Although he was on the battlefield, Mutsuki's life actually became a bit easier.
Because here he didn't need to juggle the Academy and his students, and Orochimaru hadn't assigned him any combat missions for the time being.
Not only Mutsuki-aside from Orochimaru himself, many jonin who had recently arrived as reinforcements also weren't given combat assignments.
There was no doubt that Orochimaru wanted to strike the Hidden Mist hard and catch them off guard.
To make the disguise more convincing, Orochimaru restricted most jonin but didn't limit a small number of jonin or any of the chunin and genin.
After all, the Hidden Mist had already invaded the Land of Fire's mainland-if Konoha didn't increase troop numbers, it wouldn't make sense.
Orochimaru created the illusion that Konoha wanted to strengthen the forces on the Mist front but had limited manpower to deploy due to fighting on other fronts.
To provoke the Hidden Mist into launching a major offensive, Orochimaru even deliberately exposed their camp information bit by bit to lure them in.
It had to be said, Orochimaru's plan was excellent. In the eyes of many Hidden Mist ninjas, the Konoha forces fighting them were nothing more than paper tigers that only looked strong.
That's right-paper tigers.
Although Konoha was still outwardly the strongest ninja village, fighting on multiple fronts and winning repeatedly, in actual combat they were showing clear signs of decline. Many ninjas were active, but their quality was low.
If Konoha really still had the strength to face the Hidden Mist, why would they need to transfer Orochimaru from another battlefield and send large numbers of chunin and genin to handle missions on the front lines?
"Yagura-sama, our intel personnel have discovered information about Konoha ninja's new camp. I think this is a good opportunity to eliminate Konoha's vital forces," Minazuki said during the Hidden Mist strategy meeting.
Yagura might look young, but he was a seasoned and veteran Hidden Mist ninja. Even someone like Minazuki, one of the core commanders of the Mist forces, had to respectfully address Yagura with honorifics.
"We found intel on the new camp so quickly-can we confirm its accuracy? This could be a trap set by the Konoha ninja," Yagura asked calmly, his expression unchanged.
He only looked like a boy-he was long past the age of recklessness. A reliable leader doesn't take risks lightly.
"I don't think it is. Based on the intel we've gathered over the past few days, although Konoha has sent reinforcements, they're still weaker than us overall. They wouldn't want to engage in a large-scale frontal clash with us," Minazuki gave his assessment.
Yagura showed a contemplative look. He of course knew the intel Minazuki mentioned. Lately, there had indeed been noticeably more Konoha ninjas, but most of them were chunin and genin. Jonin were present, but very few.
By conventional reasoning, this pointed to a lack of strength in the village.
But the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki from Konoha still hadn't shown up on any battlefield, and that point deeply concerned Yagura.
If the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki had secretly arrived on the eastern front, then the Mist's advantage might not hold.
The destructive power of a Jinchuriki was terrifying-let alone ninjas below jonin, even regular jonin could barely function in a battle against one.
Yagura was confident he could handle Orochimaru, but he didn't believe Minazuki or Zangetsu could deal with the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. Especially since the other side also had the current Ino-Shika-Cho trio.
"I don't want your opinion-I need facts," Yagura said, shaking his head.
"If the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki is in the Konoha camp, how should we respond?" Yagura looked at the other Hidden Mist members and asked calmly.
"We are the only ninja village that has invaded the Land of Fire's mainland. It's not surprising for Konoha to use any means to deal with us."
Minazuki was momentarily speechless. Even as the current head of the Yuki Clan, he didn't have the confidence to say he could handle a Jinchuriki.
Tailed Beasts were the ultimate weapons of the Five Great Nations, and the Nine-Tails was among the most powerful of them all.
The other Hidden Mist ninjas exchanged glances, but no one said a word.
"I understand your desire to achieve merit, but we don't need to rush. The ones who should be anxious right now are Konoha," Yagura broke the silence.
He didn't blame Minazuki-after all, not every ninja was good at strategy. Some were only suited for combat.
The Hidden Mist really didn't need to rush, because unlike Konoha, who had enemies from three major ninja villages, the Mist was only at war with Konoha.
Right now, the only village in the ninja world facing the same situation as Konoha was the Hidden Cloud, which was also at war with three major villages: Konoha, the Sand, and the Hidden Rock.
But unlike Konoha, which was passively dragged into conflict, the Hidden Cloud had actively started trouble.
"So we just do nothing?" Minazuki asked, a bit unwilling.
They were lucky to have obtained this intel-if Konoha's camp realized the leak and moved elsewhere, it wouldn't be so easy to find them again.
"You're too extreme. War isn't just all-out war or ceasefire-we can start by probing," Yagura said with his arms crossed.
In Yagura's view, Minazuki was being too black-and-white. All he had done was suggest not launching a full assault right away, and somehow it turned into 'doing nothing.'
After setting up a probing operation, Yagura dismissed the meeting and sent his trusted aides to summon the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
Originally, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were directly under the Mizukage, and in theory, only the Mizukage could issue them orders.
But during wartime, special circumstances allowed special actions. The Third Mizukage had granted Yagura special authority to command the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
"Go sabotage Konoha ninja's logistics support. Most of the Konoha ninjas active lately are chunin and genin. It'll be easy for you," Yagura said as he pointed out the location on the map to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
The Hidden Mist was famous in the ninja world for its assassination skills. As assassins, they also had excellent intelligence-gathering capabilities and wouldn't lose to Konoha ninjas in that regard.
Yagura's goal was simple-to carry out an efficient massacre of Konoha's mid- and low-level forces, in order to test whether Konoha truly lacked strength or was just pretending to be a paper tiger.
He had wanted to do this for a while, but until now, Konoha's ninjas had been cautious and didn't often move in small squads.
"Tch, chunin and genin? A mission to bully the weak," said Juzo with a sneer, carrying the Executioner's Blade.
Juzo could easily cut down ten mid- and low-level ninjas by himself, and now Yagura was sending all seven of them to hunt such ninja squads. Juzo couldn't think of a better term than bullying the weak.
"It is bullying the weak, but it's a mission-so we carry it out, right?" Raiga said flatly, looking at Juzo.
Fuguki, Kushimaru, and the other members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist all looked at Juzo. They weren't comrades who advanced together. If Juzo really refused to carry out the mission for such a reason, they'd be the first to eliminate him.
"Tch, do you even need to say that?" Juzo replied with a mocking expression.
Although he wasn't happy about it, he didn't intend to refuse the mission. He was a Hidden Mist ninja, and for Hidden Mist ninjas, the mission always came first-everything else could wait.
...
"So you guys are here too, Guy? How come I don't see Chen-sensei?" Obito asked in surprise when he ran into Guy's squad.
"Chen-sensei had something to take care of, he'll be coming a bit later," Guy replied honestly.
"What a coincidence, that means we're both squads without a guiding sensei right now," Obito said as he scratched his head, thinking about their current situation.
Although Mutsuki was on the same battlefield as them, he couldn't lead them on missions due to his heavy responsibilities.
"Did Minato-sama not come to this battlefield with you?" Ebisu asked curiously.
He didn't think Minato was the type to be so irresponsible as to leave his students alone on the battlefield, especially since none of Obito's team had become jonin yet.
"Minato-sensei is on a different front. The one who brought us here was Mutsuki-sensei, but he has other important missions and can't take us on missions for now," Obito explained.
"I see, so this is the bond between us!" Guy said with a look of sudden realization, then turned to Kakashi with an excited expression.
Kakashi: ...
He hadn't even said anything-how was this suddenly about his bond again?
"Since your guiding sensei isn't around, you need to be extra careful during missions," Kakashi said, reminded of something.
Without a leading jonin, even though Ebisu and Genma had already been promoted to chunin, Guy's squad still couldn't take on B-rank or higher missions. But the battlefield changed rapidly-even B-rank missions could become dangerous, so they needed to stay alert at all times.
The main issue was that Guy's team wasn't very strong. Ebisu and Genma were considered outstanding among their peers, but war wasn't a battle between peers-no one cared how old you were in wartime.
To put it bluntly, Guy might actually be safer doing missions alone.
If Guy ran into three jonin by himself, Kakashi believed he could get away safely with full effort. But if Ebisu and Genma were with him, it would be a different story.
Because Guy wouldn't abandon his teammates, and Ebisu and Genma wouldn't be able to escape from jonin-level opponents, Guy would be forced to fight head-on.
"As expected of my best friend-Chen-sensei reminded us of this too," Guy said, giving Kakashi a thumbs-up.
At that moment, a sudden flash of inspiration hit Obito. Since none of them had a guiding sensei, they couldn't take on high-rank missions. But what if they formed a new team together? Wouldn't that make them eligible for A-rank missions?
"Why don't you guys join us? That way, we'll be a team of seven chunin. We should qualify to take on A-rank missions, right?" Obito voiced his idea.
Obito was honestly frustrated. Before coming to the battlefield, he had hoped to perform well and outshine Kakashi. But Kakashi always beat him to the enemy with his speed, taking most of the credit and output.
After several missions, Obito had only really fought during the first one, using shadow clones to engage with the Hidden Mist. For the rest, he barely had any action.
The ninjas they encountered were just too weak. At least the first mission had a jonin. The rest were all mid- and low-level ninjas.
Obito knew it wasn't bad luck-it was because of the mission level. It was normal not to encounter jonin in B-rank missions. If you did, that was an unexpected complication.
So Obito wanted to take on higher-level missions to face stronger enemies and have more chances to prove himself.
Of course, Obito wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to demand an S-rank mission-doing that on the battlefield was pure suicide.
"We can't just randomly join other teams like that, right?" Genma said, a little uncertain.
"You could sound more certain-of course we can't," Ebisu said, shaking his head.
This was a battlefield-how could ninjas be allowed to freely merge into new teams? That would be chaos.
"Technically, no-but I can go ask Mutsuki-sensei," Kakashi said after thinking it over.
Kakashi thought merging with Guy's team was a great idea and beneficial for both sides.
Kakashi's team would gain Guy's powerful combat strength, and Ebisu and Genma would be safer too.
With the combined strength of these seven ninjas, carrying out A-rank missions was no problem. In fact, when doing A-rank missions back in Konoha, Kakashi's team usually didn't even need Mutsuki or Minato to step in-as long as nothing unexpected happened.
"Teaming up with my best friend? I'm in," Guy also wanted to fight alongside Kakashi.
After discussing it for a while, they eventually went to find Mutsuki to ask.
"Wanting to take on more responsibility is a good thing. I'll bring it up with Orochimaru-sama," Mutsuki encouraged his students and said he would help them work it out.
This was also a good thing for Mutsuki-it made things easier for him. He wouldn't need to divide his attention to protect students in different places.
Since they were all on the same battlefield, Mutsuki naturally had to treat them equally and look after them all.
Even though Madara definitely wouldn't target Guy, the tragedy that befell Guy in the original story happened at the hands of the Hidden Mist-so he had to stay cautious.
Orochimaru, eager for future achievements, didn't hesitate and immediately approved the request, allowing Guy's team to merge with Kakashi's team into a brand new squad and upgrading their mission permissions.
"Since we don't have a guiding sensei, we need a vice captain. Originally, I was vice captain of our team, but since we've merged with another team, let's vote again for fairness," Kakashi suggested a re-election for vice captain.
If it had just been Guy joining alone, there'd be no need. But since his whole team was now part of the group, it was necessary to vote again-only an acknowledged vice captain would truly earn everyone's respect.
In the end, Kakashi was re-elected as vice captain with an overwhelming six votes. Aside from Obito, who voted for Rin, everyone else voted for Kakashi.
Guy gave a strong sense of security, but Genma and Ebisu felt Kakashi was still more suited for giving commands.
Normally, it was Ebisu who handled the thinking in their team. But now that they had someone better, Ebisu certainly wouldn't try to take the role himself-he didn't have the confidence to compete with Kakashi.
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