Time slipped away like sand through fingers, and four months passed quietly.
Except for the night the melee began, when the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth tried to take advantage of the Land of Fire's "signal tower" shutdown to invade, only to be intercepted by Konoha ninjas, resulting in many ninjas from all three countries dying from "first-encounter kills" due to lack of intelligence...
In these four months, no large-scale battles occurred among the four countries, completely unlike a grand melee involving four nations.
This precisely proved that the command teams of these four countries were all very outstanding existences.
Ninja warfare was actually very easy to understand.
Just like the names of those combat units: reconnaissance, infiltration, surprise attack, diversion, support, interception, etc...
These could all be summarized as—probing and assassination.
The total number of ninjas in the Five Great Nations and various small countries combined didn't even reach a hundred thousand.
If the Ninja World War were an orthodox duel like in the One Piece world, ninjas would probably become a rarity before long.
Before finding the right timing, confirming there were no traps or ambushes, and having absolute certainty, the four major powers wouldn't send out large numbers of troops to wipe out the opponent in one go.
Otherwise, if something went wrong, the loss would be so great it would basically mean exiting the stage.
So during this time, the troops of the four major powers were split into four-man squads, executing various missions.
The Land of Fire was slightly better off; they had no intention of expanding territory, only "passive" defense.
In contrast, the other three countries constantly conducted reconnaissance, set traps, launched surprise attacks and diversions... Once their intentions were discovered, they switched to another tactic.
There were also some high-level ninjas who specialized in infiltrating the Land of Fire or the camps on the battle lines, either looking for opportunities to assassinate certain figures or collecting intelligence, wanting to know the supply transport routes.
The reason the four countries could endure several months without large-scale warfare was that their supplies were still very sufficient, and the gap in national strength hadn't shown yet.
When a country couldn't provide supplies to its combat units in time, this "balance" would be broken, and the war would have to enter the next stage.
In this probing period, reconnaissance teams and Tokubetsu Jonin with special talents were the busiest.
As for other ninjas, to put it seriously, they were conserving energy; in reality, they had nothing to do.
Because they couldn't help in this aspect at all.
Confirming that large-scale warfare wouldn't break out in the short term, support units rotating shifts, and even some Jonin, could return to Konoha from the border to stay for a while or attend a meeting before coming back.
...
Southwestern Land of Fire, on a forest path.
A merchant caravan composed of twelve people was moving slowly.
Beside them were three horse-drawn carriages pulling loads covered with tarps. It was unclear if they were preparing to trade abroad or if their trade in the Land of Fire had failed, forcing them to haul their goods and prepare to avoid the Land of Rain, which was in a four-nation melee, to enter or pass through the Land of Rivers.
Whoosh—
At this moment, a gust of wind struck, kicking up a large cloud of dust and engulfing the caravan.
A chaotic scene of people and horses turning over appeared in the dust.
Then a series of poof poof poof sounds, like popping balloons, rang out.
Those dressed as ordinary people were shrouded in white smoke one by one, then turned into teenagers and adults with obvious age and height differences.
And they all had one characteristic: they wore Konoha forehead protectors but no flak jackets, seeming to be just ordinary Genin.
The tarps covering the carriages were also blown away by the gale, revealing large boxes and super-large storage scrolls with seals bearing Sealing Jutsu.
"Enemy attack!"
Their disguise blown, the twelve ninjas immediately took out kunai and stood back-to-back, vigilant of their surroundings.
A few teenagers, who might have graduated not long ago and hadn't seen blood yet, held their kunai with trembling hands, cold sweat breaking out on their faces.
The other adults acted quickly.
Two closed their eyes and formed seals, using the Sensing Technique.
Another used the Summoning Technique to summon a yellow-furred ninja dog, wanting to use scent tracking to find the enemy hiding somewhere in the forest.
However, neither the Sensing Technique nor the ninja dog's sense of smell yielded any results.
Now, even the faces of those adults showed cold sweat.
"Request support quickly; the enemy might be beyond our level to handle."
The ninja who summoned the ninja dog immediately took out a scroll that fit in one hand and instructed his partner: "Pumpkin, after you return, give this scroll to the one responsible for transmitting intelligence..."
Swish—
Before the ninja could finish his sentence, a harsh sound of breaking air reached everyone's ears.
A huge wind blade roared towards them.
"The enemy is not someone we can deal with. Split up and escape first, then notify the village!"
With the shouting, the twelve ninjas turned into blurs and disappeared.
The target of that wind blade didn't seem to be the ninja who wanted to request support and the ninja dog, but the carriage carrying the large boxes.
With a splat, the wind blade easily cut through the carriage and the boxes.
A large amount of supplies and small scrolls fell out of the boxes.
Then a puppet connected by blue Chakra threads on its back flew out of the forest. A blade popped out of its toy-like arm, slashing at the storage scrolls on the ground and the kunai among the supplies.
The storage scrolls, which even the wind blade couldn't destroy, withstood the blade attack, while the kunai emitted a clang of metal collision.
This proved that these supplies were all real.
And the twelve ninjas who fled didn't return to protect these supplies.
Consequently, the puppet paused in the air, as if representing the puppeteer in a daze.
A moment later, four ninjas wearing flak jackets and Sunagakure forehead protectors appeared using Body Flicker.
As if unconcerned about traps, they quickly rummaged through the supplies, checking for authenticity and the presence of traps.
Soon, one of them uttered in disbelief: "It's all real, and there are no traps. This... isn't this going too smoothly?"
"Those twelve people all ran away. Could they really be all Genin?"
"I feel something is wrong, but... besides those twelve, there were no Chakra fluctuations around, unless they knew we were ambushing here long ago and set up a barrier to block sensing in advance like we did."
"But our action this time was completely impromptu; the mission wasn't them at all. Could it really be an unexpected harvest?"
Looking at the supplies all over the ground and the storage scrolls with unknown contents sealed inside, the Sunagakure ninja who seemed to be the captain gritted his teeth: "Whether it's a trap or not, we can't give up these supplies. At worst, we'll be cautious and act quickly."
"Yes!"
Thus, the four Sunagakure ninjas picked up the four super-large scrolls and disappeared using Body Flicker.
Then figures flew out of the forest one by one, carrying the remaining large scrolls and undamaged boxes away.
Finally, the scattered supplies on the ground.
These figures looked exactly like the four Sunagakure ninjas, obviously all Shadow Clones.
These Shadow Clones scattered in different directions.
After running an unknown distance, the Shadow Clones' Chakra suddenly ran out, turning into smoke and dissipating, dropping all the supplies on the ground.
After a long time, Sunagakure ninjas looking exactly like the Shadow Clones just now appeared out of thin air, picked up the supplies, and continued to travel using Body Flicker.
After running another unknown distance, these Sunagakure ninjas turned into clouds of white smoke again; they were still Shadow Clones.
This time, it took even longer for the Sunagakure ninjas to reappear.
Picking up the supplies and leaving using Body Flicker, the Sunagakure ninjas' faces finally showed unconcealable joy.
Almost exhausting all their Chakra, the Sunagakure ninjas, whether main bodies or Shadow Clones, successfully escaped the Land of Fire and entered the Land of Rivers, the buffer zone between the two countries.
The Land of Rivers was a very special country.
Towns and villages here were mostly built on mountains or at the foot of mountains. The vast majority of the territory was undeveloped natural landscape.
Dense vegetation, complex terrain, and endless mountain ranges formed natural hiding places.
The manga also clearly pointed out that this environmental feature was most suitable for establishing secret bases.
And indeed, there were a large number of secret bases in this place.
Not only from the Land of Fire and Land of Wind, but also the neighboring Land of Rain, and even other countries.
Even the Akatsuki in the original work chose to set up a secret base in this country to extract the One-Tail Shukaku from Gaara's body.
These Sunagakure ninjas, holding supplies, turned into blurs and dispersed among the mountains and forests.
If one monitored them from a god's perspective, one would find that they were no longer sneaking straight but moving back and forth within a circle.
Finally, they entered a mist-filled mountain range from different places, their figures and Chakra completely disappearing.
Poof poof poof...
Inside a cave engraved with not only sensing-blocking barriers but also defensive and enemy-trapping barrier formulas, a series of popping sounds rang out.
White smoke filled the entire cave.
After a long time, the smoke naturally dissipated, revealing supplies all over the ground.
More than an hour later, the giant rock blocking the cave entrance suddenly displayed a large number of tadpole-like curse marks, then opened automatically like an elevator door.
Four Sunagakure ninjas wearing flak jackets walked in from outside, then used a technique to move the giant rock back, sealing the cave entrance.
The four carried a lamp each and walked to the supplies on the ground.
Looking at the supplies under the light, the four Sunagakure ninjas suddenly looked at each other.
Then the corner of one's mouth twitched slightly, as if breaking the atmosphere.
"Hahaha..."
Laughter immediately echoed throughout the cave.
They laughed so wantonly, so arrogantly, tears squeezing out of the corners of their eyes.
"Is this the boldness of the strongest ninja village? It really makes me laugh to death."
"Sending twelve Genin to escort such a massive amount of supplies without strong protection behind them, running away at the first sign of danger—I don't know whether to say they are big-hearted or just stupid with too much money."
"Maybe they felt their disguise was perfect. It probably wasn't the first time, and it went smoothly for the past few months, so they got careless."
"Thanks to their arrogance, we got this for free."
After a round of mocking sighs, the four Sunagakure ninjas finally stopped laughing.
One of them seemed to remember something and suddenly said with a serious expression: "Although we successfully transferred these supplies from the Land of Fire to the secret base, confirmed there were no Chakra fluctuations for several kilometers around, and there was no Byakugan surveillance along the way, we still have to be cautious."
"Konoha has the Black Flash who masters the Flying Thunder God Technique. According to intelligence, as long as he can sense the Flying Thunder God formula, he can appear out of thin air ignoring barriers."
"If not for the massive Chakra required to transfer objects, these supplies could have been teleported directly from Konoha to the border base or other front-line camps."
"We need to carefully check every item, even a kunai, a shuriken, an explosive tag, or a soldier pill... to ensure there are no Flying Thunder God formulas on them."
"Yes!"
The other three Sunagakure ninjas nodded seriously.
Thus, the four took another soldier pill, set up traps next to the supplies, and finally created Shadow Clones again to check the supplies on the ground.
After an unknown amount of time, they finally finished checking.
As the Shadow Clones dispelled, while the four Sunagakure ninjas felt exhausted, their faces showed joyful smiles again.
"No problems at all!"
"Report to Chiyo-sama immediately and request support."
This time, the Sunagakure ninjas hesitated no longer and quickly summoned a summoning beast to transmit the intelligence to the border base.
Soon, Chiyo received the news.
"Three carts of supplies, ten super-large scrolls, one hundred and twenty small scrolls, fifteen boxes of strategic materials... really?" Chiyo widened her eyes in disbelief. "Konoha only sent twelve Genin to escort such a massive amount of supplies. Are they crazy?"
After speaking, Chiyo looked at her brother: "Could this be a trap?"
"Even you think they're crazy, Sister, so it must be a trap. How could such a huge pie fall from the sky?" Ebizo analyzed calmly. "However, no Byakugan surveillance, no ninja interception along the way, and no Flying Thunder God formulas on the supplies—these are facts obtained after multiple checks."
"That four-man squad is composed of Tokubetsu Jonin with special talents. I trust their ability and rigor."
"But with their Chakra, even mastering Konoha's Shadow Clone Technique, they can't bring these supplies from the Land of Fire back to the border base. Transferring them to the nearest secret base is already their limit."
"If they go to the nearest battle line, they definitely won't escape the reconnaissance team's surveillance. Konoha's White Fang will definitely intercept upon receiving the news, and a large-scale war will surely break out on that battle line. We, needing to escort supplies, will fall into a disadvantage."
"Moreover, regardless of whether Konoha can track the current location of this batch of supplies, to avoid accidents, we cannot send ordinary Genin to transport them. Otherwise, if something happens, we will bury a batch of the village's future."
"We can't mobilize the combat units on the battle line either; otherwise, it might be a lure-enemy trap. Konoha might encircle and suppress the combat units in the Land of Rivers, a place suitable for hiding, or take the opportunity to attack the battle line camp!"
Hearing this, Chiyo looked grim: "Do we have to give up this batch of supplies? Or can we send another squad mastering the Shadow Clone Technique to assist them in slowly transferring the supplies to the border base?"
"Naturally no problem, provided it's not Konoha's trap." Ebizo said coldly, "If it is a trap, then both squads might be buried in the Land of Rivers. From the moment that squad chose to move the supplies, we fell into Konoha's trap."
"Then what should we do?" Chiyo asked hurriedly, "Is there a solution?"
"Yes, and more than one." Ebizo's gaze was deep. "First, the combat units on the battle line cannot be mobilized, nor can they know this news; otherwise, it might be leaked."
"To transport that batch of supplies, we can only mobilize troops from the border base or the village, and it must be multiple ninja squads with powerful combat power and coordination ability, along with a powerful commander capable of dealing with the enemy's top combat power."
"The best method is to ask the Kazekage to mobilize personally, leading Anbu or several Jonin squads to transport."
Hearing this, Chiyo immediately vetoed: "No, we cannot let the Kazekage enter the enemy's trap."
"Then it can only be led by me, or you, Sister, or Bunpuku personally." Ebizo stared at Chiyo.
"Bunpuku cannot mobilize either. As a Jinchuriki and strategic deterrent, going to war so early might affect the situation on other battle lines, or even make us a target for all." Chiyo's eyes were firm. "Let this old woman lead the team personally."
"What if Konoha leaks the news and attracts Hanzo?" Ebizo suddenly asked, "Besides you, Sister, we have no existence capable of dealing with Hanzo."
Chiyo's face froze instantly, realizing that Konoha's open conspiracy seemed unsolvable.
Ebizo finally laughed out loud: "From the beginning, this mission could only be completed by me!"
"Isn't it too risky?" Chiyo looked worried. "If it really doesn't work, how about giving up that batch of supplies, or waiting until there's time later to transport them, which also allows observing if it's Konoha's trap?"
"Cannot give up; otherwise, that squad is doomed, and we will still lose four Tokubetsu Jonin. Konoha might even continue to adopt such open conspiracies to lure other ninja squads infiltrating the Land of Fire into traps." Ebizo first refused firmly, then smiled: "Besides, these speculations are just suspicions generated by our cautious nature after getting a huge bargain. What if things are really that simple, and Konoha just sent twelve Genin to escort those supplies?"
Chiyo also realized they couldn't abandon those four Tokubetsu Jonin, so she could only say seriously: "You can go, but you must take several ninja squads composed of Jonin, and have several Anbu squads escorting. This old woman will apply to the Kazekage."
"I think so too." Ebizo didn't refuse, stating his idea, "The only way to perfectly crack this is to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, mobilizing a large amount of powerful troops to support. This way, we can save that squad's lives and transport those supplies back."
"But the premise is not to mobilize high-level troops on the surface."
"So, no one is more suitable for this mission than me, who is responsible for intelligence and espionage work."
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