"Phew,"
Ren let out a long breath, slowly lowered his hands, and felt the slightly increased Chakra in his body compared to yesterday, shaking his head helplessly.
Sure enough, the more one trains, the harder it gets. Since Ren's Chakra reached the Jonin level a year ago, the growth rate of his Chakra has obviously slowed down.
The amount of Chakra that is used to increase in one day of training now requires three days, and this ratio is slowly increasing.
"It seems the Tailed Beast matter is urgent."
Ren's eyes flickered, and the images of many Tailed Beasts appeared in his mind. As for who to choose, Ren had already made up his mind.
"Hehehe, wait for me, little cutie."
Ren sat in the tent, cackling strangely. Fortunately, no one passed by early in the morning, otherwise they would have thought the Konoha Camp was haunted.
…
"Good morning, Lord Jiraiya."
Jiraiya, sitting at his desk, paused his pen and looked towards the entrance of the tent.
"Come in."
Ren walked into the tent and stood in front of the desk.
"Not bad, you look much more energetic after resting."
Jiraiya nodded with satisfaction, then asked somewhat teasingly,
"I heard Shinku Yuhi say that you went to see that Kurenai girl yesterday?"
"Cough, cough, cough."
Ren coughed twice, timely interrupting Jiraiya's words.
"This is my private matter. You, the esteemed Commander, don't need to worry about such things."
Ren paused, then looked at Jiraiya with a somewhat strange expression.
"Also, Lord Jiraiya, when will you finally win over my teacher? You were classmates at the Ninja School, right? And then you both became disciples of Hokage-sama. Decades have passed now, and you…"
Ren didn't say anything more, but Jiraiya, who understood his meaning, instantly broke down, stood up, and shouted exasperatedly,
"Who said that?! You brat, how dare you look down on me, the Great Sage Jiraiya! What do you mean I'm pursuing your teacher? It's your teacher who has been shamelessly pursuing me for many years, and I just haven't agreed!"
"Oh, really?"
Ren said indifferently.
"So that's how it is. Then the next time I hear rumours about Lord Jiraiya pursuing my teacher, I will definitely refute them and clear Lord Jiraiya's name, telling those who follow the trend that it was my teacher who pursued Lord Jiraiya."
…
Jiraiya looked at the serious Ren in front of him and felt a terrible toothache.
What kind of international joke was this? If such words really reached Tsunade's ears, he would most likely be punched back into the hospital by an enraged Tsunade, or perhaps even meet the Six Paths Sage directly.
"Cough, cough, let's stop this here. This Sage won't stoop to her level."
After saying that, Jiraiya waved Ren over, and when Ren approached, he threw a scroll to him.
"Let's talk about business. Look at this and tell me your thoughts."
After speaking, Jiraiya continued to review documents, no longer paying attention to Ren.
"Yes."
Although Ren was a little puzzled, he didn't say much, just picked up the scroll and began to read it quietly.
Soon, Ren's expression became somewhat surprised, then turned to shock, and finally to astonishment.
The content of the scroll was roughly as follows.
Iwagakure, while declaring war on Konoha, also issued a declaration of war on the Hidden Sand Village. Since the three countries are basically all adjacent, with only a few small countries serving as border lines in between.
Between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, there are only two small countries, the Land of Bears and the Land of Birds.
The Third Tsuchikage dispatched ten thousand Iwagakure troops, led by Kitsuchi, the son of Ōnoki, and within a few days, they successfully set up Konoha Camp in the Land of Bears and the Land of Birds, and began to launch successive attacks on the Hidden Sand Village's defence line.
This caught the Hidden Sand Village off guard, but fortunately, the Sunagakure Ninja resisted desperately. Although the casualties were somewhat heavy, they managed not to lose any territory.
Speaking of which, it must be mentioned that nine out of ten parts of the Land of Wind, where Hidden Sand Village is located, are deserts, and the annual rainfall is extremely scarce.
The people of the Land of Wind can only barely survive by building villages in the few oases in the desert.
Therefore, even if Iwagakure were to capture a piece of desert territory, no normal person would be willing to spend a large amount of manpower and resources to maintain and upkeep a useless territory.
Getting back to the point, after the Hidden Sand Village elders learned of Iwagakure's attack, the countermeasure they ultimately decided upon was to send Ye Cang to lead the resistance.
On the Sand village Battlefield side, Konoha's pressure suddenly dropped significantly.
Goodness, the situation on the battlefield changes in an instant. Ren truly witnessed it today.
"How is it? Have you thought about it? What are your thoughts?"
Jiraiya picked up a document, put it aside, and turned to look at Ren, who was deep in thought.
"It's a good thing. Since Iwagakure has started a war with Hidden Sand, the pressure on both of our battlefields will be greatly reduced."
Ren's left index finger tapped the table slowly and rhythmically, while he pondered for a moment before looking up at Jiraiya.
"So, on the surface, it looks like we're fighting two, but they're not in the same camp either. As long as we stabilise our position while slowly expanding our advantage and opening up the situation, taking them down should only be a matter of time."
"Hmm, a good analysis, but…"
Jiraiya nodded, then changed the subject, beginning to point out the flaws in Ren's plan.
"Everything you said is based on the premise that we will only fight on two fronts. Fighting on two fronts is only temporary. Hidden Mist Village and Hidden Cloud Village will definitely enter the fray later.
By then, it will be a three-front or even four-front war.
Yes, they will also attack each other. For example, Iwagakure and Hidden Mist have long-standing grievances. The Second Tsuchikage Mu and the Second Mizukage Hōzuki Gengetsu both died in a great battle, and since then, the two sides have held a deep hatred for each other.
Every time a war breaks out, Iwagakure and Hidden Mist are bound to fight.
But we don't have time to slowly expand our advantage now. We can only quickly launch an attack to establish an advantage and quickly open up the situation, rather than passively defending."
"So that's how it is."
Ren instantly felt enlightened, and his heart was filled with continuous admiration. As expected of the Sannin, his understanding of war and control of the overall situation were simply beyond what he could currently compare to.
It seemed that becoming Hokage was a long and arduous journey.
"However, it's already good that you can understand it this way at your age. Anyway, since you're standing, you might as well look at the documents I put aside.
Being Hokage isn't just about having strong combat power; these are all things you'll need to learn in the future. There's no harm in getting more exposure now."
Jiraiya said meaningfully, pushing a pile of approved documents in front of Ren.
"I understand, Lord Jiraiya!"
Ren's eyes instantly lit up. He just stood there, picked up the topmost document, and began to review it. After reading it, he would look at Jiraiya's handling method at the bottom, and then compare it with his own thoughts,
taking the essence and discarding the dross.
Jiraiya approved the documents while keeping an eye on Ren from the corner of his eye. Seeing Ren's performance, Jiraiya smiled knowingly.
Then he no longer paid attention to that side and began to focus on approving his own documents.
An old man and a young man in one tent, the doorway empty.