"Present."
To Shikaku Nara's relief, Ronglin didn't go against him this time like he usually did.
"The village needs your power, and we need it too," Shikaku said, his expression grave as he looked at Ronglin. "I hope that in the upcoming battles, you can unleash your full strength just as you did on the Land of Wind battlefield and leave the enemy with nothing but shattered armor."
Ronglin's eyebrows arched slightly. He looked at Shikaku's serious, yet still somewhat youthful face, and asked with a smirk, "Are you sure?"
Did unleashing one's full strength really require a confirmation?
Shikaku couldn't help but mimic Ronglin's expression, his own eyebrows twitching. "I'm sure!!"
Ronglin let out a silent chuckle and rubbed his chin, deep in thought. Tsunade gave him a sharp nudge, prompting him to roll his eyes at her.
What was that for? I haven't even refused yet.
Tsunade glared back at him, her eyes speaking volumes: If you aren't refusing, why are you sitting there asking if he's sure?
Fine, you win!
Ronglin raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. Their silent exchange caused the expressions of everyone else in the command headquarters to turn quite peculiar.
"If you want me to unleash my full strength, you'd better think of a way to lure the enemies out," Ronglin said. "If there are too few of them, I'll just exhaust myself for nothing. You wouldn't want me to drop dead from fatigue, would you?"
The phrase "unleash full strength" carried a heavy weight. Ronglin had no intention of letting Shikaku Nara point him in a direction and letting him charge blindly like a mindless bull.
"Lure the enemies out? Do you mean... lumping as many of them together as possible?"
The Nara Clan was known as the smartest family in Konoha, and Shikaku was certainly no fool. He understood Ronglin's meaning instantly.
I can go all out, but you have to make sure the enemy is bunched up. Don't just make me charge all over the place!
"Exactly. Because there's only one chance," Ronglin added. "Once it's missed, the enemy will become cautious. It'll be difficult to try the same thing again."
In standard frontal warfare, the impact a Kage-level expert could have was often limited. If you were too weak, you'd be mobbed; if you were too strong, the enemy would bolt the moment they saw you.
In such a situation, what could a person do? Spend the whole day chasing groups of people across the mountains?
Ronglin wasn't Madara Uchiha. If it were Madara, he wouldn't care how many enemies were gathered; he would simply manifest his Susanoo and tear through their ranks in a frenzy of slaughter.
In truth, that was exactly how the Madara of old had operated especially after transplanting the Mangekyo of Izuna Uchiha, which eliminated the risk of going blind. Any ordinary enemy would have crumbled under the pressure of his assault. Unfortunately for him, he had a lifelong rival to face: Hashirama Senju.
The battlefield was Hashirama's home turf. A few Wood Release techniques were usually enough to stall the momentum of any charge.
"Is that so?"
This was the first time Shikaku Nara had heard that unleashing one's full power required the enemy to be lured into a cluster. However, since Ronglin had made his requirement clear, Shikaku had to give it weight. If he made this guy unhappy again and Ronglin just threw up his hands and quit, Shikaku would be left with a massive headache.
It was like ancient warfare; no matter how brilliant the strategist, if no general was willing to take the field, the strategist could only sit back and watch with wide eyes.
Furthermore, Ronglin was the type of person no one could truly handle. You couldn't say he wasn't putting in effort, because he tore through the enemy ranks until they were jumping in fright; yet you couldn't call him diligent either, as he was liable to slack off whenever he felt like it.
Even Tsunade found herself hitting a brick wall with him, eventually having no choice but to simply endure it.
"I'll do my best," Shikaku promised after a moment of reflection.
Ronglin nodded, saying nothing more. He'd wait for Shikaku to actually pull it off. He wasn't like that fellow Madara, who loved charging around in a Susanoo, not caring if he ended up covered in wounds.
This brat!
Tsunade was speechless. She didn't know what to say, given that Ronglin had technically agreed to follow orders. But if they wanted him to actually put in the work, they had to lure the enemy out in large numbers.
On a battlefield, few people dared to make counter-demands like Ronglin did not even the heads of the great clans.
"Kid, what exactly are you planning?" Tsunade asked irritably once the meeting ended and only she, Ronglin, and Shikaku remained.
"Nothing much. I just want to hit the enemy hard enough to make them hurt," Ronglin replied with a shrug. "The opportunity only comes once. If we don't seize it, we'll be stuck in a slow war of attrition. You know our situation; we won't be getting any reinforcements. Our only choice is to cut down the enemy's strength as much as possible."
Ronglin spread his hands innocently, acting as though he were just trying to be helpful rather than making demands.
"What is the maximum limit?" Shikaku asked. He wasn't sure what "enough" looked like to Ronglin. Was it hundreds? Thousands? Or more?
"The more the merrier," Ronglin said with a smirk, shaking his head as he stood up to leave. "By the way, I won't be showing my face much before then. I'll wait until we've dealt them a heavy blow before I make an appearance, just so they don't catch on too early."
"Understood," Shikaku agreed. If Ronglin appeared too frequently, the enemy would surely grow wary, making the plan even harder to execute.
"Then you two carry on with your discussion. Call me if you need me." Ronglin let out a yawn and walked out.
To be honest, these meetings were incredibly tedious. Everything had to be calculated down to the smallest detail; Ronglin truly admired how Shikaku Nara could stand it.
Isn't it just a secret technique? It was related to Yin Release. The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan also fell under the domain of Yin Release, yet Ronglin wondered why the Uchiha rarely produced people who were so fond of using their brains.
"Lady Tsunade, how much confidence do you have in this?" Shikaku asked once Ronglin had left.
To be honest, he knew Ronglin was powerful, but how powerful remained an unknown. As a commander responsible for deploying troops, he needed to account for every factor, yet Ronglin remained a giant question mark.
"How should I know?" Tsunade snapped as she sat down. "It's not like I can pick a fight with him just so you can estimate his strength."
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