Chapter 166: Southern Front
"Captain Kitsuchi, I remember Sunagakure has a Scorch Release user named Pakura. Did she participate in this battle?" Ishiro asked his first question after digesting this startling news.
The original work didn't describe Pakura, Sunagakure's female hero, much. Ishiro couldn't even properly judge her strength, not knowing if Pakura at her peak had reached Kage-level.
Kitsuchi recalled the intelligence report and said, "The intelligence didn't mention her. The information that has reached us here is only a general overview; a detailed battle report hasn't arrived yet. Why? Do you know this Pakura?"
Ishiro shook his head and didn't say more about Pakura. Instead, he asked again, "Konoha suffered a disastrous defeat in the Land of Rivers battlefield. Have other countries made any major moves? Are there new instructions from the village? What countermeasures does Konoha have?"
Kitsuchi said, "It all happened too quickly. The various parties haven't reacted yet, but they should all make corresponding moves."
Ishiro nodded and said, "It seems we can't leave the encampment for the next few days. We'll have to await the village's orders at any time."
Kitsuchi agreed, saying, "Yes, especially you. Ishiro, you have the strongest mobility. At a time like this, if the village sends elites to the Southern Front to pressure Konoha, you will be the village's top priority choice."
"Understood. I will control my training intensity and remain on standby at all times," Ishiro nodded.
"Alright, go settle your three new disciples. The village's orders might arrive at any moment," Kitsuchi finally instructed Ishiro and waved him away.
After leaving Kitsuchi's office, Ishiro took Ogura Saki and the other two to a corner of the training ground and found Chiko Tomoe and her two companions training. Because Kitsuchi had shrunk the patrol range and adopted a defensive posture, many people in the encampment hadn't gone out, and Ishiro's three original disciples happened to be among them.
After introducing the two groups of disciples to each other, Ishiro prepared a training plan for his three new disciples.
There was no helping it. Although the three's foundations were still very poor, Ishiro wasn't sure how long he would be away this time. And the Southern Front was dangerous, so it wasn't good to bring the three of them along. Therefore, Ishiro could only prematurely teach them ninjutsu that he had originally planned to impart some time later.
Ishiro gave his insights on training the Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) to Takumi and formulated a training plan for him. This disciple's ninjutsu talent was truly too poor; Ishiro had to break down the Shunshin no Jutsu for him to practice step by step.
Takumi's poor ninjutsu talent was partly due to his inherent aptitude and partly due to a lack of guidance.
Originally, Ishiro had planned to teach him patiently, step by step, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough time now. He could only let Takumi try to figure it out on his own first.
As for Matsutani Shinya's training, Ishiro focused on the basics. This problem child had wasted a lot of time and needed to build a solid foundation.
In addition, Ishiro performed an attribute test on him. He surprisingly had three attributes: Water, Wind, and Earth.
This surprised Ishiro greatly. Generally, having three attributes was a good thing for a ninja. After all, developing new attributes was very difficult for ninjas.
However, three attributes also meant not being particularly outstanding in any single area, which could be a disadvantage when initially learning ninjutsu.
In layman's terms: he was a late-game hero.
But the problem was that Matsutani Shinya had slacked off too much in the early stages. A late-game that couldn't be developed was just trash.
To prevent Matsutani Shinya from slacking off, Ishiro forcibly assigned him tasks. Ishiro gave this guy nine scrolls at once – three C-rank ninjutsu for each attribute.
Although Matsutani Shinya was very lazy, Ishiro believed that with these nine ninjutsu dangling in front of him, he should have some motivation to train.
Of course, Ishiro didn't expect him to learn these ninjutsu in a short time; after all, this guy hadn't even practiced chakra nature transformation.
Among the three new disciples, the one who satisfied Ishiro the most was Ogura Saki. Ogura Saki's greatest strength was her intelligence. The little girl knew how to think, saw problems very clearly, and had extremely high learning efficiency.
Ishiro also tested her chakra attributes and found them to be Wind and Fire, with Wind as primary and Fire as secondary. Combined with Ogura Saki's desire to walk the path of chakra fusion, the first thing Ishiro thought of was Scorch Release.
This was also why Ishiro had suddenly thought of Sunagakure's Scorch Release user, Pakura, earlier.
Ishiro similarly gave Ogura Saki three C-rank ninjutsu for each attribute, letting her ponder them herself, hoping she could speed up her comprehension of chakra nature transformation through the descriptions of these three ninjutsu.
Unfortunately, Ishiro himself didn't possess Wind Release, so there wasn't much he could help Ogura Saki with regarding chakra nature transformation.
Additionally, it was the first time all three were encountering C-rank ninjutsu. Ishiro wasn't very reassured, so he entrusted Chiko Tomoe and her companions to keep an eye on them.
With new disciples, Ishiro couldn't just ignore his three older disciples. Ishiro checked the training progress of Chiko Tomoe and her companions again. Only after confirming that the three hadn't gone astray did he feel slightly relieved.
Half a day later, the village's transfer order indeed arrived, ordering Ishiro to head to the Southern Front to support Saka. At the same time, it commanded the Eastern Front encampment not to act rashly and not to provoke Konoha or the Cloud ninjas.
Upon receiving the order, Ishiro immediately flew to the Southern Front encampment.
When Ishiro arrived at the Southern Front encampment, Ikura was already there. Ikura, like Ishiro, had come leisurely with his three disciples.
However, the Southern Front encampment was closer to the village, so Ikura arrived earlier than Ishiro. Plus, Ishiro had waited quite a while at the Eastern Front for the village's orders. So, by the time Ishiro reached the Southern Front, Ikura was already helping Advisor Saka with some affairs.
This time, the village had also dispatched reinforcements to the Southern Front, about a thousand strong, all elites, with former Anbu members accounting for thirty percent. Including the ninjas already on the Southern Front, the total number of Iwagakure ninjas there now exceeded ten thousand.
When Ishiro arrived at the encampment, the reinforcements from the village had also arrived.
Saka convened a pre-battle mobilization meeting for all Jōnin.
Ishiro held no official post on the Southern Front and was a force directly under the command headquarters – a typical idler.
Ikura's original position was Deputy Commander of the Western Front forces, but as the war escalated, Ikura was transferred to be the Deputy Commander of the Southern Front forces, ranking only below Saka.
So Ikura was somewhat of a host, with many trivial matters to attend to.
Seeing that the meeting was about to start, but Ikura was still buried in thick documents, Ishiro asked strangely, "Didn't you just arrive at the front line? How do you have so many things to deal with? When I was at the Eastern Front encampment, I didn't have this much to do."
Ikura rubbed his temples, looked up, and said to Ishiro, "Isn't it all because of this war escalation? The village sent a large number of reinforcements, and there are many things to arrange. But I'm not clear about the encampment's previous layout, so I have to carefully look at the documents Advisor Saka handled before."
Ishiro was speechless. Saka, the actual commander of the Southern Front, was clearly intentionally grooming Ikura. While Kitsuchi also valued him, he hadn't trained Ishiro according to the standards of a future Tsuchikage. So Ishiro hadn't experienced Ikura's kind of busyness.
Shaking his head, Ishiro left Ikura's office and entered the meeting room early.
Most of the people in the meeting room had already arrived. Ishiro walked to his seat and sat down, then began to observe everyone.
Those summoned to this meeting were all official Jōnin; not even Tokubetsu Jōnin were included. Ishiro didn't know most of these people, nor could he confirm which of them were Jōnin and which were Elite Jōnin.
However, a person sitting opposite Ishiro looked somewhat familiar. After a brief recollection, Ishiro remembered: Han, the Jinchūriki of the Five-Tails.
As an Elite Jōnin, and an Elite Jōnin who had developed a Kekkei Genkai, coupled with his status as Deputy Commander of the Eastern Front forces, Ishiro's seat was very prominent, roughly at the same level as Han, the Jinchūriki. The few people ranked ahead of Ishiro hadn't entered yet, so in this meeting room, Ishiro and Han held the highest status among those present.
Han, the Jinchūriki, probably didn't have much to do usually, which was why he, like Ishiro, had arrived early.
Ishiro observed Han but found that without using sensory ninjutsu, he couldn't detect at all that Han was a Jinchūriki.
"I wonder if I can detect the Five-Tails after using sensory ninjutsu," Ishiro mused curiously.
As Ishiro observed Han, Han was also observing Ishiro. Ishiro was very famous, but many had only heard of him and hadn't had real contact. Han was different.
The Five-Tails within him was restrained by the Five Elements Seal developed by Ishiro. Therefore, Han valued Ishiro far more than others did and would pay more attention to news about Ishiro.
Furthermore, Han had been staying in the village previously and was not allowed to go out. An important guarantee for his ability to come to the front lines this time was Ishiro.
With Ishiro's current mastery of sealing jutsus, as long as Han didn't completely lose his mind and cause the Five-Tails to go on a full rampage, Ishiro alone could seal it.
This was also an important reason why the village had transferred Ishiro to the Southern Front.
After waiting a while longer, everyone had arrived. Saka and Ikura also entered the meeting room together.
Saka first introduced the current situation to everyone.
"I believe everyone knows about the great battle between Sunagakure and Konoha in the Land of Rivers a few days ago. Elder Chiyo of Sunagakure came out of retirement, the new generation's Rasa also displayed Kage-level combat power, plus Ebizō operating the Third Kazekage human puppet."
"Three Kage-level powerhouses from Sunagakure joined forces to attack Konoha's encampment in the Land of Rivers. Konoha's commander, Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, rushed to support."
"As a result, Sunagakure, with less than 200 casualties, eliminated over 3000 Konoha ninjas."
"At the same time, Konoha also lost the Land of Rivers as a frontline base and has now retreated to Kikyo Castle on the border of the Land of Fire."
"In this battle, Orochimaru and his summoning beast Manda were both injured. It can be said that this Konoha unit suffered a devastating blow."
"However, Sunagakure wasn't as successful as it appears on the surface. According to reliable intelligence, the Third Kazekage human puppet was severely damaged, and Ebizō, under Orochimaru's targeted attacks, was also heavily injured and has now been sent back to Sunagakure for treatment."
Saying this, Saka glanced at Ishiro. He naturally knew that Ishiro had obtained the Third Kazekage human puppet. He just didn't yet know the process by which Ishiro had obtained it.
If Ebizō could display Kage-level combat power with the Third Kazekage human puppet, then how did Ishiro manage to snatch the Third Kazekage human puppet from the hands of Sasori of the Red Sand, whose puppetry skills were even higher?
Actually, this was related to mutual counters. Although the Third Kazekage human puppet could significantly enhance a puppeteer's combat power, it only provided Kage-level strength.
Sasori of the Red Sand himself hadn't fully reached Kage-level yet; he was still only a quasi-Kage.
Additionally, flying ninjas like Ishiro were inherently the most difficult for puppeteers to deal with, which could be considered a counter to Sasori. In fact, if the Third Kazekage human puppet couldn't fly, Sasori would have been helpless against Ishiro.
The situation on the Land of Rivers battlefield was completely the opposite.
In large-scale warfare, the wide-area attack and defense of Iron Sand were too overwhelming. Moreover, the Third Kazekage human puppet could specifically target the iron weapons of Konoha ninjas. This made it impossible for Orochimaru to evade the widespread Iron Sand attacks like Ishiro could.
Therefore, ninjas like the Third Kazekage, with wide-area offense and defense, feared group battles the least.
It was precisely because of this that Orochimaru ultimately chose to trade injuries with Ebizō and even damaged the Third Kazekage human puppet.
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