The border of the Land of Earth, a land of towering mountains.
Completely different from the scorching heat of the Land of Wind and the gloomy dampness of the Land of Rain, this place was filled with bare rock mountains and bottomless canyons.
The steep terrain became Iwagakure's natural barrier.
A large-scale Konoha army was stationed on this side of the mountain range, facing Iwagakure from afar.
Inside the main tent of the camp, the atmosphere was tense and efficient.
Uchiha Kagami, wearing a suit of deep blue armor, stood before a huge sand table, his brow furrowed.
Beside him, Nara Shikaku, Akimichi Torifu, and Yamanaka Inoichi, the current heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho alliance, also wore serious expressions.
"Lord Kagami, Inoichi just received intelligence from the Uchiha squad in the C-3 area."
Nara Shikaku's finger moved quickly across the sand table, planting a small red flag.
"They discovered an Iwagakure scout squad, a total of five people, using Earth Release to move along an underground cavern, attempting to outflank us."
"I've already arranged for the Earth Release squad to set traps on their path," Akimichi Torifu said in a gruff voice, his massive body giving off a strong sense of security.
"Very good."
Uchiha Kagami nodded. "Have the C-3 squad continue to monitor. Don't alert the enemy. Our mission is to watch, not to fight."
"Yes!"
Yamanaka Inoichi had his eyes closed, his hands pressed against his temples. His mind, at this moment, was connected through the Yamanaka clan's secret technique to more than thirty Uchiha squads scattered along the hundreds of kilometers of the border.
"Lord Kagami, intelligence from the B-5 area. An Iwagakure supply transport unit has been discovered, approximately fifty strong, crossing a suspension bridge, transporting a batch of explosive tags."
"Shikaku, what do you think?"
Uchiha Kagami immediately looked to the strategist beside him.
Nara Shikaku stroked his chin, staring at the sand table, his mind working at high speed.
"Transporting explosive tags... their destination should be this fortress on the front line."
He pointed to a location on the sand table. "But the route is strange. They took a big detour. This is not logical."
"Unless..."
Nara Shikaku's eyes suddenly lit up. "They're bluffing! This transport team is a decoy. The real supplies are being transported on another, more secret route!"
"Inoichi!"
Uchiha Kagami immediately gave the order. "Notify all Uchiha squads in the surveillance areas to immediately conduct a fan-shaped scan with that transport team as the center! Focus on investigating all possible caves and underground passages!"
"Yes!"
This was the "Wall of Illusory Eyes" that Sarutobi Hiruzen had envisioned.
Using three-man Uchiha squads as the basic unit, they were scattered like chess pieces along the long border.
Each squad was responsible for one area.
With their Sharingan activated, they were like high-definition cameras, taking in every single movement in their area.
Any flow of chakra, any movement of personnel, any suspicious trace could not escape their eyes.
Then, this massive amount of intelligence was transmitted back to the command center in real-time through the Yamanaka clan's mental secret techniques.
In the command center, the highly intelligent Nara clan analyzed, sorted, and judged this intelligence, finding the enemy's true intentions from countless pieces of chaotic information.
Finally, the Akimichi clan and other combat ninja in the camp would carry out precise defensive deployments or fatal raids based on the Nara clan's analysis.
The insight of the Sharingan, the intelligence transmission of the Yamanaka clan, the wisdom of the Nara clan, and the execution of the Akimichi clan.
The Uchiha and the Ino-Shika-Cho, the two most powerful combinations in Konoha, under the will of the Third Hokage, had, for the first time, been combined so seamlessly.
Together, they had built a wall of intelligence that left the enemy with nowhere to hide.
In the few short days since the war began, Iwagakure had launched no less than ten probing attacks on the Land of Earth border.
But each time, it was like hitting an invisible wall.
Before their men even arrived, Konoha's traps were already set.
Their Earth Release units had just emerged from the ground, only to be met with a sky full of explosive tags.
Iwagakure was beaten into a state of confusion, suffering heavy casualties, yet they hadn't even caught a glimpse of Konoha's main force.
The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was so angry in his office that he almost smashed his desk.
"Useless! A bunch of useless fools!" he roared at his jonin. "Our men are like they're running around naked in front of the enemy!"
And in Konoha's command tent.
Uchiha Kagami looked at the Iwagakure forces on the sand table, which they had thwarted time and time again, and a sense of pride he had never felt before surged in his heart.
Not by fighting with brute force, but by fully utilizing these eyes to see through the battlefield, to decide the course of the war.
This feeling of strategizing and winning from a thousand miles away was more satisfying to him than mere combat.
He also finally understood the meaning of Lord Hokage's words back then.
"I don't need your lives. I need your eyes and your minds."
"Lord Kagami, look."
Nara Shikaku pointed to a repeatedly marked position on the sand table. "Although we have thwarted all of Iwagakure's attacks, their targets all seem to be vaguely pointing towards our main camp."
"Are they planning a decapitation strike?" Uchiha Kagami's brow furrowed.
"It's possible," Shikaku nodded. "Onoki is a very proud man. After repeated setbacks, he is very likely to take a risk. Moreover, I always feel that they still have a trump card that we haven't discovered."
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