Time passed in a flash. Just as Shiyu Uchiha led his forces in fierce battle against the Iwa army, another wave of reinforcements arrived on the Iwa-nin's side. With the arrival of fresh troops, the total number of Iwa-nin forces at the front line suddenly surged past ten thousand!
Faced with such a massive enemy force—nearly double that of Konoha's—and with more reinforcements possibly on the way, Shiyu Uchiha immediately felt immense pressure. Helplessly, he had no choice but to keep sending urgent requests for aid to Hiruzen Sarutobi, who remained stationed in Konoha.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, far away in Konoha Village, gradually realized the severity of the situation through intelligence reports sent by spies hidden at the front lines and within the Land of Fire after receiving Shiyu Uchiha's plea for help.
When he read Shiyu Uchiha's explicit declaration in his letter—that if sufficient support didn't arrive soon, rather than waiting around to die a slow death, he might as well gamble everything and launch the decisive battle ahead of schedule—Hiruzen was shaken to his core.
Because once this decisive battle began, there were only two possible outcomes: swift victory or swift defeat. However, based on current troop comparisons and battlefield assessments, the likelihood of defeat was undeniably enormous.
As Hiruzen Sarutobi hesitated, unable to make a decision, new intelligence from within the Iwa-nin ranks finally tipped the scales, pushing him toward a firm resolution to provide reinforcements. It turned out that Iwa had actually planned to deploy as many as five thousand ninja in a single reinforcement unit to the front line! This large-scale military movement truly shocked Hiruzen.
After all, if the Konoha defense lines on the Grass Country battlefield truly collapsed, it would be nearly impossible for Konoha to find suitable replacements capable of undertaking such a monumental task in sufficient numbers.
In that case, Hiruzen himself—the Hokage—would probably have no choice but to personally rush to the front lines and fight with his very life on the line. Yet right now, not only did he lack such heroic resolve, but he also lacked the spirit of self-sacrifice required for such a desperate move.
Thus, even though he did harbor certain thoughts about weakening the Uchiha Clan, given Konoha's current real circumstances, he simply couldn't afford to act on them. Because if any problems arose, it would now be practically impossible for Konoha to mobilize enough manpower again to cover such a gaping hole.
After thorough consideration, he ultimately decided to offer Shiyu Uchiha a certain degree of support. This meant not only replenishing every last loss the fire-earth front line had suffered over the past two years, but also dispatching additional personnel beyond those replacements.
The next morning, as sunlight fell upon the Hokage building, Sarutobi sat in his office, looking seriously at the people before him.
He cleared his throat and began speaking slowly, "Everyone, you must all already be familiar with the numerous distress letters recently sent repeatedly by the Uchiha Clan. The situation they face is extremely severe—they are suffering acute shortages in both manpower and material resources.
Right now, the enemy's military numbers continue to rise steadily. We must quickly devise a practical solution."
"What do the two of you think about this matter?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Homura Mitokado exchanged a glance with Koharu Utatane. Soon after, Homura broke the silence, expressing his opinion first. "Hiruzen, in my opinion, perhaps we should temporarily hold back on the Uchiha Clan's request for now.
After all, other fronts also desperately require support, particularly the one under Danzo Shimura's command. According to reports from the frontlines, they are currently fending off fierce attacks from Kumogakure, especially from the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki and that young expert from the Yeyue Clan, both of whom pose a particularly difficult challenge.
These two individuals possess immense strength and are highly aggressive, making them significantly more difficult to deal with compared to the Yan-nin Jinchuriki. If we were to redirect substantial resources to the Uchiha Clan right now, it might lead to a dangerous situation where the defensive line under his command collapses."
Following this, Koharu Utatane also chimed in. "Indeed, as you said, Hokage-sama! We consistently allocate ample supplies to each of those four defensive lines on a regular basis.
And we generally send a fresh batch of supplies every month to ensure the defensive lines can operate normally and the soldiers' basic needs are met.
However, when dealing with Danzo Shimura's situation, things have become slightly complicated. For various reasons, half of the originally planned supplies meant for the Uchiha defensive line were diverted to Danzo's front.
And this time, because Danzo's forces suffered heavy losses in the battle against the Cloud-nin, the urgent requests for more supplies have become even more frequent, to the point where I've even considered diverting more supplies originally meant for the Uchiha line.
After all, the distress letter sent by Shiyu Uchiha described the situation rather dramatically! He claimed that Yan-nin had reinforced their forces with as many as 5,000 additional troops. Could it be that they genuinely intend to engage us in an all-out decisive battle?"
Upon hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi mentally breathed a sigh of relief that he'd brought this up—otherwise, it could've turned into a major disaster. At the same time, he couldn't help but ponder silently: "This kind of reckless approach simply won't do. A slight misstep could lead to the complete collapse of our entire situation!
He silently berated Danzo Shimura for his incompetence, believing that this guy's capabilities were nowhere near those of the other three commanders; at the same time, he also couldn't help but silently scold Koharu and Danzo for their wanton behavior and inability to distinguish between urgent and important matters.
However, despite the inner turmoil he felt, in the end, Hiruzen Sarutobi made no comments regarding the choices made by the two of them. After all, this strategy of suppressing the Uchiha Clan had initially been jointly decided by these few individuals.
The thing is, the situation has unexpectedly shifted. If they continue to stubbornly stick to the original plan merely for the sake of suppressing the Uchiha, at the expense of Konoha's future, it would definitely not be worth it. After all, Konoha was his own village, and he couldn't afford to risk losing it over this issue!
In addition, intelligence from Shiyu Uchiha's letters and spy reports from the frontline under his command made the situation impossible to ignore, completely cutting off any possibility of continuing with the original strategy, leaving him no choice but to throw his full support behind Shiyu Uchiha.
Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane approached with great curiosity, eager to discover what had Hiruzen Sarutobi so preoccupied today. As they watched, Hiruzen's expression remained grave; he gravely handed over the classified intelligence regarding the Iwa-nin for the two to examine.
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