According to the terms they had settled on, the reward for the Tiger Unit completing its mission would be generous.
Every squad would receive one A-rank mission record.
In addition, after each battle, the battle report submitted by Uchiha Yoru could recommend five A-rank mission rewards. The remaining squads would all receive B-rank mission records.
And every enemy jonin killed would also count as one A-rank mission reward, with Uchiha Yoru designating the beneficiary.
By the standards of shinobi mission rankings, engaging a jonin from an enemy Great Shinobi Village during a mission was a hard requirement for A-rank classification.
During wartime, jonin from every village would be mobilized in large numbers, greatly increasing the chance of encountering one on the battlefield. Even so, jonin ultimately made up only about one percent of all shinobi.
Statistically speaking—
You had to kill around a hundred enemies before running into one enemy jonin.
So Orochimaru really had bled quite a lot for the Tiger Unit.
Of course, compared to how much the Third Hokage would later favor Minato Namikaze, this was nothing.
In Minato's short eighteen-year shinobi career, he completed a total of three hundred and twenty-three A-rank missions.
Even counting his time as a genin and chunin, that meant one A-rank mission roughly every twenty days.
There was certainly no problem with Minato's strength.
But just thinking about it made one realize how much effort the Third Hokage must have spent behind the scenes to help him obtain so many high-level missions.
When Kaguya Gaiya's bones finally burned away, leaving behind a thick layer of white ash, Orochimaru left with the support team.
They took away the corpses of the fallen.
They also took away nine severely wounded shinobi—those crippled or too difficult to heal in the field.
Under medical ninjutsu treatment, five of the critically injured recovered on the spot, once again displaying the wonder of a supernatural world.
The Tiger Unit's numbers recovered to eighty-three.
They were reorganized into five divisions. Even after being reduced in size, one division captain still had to concurrently serve as the support squad's captain.
But overall—
The Tiger Unit's combat power had increased.
Among the eighty-three, seven pairs of two-tomoe Sharingan had appeared.
Although they were not division captains, they could now shoulder the responsibility of fighting enemy experts in place of the captains.
The ability of the two-tomoe Sharingan was replication.
It could also be called insight.
In battle, it was an extraordinarily powerful ability.
If the current lineup launched the same charge as before, the five division captains could remain in command positions the entire time, coordinating the transitions between assault, response, support, and firepower squads.
The Tiger Unit's casualties would have been reduced by at least half.
So the Uchiha clan truly was a combat race.
As long as there was war—
As long as there was sacrifice—
They would only grow stronger the more they fought.
Until they went insane.
Or awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
But Uchiha Yoru didn't like this method of advancement.
He conducted detailed checks on the seven newly advanced two-tomoe Sharingan users and performed the deepest psychological analysis he could, confirming abnormalities in their mental states.
If not for that, at the very least, they would have been qualified to serve as squad captains.
Fortunately, the foundation he had laid for them was solid.
Their psychological issues had not directly affected their personalities. They were still within the range of rescue and treatment.
The luckiest ones were actually the children who had not awakened their Sharingan yet.
The consecutive battles and the deaths of their comrades had affected them just as heavily. But because they had yet to awaken their eyes, their spiritual power was ultimately insufficient. The emotional fluctuations driving that spiritual power could not break through the psychological barriers Yoru had planted.
Thus, after this battle, several people advanced to two tomoe—
But not a single person awakened the Sharingan for the first time.
Still, battle, killing, victory, and witnessing death—
All of these were major upheavals capable of turning boys into men overnight.
The growth of the Uchiha genin was visible to the naked eye.
It had merely been forcefully suppressed by the psychological barriers.
After ten hours of buffering, everyone's emotions had stabilized. The spiritual growth brought by battle had begun to settle.
Now was the most suitable time to awaken their eyes.
There was no need to worry about Kirigakure attacking.
After the Kaguya clan suffered such a devastating blow, Kirigakure's internal power structure had lost balance. They were probably too busy tearing at one another to even think about revenge against Konoha.
Of course, for safety's sake, Yoru arranged for the two-tomoe users to stand guard.
He also asked Miwa Masayo to help monitor the seven two-tomoe users, preventing them from suddenly losing their minds.
As for himself—
He brought the seventy-six Uchiha genin to the open ground outside the ruins, where they formed neat ranks beneath the bright, frost-white moonlight.
Uchiha Yoru led everyone into the Hunyuan stance.
Through spiritual sharing, he guided them into relaxation.
Then, one by one, he removed their psychological barriers.
The suppressed spiritual power erupted all at once. The fluctuation it triggered was no weaker than an intense emotional outburst.
This was the rebound after heavy pressure had been removed.
A natural reaction of life itself.
Although the effect was no worse than emotional agitation, it clearly carried no negative consequences.
Spiritual power surged.
It easily crossed the threshold needed to activate bloodline potential.
The power hidden within the bloodline awakened.
The glands hidden within the brain became active, absorbing chakra and producing an entirely new force—
Sharingan ocular power.
The moment Sharingan ocular power appeared, the Uchiha boys' eyes began to change.
Their pupils were rapidly stained blood-red.
The ocular power originating from the brain projected into the eyes, reflecting its own tomoe-shaped marks onto the pupils.
First came the youngest Uchiha.
Almost one after another, they awakened the single-tomoe Sharingan.
Then, starting with the four division captains—
Two-tomoe Sharingan began appearing one after another.
Powerful ocular power erupted in succession, raising a storm of force that made even the Uchiha standing guard turn their heads.
Uchiha Yoru raised his voice to the limit and warned everyone,
"Everyone who has awakened the Sharingan—control your ocular power with everything you have!"
"Uncontrolled ocular power damages the eyes!"
"The better you control it now, the less harm your eyes will suffer, and the greater your chance of advancing further in the future!"
When the Sharingan awakened, the release of ocular power was explosive and extremely difficult to control.
Especially when awakened through extreme emotions.
At that moment, the person themselves was often losing control. The powerful ocular power surged without restraint, sometimes even inflicting severe damage on the eyes, causing black-red tears of blood to flow.
Only a cultivator like Uchiha Yoru—
Someone who treated the Uchiha bloodline as a special constitution and used the results of cultivation to reverse-develop his body's potential—
Could possess enough control to firmly restrain the outbreak of ocular power during awakening.
But now, Yoru no longer needed to worry about himself.
His body had gained powerful self-healing ability.
The injuries he had suffered during the previous battle had been severe, yet before Orochimaru arrived, they had already healed so completely that not even scars remained.
More importantly—
He had not felt any loss of vitality.
It seemed his lifespan was unaffected.
That was the best news.
Yoru had always suspected that the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, had died young because of his astonishing super-regeneration in battle.
Perhaps during his battle with Uchiha Madara, overusing that super-healing ability had drained not only the First Hokage's chakra and natural energy, but eventually even his life essence—
Consuming his lifespan.
After a full hour, the Tiger Unit's awakening process ended.
Every Uchiha who had not awakened their eyes before had now awakened them.
Among the original single-tomoe users, thirteen advanced to two tomoe.
In this short hour—
The Tiger Unit's strength had at least doubled.
Most importantly, throughout this advancement process, everyone's emotions had remained largely calm.
No one mutated because of negative emotions.
The Uchiha were beyond excited.
The boys, completely unable to sleep, lit bonfires and began laughing, singing, and dancing, venting the restless energy of youth.
…
On Konoha's side, surprise and excitement intertwined.
On Kirigakure's side—
Dark clouds hung heavy.
With lightning, thunder, violent wind, and pouring rain.
The sudden loss of five hundred elite shinobi was unbearable even for the Kaguya clan.
At the very least, within Kirigakure's army in the Land of Hot Water, Kaguya Ren's right to speak had been cut by more than half.
He didn't even dare raise his voice anymore.
But the greater loss was Kaguya Gaiya's death.
The Kaguya clan had not merely lost an elite jonin.
They had lost the heir to the clan head.
Just imagining how furious the clan head would be once the news returned to Kirigakure made Kaguya Ren's entire body wither.
The three-legged balance had suddenly lost one leg.
Naturally, the conflict between the remaining two giants intensified.
Ryō of the Yuki clan and Hōzuki Sakuzuki of the Hōzuki clan were both somewhat stunned.
This wasn't the result they wanted.
Yet an invisible force pushed from behind, forcing them into fierce arguments over every matter.
Especially over the many rights and privileges the Kaguya clan had been forced to give up after suffering such heavy losses—
The fight became bloody.
There had been more than one covert armed clash.
This was the necessary and unavoidable step after a power imbalance—
Reconstruction.
Ryō and Hōzuki Sakuzuki understood this principle.
But the clansmen and followers behind them did not.
Only direct confrontation, struggle, bloodshed—
And especially after they themselves bled and felt pain—
Would their swollen desires finally cool down.
Only then would they honestly swallow the portion they could truly eat and stop making trouble.
Only after each interest group settled down could Ryō and Hōzuki Sakuzuki regain control of the situation.
Incidentally, they brought Kaguya Ren back in as well, restoring the three-giant power structure.
By then—
Two full days had passed since Kaguya Gaiya died in battle.
Hōzuki Sakuzuki said regretfully, "Time really passes too quickly. Intelligence shows that Konoha has already sent a batch of reinforcements close to the border."
"We can no longer take Hot Spring City."
"There isn't enough time."
Ryō continued, "The key now depends on Kumogakure's reaction."
"If they attack Konoha, we can pull in our reserve forces and push Hot Spring City with everything we have."
Hōzuki Sakuzuki nodded.
"That's right. The key is Kumogakure's stance."
"But the most important factor influencing Kumogakure's stance is our battle record."
"And the key to all of that lies here…"
He stabbed a finger heavily onto a point on the map.
That spot had already been marked with several different colors. The overlapping circles made the name in the center especially glaring.
"Kubota Village."
"It's all the Kaguya clan's fault. Five hundred people charged in with all that arrogance, only to be completely wiped out. Only thirty or forty vassal shinobi came back."
Ryō glanced coldly at the silent Kaguya Ren.
"And even those shinobi who barely made it back were slaughtered clean by some reckless fool. Now we don't even know what happened during the battle."
Kaguya Ren's voice was hoarse.
"Asking them would've been useless."
"They were knocked into chaos by Konoha's Fire Release: Flame Bullet. Then they followed the crowd into the village in confusion, saw Gaiya's bone-spike cage, saw his bones being burned by flames, and ran back in a daze."
"The only useful intelligence for you is this—"
"There are many Uchiha among the Konoha shinobi."
"Many with Sharingan."
He licked his cracked lips and looked at the two giants with bloodshot, murderous eyes.
"That is the only useful intelligence."
Hōzuki Sakuzuki didn't care about Kaguya Ren's gaze at all.
He muttered quietly,
"Uchiha shinobi… large numbers of Sharingan… that really isn't easy to deal with."
Ryō frowned, thinking hard.
After a long while, he said,
"I've never heard of Konoha organizing Uchiha shinobi into a dedicated unit. Aren't they usually scattered?"
"Heh. Who knows?"
"Maybe after fighting Sunagakure's puppet unit and Iwagakure's demolition unit in the last war, they copied the idea and created a new force."
"In any case, our target is Kubota Village."
"That Konoha unit with many Uchiha shinobi."
"We destroy them and show Kumogakure."
"Make Kumogakure choose Konoha as the enemy."
After listening to Hōzuki Sakuzuki's long reasoning, Kaguya Ren asked disdainfully,
"And who attacks?"
"I'll say this first. My Kaguya clan no longer has the strength to go again."
"…"
Hōzuki Sakuzuki and Ryō exchanged a glance.
Both understood what the other meant.
Neither of their clans could go.
If one of them suffered severe losses there, the balance of power they had barely rebuilt would collapse again.
Another power struggle would inevitably erupt.
Who knew how much time would be wasted?
By then, as long as Kumogakure still had a brain, they would pounce on Kirigakure without hesitation.
Konoha would also launch a counterattack.
Then Kirigakure would have no choice but to abandon supplies in disgrace and retreat to the sea.
Ryō sighed.
"No choice. We can only make the others go."
Hōzuki Sakuzuki nodded as well.
"Right. The three great bloodline clans cannot always be the ones sacrificing. The clans below us must also bleed for Kirigakure."
Kaguya Ren immediately perked up, grinning viciously.
"Well said."
"Even Gaiya of my family died in battle. How can they stand somewhere safe and watch?"
Once the three reached agreement—
Kirigakure's battle plan was decided.
Kubota Village was already a salient, facing Kirigakure on three sides.
The three great bloodline clans would each occupy one side, serving as supervising forces.
They would drive the other shinobi clans and civilian shinobi forward, launching saturated, continuous attacks against Konoha.
With absolute numerical superiority of twenty, thirty, even fifty times—
They would drown the enemy alive.
Kaguya Ren suddenly thought of a problem.
"With so many people charging such a small village, most will only be squeezed in the back. They won't even be able to use their strength."
"What do we do about that?"
Ryō and Hōzuki Sakuzuki looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly.
Ryō explained,
"Of course we can't all swarm in at once."
"We'll attack in waves of fifteen hundred. Wave after wave."
"That will exhaust the enemy as much as possible."
Hōzuki Sakuzuki continued,
"The shinobi who aren't part of the current wave will all use Water Release from the outside."
"It doesn't matter what technique. They don't even need to worry about whether they hit Kubota Village directly."
"What we want is to completely flood that cursed village."
"As long as the battlefield is submerged, those damned Konoha shinobi will be like rats in floodwater—waiting for us to slaughter them."
"Good!"
Kaguya Ren regained his energy.
"This will definitely kill every last one of those Konoha shinobi."
"Such a good idea… why didn't we use it before?"
"Because before this, most of our people were fighting on the front line. Where would we find so many shinobi to do this kind of thing?"
"Only now that attacking Hot Spring City is hopeless can we pull our forces back and flood one high ground."
…
Land of the Moon, Shimogakure.
At this time, it was already completely under Kumogakure's control.
Naturally, the residence of Shimogakure's leader had also been occupied by the Raikage.
The Raikage had arrived before Kirigakure's fleet even approached.
At the time, he had judged that Kirigakure, which had never fought a true hard battle, absolutely would not have the courage to land directly in the Land of Lightning.
Nor would they land in the Land of Fire.
Kirigakure's target could only be the Land of the Moon or the Land of Hot Water.
And the Land of the Moon was the absolute vassal of the Land of Lightning.
To avoid excessive losses to the Land of Lightning's interests, he personally rushed to Shimogakure so he could counterattack Kirigakure at the first possible moment and drive them back into the sea.
The Raikage had even withdrawn shinobi from the Land of Hot Water to strengthen the Land of the Moon.
In the end—
Kirigakure's fleet attacked the Land of Hot Water occupied by Konoha. After landing, they advanced southwest all the way, looking as if they were determined to strike into the Land of Fire.
To guard against the possibility that Kirigakure's fleet was using a diversion, the Raikage did not leave immediately.
Instead, he remained in the Land of the Moon, waiting for clearer intelligence.
He stayed in the luxurious compound of Shimogakure's leader for one week.
In that short span of seven days—
The Raikage's daily training nearly destroyed the entire residence.
The elegant ponds, bamboo ornaments, stone lanterns, pine trees, and walls—
All had been smashed into fragments.
At this moment, having just finished training, the Raikage was listening to the latest intelligence.
He was especially curious about Konoha holding the Kubota Village salient.
So that was the part he focused on.
When he heard that the Konoha unit had wiped out more than five hundred elite shinobi from the Kaguya clan in the second battle, the Third Raikage sighed.
"If they win one more battle, they'll become the strongest shinobi unit."
"Sunagakure spent twenty years developing puppet units."
"Iwagakure accumulated fifteen years and produced demolition units."
"Even Kirigakure managed to create those Seven Ninja Swordsmen…"
"Ridiculous things, but still something."
He sighed again.
"Even if the Seven Swords are laughable, they still managed to make something."
"We Kumogakure have worked for ten years, yet we still don't even have a proper direction."
"Before these past few days, I'd never heard of Konoha trying to build any special shinobi unit."
"This unit seems to have been put together casually."
"So how can it be this strong?"
"Truly enviable enough that I don't even know what to say."
The jonin Dodai couldn't help shaking his head.
Konoha's manpower and wealth…
Just thinking about it made one feel powerless.
The Third Raikage wiped the sweat and dust from his body and ordered,
"Move out. We're going to the Land of Hot Water."
"Third Raikage, who are we fighting?"
"Who?"
The Third Raikage grinned.
"Kirigakure has already lost."
"We Kumogakure should go beat the drowning dog."
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