"Just today, a large number of Hidden Cloud Ninja have breached our border from the Land of Hot Water," Sarutobi Hiruzen said with a serious expression.
The expressions on the younger Jonin's faces grew grim. Although the Hidden Cloud had been at war with Konoha for some time, no major battles had occurred between them.
However, most of the Jonin remained calm because they knew that if the situation were truly urgent, it wouldn't be a meeting; ninja squads would be directly dispatched to support the front lines. The fact that they had the time to hold a meeting indicated that the situation was still manageable.
"Fortunately, our frontline ninja have been tenaciously holding back the enemy's advances, keeping the Hidden Cloud Ninja Squad at bay outside the Land of Fire," Sarutobi Hiruzen said, pausing for a moment.
On one hand, reconnaissance ninjas detected the unusual movements, and additionally, Minato encountered the new AB Combo. As a result, Sarutobi Hiruzen dispatched more ninjas to guard the border, preventing any major issues from arising.
"However, the situation remains unfavorable, and more ninja must be sent to the border to thwart the Hidden Cloud's schemes," Sarutobi Hiruzen continued.
Selecting a commander to lead the ninja squad in supporting the front lines was one of the topics of this meeting.
In fact, Sarutobi Hiruzen had already had a small meeting with Danzo and the others prior to this. Sarutobi Hiruzen initially wanted Jiraiya to continue as the commander, but Danzo thought that Orochimaru would be a better choice. Ultimately, they decided to leave the decision to the Jonin meeting.
Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at Jiraiya, wishing he would volunteer to lead the team to support the border.
The best way to become Hokage is by achieving accomplishments that surpass those of anyone else. Jiraiya had recently defeated a Hidden Rock Ninja Squad. If he could successfully defeat the Hidden Cloud next, Jiraiya's reputation in Konoha would reach a new height.
"Minato, how does it feel to teach disciples? Watching them grow day by day under your guidance is quite satisfying, isn't it?" Jiraiya turned to Minato and said, without making eye contact with Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Yes," Minato nodded with a gentle smile.
"Sigh, this guy," Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed inwardly as he watched Jiraiya skillfully turn his head away.
After about twenty seconds of silence in the meeting, Orochimaru spoke up, "Third Hokage, I am willing to go to the border to support."
Due to the formal nature of the meeting, Orochimaru did not address Sarutobi Hiruzen as his teacher.
Seeing Orochimaru step forward, Danzo immediately voiced his support, praising Orochimaru's Will of Fire.
Seeing Jiraiya with no desire for competition, Sarutobi Hiruzen finally decided to appoint Orochimaru as the commander, leading a thousand ninja to support the border.
After all, he had just refused one of Danzo's requests, and Jiraiya himself didn't seem eager to go.
Once the selection of personnel to support the front line was confirmed, the meeting didn't end there. Naturally, a Jonin meeting wasn't convened just to discuss this matter.
"The Ninja World is in chaos, and all countries are at war. In this situation, what actions do you think Konoha should take?" Sarutobi Hiruzen asked the Jonin.
Compared to the selection of the unit leader for frontline support, this was the main topic of discussion, as there were only a few candidates for the former, and they had a pretty good idea before the meeting even began.
"Of course, we need to actively engage in war, letting the Daimyo and clients recognize our strength. This way, Konoha's reputation can reach new heights," Danzo was the first to voice his opinion.
Ninja Village commissions don't come for no reason, especially foreign commissions, which are primarily attracted by the strength of the Ninja Village. The more exceptional a Ninja Village performs in the war, the more commissions it will receive after the Great Ninja War ends. Conversely, it may receive fewer.
"We should counterattack into the Land of Thunder and the Land of Earth to show those guys the might of Konoha Ninja!" As the leader of Konoha's hawkish faction, Danzo was followed by other hawkish Jonin echoing his sentiment.
"We can send spies to investigate the Land of Wind. Having lost the Third Kazekage and still embroiled in intense conflict with the Hidden Cloud, the Hidden Sand is currently unprecedentedly weak."
"More importantly, since the war is becoming increasingly fierce, shouldn't we be training more medical ninja? If every team could have a medical ninja, the casualties would be greatly reduced," Tsunade, who had been silent, spoke up.
Originally, she didn't want to speak up and just wanted to finish the meeting and get back home to wait for Mokgetsu to prepare dinner, but she couldn't stand the hawkish rhetoric.
Being invaded and retaliating was understandable to Tsunade, but planning to attack the Land of Wind, which was not in conflict at the moment, was utterly unreasonable.
"Indeed, training more medical ninja is necessary, but having one medical ninja per team is still very difficult to achieve," Sarutobi Hiruzen shook his head slightly.
This statement was out of respect for Tsunade, but he would never agree to such a proposal because it would be wasteful of resources.
The standard Konoha squad consists of four people: one captain and three team members. If one of the four needs to be a medical ninja, then out of four thousand ninja, a thousand would have to be medical ninja.
Konoha can only sustain a limited number of ninja. It cannot expand infinitely. Increasing the number of medical ninja would mean reducing the number of ordinary ninja, which would lead to a decrease in Konoha's overall strength.
Moreover, the cost and difficulty of training medical ninja are higher than those for ordinary ninja. There was no way Sarutobi Hiruzen would spend money to weaken Konoha's strength.
"If we want to cultivate medical ninjutsu talents, I have an idea. Generally, those with good chakra control have greater potential in medical ninjutsu. If we start nurturing such talents at the Ninja Academy stage, we can both screen for talented individuals and shorten the training time," Mokgetsu thought for a moment and said.
"We could establish a special class for students with an inclination toward medical ninjutsu, allowing those aspiring to become medical ninja to undergo specialized training in this class."
The system rewards can be both random and fixed. The improvements gained from teaching students are fixed; Taijutsu progress boosts Taijutsu, and Ninjutsu progress boosts Ninjutsu. Mokgetsu wanted to further narrow the scope and see if teaching only medical ninjutsu would exclusively yield medical ninjutsu rewards.
If successful, Mokgetsu's plan to reform the Ninja Academy would be promising, providing targeted rewards for teaching in specific areas.
Additionally, Mokgetsu figured that making such a suggestion might earn him some favor from Tsunade.
"A special class for medical students..." Sarutobi Hiruzen showed a thoughtful expression, feeling that Mokgetsu's idea was quite promising and much more realistic than Tsunade's proposal.
Tsunade's mouth slightly gaped, showing a bit of surprise toward Mokgetsu's insight. Upon further consideration, she also found the proposal to be excellent and very friendly toward medical ninja.
From there, Mokgetsu didn't say much more, as it wasn't a major issue that warranted extensive discussion at an urgently convened Jonin meeting. It wasn't about establishing an entirely new Ninja Academy solely for medical ninja; the Ministry of Education and the current Ninja Academy could handle it with a separate meeting.
The meeting quickly returned to the topic of Konoha's actions during the war.
After the meeting concluded, Mokgetsu briefly exchanged some words about Taijutsu with Teacher Chen before heading to Tsunade's house to prepare dinner and study medical knowledge.
Having completed most of the Basic Breathing Technique tests, Mokgetsu began teaching Nohara Rin the Basic Breathing Technique.
However, due to being very busy himself, except for weekends, it was mostly his Shadow Clones doing the teaching, as was the case with Shisui.