Qingshui nodded slightly at the Third Kazekage's proposal, passing it.
The Rain Village's forces, at full strength, numbered only six to seven thousand. Most of the truly elite were the three thousand Rain Ninja that Hanzo had led. In terms of mid-to-lower tier combat power, there was a clear gap compared to the Five Great Ninja Villages previously. Without sufficient support, they could easily be overwhelmed.
To get the Rain Village to contribute, they not only needed to promise great rewards but also ensure they had no major worries.
The ninja of the Sand Village possessed high quality, along with weapons and tools not found in other ninja villages. Now, with the addition of Puppet Armor, even with only fifteen hundred people, they could exert the effect of over three thousand elite ninja.
With the addition of the Third Kazekage and fifteen hundred people, their contribution would already be significant.
Qingshui continued with his arrangements:
"For the Land of Earth front, I will lead four thousand people. This battle, with me present, is guaranteed to be a victory with minimal losses, so it can be treated as a training battle. I will bring two newly trained Jinchuriki, and we will also select promising Genin who graduated in the last two years to head north with us, showcasing their training results from this past year."
Qingshui's tone was full of confidence as he spoke.
Facing a single Stone Village from the Land of Earth, with his strength already approaching the threshold of the Six Paths, there was no possibility of failure.
If he hadn't intended to train troops and needed people to clear out remaining Stone Village remnants in various locations and maintain control over the Land of Earth, Qingshui wouldn't have even needed to bring those four thousand people.
The other high-ranking officials of the Sand Village didn't fully grasp the extent of Qingshui's current strength. However, through Sasori, they knew that Qingshui could easily defeat Sasori, who was controlling a large war puppet, with his bare hands.
Such strength alone was enough to ensure victory, let alone the fact that Qingshui had many more means at his disposal that he hadn't revealed.
Since the establishment of the Five Great Ninja Villages system, many countries had been destroyed. During the last Great Ninja War, Hanzo destroyed several small countries like the Land of Grass, Land of Rice Fields, and Land of Birds, and also divided the Land of Waterfalls with the Land of Lightning.
In the previous Great Ninja War, the Land of Eddies, like the Land of Waterfalls, was destroyed by the combined efforts of the great nations, and their Sealing Jutsu heritage was divided. The Land of Fire, where the Heat Haze Ninja Village was located, and the Land of Sky, where the Sky Ninja Village was located, were both annihilated by Konoha.
However, the Five Great Nations had never faced complete annihilation. Even though several Kage had died in recent decades, not a single one had been destroyed.
The merit of being the first to annihilate a Great Nation would not be contested by anyone in the Sand Village with Qingshui, the current Kazekage.
Qingshui continued his arrangements:
"For the threat posed by the Hidden Mist Village along the coastline, I'll leave that to Teacher Chiyo and Pakura. You will take the Fourth and Fifth Brigades of the Puppet Force, along with three thousand people from the Second Combat Brigade. Teacher Ebizo, you will remain in the village, coordinating logistics and stabilizing the rear. I'll leave two thousand people with you."
While the war was to be fought, the production of new Puppet Armor and the construction of giant war puppets within the Sand Village must not halt.
Sasori immediately spoke up, "Then, will the remaining forces be handed over to me to deal with Konoha?"
Judging by his expression, Sasori seemed somewhat excited and expectant.
He had surely been eager to control the Red Sand Sasori on the battlefield for a long time.
And when it came to dealing with Konoha, Sasori was currently the most suitable candidate to lead the charge.
Due to the presence of Senju Hashirama, who was resurrected through Impure World Reincarnation, the Sand Village would either have to send a Kage-level or higher expert, or, as Konoha had done against Qingshui before, send three Kage-level experts to entangle him.
With Qingshui as the main force to annihilate the Land of Earth and a large number of Kage-level experts being diverted to guard against other ninja villages, only Sasori, who already possessed the Red Sand Sasori puppet, could be deployed.
Sasori, piloting the Red Sand Sasori that Qingshui had easily crushed two days prior, would be enough to suppress Senju Hashirama, who had only recovered to just over forty percent of his strength.
Of course, Konoha had more strong individuals. With them as reinforcements, and the fact that the Impure World Reincarnation body was immune to death and injury, they would certainly need to provide Sasori with reinforcements and upgrade him.
"That's right. For the Konoha front, I will place you in command, Sasori. I will assign you most of the Jonin equipped with the enhanced Ark Puppet Armor, and Karura and Rasa will serve as your deputies."
A dozen or so Elite Jonin equipped with the enhanced Ark Puppet Armor would possess strength close to Kage-level.
Even if they weren't true Kage-level experts, they would have the strength to fight. If they weren't aiming to win but merely to stall, they wouldn't be easily defeated and could hold their own for a considerable time.
Without a significant intelligence disparity, they would at least have the ability to protect themselves from enemy Kage-level experts.
This was assuming the enemy's strength wasn't too far beyond the norm.
For instance, back when Qingshui was just a Genin and had just learned Magnet Release, a seventeen-year-old Rasa and Karura working together could block a peak-period Orochimaru. Even before that, the combined efforts of the Sannin, who were younger and had not yet reached their prime, couldn't even fight Hanzo to a draw.
Hanzo in his prime was a peak Kage-level expert, his strength far beyond that of ordinary Kage.
However, even so, while Konoha had the most Kage-level ninja, only a small portion were at the peak Kage-level.
The Elite Jonin of the Sand Village equipped with the enhanced Ark Puppet Armor, with two or three of them working together, could contend with most Kage-level experts. Overall, even if Konoha mobilized entirely, the Sand Village would not be at a disadvantage in the Kage-level domain.
"Furthermore, I will help you repair the Red Sand Sasori over the next two days, engrave it with new Sealing Jutsu, and install the Scorching Core. Remember, the Scorching Core, under current conditions, can be operated at its maximum output for twenty seconds before requiring three minutes of charging via the Ark Reactor to be fully replenished."
Qingshui instructed Sasori, taking out the Scorching Core with a flip of his hand.
In the previous two days, Sasori had repaired a little more than half of the Red Sand Sasori and adjusted some of its internal structures to facilitate the engraving of new Sealing Jutsu and the installation of the Scorching Core.
Currently, the puppet base of the Sand Village still had many large war puppet modules prepared for Chiyo's White Sand Sasori and Ebizo's Black Sand Sasori. The parts on these were interchangeable with Sasori's Red Sand Sasori.
With Qingshui's speed and Sasori's cooperation, it would be sufficient to engrave the necessary sealing for these items within two days.
"That's enough."
Sasori smiled, confidently taking the Scorching Core from Qingshui's hand.
"With this, even Senju Hashirama will not be my opponent. I might even find an opportunity to seal him."
"Then the remaining five thousand plus people will be handed over to you."
"Rest assured, Konoha is no longer worthy of being our opponent."
...
...
For a rising power, its internal mobilization capabilities were extremely efficient.
As soon as the order was given, the Sand Village began secretly mobilizing personnel and resources the very next day, using various pretexts.
Regardless of whether Stone Hidden and the other ninja villages noticed, these necessary actions still had to be taken. If they truly weren't discovered, then the enemy would certainly be caught off guard, unable to react in time. If they were discovered, then every day they remained hidden would mean one less day for the enemy to prepare.
Sand Village had done this very cleverly.
With Artificial Intelligence involved, even though server computing power wasn't entirely sufficient due to the time constraints, it was enough to arrange some things invisibly according to requirements.
Aside from the upper-echelon ninjas of Sand Village at Jonin level, nearly four thousand Sand ninjas, secretly selected, had received mission orders from the Kazekage's office or their own superior departments two days prior, requiring them to be ready to execute missions within two days.
Whether it was escort missions, garrison duty at borders and strongholds, or clearing out rogue ninja, wandering ninja, and bandits within the subordinate small countries, everyone's mission destination was a distant location.
This allowed these ninjas to prepare for long-distance travel within two days.
As for logistics and material reserves, that was even simpler.
Qingshui had already passed down the manufacturing method for the Devouring Pouch. Sand Village now had a few excellent Puppet Masters who possessed the ability to craft Devouring Pouch magic tools. Even though these Devouring Pouches were still relatively low-end magic tools due to the insufficient chakra quality of the casters and the lack of sufficient time for nurturing, their internal space was several cubic meters, capable of storing tons of food, fresh water, and ninja tools.
This was far more practical than traditional Sealing Scrolls.
Both in terms of logistical preparations and personnel deployment, Sand Village had acted with extreme discretion.
Even if some clues were discovered through information from warehouses and other inventories, no one anticipated that Sand Village was secretly amassing a large army to attack Stone Hidden.
It wasn't until one hour before departure that Sand Village officially issued a war mobilization. Only when these four thousand people received the assembly order and gathered at the newly constructed No. 4 Super Large Training Ground in Sand Village did they realize that Sand Village had already prepared to send troops and commence war.
However, by the time they sent messages back to their village through various means, it was already too late.
At this moment, Qingshui, standing on a temporarily erected high platform in front of the training ground, donned the Kage's robe, his gaze sharp and penetrating.
Even without uttering a word, his presence here was the greatest encouragement to the ninjas of Sand Village.
"Qingshui, everyone has arrived."
Baki walked up to Qingshui on the platform and said in a low voice.
He was now seventeen years old, wearing the brown Sand Village Jonin vest, his head wrapped in a white cloth, his face painted with oil paint, looking very much like his appearance twenty years later.
He was now the Jinchuriki of Shukaku, the One-Tails.
As long as he could ensure stable control of the Tailed Beast's power and display Kage-level strength, he would have a place among the high-ranking officials of Sand Village in the future.
Uzumaki Ayane, who had become the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, was in a similar situation. However, compared to Baki, who had been Qingshui's teammate since childhood and was included in Sand Village's elite training program, Uzumaki Ayane had no foundation within Sand Village, and her influence would undoubtedly be far less than Baki's.
Unless she could form a union with a ninja of higher status within a certain faction of Sand Village through marriage or other means to compensate.
In fact, this young woman, who was once a love-struck romantic, had undergone significant changes in her perspective and thinking after living and training in Sand Village for these past few years. She no longer obsessively adored an incredibly handsome Sand Village Jonin as she did before. Instead, she was exchanging glances with an Elite Jonin of Sand Village who had lost his wife some years ago.
Of course, what remained unchanged was Uzumaki Ayane's preference for good looks. This Elite Jonin of Sand Village, nearing forty, was also a handsome older man. He hailed from a medium-sized ninja clan within Sand Village, was currently the clan head, and had also obtained a reinforced Ark Puppet Armor.
Both this ninja clan and Sand Village itself were pleased to see this development.
The ninja clan desired further advancement, seeking to gain influence within the higher ranks through Uzumaki Ayane, and also wanted to obtain the Uzumaki Clan's bloodline. This way, future Jinchuriki of Sand Village would likely come from their clan.
Allowing the Uzumaki Clan's bloodline to spread within Sand Village, and enabling Uzumaki Ayane, as a Jinchuriki, to have a partner and children within the village, forging deeper bonds, was also something that the higher-ups of Sand Village, and indeed the higher-ups of all ninja villages in the Ninja World, wished to see within their own villages.
Not long after, a figure wearing reinforced Puppet Armor slowly flew in from a distance and landed in front of Qingshui. He opened his faceplate, revealing a face wearing small, round sunglasses.
Oyakata En.
With the Ketsuryugan, developed to an extremely high degree, he could be considered among the foremost of Sand Village's Elite Jonin. However, what the high-ranking officials of Sand Village valued most was Oyakata En's talent in commerce and economics.
In these fields, his vision and intuition were something even Qingshui greatly admired. He was also very capable in logistical management and the coordination of materials and personnel.
In the past, when leading a team, Qingshui had entrusted Fukami Senran with the responsibility of managing logistics, supplies, and personnel coordination. However, this time, the experienced Fukami Senran had been assigned by Qingshui to Sasori, who was independently leading a team as the overall commander for the first time. Therefore, Oyakata En had been brought in to serve as his steward.
"Fourth Kazekage, all logistics, materials, and war ninja tools have been prepared. We can depart at any time."
Oyakata En pushed his small glasses up and said to Qingshui.
"Very good."
Qingshui looked at the silent, orderly, yet high-spirited army of Sand ninjas. He extended a finger, formed a hand seal casually, and drew it across the open space in front of the army.
Bright blue sparks with spatial attributes swirled in the air, quickly outlining a massive circular Teleportation Halo within seconds.
The halo was large enough to accommodate dozens of people walking side by side.
On the other side was a flat Gobi desert near the border of Sand Village.
There, another Shadow Clone of Qingshui was also present, extending its hand to sketch another Teleportation Halo.
With just this single transfer, the four-thousand-strong ninja army of Sand Village would be able to cross countless city checkpoints, mountain obstacles, and directly penetrate to a location only twenty kilometers away from Stone Hidden Village in just a few minutes.
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