Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 69 The Divergence of the Mist Ninja

It was unreasonable for Shimura Danzo to directly force patrol members to join the intelligence gathering mission. Now, after suffering heavy losses during the mission, he is blaming everything on a low-ranking ninja, which is even more ridiculous.

Although the main camp did not have a strict requirement that the patrol teams could not participate in other missions, it can be seen from the words of the two patrol team members who returned that Hyuga Kanan had directly refused to join the mission, but Shimura Danzo forced him to join and even threatened to declare him a rogue ninja.

At that time, Danzo Shimura had already overstepped his authority. Logically speaking, patrol members can refuse to carry out tasks beyond their capabilities, and it was highly unreasonable to forcibly recruit them after they had clearly refused.

However, after gathering intelligence, on the way back to headquarters, Danzo made suggestions but failed to implement them even after members of the Hyuga clan had already planned a safe route. This was indeed Danzo's own problem.

If no mistakes occur during the mission and cause significant losses, then these are all minor issues. At worst, we can just appease the patrol members and give them some rewards.

However, now that the Konoha elite squad has been wiped out during the mission, and most importantly, Konoha's high-ranking combatant Uchiha Kagami has also sacrificed his life, the problem is very serious.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was silently furious at Danzo's actions.

However, we are still at war with the Hidden Mist Village, and we cannot allow the morale of the Konoha ninja to be shaken. Therefore, we cannot allow Hyuga Kanan to be punished for this mission. After all, Hyuga Kanan brought back information about the Hidden Mist Village, and it is not appropriate to pursue this matter any further.

It seems the only solution is to appease Hyuga Kanan and get him to stop pursuing Danzo's actions.

Everything is for Konoha's victory!

.....

In a dense forest, countless mist ninjas swiftly darted through the trees.

The leading Mist ninja quickly stopped, standing on a thick branch, his right hand raised behind him. The rapidly moving Mist ninja behind him also stopped abruptly, awaiting the next command from their leader.

The leader of the Mist Ninjas was very tall and muscular, with severe dark circles under his eyes, and his eyebrows looked like two red dots above his eyes. He had a crazy look on his face.

If Hyuga Kanan were here, he would recognize him immediately as a member of the Kirigakure Taketori clan.

Behind the Kaguya clan leading the way, the open ground and treetops were densely packed with Kirigakure ninjas, numbering more than a dozen squads.

Upon closer inspection, each squad is an elite squad, and each squad leader is a Jonin!

These squads were the vanguard of the Mist Ninja Force, and they launched an attack on Hyuga Kanan's training area. With their superior strength and stealth, they almost instantly eliminated the Konoha support patrol team of ninjas.

The head of the Taketori clan personally led the team and swiftly eliminated the mobile forces that Konoha had deployed in this area.

The Kirigakure forces had gone through countless discussions and arguments before officially launching the attack on this patrolled and defended area of ​​Konoha. This resulted in a near-perfect surprise attack.

Unfortunately, the operation eventually went awry.

The head of the Kaguya clan looked at the arena not far in front of him and quickly spoke to the Mist Ninja behind him:

"Yuno, take some men to check the situation on the battlefield ahead!"

Seeing the murderous glint in the eyes of the Taketori clan chief, Yuno quickly nodded in agreement and said, "Yes, sir! I'll go right away."

"Damn it, it's been more than 3 hours!"

"That bastard!" The head of the Taketori clan stared fiercely ahead, his eyes filled with even stronger killing intent, and his aura began to surge wildly, carrying a chaotic energy.

In the first place, I shouldn't have agreed to let that arrogant guy, Mizuki Gen, lead a team to annihilate the Konoha squad that stole information from the Kirigakure main force! More than an hour has passed, and we still haven't taken down that Konoha squad!

The entire audience fell silent, trembling with fear.

After a long pause, the chieftain of the Bamboo Clan calmed himself down and asked in a composed manner.

"Where is the force led by the Mizukage?"

A ninja from the Mist Village nearby cautiously replied, "Lord Mizukage sent a letter urging us to come back 20 minutes ago."

"Ok!"

The head of the bamboo grove's face flushed crimson, his expression so grim it seemed as if water would drip from it. After a long pause, he spoke harshly.

"Damn Mizuki Hen! Is that bastard trying to disgrace all our clan teams? He led such an elite ninja squad to surround and kill a dozen or so members of the Konoha squad, and they still haven't completed their mission. Are they going to let that lucky Mizukage laugh at our clan ninja teams? Do they expect the Konoha squad to send the information back?"

"That can't be, Lord Taketori Yao." A Mist ninja tried to reassure the crazed Taketori clan leader, "Lord Minazuki Hen is the number one fighter in the Minazuki clan. Perhaps he got a little too engrossed in playing cat and mouse..."

"I must prepare for the worst!" Taketori Yao said through gritted teeth, "If Konoha gets the intelligence that 5000 troops are right in front of us, given enough time, Konoha will definitely be ready to fight! At that point, our operation to raid Konoha's headquarters will be exposed!"

"The only option now is to ignore Mizuki and his team and make this a quick victory! Notify the Mizukage's troops that we will launch a frontal attack on Konoha's outer defense perimeter in half an hour! Make sure the Mizukage's troops advance quickly to provide support and catch Konoha off guard."

"And..." Taketori Yao thought for a moment, hesitated, then gritted his teeth and said, "Tell the Mizukage that the information may have been leaked to Konoha, so that he can be prepared!"

"set off!"

"Yes!" the Mist Ninja responded in unison.

The so-called psychological preparation naturally refers to the psychological preparation that Konoha already knew about this attack.

It's possible that Mizuki didn't capture all the Konoha spies who were gathering intelligence, allowing them to return to Konoha headquarters with the information. If Mizuki's team hadn't captured all the members of the Konoha spies, then Konoha headquarters would have been able to learn about the Mist Ninja's operation plan.

Then the well-prepared Konoha headquarters would be prepared, rendering the Kirigakure's attack ineffective as a surprise attack, forcing them to engage Konoha in a direct confrontation.

This means that all the previous plans and compromises were wasted.

Unfortunately, Taketori Yao didn't have time to dwell on it. The Mist Ninja was already on the verge of action and had no choice but to act. The longer they delayed, the more Konoha would prepare, even if they did nothing.

Fortunately, Konoha didn't have much time to prepare and immediately launched an attack!

Soon, the Third Mizukage received a letter from Taketori Yo. After reading it, he casually tossed it aside, glanced at the people in front of him, and gestured for them to also read the letter.

Using the former site of the Land of Whirlpools as the base of the Mist Ninja forces, the Mist Ninja army was located not far from the border of the Land of Fire. Less than 100 kilometers to the west would have brought them into the Land of Fire.

However, Konoha's main camp is located on the border of the Land of Fire. To enter the Land of Fire directly, one must defeat Konoha's forces and then proceed directly into the Land of Fire's territory.

Unfortunately, the Third Mizukage was also somewhat annoyed. If the major clans of Kirigakure had obeyed his command, the number of Konoha's border troops would not have been large. If the Kirigakure had been united, they would have already defeated the enemy and entered the Land of Fire.

However, these powerful clans were not very satisfied with him succeeding as Mizukage. All previous Mizukage came from powerful clans in Kirigakure. The First Mizukage came from the Mizuki clan, and the Second Mizukage came from the Hozuki clan. But because he did not come from a powerful clan, those damned clans did not respect him. In this war, they did not follow his command and fought their own battles, failing to defeat the Konoha forces in time and allowing Konoha reinforcements to arrive, thus losing the opportunity to directly enter the Land of Fire.

He had finally managed to unite these families to launch a surprise attack on Konoha by compromising some of his power, only to have it all ruined by that damned Mizuki.

Even the Third Mizukage felt helpless when facing Konoha head-on. It seemed that the strength of the Kirigakure ninja was no match for the Konoha ninja. In previous battles with Konoha ninja, the Kirigakure ninja were clearly overwhelmed by the strength of the Konoha ninja and were no match for them.

"It seems that after this war, I need to improve the strength of the Mist Ninja. Let's start by changing the training at the Mist Ninja Academy! The Mist Ninja, who have been trained with so many resources, are no match for the Konoha Ninja. This needs to be changed. From now on, we will implement an elite training system, which will allow us to directly select talents worth cultivating and use more resources to train those outstanding individuals. This will enable them to surpass the strength of the Konoha Ninja."

Silently calculating the next policy, the Third Mizukage frowned as he watched several people in the command center take turns reading Taketori Yo's letter. He was first angry at Taketori Yo's careless arrangements, then angry at Mizuki Hen's incompetence, and finally let out a sigh.

As the Mizukage, he had done everything he could. In order to unite these powerful clan ninja, he constantly compromised and made concessions, preventing the Kirigakure forces from fighting independently as before.

Now that things have come to this, the only option is to launch an attack immediately.

Having made constant compromises and concessions, the Mist Ninja's long-prepared attack could not possibly end abruptly due to a possible leak of information.

The best approach is to launch a swift attack before Konoha is fully prepared for battle!

Whether Mizuki Hen managed to capture the entire Konoha squad and prevent the intelligence from leaking out is no longer important. What's needed now is to start the battle as quickly as possible, giving Konoha too little time to prepare.

Looking at the people around him, the Third Mizukage stood up and gave orders.

"Pass down the order: all Mist Ninja units, proceed at full speed towards the Konoha headquarters along the route we previously arranged!"