Konoha's frontline camp had once again been built near mountains and water. Aside from being larger than the one in the Whirlpool Country, it looked nearly identical.
After passing through a round of security checks, Uchiha Gen entered the camp and was soon guided by a Chūnin to Orochimaru's command tent.
It was dinner time, so master and disciple ate while they talked.
"Orochimaru-sensei, how exactly are we going to slack off this time?" Gen asked, biting into a chicken leg, his words slightly muffled.
No matter how relaxed they planned to be, harvesting souls remained essential for him. Kyouki's birth had drained him further, and he was still far from the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.
There was a trade-off. He had skipped the pain and despair of the Sharingan's natural evolution, which meant he couldn't advance in the usual way.
Progress required a different path.
"Heh… If we want to slack off, we first need to give Kumogakure a proper thrashing," Orochimaru said with a sly smile. "Otherwise, they'll never leave us in peace."
He calmly plucked a boiled egg with his chopsticks and swallowed it whole.
"That makes sense," Gen admitted, "but what's the plan?"
"I hear the Two-Tails' Jinchūriki has been dispatched to the front."
Gen raised a brow. "Should we be worried?"
"No," Orochimaru said smoothly, "our intel suggests her control isn't mature yet. She should only be capable of partial transformation, not a full Tailed Beast state."
"Should be?"
"There's always the chance Kumogakure planted false intel," Orochimaru conceded, "but it's unlikely. If she could fully transform, unleashing her would escalate the war drastically. Kumogakure shouldn't be that reckless."
He smiled faintly. "So the answer is simple...we crush them head-on. Kumogakure won't be moved by tricks or schemes."
"Perfect," Gen smirked. "I prefer head-on anyway. The Two-Tails Jinchūriki is all yours, Sensei."
Orochimaru's golden eyes narrowed. "Why not you?"
Gen froze, then pointed at himself. "Listen to yourself. What kind of teacher throws a Jinchūriki at his disciple? Isn't that your job?"
"Why not?" Orochimaru's voice dripped with amusement. "I think you're more than capable."
Gen gave a wry grin. "I think I could do it too, but it's troublesome. Ordinary ninja are easier to bully."
"You'll need to shoulder most of the real military work from now on," Orochimaru said matter-of-factly.
Gen was speechless. So that's why he feels justified slacking off… he's offloading the dangerous parts on me.
"…Fine."
After dinner came the mobilization meeting. Once it ended, Gen retired to his tent for rest.
The next morning, with energy from breakfast fueling them, Konoha launched its assault under Orochimaru's command.
Just as they had discussed the night before, there was nothing subtle about the strategy. The army advanced directly, forcing Kumogakure to either retreat or fight.
Dodai, Kumogakure's frontline commander, nicknamed the 'Rubber Uncle' in the tales Naruto once told, chose to fight. His Bloodline Limit, after all, was famously effective against Lightning Release.
With Orochimaru and other senior Konoha officers personally leading the charge, morale among the troops soared. Konoha surged forward like a roaring blaze.
Seeing that, Dodai, Yugito, and the other Kumogakure leaders had no choice but to also lead from the front, lest morale falter and their lines collapse.
Although shinobi wars didn't follow rigid military formations, large-scale battles still required some degree of structure.
The two armies closed across the plain. With shinobi eyesight, they could already see the determination, or fear, etched on their opponents' faces.
A breath later, as if by unspoken agreement, both sides unleashed volleys of kunai and shuriken.
The sky darkened under the storm of weapons, like a black cloud descending.
Konoha's barrage was denser, not from superior numbers, but from jōnin employing the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.
The storm of steel fell. Both sides scrambled with substitution, deflection, or ninjutsu, but few escaped unscathed. Screams echoed as blood splattered across the plain.
Genin suffered the heaviest losses, while unlucky chūnin fell as well. The jōnin, however, weathered it unhurt.
Uchiha Gen's Sharingan gleamed. The battlefield before him was a harvest waiting to be reaped.
Then the two armies crashed together, and chaos erupted.
Most shinobi struggled to weave signs while charging; ninjutsu usually required a moment of relative stillness.
Gen blurred forward with sudden acceleration. One instant he was gone, the next he appeared before a Kumogakure ninja, hand clamping around his throat.
Momentum made the grab brutal. The man's breath seized, eyes rolling back. Gen tilted his head slightly, tomoe spinning as the Sharingan locked him in a trance. His soul and lifespan were devoured in an instant.
Clang, clang, clang!
Kunai rained in. Gen swung the Kusanagi Sword, steel ringing as he deflected them aside. Two more Kumogakure ninja leapt high, one from each side, closing in.
Hidden Shadow Snake Hand.
With a flick of his left sleeve, six venomous serpents shot forth, fangs bared, while the Kusanagi in his right hand extended like lightning.
One enemy managed to parry but was blasted back by the sword strike. The other wasn't so lucky as two snakes slipped past his guard, sinking fangs into his waist and abdomen.
"Aaagh!" He screamed, convulsing, crashing to the earth. His face blackened with venom before Gen's gaze caught him. A heartbeat later, his soul too was stolen.
Zzzt!
A jagged bolt of lightning cracked across the battlefield, spearing for Gen's temple. He calmly swung his sword, releasing his own lightning blade to intercept.
A Kumogakure upper-nin crouched low, avoiding Gen's gaze, palms pressed to the ground.
Lightning Release: Ground Flash!
Blue-white current erupted like a nest of serpents racing across the field.
Gen drove Shizukamaru into the earth. The blade roared, unleashing torrents of lightning that devoured the enemy's technique and then surged outward in retaliation.
Shizukamaru had been charged by his younger brother Kyouki, its body brimming with stored lightning, ready for release.
The Kumogakure shinobi leapt back, startled. Gen narrowed his eyes and pushed more chakra. Lightning snakes fused into a single massive bolt, thick as a tree trunk, which speared skyward.
The man swung his blade, wrapped in lightning, trying to counter.
"Ugh—!"
It wasn't enough. The conjured lightning collapsed, the bolt surged through his weapon and into his body, wracking him with agony as smoke poured from his frame.
Gen blurred forward, stomping down on his chest. He leaned in, Sharingan spinning to drag away the man's soul—
—but a sudden volley of kunai screamed in, several tied with explosive tags.
That was the battlefield's truth: danger struck without warning.
Vacuum Sword!
Without even glancing up, Gen swung the blade in a horizontal arc.
A lattice of wind blades swept out, shredding the kunai and hurling them back the way they'd come. Explosions blossomed in the Kumogakure lines, followed by screams; some from blades, others from detonations.