Four days later.
Kaede and Tsunade arrived at the front lines on the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.
What surprised Kaede slightly was that he had expected Tsunade to be the one taking charge here, with the three legendary Sannin leading their respective battlefronts. However, it turned out that Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage himself, had personally arrived.
"Tsunade, Kaede, you're here," Sarutobi said, sitting in the central tent, dressed in his war-era armor. Upon seeing Tsunade and Kaede enter, he nodded at them, signaling them to sit nearby.
In the tent were several other ninjas, mostly elite Jōnin from Konoha, including Uchiha Fugaku, the current head of the Uchiha clan.
It was clear that the scale of this war had made the prominent families realize the severity of the situation. Normally, they would hold back their forces, but under these circumstances, they had no choice but to commit their resources to Konoha's side, because if Konoha were to fall, their families would face the same fate.
Tsunade sat to Sarutobi's right.
Kaede took a seat to Tsunade's right.
Seating order usually reflected a ninja's status in Konoha, and as Kaede was a direct Jōnin and a "Hero of Konoha" with his special status, there was no objection from the various elite Jōnin or clan leaders present. However, some of them couldn't help but glance at Kaede with mixed expressions. After all, it was extremely rare in ninja history for someone as young as Kaede, still under eleven years old, to rise to such prominence and power.
"Based on the intelligence we've gathered, the Cloud Ninja are being led by the Third Raikage himself. The dangerous ninjas to watch out for are the Third Raikage's son and his partner, known as the AB combination..." Sarutobi spoke solemnly, relaying the latest intel about the Cloud Ninja.
Upon hearing this information, Kaede quickly pieced things together, understanding why Sarutobi had personally come to the front lines.
Clearly, compared to the devious Third Tsuchikage, the Cloud Ninja, with their more aggressive nature, were the most dangerous force in this war. It was hard to predict whether they might go for a decisive battle.
This war required a strategy of delay.
The longer Konoha could delay, the more it would gain an advantage.
If the Third Raikage judged that Konoha's forces were insufficient, he might ignore the strategy of having other villages first exhaust Konoha's strength and instead launch an all-out assault.
In that case, having Tsunade as the commander on the front lines alone likely wouldn't be enough to withstand the assault, so Sarutobi's presence on the front lines was necessary to put pressure on the Cloud Ninja and deter them from launching a full-scale attack.
"It seems that Orochimaru and Danzo are handling the Iwa Ninja. Given their devious natures, they should be able to deal with the Third Tsuchikage... Onoki probably won't use the tailed beasts or jinchuriki unless absolutely necessary, and even if he does, there's still Guy standing by to help out," Sarutobi continued.
"As for the Mist Village, their Seven Ninja Swordsmen are quite powerful. Among the seven, the strongest have already become official members of the Akatsuki, meaning they're at least at the Kage level. The weakest are still elite Jōnin, but with Minato, the 'bug-level' presence, we need not worry too much."
"As for the Cloud Ninja..." Kaede thought to himself.
The Cloud Ninja's battle strength was particularly formidable. First, there was the Third Raikage, a monster who could fight against thousands of opponents. Then, the Fourth Raikage and Killer Bee were also incredibly strong figures at the Kage level, with Killer Bee being especially powerful. When fully transformed into the Eight-Tails, he was stronger than the still-developing Fourth Raikage and on par with the Third Raikage.
Moreover, the Kumogakure also had the perfect jinchuriki, the Two-Tails jinchuriki, Yugito Nii, who was just as closely bonded with her tailed beast as Killer Bee. She could easily tap into the power of her tailed beast at will.
If the Cloud Ninja launched a major assault, Sarutobi could likely hold off the Third Raikage. Tsunade would be able to face Yugito Nii, but the Fourth Raikage and Killer Bee would fall to him.
This situation was tricky.
He had to unlock the Fifth Gate of the Eight Gates of Death as soon as possible.
Once he could open the Fifth Gate, his full power would allow him to break through the Third Raikage's defenses. Even against Killer Bee in his full tailed beast form, he would be able to strike decisively.
During his training in medical ninjutsu and chakra control, Kaede had never slacked off in his training for the Eight Gates, though he was still some way from mastering the Fifth Gate.
From his calculations, he would likely need about another month to unlock it.
As Kaede was deep in thought, Sarutobi continued his briefing and made his deployment, saying, "In short, we must avoid large-scale battles with the Cloud Ninja. Small-scale skirmishes should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. The first phase must focus on intelligence gathering."
"The Cloud Ninja won't launch a full-scale assault without enough information. Therefore, our job is to delay the war as much as possible by focusing on intelligence operations."
Sarutobi spoke with a serious tone.
He was well aware of the gravity of the situation. If the Cloud Ninja launched a full-scale attack, even with himself, Tsunade, and Kaede present, they might not be able to hold back an all-out assault from an entire village.
Even if they managed to stop it, the losses would be immense, potentially tipping the balance in other battlefronts and causing the entire war to unravel.
After a while, Sarutobi concluded his briefing and dismissed everyone. However, he called Kaede aside for a private conversation.
Tsunade, seeing this, paused for a moment, then chose not to leave. She sat back down. If it had been anyone else, she wouldn't have minded, but with Sarutobi calling Kaede aside, she couldn't just walk away.
She knew Kaede's situation.
While his combat strength was incredible, it relied on forbidden techniques that couldn't be used carelessly.
Seeing Tsunade sit back down, Sarutobi showed a hint of reluctance in his eyes but didn't ask her to leave. Instead, he turned to Kaede and immediately began praising him for his performance in two different battlefronts.
Kaede no longer felt much fear of Sarutobi, especially with Tsunade present. He calmly responded to Sarutobi's praise, saying, "...It's all just part of what I should be doing."
After some further back-and-forth, Sarutobi, mindful of Tsunade's presence, decided not to press further. At the moment, dealing with the Cloud Ninja was the priority, and Kaede's situation could be considered later. The main thing now was ensuring that Kaede was firmly on Konoha's side.
Even if Kaede held some resentment toward Konoha's higher-ups due to the White Fang incident, that had to be set aside for the time being.
After all, even among the great clans, everyone was temporarily putting their differences aside during this crisis.
------------
Note: If you want to read up to 55+ chapters ahead of the current story, you can support me on Patreon and read up to Chapter 171 there! Patreon.com/Veltoria