Chapter 504: Supporting the Battlefield
With most of Yokogawa Tsutomu's confidants having been devoured by the paradise box, Drag quickly seized control of the Hidden Grass Village alongside the Grass Flower faction and became the temporary leader.
Once he took the seat, Drag immediately announced the official version of events to the village.
The former leader, Yokogawa, had strayed onto an evil path and conducted forbidden research. In the end, the experiment failed, turning him into an inhuman monster that slaughtered many of their own shinobi. Finally, with the help of righteous Konoha shinobi, the monstrous Yokogawa was defeated, and the Hidden Grass Village was protected.
To thank Konoha for its assistance, the Hidden Grass Village would sign a friendship treaty with Konoha and become its ally.
Only then did the villagers learn the identity of the hero who had killed the monster.
It was the famous Raging Sun Mugetsu.
The moment people realized their village was about to establish ties with a top village like Konoha, many felt the Hidden Grass Village was finally on the rise.
Of course, a small number of people insisted Drag had colluded with outsiders to seize power, claiming the entire incident was a conspiracy.
For those baseless conspiracy theorists, Drag usually threw them into a cell for a few days to clear their heads.
While Drag handled internal affairs, Mugetsu sent the mission intelligence back to Konoha and prepared the next step.
They would not be the ones negotiating the treaty's specific terms. When the time came, Hiruzen would send a specialized team.
But that did not mean the Hidden Grass shinobi could sit idle simply because paperwork was pending.
If they were going to be allies, they needed to act like allies now.
The Hidden Grass Village had to order its shinobi to stab Iwagakure in the back and help Konoha seize an advantage on the battlefield. Compensation could be discussed later. Battlefield support was needed immediately.
At the same time, Mugetsu's squad could not remain idle either. They would serve as a surprise force to support the Konoha front line and aim to crush the Iwa shinobi force in one decisive blow.
Before leaving the Hidden Grass Village, Mugetsu, as a Konoha shinobi, spoke with Hana Uzumaki for a while.
"The Uzumaki Clan is Konoha's eternal ally," Mugetsu said bluntly. "If you want, after we finish this mission, I can take you back to Konoha. It's much safer there than staying here while war is raging."
In Mugetsu's view, there was no truly safe place in the shinobi world right now. But if he had to compare, Konoha was still one of the safest places to live.
Even with multiple great villages surrounding it, the flames of war had never reached Konoha itself. At worst, they only burned into the Land of Fire.
For ordinary people living in Konoha, as long as they did not run into something like Pain showing up to deliver rice, life could remain peaceful.
Not necessarily luxurious, but stable.
Hana hesitated.
She did not know much about Konoha. When she was young, she had occasionally heard adults mention their clan ally, but that was a distant memory now. She only remembered hearing that Konoha was prosperous, full of powerful clans and countless shinobi.
She could not tell whether Konoha would truly be a good place for her, or whether her Uzumaki identity and special physique would bring her new misfortune.
"I also have a friend," Mugetsu added. "An Uzumaki kunoichi in Konoha. She's quite similar to you. You might get along."
He briefly introduced Kushina's existence.
With so few Uzumaki left in the shinobi world, Mugetsu felt it would be good to connect them. It could benefit both sides.
Hearing there was a clan member in Konoha, Hana's hesitation faded.
"Then I'll trouble you when the time comes," she said softly.
Being alone in an unfamiliar place was unsettling, no matter how good others claimed it was.
But if there was family, it was different.
Given the state of the Uzumaki Clan, any surviving member was family to her.
Once things in the Hidden Grass Village were settled, Mugetsu quickly led his squad toward the Konoha camp in the Land of Grass.
The moment they arrived, Jiraiya strode up with a grin and slapped Mugetsu on the shoulder.
"Mugetsu, you're finally here! With you and Minato, the strongest new generation Konoha has, I'm sure I'll be able to take a vacation soon."
As the commander of the force, Jiraiya had learned about Mugetsu's deployment early. Now that Mugetsu was actually here, he looked over the squad members and nodded subconsciously.
All of them had real strength.
Then Jiraiya spotted Obito and immediately brightened.
"Goggles kid. Call me Grandmaster. Let me hear it."
This was the second time Jiraiya had met Obito on a battlefield. The first time was when Obito was on a C rank war mission and ran into trouble.
Back then, Obito had left a strong impression. Even though Jiraiya was a genuine Sage, Obito refused to acknowledge it and stubbornly called him Toad Uncle.
Now Obito was Minato's student, and Minato was Jiraiya's disciple. By seniority, Jiraiya could absolutely be called Obito's grandmaster.
Obito's expression immediately turned sour.
If Jiraiya had spoken nicely, Obito might have said it in a good mood, but Jiraiya was clearly dreaming.
"Oh, hello, Toad Uncle," Obito answered without manners.
Jiraiya's eyebrow twitched.
"Toad Sage or Grandmaster. Pick one, and I'll forgive you."
"Okay," Obito nodded seriously. "Toad Uncle."
In Obito's mind, only Mugetsu and the Sage of Six Paths deserved the title Sage.
Jiraiya's smile turned dangerous.
"Now that I think about it, the camp's sanitation still needs someone. Fine. From today on, you handle it, Goggles kid."
Obito's eyes widened.
Was it not a bit much for a dignified Sannin to bully an eleven year old like this? He was still a kid!
Shisui watched in stunned silence. It was his first time meeting Jiraiya.
He had not expected the legendary Sannin's personality to be so… peculiar.
Kakashi remained expressionless. This was not his first time seeing Jiraiya act like this. Last time, Jiraiya had even tried to provoke Obito and Minato, who were not even master and disciple yet, into some ridiculous Royal City duel.
"Jiraiya sensei," Minato said helplessly from the side, "let's discuss the battlefield situation with Mugetsu first."
His own teacher and his own student bickering in front of him was genuinely hard to endure.
"Just a joke to liven things up," Jiraiya said with a grin, then led Mugetsu's squad into the meeting tent.
Of course, he was not actually going to assign Obito to logistics. He simply found Obito's reaction entertaining.
Once inside the tent, Jiraiya's expression turned serious.
"The two most troublesome targets in the Iwa force don't need an introduction. Mugetsu, you've already fought those two jinchuriki. You know what they can do."
Mugetsu nodded.
Iwagakure's Four Tails and Five Tails jinchuriki were on a completely different level compared to the Three Tails jinchuriki he had encountered on the eastern bank battlefield.
The Hidden Mist's Three Tails jinchuriki had only reached full tailed beast transformation by using a secret technique to force the tailed beast into a berserk state. That was the weakest kind of jinchuriki.
A jinchuriki who could enter full transformation at will possessed terrifying combat power. Even a tailed beast bomb was merely a ninjutsu with a slightly higher chakra cost to them.
Even Mugetsu, faced with that destructive force, could only use Flying Thunder God to evade. He could not take it head on.
It was not that Mugetsu could not withstand a tailed beast bomb, but the cost was too high. It was far less efficient than simply teleporting away.
He would have to spend most of his chakra coating himself in Armament Haki just to endure a single bomb.
"Besides the jinchuriki," Minato continued, handing Mugetsu a set of documents, "the strongest shinobi in the Iwa force is Retsuishi, captain of the Iwa Explosion Corps. His Explosion Release is mastered to a frightening degree. Both his ninjutsu and taijutsu can cause detonations."
Minato's gaze sharpened.
"And Retsuishi doesn't come alone. The vice captain, Iwakura, has been appearing in recent battles as well. Compared to Retsuishi, Iwakura's Explosion Release leans more toward long range bombardment."
Just as the five chakra natures could produce countless different ninjutsu, the same bloodline limit could vary wildly depending on the user.
Mugetsu had met a Kumogakure shinobi named Troy long ago who used Magnet Release. Unlike Rasa, who controlled gold dust, Troy focused on magnetic manipulation itself.
"Whether it's Retsuishi or Iwakura, they never act solo," Minato continued. "They usually bring at least three other members of the Explosion Corps."
Mugetsu nodded. He suspected Ōnoki had dispatched most of the squad to the Land of Grass battlefield.
No wonder Hiruzen had urgently sent Minato here.
Multiple Explosion Release shinobi unleashing full power bombardment together could create terrifying suppressive fire, a massive threat to any shinobi force.
Add tailed beast bombs on top of that, and it became carpet bombing.
Mugetsu finished reading the intel, then passed the documents to his teammates.
There were only four people on this battlefield who truly qualified as his direct opponents: the two jinchuriki and the two captains of the Explosion Corps.
Any remaining well known jonin would likely be matched against Kakashi, Obito, and the others.
While his squad studied the intel, Mugetsu explained the general situation in the Hidden Grass Village.
Yokogawa had formed a force of Hidden Grass shinobi to assist Iwagakure.
Now the leader was Drag, meaning Iwagakure's former partners had become Konoha's new allies. Their first stab into Iwagakure's back would be their pledge of allegiance to Konoha.
Mugetsu could not help but admire Iwagakure's caution.
Even while cooperating with the Hidden Grass Village, the Hidden Grass shinobi did not know Iwagakure's base location.
Before each operation, Iwagakure would contact them, and the Hidden Grass shinobi would move to a designated location to receive orders.
If the Hidden Grass shinobi and Iwagakure had been stationed together, Mugetsu could have coordinated an inside outside strike and erased a large portion of Iwagakure's forces.
"Since the Hidden Grass shinobi are now our allies," Minato said after listening, "we can subtly leak some information about key positions, then wait for the Hidden Grass side to relay it back to us."
Even if the Hidden Grass Village did not have deep intel on Iwagakure, they were still Iwagakure's partners. That alone created room to maneuver.
"It's best to use something important enough to bait them," Minato continued, voice calm but sharp. "Let Iwagakure organize a large force to attack."
Minato believed the truth about the Hidden Grass Village could not remain hidden for long. To maximize the value of this turn, they needed to deceive Iwagakure hard and do it once.
"That's a solid idea," Jiraiya said, stroking his chin. "If we can take down those two Squad captains, Iwagakure might even consider peace talks."
He did not find Minato's plan aggressive at all. He had worked with Orochimaru in the past, and Orochimaru was what aggressive truly looked like.
Mugetsu nodded. If the Hidden Grass side held steady, Minato's plan was highly feasible.
Based on Iwagakure's current behavior, they clearly wanted Konoha to bleed. If an opportunity appeared, they would not let it go.
After working through the details, Mugetsu contacted the Hidden Grass Village to make arrangements.
Once everything settled, Jiraiya leaned back with a grin.
"Funny timing. Minato was just saying this morning that he missed your cooking, Mugetsu, and then you show up this afternoon."
Minato blinked, genuinely confused. He did not remember saying that.
Although he did miss it, he would not say it out loud. At most, he would quietly think about it late at night.
"Missing it is normal," Obito said, surprisingly catching Jiraiya's intent. His expression turned dreamy. "I've been eating Mugetsu sensei's cooking every day lately, and I never get tired of it."
Jiraiya's smile twitched.
Now he truly wanted to throw Obito into logistics.
Obito calling him Toad Uncle was something he could laugh off. But this was different.
Jiraiya only got to eat it a few times a year.
Obito ate it every day.
"To repay your kindness, Mugetsu sensei, I'll cook for you tonight!" Obito volunteered proudly.
Jiraiya's face darkened.
Was this kid trying to steal one of Jiraiya's rare yearly chances?
Jiraiya stared at Obito with a benevolent smile that felt like a trap.
"I hear you're already a jonin. Let me, your Grandmaster, check your training for Minato."
If he beat Obito until he could not move, then Obito obviously could not cook.
"Do well," Jiraiya continued smoothly, "and I'll let you sign a contract with Mount Myōboku."
To tempt Obito, he offered the summoning contract of one of the Three Great Holy Lands.
Obito clicked his tongue.
"I already have a summon."
Jiraiya's expression turned a touch more serious.
"Mount Myōboku is one of the Three Great Holy Lands. It's not like ordinary summons. If you meet the requirements, you can even train in Sage Mode there."
The words Sage Mode made Obito's interest flare.
He did not know what it was, but anything with Sage in the name sounded strong.
Still, Obito did not take the bait.
"Unless you're testing our whole squad, then no," Obito said firmly. "We're one unit."
There was no way he was taking a beating alone.
At the very least, Kakashi had to suffer too.
Kakashi: …
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