Chapter 578: The Most Vigilant Enemy
The Iwagakure Ninja who had retreated under the cover of the Tailed Beast Ball regrouped, and the first thing they did was send a report back to Iwagakure.
Ōnoki had been in a very good mood because the weather was excellent.
When he learned that a message had arrived from the Land of Grass battlefield, he even went to read it with a faint smile.
Recently, nearly every report from the Land of Grass front had been a victory report. He was even a little surprised by how smoothly things had been going.
"An intelligence error led the unit into a Konoha trap, resulting in heavy losses?" The slight curve at the corners of Ōnoki's mouth instantly disappeared.
"How many men are left in the unit?" Ōnoki stared at the numbers on the encrypted scroll, disbelief flashing across his face.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened them again, but the number on the report did not change. It was still three hundred and twenty three. There was no extra one in front of it.
Bang!
Ōnoki slammed his fist onto the desk in his office, his expression full of disbelief.
That had been a full two thousand man unit. Two thousand Ninja, not two thousand samurai or ordinary civilians. And after a single defeat, only three hundred and twenty three remained?
He nearly blacked out.
A two thousand man Ninja force had been reduced to just over three hundred.
Iwagakure had spent years developing cautiously, preserving a total reserve of twelve thousand Ninja. Yet one disastrous defeat had erased nearly one sixth of that number.
His original plan had been simple. Rely on their numerical advantage to secure a small victory over Konoha, wear down Konoha's manpower, then once Konoha sent reinforcements, deliberately lose one battle in a measured way and naturally continue observing the overall situation while remaining on the defensive.
The casualties Ōnoki had been prepared to accept were around five hundred. A real battle without losses was unrealistic.
But losing nearly seventeen hundred in one stroke was beyond what he could tolerate.
Among those seventeen hundred were also Jōnin and elite members of the Explosion Corps. How many years would it take Iwagakure to raise that many capable Ninja again?
With a dark expression, Ōnoki carefully read through the entire report.
In the end, if he had to sum it up, then Iwakura's impatience had led the unit straight into an abyss.
The greatest responsibility naturally had to fall on Iwakura. He had been the acting commander and the one issuing the orders.
Moreover, Iwakura was already dead, so no matter how much blame was placed on him, he could not object.
"Recall them all," Ōnoki ordered.
Although three hundred Ninja was not an insignificant number, after a two thousand man force had already been shattered, leaving the remaining three hundred out there would only amount to sending them to die. It was better to bring them back at once.
After all, something of this scale could never be placed entirely on the shoulders of a single dead man.
Immediately afterward, Ōnoki convened an emergency high level meeting and informed the Iwagakure leadership of the latest battlefield intelligence.
After reading the report, Chōki's forehead was already covered in cold sweat.
Back when reinforcements had been dispatched, he had enthusiastically argued point by point in favor of sending them.
Now that the front line had suffered such a catastrophic defeat, he naturally bore part of the blame.
Because if he had not stood up to support sending reinforcements at the time, then even if the original Land of Grass force had been wiped out, the casualties would never have reached seventeen hundred.
"The losses nearly reached seventeen hundred! How many graduating classes from the Ninja Academy would it take to raise that many qualified Ninja? I said it back then, maintaining the status quo was the safest option!" Elder Muka glanced at Chōki and Retsuishi and spoke in a displeased tone.
Elder Muka still remembered very clearly how Chōki and Retsuishi had refuted him back then.
Now, seeing the guilty looks on their faces, he appeared angry, though inwardly he felt a measure of satisfaction.
Chōki subconsciously looked toward Ōnoki, but Ōnoki gave no sign of stepping in.
Chōki paused for a moment, then spoke.
"Elder Muka, that is not the full picture. Although the casualties were indeed severe this time, that does not mean our strategic direction was wrong."
"Earlier, our forces repeatedly drove Konoha's troops into retreat. That alone proves that our broader plan was not mistaken."
"It was simply that the one executing it encountered an unexpected situation. Iwakura was not as steady as Retsuishi, which is why he fell into Konoha's trap."
"If Iwakura had not acted so aggressively, our plan would have been carried out perfectly."
In truth, the overall trend of the campaign had aligned with Iwagakure's intentions. They wanted to win first, then lose later in a controlled manner.
The problem was that the one loss had been far too devastating.
And since the victories and the defeat had occurred under different commanders, Chōki skillfully credited the victories to their strategic planning while shifting the responsibility for the defeat onto the deceased Iwakura.
"Moreover, one of our most important combat assets, the Jinchūriki, also caused problems. He actually transformed fully in the middle of the unit and used a Tailed Beast Ball while our own men were still fighting, all for the sake of killing Konoha Ninja. That is no different from intentional murder."
"I suggest that Roshi undergo a psychological evaluation. He may have been affected by the Tailed Beast's chakra and lost control."
"If Roshi had used his strength properly for Iwagakure, then even if the unit could not have defeated Konoha, breaking out should still have been possible."
Chōki smoothly shifted another large portion of the blame onto Roshi.
"I agree. A Jinchūriki like Roshi is too dangerous. He must be placed under strict supervision. If necessary, the Four Tails should be extracted and a new Jinchūriki chosen," another high ranking official said with a nod.
With so many dead, someone had to take responsibility, and Roshi had handed them an obvious excuse. No one could think of a better target.
Chōki and the others continued analyzing, doing their best to direct blame toward the dead senior figures who had been with the force.
In short, their core argument was simple. The plan itself had not been flawed. The problem had lain entirely in its execution.
Elder Muka remained silent. Their political views often clashed, but that did not mean he wanted to destroy them outright in a moment like this. A few sarcastic remarks were enough.
"Let's stop there regarding the defeat itself. What matters more now is the strength Konoha demonstrated in this war," Ōnoki said.
Assigning blame was important, but analyzing the enemy was even more important.
Defeating the other great villages and making Iwagakure the number one Ninja Village in the world was the truly critical goal.
"Mugetsu will definitely become a great enemy of Iwagakure in the future," Ōnoki said solemnly.
Then he took out a thick stack of documents and threw them onto the table in front of the other high ranking officials.
They picked them up and quickly discovered that they were Mugetsu's personal files, containing all the intelligence Iwagakure had managed to gather on him.
"His first appearance on the battlefield was two and a half years ago, also on the Land of Grass front. At that time, his strength was only slightly above Kari's, and he could only act as support in battles involving Jinchūriki," Ōnoki said.
He had paid very close attention to both Mugetsu and Minato, to the point that he now knew Mugetsu's intelligence by heart.
"But when he appeared on the Hidden Mist front on the eastern coast of the Land of Fire last year, his strength had already greatly surpassed that earlier level."
"Reiki, the famous Ice Release user of Kirigakure, encountered his squad along with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. In the end, only two of the Seven Swordsmen survived. The rest, including Reiki, died at Mugetsu's hands."
"After that, Hōzuki, a powerful member of the Hōzuki clan, was also killed by him."
"He even worked alongside Orochimaru in a large battle to kill a Jinchūriki whose Tailed Beast had gone berserk."
"And that was only last year."
As the officials read Mugetsu's file and listened to Ōnoki's explanation, the image of an overwhelming super genius began to form in all of their minds.
"This year, he is still growing stronger at an astonishing rate," Ōnoki continued in a deep voice.
"His Ice Release only first appeared in the Hidden Mist battle last year, yet now he can freeze a Jinchūriki, and his strongest Ice Release can instantly kill more than a dozen Jōnin."
"Roshi, even in a partial Tailed Beast transformation, had almost no power to resist his Water Release."
The more they learned, the more unbelievable it became.
They had seen young geniuses before. Minato Namikaze of Konoha was one such example.
But compared to Mugetsu, Minato seemed almost normal.
Before he began wreaking havoc on the battlefield, Minato had at least already been a somewhat well known Jōnin.
Mugetsu, on the other hand, seemed to grow stronger every single time he appeared, as though he had only just entered a period of explosive growth.
That kind of development was terrifying.
"This year, he rarely used Fire Release against our forces. But remember one thing. He earned the title of Blazing Sun on the Hidden Mist battlefield, and Fire Release had been his greatest specialty beforehand."
"I have no doubt that he can become a Ninja proficient in all five elements, just like the Third Hokage. And if he reaches the Third Hokage's level, he will be even stronger than the Third Hokage, because he also possesses Ice Release and the Flying Thunder God Technique."
As soon as Ōnoki put it that way, cold sweat broke out on the backs of the officials.
The Third Hokage was already monstrously powerful. In the current Ninja World, no one dared claim they could consistently defeat him.
If Mugetsu became an enhanced version of the Third Hokage, then he would most likely become the acknowledged strongest Ninja in the world.
Looking at the expressions of the people before him, Ōnoki nodded slightly to himself.
If even after all that, they still treated Mugetsu as just another Minato Namikaze level threat, then Iwagakure truly would be finished.
"If there is ever a chance to kill Mugetsu, then even sacrificing a two thousand man Ninja force would be worth it!" Ōnoki declared seriously.
The appearance of an enhanced version of the Third Hokage would be no less significant to the current Ninja World than the return of Senju Hashirama or Uchiha Madara themselves.
The Iwagakure high ranking officials all nodded in agreement.
A two thousand man force could be replenished over time.
But a genius like Mugetsu, with such monstrous potential, might not appear once in a hundred years.
In their eyes, even trading a three thousand man force for his life would not be a loss.
From that day on, Mugetsu rose to the very top of Iwagakure's must kill list.
.....
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