Makoto cooled each of their cups of hot tea one by one, letting everyone enjoy a refreshing cold drink even in this unseasonably scorching weather.
They were fighting so hard on the front lines—couldn't they at least enjoy themselves a little?
If the Yuki Clan of the Land of Water saw the current situation, they would probably be furious. A talent that even their own people struggled to awaken was, in Makoto's hands, reduced to nothing more than an ice-making machine.
Uzuki Yūmura held his teacup, feeling the chill seeping into his palm, and for a moment felt that the world was unreal. "Um… big brother, is a Kekkei Genkai really that easy to fuse successfully?"
Uzuki Yūya rebutted his younger brother, "Of course it's not easy. That's why fused chakra-based Kekkei Genkai are so rare in the shinobi world. Only someone as exceptionally gifted as Makoto can pull it off."
"For anyone else to replicate it, after training the nature transformation of two chakra attributes to an extremely high level, the rest comes down to luck."
"If you're lucky, you might succeed the next second. But more likely, you'll never manage it in your entire lifetime. The best way for any kind of Kekkei Genkai to spread is through bloodline inheritance…"
Yūya froze mid-sentence.
Right—bloodline inheritance. If they simply had more children, then after some years, perhaps the descendants of the Uzuki and Higashino families could form an entirely new Yuki Clan within Konohagakure.
At that thought, the old father Yūya looked at his daughter and began to chuckle foolishly again.
The others naturally understood what was implied when bloodline inheritance was mentioned. But Yūmura was displeased.
Damn it—I don't have a daughter! Why does every good thing end up in big brother's hands?
Kumomi cautioned, "Because Ice Release doesn't suit his true combat style, he has never used it in front of outsiders. Only the few of us know."
"Whether to reveal it is Makoto's own decision, but it must not leak from our mouths. Understood?"
"Understood!"
No one had any objections. Ice Release was something Makoto had created himself; the decision naturally rested with him.
Higashino Jirō had already forgotten about being secretly noted down by his son for suspecting his wife without cause. Now he only felt that his life was complete. Not only had he advanced to the jōnin rank he had envied since childhood, he had also brought forth a genius heir for the Higashino family.
Thus, his ambition began to grow uncontrollably.
'My son is more of a genius than anyone else. Perhaps one day he could even become Hokage.'
When everyone thought about it, it did seem possible. Only Makoto had no interest. In his life plan, becoming Hokage was not an option—it consumed far too much time that could be spent living and training.
This was a world of the extraordinary. When an individual's strength became sufficiently powerful, it itself represented authority. There was no need to sit in that labor-intensive position.
However, speaking of the Hokage, Yūya suddenly said, "This time, Jōnin Minato was suddenly recalled. Do you think that means he'll take over as the Fourth Hokage?"
Jirō voiced his agreement. "Even though I used to think Orochimaru-sama was more likely to become the Fourth, from all the intel we can gather right now, the Fourth should be Jōnin Minato."
Kumomi shared the same view as them.
Makoto was not surprised. Jōnin were not only powerful; within Konohagakure's circles, the information they could access was also something chūnin and genin simply could not compare to.
All the current trends were already clear, and the political signals released by the Third Hokage were clear enough as well. No one was an idiot; naturally, they could see it.
As for this, this newly formed three-family alliance was fairly satisfied. Compared with Orochimaru, they were closer to Minato, and the ties between them ran deeper.
As for the other person in the rumors, Uchiha Fugaku, aside from the main-family ninja, few civilian jōnin would stand on his side.
This was an inherent disadvantage, and Hyūga Hiashi saw it very clearly.
The Uchiha Clan actually understood it too, but their obsession ran too deep—becoming Hokage had already become the clan's curse.
Unfortunately, everyone knew the choice for the Fourth Hokage had already been settled. The only thing no one could guess was that the world was unpredictable: after Minato took office, he would not even sit for a full year before being taken out at lightning speed.
...
Time moved into October, the afternoon of the 2nd.
On the front line where the ninja of Konohagakure, Kumogakure, and Iwagakure were intertwined, a mobile patrol team of twelve—formed by Higashino Jirō's squad, Uzuki Yūya's squad, and Gekkō Kumomi's squad—saw a distress flare signal and immediately rushed to a certain area.
But they were too late. There was already no one here, only a small patch of a battlefield that had been damaged.
Jirō's squad examined the bloodstains on the ground and the traces left behind that the ninja had not had time to clean up after leaving, while Yūya's squad was responsible for checking and analyzing the traces of ninjutsu.
The entire team operated with Gekkō Kumomi as the lead.
Very quickly, Jirō reported, "The Konoha defense-line squad responsible for Area A07 is missing. Based on similar incidents before, there's a high chance they're already dead. The enemy's numbers are unknown, but they left traces of retreating in the direction of Iwagakure."
Yūya followed up with his report. "There's damage on the ground caused by various Release techniques. It's impossible to determine which side carried them out."
Kumomi had a headache—this was the current chaos on the front line.
After only a few days of quiet, Kumogakure and Iwagakure had begun hunting each other again. Konohagakure was also frequently attacked, and many times it was impossible to determine who was responsible.
The traces of retreat could be fake. The traces of ninjutsu could also be fake. While those two villages were killing each other, they were also impersonating one another to harass Konoha and drag it into the mire.
At the same time, Konoha's people—including mobile support teams like Makoto's operating on the front line—would choose to eliminate any enemy they encountered, no matter who it was. If you did not kill others, others would kill you.
At the beginning of the war, it had been about seizing benefits. By now, it had nothing to do with benefits anymore. What remained was mutual vendetta—an irreconcilable kind, until one side was wiped out.
It was simply a matter of who would be unable to endure the attrition first.
Everyone knew that continuing like this would lead to no good outcome, yet no one could let go of their hatred. At a time like this, even the Kage of a village would find it difficult to go against the collective will of the ninja as a whole.
"Makoto, can you still sense the enemy's position?"
After entering a sensory state and sweeping the area once, Makoto said, "There are no ninja in the direction of Iwagakure. About 5.5 kilometers to the northeast, there is a squad of ninja—nine in number—advancing toward our A09 defense zone."
Upon hearing this, Kumomi immediately gave the order, "Full-speed support!"
By the time they arrived, fighting had already broken out. Nine enemies dressed as Kumogakure ninja were launching a frenzied assault on Konoha ninja.
The three Konoha ninja resisting were covered in wounds, and three more lay on the ground. The situation was critical.
Makoto accelerated forward, drew his short blade, and slashed down fiercely.
Wind Release: Shadowless Sword!
A massive wind blade tore vertically across the ground, severing everything along its path and rushing toward both sides engaged in battle. Its flight speed was deliberately controlled to be not too fast—the purpose was to split the battlefield and rescue the three allied ninja who were on the verge of collapse.
"Danger!"
"It's Konoha reinforcements—retreat!"
To evade the wind blade, both sides leapt away. After landing, the nine enemies turned and fled, while the three Konoha ninja regrouped together, watching both sides warily without advancing.
The front line was too chaotic now. Without verifying the encrypted code phrase, who knew what kind of monsters or demons had arrived?
Kumomi ordered, "Makoto, stop those bastards for me."
"Yes!"
In terms of speed, aside from Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique, no one could surpass him.
Makoto lightly leapt into the air in the direction the enemy was fleeing. With the enhancement of the wind attribute, his body streaked across the sky like a meteor, passing over the heads of the nine. After landing, he turned and swept out a massive horizontal Shadowless Sword.
The enemy had strong predictive ability. Before Makoto even landed, they had already prepared a defensive ninjutsu.
Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!
Unfortunately, such a thin earthen wall could not possibly withstand the Shadowless Sword. It was split in two on the spot under the enemy's astonished gazes. The wind blade that cleaved through the wall continued forward, carving massive, fatal wounds across the chests of three enemies who failed to react quickly enough before finally dissipating.
Immediately afterward, Kumomi and the others who had rushed over charged into the battlefield and swiftly annihilated the remaining six.
This was what the front line was like now.
Disguise, sneak attacks, counterattacks—killing back and forth. No one had a fixed objective. As long as they eliminated every enemy they saw, that was enough.
After carefully inspecting all the corpses, Jirō said, "We can confirm they're not Kumogakure ninja. But there's nothing on them to indicate they're from Iwagakure either."
Yūya said resentfully, "Then they must be hired ninja. It's that old bastard Ōnoki spending money to bring in outside reinforcements again. They're the only ones who like to pull this kind of stunt."
On the current front line, it wasn't just the three great ninja villages. A considerable number of rogue ninja, missing-nin, ninja from small and medium villages, and members of independent clans were also active.
They had all accepted the bounties Iwagakure posted in the underground world, taking employment and hiding in the shadows to hunt Konoha and Kumogakure ninja. These people did not care about grudges or allegiance—they recognized only money.
Although Konoha and Iwagakure had publicly ceased hostilities, Ōnoki was not an honest man. He habitually handled matters by spending money and had released a large number of missions in the underground world.
There was simply no evidence for such matters. After all, Iwagakure had not violated the verbal agreement by directly attacking Konoha. What did hired ninja have to do with them?
Konoha and Kumogakure generally did not use such methods, because that would amount to undermining their own mission systems.
If everything were handled by commissions in the underground black market, what use would the ninja they painstakingly trained have? Over time, if reliance formed, it would indirectly weaken the village's strength.
Ōnoki understood this as well, but he had no choice.
The war had reached this stage. Even if it meant breaking the rules and spending money to bring in outside reinforcements, they had to hold the line.
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