Ever since getting scolded by Xin, Fugaku had worn a sour face, which left the rest of the Uchiha members confused and clueless.
What exactly did Xin say to their clan head?
It was enough to put Fugaku in such a bad mood.
Some even approached Mikoto privately, asking if she could find out from Xin what the two had talked about.
Unfortunately for them, Mikoto refused.
She had no interest in what Xin and Fugaku discussed. If Xin didn't bring it up on his own, she wasn't going to ask.
The group marched on, neither too fast nor too slow, arriving at the coastline camp two days later, just as expected.
With the arrival of the third wave of reinforcements, Konoha's forces at the coastline now numbered over 2,500.
In the war with Kirigakure, Konoha adopted an elite strategy, rather than sending masses of expendable soldiers to the front.
Naval battles were extremely unfriendly to low-ranking ninjas. On land, even a Genin might have a chance of surviving a battle, but at sea, when fighting grew fierce, survival for weaker shinobi was a challenge at a high level of difficulty.
Since the battlefields could shift from land to sea or even to small islands, Konoha's camp was split into a main camp and a sub-camp.
The main camp, under Orochimaru's command, was on the coastline, while the sub-camp was stationed at the Land of Whirlpools, with Jiraiya in charge.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya used their summons to quickly pass messages back and forth, so even though the camps were far apart, communication wasn't an issue.
The reason for setting up two camps was that the initiative was in Kirigakure's hands. If Konoha had placed their main camp at the Land of Whirlpools outpost, it would have been easy for Kirigakure to intercept supplies and reinforcements, or even surround their forces.
But Orochimaru wasn't someone to mess with easily.
He set up the main and sub-camps so that the main camp could always issue commands from the rear, while the sub-camp responded to enemy attacks at the front.
With Jiraiya in charge of the sub-camp, Orochimaru had no worries about handing it over. Despite Jiraiya's unreliability in some areas, he was dependable in critical moments.
Thus, the main and sub-camp setup was finalized.
In practice, Orochimaru's decision proved correct. With the camps supporting each other, Kirigakure's attempts at harassment and ambush had all ended in failure.
"Is that Xin?"
"Yeah, it's him. I heard that not too long ago, his squad completed a mission at sea, where they killed Hoshigaki Fuguki of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and forced Yagura to retreat."
"He's carrying the sword Samehada on his back. Kirigakure tried to negotiate to get it back, but the village refused."