumo military camp,
Tsunade returned after treating several injured Yugakure shinobi.
In a good mood today, she had gone out to harass the enemy earlier and discovered something interesting—that many ninja casualties weren't entirely caused by battle.
Often, injuries worsened due to lack of timely treatment, ultimately resulting in battlefield deaths.
The few Yugakure shinobi Tsunade had just treated hadn't sustained serious wounds at all; using only a little chakra, she'd restored them completely.
"Assigning a Medical Ninja to every single squad is quite impractical."
During a game of cards earlier, Shen had offhandedly shared his views on medical shinobi deployment.
Simply put, training Medical Ninjas was extremely costly, and in chaotic battlefields, it was hard to protect healers who couldn't fight back.
Therefore, Tsunade understood why having one Medical Ninja per team was considered something of a luxury.
So most Konoha ninjas sent here possessed some basic Medical Ninjutsu skills. Though they couldn't handle severe injuries, they could resolve minor ones independently.
As for those severely wounded, retreating was actually a more viable option than risking field treatment.
At least if one person died, others wouldn't be dragged down with him.
This was the prevailing belief among most high-ranking officers in Konoha.
Still, the sight of so many wounded Yugakure shinobi today subtly challenged the belief deeply ingrained in Tsunade's mind.
"If we were at a disadvantage, things would certainly be different," Tsunade thought, her gaze growing increasingly determined.
She now believed that, based on Konoha's current economic power, providing every squad with a dedicated Medical Ninja was well within reach.
"Captain! We've detected some small groups of Kumo ninja patrolling nearby!"
The voice from outside the tent interrupted Tsunade's thoughts.
Slipping back into the combat vest she'd just removed, she stepped outside.
"What's happening? Are these Kumo ninja searching for our location?"
"Captain, probably so."
They'd been under constant harassment all day. If Kumogakure didn't send someone out soon, something was seriously off.
Tsunade didn't sense any traps here. "Everyone, get ready! Move out in two minutes!"
Thanks to the communication devices, they had no reason to worry at all.
Meanwhile, over a hundred Kumo ninja who had intentionally revealed their presence quickly regrouped in an organized fashion and began methodically climbing the mountain from the base upward.
"I hope their commander isn't too dumb. Otherwise, we'll wipe out the whole unit," said the Kumogakure Junior Captain walking at the very back of the group, seeming to have great expectations for this joint Konoha-Yugakure unit.
For these pro-war factions within Kumogakure, war was where they showed their true worth.
And using those hundred ninja as cover, even more Kumo reinforcements were slipping silently into the mountain range.
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