"If Lady Tsunade can establish a professional medical ninja team, then the casualty rate of our Konoha ninjas will undoubtedly be greatly reduced in the future."
"Furthermore, powerful medical ninjutsu can also treat the injuries and illnesses of everyone in Konoha, reducing the suffering of the villagers."
"This, I'll consider it."
If Li Anshi had proposed any other task, Tsunade might not have been interested.
However, the idea of forming a medical ninja team held considerable appeal for Tsunade.
At this time, Tsunade was not yet seven years old; she couldn't fully grasp the importance of medical ninjas to a village.
A village with a sound medical system would see the emergence of more and more experienced ninjas. It wasn't just about reducing casualties; as long as injuries weren't as severe as losing an arm and being unable to form hand seals for ninjutsu, surviving ninjas could see significant improvements in their strength.
Of course, more importantly, Tsunade didn't want these heroes who risked their lives to protect Konoha, who hadn't died on the battlefield, to be tormented by the lingering pains of war...
"Oh, right, Jonin Nara."
"I'll also need to trouble you to record the names of those ninjas who have already fallen. They are all heroes. After we return to the village, we should give them the treatment befitting heroes."
Nara Shikafuku looked at Li Anshi in surprise.
For so many years, the "heroes" celebrated in the ninja world were always those with formidable strength.
Li Anshi was the first to call deceased ninjas "heroes."
"Yes, Lord Anshi."
After delegating the matters he was concerned about, Li Anshi and the Yamanaka Jonin set out to choose a location for their outpost.
The Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning didn't actually share a direct border.
In fact, none of the five great nations directly bordered each other.
Between the five great nations were other, smaller countries.
These countries were deliberately left as buffer zones for war by the five great nations.
Located between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning was the Land of Grass.
When the Second Hokage was still alive, the Land of Grass had been the battlefield between Konoha and the Cloud ninjas.
After the Second Hokage's death, the Cloud ninjas directly established a base in the Land of Grass, plundering its resources for their own logistics and pushing the front line into the Land of Fire.
In the previous battle, the Cloud ninjas were severely crippled. To avoid pursuit by Konoha ninjas, many Cloud ninjas had retreated from the Land of Fire and regrouped in the Land of Grass.
On Konoha's side, because the Third Hokage had taken most of the Jonin, Li Anshi had no intention of leading his subordinates here to pursue the Cloud ninjas.
Thus, the two sides remained, separated by the Land of Fire's border, constantly wary of each other's attacks.
On Konoha's side, the current top combat power was solely Li Anshi.
The Ino-Shika-Cho members left behind weren't the clan's absolute strongest Jonin. The three of them combined could match an Elite Jonin, but they were still a step below contending with Kage-level powerhouses.
Neither the Third Raikage nor the Tailed Beast Jinchuriki were beings Nara Shikafuku's shadow techniques could control.
If the initial control failed, neither Yamanaka Shin's nor Akimichi Takuji's attacks would have any significant effect on the Third Raikage or the Tailed Beast Jinchuriki.
However, the good news was that even with only Li Anshi as a top-tier powerhouse, the Cloud side was too intimidated to initiate any engagement larger than ten ninjas against Konoha.
Well, after a period of probing, the Cloud side also learned that as long as no Jonin-level individuals entered the Land of Fire, Li Anshi wouldn't intervene.
Similarly, Konoha's Jonin also held back. Engagements with these small squads were handled by Chunin and Genin led by Chunin.
Thus, the Cloud side also knew that Konoha was likely using them for training purposes.
But even so, the Cloud side could do nothing about it. In fact, they were often forced to send their own ninjas to give Konoha's ninjas "experience."
After all, the Cloud side was constantly wary of Li Anshi's attacks.
During this time, the Cloud ninjas' clustered camps had been dispersed, with each squad's tent separated by a ten-meter interval.
This way, if Li Anshi attacked, ninjas further away could escape directly.
The Cloud side's sensory ninjas discovered that as long as the Cloud sent Chunin and Genin squads to fight Konoha ninjas, Li Anshi would trail these squads, only intervening when Konoha ninjas faced a life-or-death crisis.
If no ninjas were sent out, Li Anshi would stay in a position where he could see the Cloud's encampment, seemingly contemplating whether to charge in.
Never mind that the Third Raikage's injuries hadn't healed; even if they had, if Li Anshi decided to charge, no one on the Cloud side could stop him.
Because of this, the Cloud side was forced to frequently dispatch ninjas to "give experience" to Konoha, thereby diverting Li Anshi's attention.
...
"Lord Raikage, something terrible has happened!"
One day, a ninja drenched in blood rushed into the main command tent of the camp.
"Eh, Mandara, aren't you supposed to be leading your squad to harass Konoha ninjas today? Why are you back so soon, and in such a sorry state?"
Seeing the injured ninja, the Cloud Jonin in the tent were instantly alarmed.
These days, perhaps due to an unspoken understanding with the Konoha side, skirmishes between small squads mostly resulted in injuries, not deaths.
Mandara was a Cloud Chunin, eighteen years old this year, and his strength was considered quite good among Chunin.
Even against an ordinary Jonin, he could hold his own for a few exchanges.
In battles with Konoha ninjas, Mandara had rarely encountered a worthy opponent.
It was only because Mandara was terrified of attracting the attention of that Konoha fiend who had severely injured Lord Third Raikage, and thus hadn't killed any Konoha ninjas, that things had remained relatively peaceful these days.
Now that Mandara was so severely injured, and the Genin under his command hadn't returned with him, something had clearly happened.
"Lord Blue B, Lord Raikage, something terrible has happened!"
"Calm down, Mandara!"
The Third Raikage, A, his body wrapped in bandages, bellowed, finally snapping the shouting Mandara back to his senses.
"Speak slowly, Mandara."
"What exactly did your squad encounter? Why did only you return?"
"Could it be... that he made a move?"
When mentioning "that guy," even the Third Raikage's eyes flashed with a trace of fear.
His right hand slowly traced across his chest. The missing index finger and the slowly blood-soaked bandage seemed to constantly remind the Third Raikage of Li Anshi's terror.
That day, if not for the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, Blue B, intervening, the Cloud Village might have needed a new Raikage.
But even though seven days had passed, the chakra lingering in the wound on the Third Raikage A's right chest was still wreaking havoc on his body.