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Inside the Okawa River Camp.
Hatake Sakumo and the rest of the command staff were anxiously waiting.
Most of the night had passed, and at this moment, no one in the command center could sleep.
"Lord Sakumo."
A Nara Ninja beside him finally couldn't hold back and spoke to Hatake Sakumo:
"Will that plan really work?"
Although his expression wasn't obvious, the deep concern couldn't help but overflow from his bloodshot eyes.
For Ninja like them, who dared to sacrifice for the Village, it was an unimaginable torment and guilt to be unable to participate in such a crucial moment, and instead have to ask their juniors, who should have continued to grow and become the pillars of the Village in the future, to sacrifice themselves.
However, the tactic they proposed could only be completed by those two.
Every minute and every second of waiting made them feel as if the Third Kazekage was crawling all over them.
"Don't worry, Shikaku."
Hatake Sakumo, uncharacteristically, lit a cigarette—normally, he would never touch such a thing to protect his body and maintain stealth—but his voice remained calm:
"At this moment, we can only trust the two of them."
Or rather, trust Kiri-kun.
This matter was somewhat strange.
As the war progressed, these Konoha Ninja in front of him had a far less profound understanding of their comrades' strength than the enemy Sand Ninja.
As a teacher, Hatake Sakumo had long understood a part of Sawara Kiri's Ninjutsu.
A spatial barrier that was almost absolute defense, a spatial annihilation Ninjutsu that could penetrate the Nine-Tailed Guardian Barrier, and a sharp Fire Release sword technique that exceeded normal imagination.
Aside from Genjutsu, he was almost an all-rounder.
No.
Given that brat Sawara Kiri's temperament, he must have a hidden hand in the Genjutsu field too, right?
That kid would definitely be fine.
He had great confidence in his student.
"Sizzle"
The remaining fire of the cigarette burned his fingers, making a faint scorching sound, but Hatake Sakumo stared straight into the distance as if he felt nothing.
Although he was very confident.
"Whoosh!"
Almost in unison with everyone's worried thoughts, a sudden air-compressing sound came from the ground in the distance where a three-pronged Kunai was left.
Everyone turned their heads towards the direction of the sound.
Sawara Kiri and Namikaze Minato appeared simultaneously.
There was even a faint, pungent smell of gunpowder lingering on them.
"Yo, Sakumo-sensei."
Sawara Kiri waved at him, smiling brightly:
"Mission accomplished!"
Everyone present was stunned for a moment, and then a thunderous cheer, like a mountain flood, suddenly erupted throughout the command center.
"You brat..."
Hatake Sakumo looked at him with a helpless yet relieved expression, pointing his cigarette-holding finger at him, and then, as if suddenly realizing the burning pain in his knuckle, he quickly yelped and flicked his hand to drop the cigarette.
What a piece of junk.
"Kiri..."
Uchiha Megumi stood far off to the side, looking at him with a hint of guilt.
The feeling of being able to only watch the person she liked fight desperately while she couldn't help at all was truly difficult for her strong personality to accept.
Only her fists were tightly clenched.
Not strong enough.
Still far from strong enough.
In the girl's lowered eyes, the three Tomoe rotated at an astonishing speed, and a cold Yin Release Chakra faintly emanated from her body.
Sawara Kiri, however, didn't notice the subtle change in her expression. He lowered his head and looked at the panel.
"Hatake Sakumo's Shallow Emotional Entanglement (Completed)"
"Emotional Entanglement Points +1"
"Sawara's Book of Friends: Character 'Hatake Sakumo' collected"
"Bond Level Increased ↑"
"Hatake Sakumo Bond Level: One → Two"
Next time, I won't gamble with draws no matter what. I'll wait until I've charged up the Limitless before I do anything else.
Gamblers don't end well.
After the few of them had rejoiced for a while, Minato began to speak about the current mission progress:
...While Kiri-kun drew away the other Sand Ninja, I've already placed Flying Thunder God positioning seals on other basic underground material storage depots and some important large materials. Next time, we only need to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to arrive directly."
"As for the completely destroyed material warehouses, due to their large scale, there were only two."
"However, if we go a few more times, we can at least deplete their material reserves to less than one-third of what they are now."
Namikaze Minato smiled optimistically and said, "Next, even while marching, I can continuously harass their material points."
"This should have neutralized their early preparation advantage."
The people in the command center nodded excitedly at these words.
Although they had held great hopes for these two young people from the beginning, they hadn't expected the mission to be completed so excellently.
Now, whether the Sand Ninja wanted to or not, they would have to divert a portion of their forces to pursue them and restore their logistics system.
Even though they were luring a large number of troops towards themselves, everyone had a very pleasant expression, seemingly completely unconcerned about their own lives.
Sawara Kiri quietly watched this scene, wondering what he was thinking.
He pondered for a moment, then reminded, "However, we also need to guard against the Sand Ninja's attacking forces distributing supplies to lower-level command units in advance."
"If it's too finely divided, with hundreds of small logistical points, then even the two of us would probably find it difficult to deal with too many."
"At this distance, the number of people Minato can transfer at once is, after all, very limited."
Hearing this, everyone finally reined in their emotions and nodded slightly.
Hatake Sakumo looked at him again.
Under such circumstances, to still maintain such composure, Kiri-kun truly lives up to his reputation as the most outstanding young man of this generation, doesn't he?
However, they had already done so much; asking for more would be too harsh.
Hatake Sakumo clapped his hands and reassured, "Now, through the efforts of Jonin Sawara and Jonin Namikaze, we have successively destroyed more than half of the Sand Ninja's supplies, and this will continue to be consumed."
"Now, we no longer need to worry about the pressure on the front line; we just need to push forward."
His expression was incredibly firm: "Tomorrow, we will directly attack the Land of Rivers' capital."
Upon hearing this, everyone straightened their expressions in unison:
"Yes!"
The next day, the capital of the Land of Rivers fell, and the Daimyo was captured.
After this capital was captured by a group of Konoha Ninja and another 'Daimyo of the Land of Rivers' was re-established, the remaining few strongholds that were still stubbornly resisting with the support of the Land of Wind were also quickly subdued by proclamation.
Whether they truly surrendered or feigned it, the Konoha Ninja at this time had no time to judge, nor did they care much.
After destroying the Sand Ninja's logistics system located there and annihilating the remaining supplies, they did not even pause for a moment, charging directly into the Land of Wind.
However, after entering the Land of Wind, the large force that had been gathered in one place quickly dispersed due to the widespread supply routes throughout the Land of Wind, agreeing to rendezvous in the Moro Mountains near the Sunagakure.
After destroying the entire Land of Wind's logistics system, they would launch a general offensive on the Sunagakure.
As for how many of these three thousand-plus people would remain by then, that was not a concern for them.
To give everything for Konoha was not an empty phrase.
They had already considered their lives expendable when they set out.
They would fight until their bodies were completely consumed.
Sawara Kiri was also among this group of people.
However, his work was slightly more involved than the others.
Fourth day, night.
Kikyo Castle front line.
The Sand Ninja had just endured a full day of bloody slaughterhouse combat. After barely surviving the piles of dead bodies and returning to their tents, they just wanted to wake up from the daytime nightmare and get some good sleep in their tents in the middle of the night.
Then, a 'boom—' reverberated from somewhere in the camp.
Flames erupted from an unknown location.
The Third Kazekage 'whooshed' out of bed, his eyes bloodshot, and he lunged towards the direction of the sound, a surge of dark Iron Sand gushing from his feet.
The other Sand Ninja who were further away merely opened their eyes for a glance, then rolled back onto the ground and continued sleeping.
They had simply grown accustomed to it these past few days.
Again and again, again and again...
Endless attacks on the camp, day and night!!
"Sawara Kiri!"
"You deserve to die—!"
The Third Kazekage slammed down, summoning Iron Sand, and lunged onto the blazing logistics point, looking at the dozens of fallen guard Ninja around him, his teeth nearly ground to dust!
However, at this moment, Sawara Kiri and the blond spiky-haired one waved at him from a distance with relaxed expressions, laughing arrogantly as they vanished.
His pale face flushed red.
The Third Kazekage suddenly swung his hand forward, and dense Iron Sand crashed down, engulfing the entire area where they had been.
However, when the Iron Sand rose again, not a trace was left.
They ran again.
The Third Kazekage felt as if a string had snapped in his head. He roared wildly and slammed the area several times, causing the Iron Sand to churn incessantly.
The surrounding Sand Ninja watched this scene, equally helpless.
Ever since that day, when those two Konoha Ninja infiltrated the Sand Ninja camp, their nightmare began.
They had just endured such a difficult battle under Kikyo Castle during the day, and then at night, they finally wanted to sleep peacefully, but these two suddenly appeared out of nowhere, bombarding their colleagues guarding the logistics points.
And they didn't hesitate at all, not caring whether the supplies were destroyed or not, immediately turning around and running, never giving anyone a chance to surround them.
For the past three or four days, they had come several times every day.
If it weren't for Lord Third Kazekage's foresight to distribute all supplies to each small team in advance, they probably wouldn't even have food to eat now.
But even so, these continuous days of harassment had made everyone incredibly annoyed.
After all, you're sleeping soundly in the middle of the night and suddenly get blown up.
Who can stand that?
In fact, even morale had gradually become unstable recently.
The power of the Flying Thunder God Technique was evident.
...
"This can't go on."
The Third Kazekage, his eyes bloodshot, glared at the burning logistics point, his expression growing more ferocious:
"Set up the maximum range spatial sealing barrier and Chakra sealing barrier!"
"Gather the Taijutsu assault team members to wait around!"
His voice grew hoarser, but his eyes became brighter: "No matter what kind of Ninjutsu it is, it is ultimately based on Chakra."
"As long as that bastard enters this Chakra-sealed area, he can only fight us head-on with Taijutsu!"
"No matter how many lives we have to pile up, we must eliminate that guy!"
"But, Lord Third..."
One of the Sand Ninja Commanders hesitated, "We don't have many barrier materials left. Those are for attacking the Kikyo Castle defenses later..."
"Never mind that!"
The Third Kazekage, however, waved his hand abruptly: "One Sawara Kiri is more threatening than ten thousand Konoha Ninja!"
"Also, just in case..."
"Tsuchikage."
"Here!"
"Send someone to secretly send Bunpuku back to the Village."
"Huh? Lord Third!"
Everyone present was astonished at these words.
The Jinchuriki was their last trump card to break through Kikyo Castle!
The Third Kazekage's tone, however, was incredibly cold: "As things stand, the only way to eliminate Sawara Kiri is probably this—no matter how long they run rampant in the Land of Wind, their ultimate goal is the Village."
He stared intently at the fiercely burning fire in front of him, his voice resolute: "As of today, we absolutely cannot allow Konoha to produce another God of Shinobi!"
"That would be a devastating disaster for Sunagakure."
The Sand Ninja was stunned at these words, looking at Lord Third, whose hair had turned noticeably grayer in just a few days, and nodded deeply.
"Yes!"
It must be said that the Third Kazekage's temperament, wisdom, and foresight were all top-notch.
However, after making this decision, the entire Sand Ninja camp waited for two full days without seeing Sawara Kiri or Namikaze Minato.
In fact, to prepare for this offensive, they even significantly slowed their assault on the Kikyo Castle defenses.
So much so that even Orochimaru in the city walked onto the wall, looking curiously at the Sand Ninja camp across the way, which was prepared for battle but never sent out a single soldier, somewhat unsure of their intentions.
"Could it be that they've retreated to defend?"
Orochimaru frowned tightly, muttering to himself.
If that were the case, the plan he had prepared would be a bit difficult to execute.
Was Hatake Sakumo's operation going that smoothly?
Just as he was thinking this, an Aburame Clan member beside him quickly approached, lowering his voice to speak into his ear:
"Lord Orochimaru, the preparations and personnel are complete."
Orochimaru's expression remained calm as he nodded slightly to him.
"Wait a moment."
"Once the Sand Ninja resume their offensive, proceed as planned."
"Yes."
Fifth day, within the Land of Wind.
"Pfft."
The blade pierced a Sand Ninja's neck, then withdrew, bringing out a vivid spray of blood.
Uchiha Megumi wiped the blade clean on the opponent's vest and turned to look.
The dozen or so Sand Ninja at this transfer station in the central Land of Wind had been completely wiped out, and some of the supplies stored in the warehouse were burning fiercely.
Sawara Kiri was looking at the supply list, when Namikaze Minato suddenly approached him and said something.
Sawara Kiri was startled at the words, then chuckled casually:
"You said you could sense abnormal barrier Chakra in the surroundings, so why would I go there?"
"No."
"Have you forgotten how Second Hokage died?"
He wasn't the invincible Senju Hashirama; why would he foolishly walk into someone else's trap?
Namikaze Minato's expression, instead, showed some hesitation:
"Is that okay?"
"This is a great opportunity."
"Even if the supplies within the encirclement can't be burned, the supplies closer to the edge should still be able to be..."
If he could further reduce the scale of the Sand Ninja's offensive, he wouldn't care about the slight danger he might face.
Sawara Kiri waved his hand casually:
"You need to understand, our goal isn't to destroy their supplies, but to delay the Sand Ninja's actions and reduce the pressure on Kikyo Castle."
"It's fine if the Sand Ninja gather to ambush us."
"Let them wait."
"Anyway, Sunagakure isn't far now."
"Besides, don't you want to go back alive to see Kushina?"
Hearing this, Namikaze Minato's brows finally relaxed a little, and he nodded:
"You're right."
Compared to a few supplies, going back to see Kushina was more important.
join p atreon.com/KeyofStars and become a Sequence 9: Reader for dozens of advance chapters for over a dozen fics | Every 100 powerstones = 1 extra chapter