Chapter 54: Situation Analysis

"Then I hope Feiyu-kun will have an even more active performance in this battle."

Orochimaru spoke with a beaming smile on his face, but Uchiha Feiyu's reply was enough to make one unable to suppress a laugh:

"Uh... I'll try my best, but I'm always invisible during battle, so you probably won't be able to see my active figure!"

"After all, safety comes first on the battlefield... whether I'm active or not, let's wait until I survive first!"

Once these words were out, let alone Orochimaru, the other Jonin in the command post were all speechless. Sitting beside Orochimaru, Akimichi Torifu, who looked like a mountain, patted his belly and laughed out loud:

"You brat really doesn't look like an Uchiha! Hahaha, you're actually a bit like us Akimichi!"

People of the Akimichi Clan have always been broad-minded and stout, with honest and kind personalities, so even if they are afraid of death, they show it quite obviously.

Back when he was a guard for the Second Hokage, in that famous scene where the Second Hokage proposed a rear-guard mission, Akimichi Torifu had honestly asked: Wouldn't the person covering the rear just be dead for sure?

Of course, the Akimichi Clan is a ninja clan of Konoha after all; when it really comes time to risk their lives, they will still do so. In this point, he is completely different from Uchiha Feiyu.

As a veteran of Konoha, Akimichi Torifu had seen who knows how many normal or abnormal Uchiha ninja, and had even been teammates with Uchiha Kagami, so he could be considered well-experienced.

But whether it was an Uchiha close to the village or that type of clan-oriented Uchiha, there was always a sense of arrogance in their personality. It's just that for some, the arrogance was external and their personality haughty, while for others, they were round on the outside and square on the inside with the arrogance in their bones. Truly, not one of them would express their fear of death so obviously.

"I never wanted to be any kind of Uchiha; it's just because I had the Awakening of the Sharingan that I had to join. That bunch of Uchiha didn't think much of me either."

Uchiha Feiyu said with a calm expression and sat on the other side of Orochimaru. In terms of position, he was almost the right-hand man of the camp.

However, not a single Jonin in the command post had any opinion on this. Even though Uchiha Feiyu was only a Special Jonin in terms of rank and held no position in the main camp, the lives of the hundreds of Rock Ninja and Sand Ninja under his command were the greatest reliance for him to sit in such a high position.

A ninja's status has a certain factor of personal connections, but the most important thing is whether they can fight. Therefore, even though Uchiha Feiyu had always been a loner in the camp and was greedy for life and afraid of death, it did not affect his status rising step by step.

"Alright, everyone is here now. Luye, report the current movements of the Sand Ninja to everyone!"

Orochimaru clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention. It was fortunate that he had no Uchiha under his command, so even when Uchiha Feiyu made such wild remarks, the other ninja were just surprised and gossiped a bit, without much deeper feeling.

Nara Luye, who had just been listening to the news, also put away his gossiping heart. The relationship between this newly emerged Uchiha powerhouse, the Uchiha, and the village was something to consider after the war. Right now, the only thing the many ninja present should consider was how to defeat the Sand Ninja.

"According to the intelligence we received, the Sand Ninja have already left their main camp this time, pouring out in full force, and are attacking in this direction."

Nara Luye pointed at the map. Uchiha Feiyu took one look and recognized it; that was the direction toward Kikyo Pass on the map.

"Obviously, they should be trying to break through the blockade of Kikyo Pass. Once they are allowed to break through this blockade, the path to the Land of Fire will be smooth sailing. Given the character of those bandits from the Sand Ninja, if several hundred or a thousand ninja enter the Land of Fire, it will be a huge disaster."

The Sand Ninja born in the Land of Wind have always been poor and afraid of it. Even in a small country like the Land of Rivers, they exposed the faces of bandits and robbers, looting supplies wantonly. If it were the Land of Fire, which has more abundant resources, these guys would obviously be even less likely to show mercy.

A ninja's ability in destruction is much stronger than in construction. If thousands of ninja were to roam into the Land of Fire, it would be enough to devastate the Land of Fire for thousands of miles and set the economy back several years, not to mention the entire Sand Ninja army.

"It seems we must intercept these Sand Ninja at Kikyo Pass... That will be the battlefield for the final decisive battle!"

"What is the current situation of the Sand Ninja? How many people are in the main force? How many famous powerhouses are there?"

Hearing the question from the Jonin below, Nara Luye spoke very calmly:

"The Sunagakure currently sent out a force claiming to be ten thousand strong. Of course... that must be bragging. I'm afraid the entire Sunagakure doesn't even have ten thousand ninja. Unless Sunagakure completely ignores the battle lines in other directions and leaves no reserve troops in their own village, it is impossible to have an army of this scale."

"However, cutting it in half to 5,000 ninja, in the current situation of a decisive battle, is still possible. Based on the estimation of the supplies in their entire camp, their number should be between 4,000 and 5,000."

"As for the famous ninja among the Sand Ninja... the current Sand Ninja are experiencing a gap between generations. The most talented of the young generation, Akasuna no Sasori, is said to have gone missing along with the Third Kazekage. In the current young generation, only the Fourth Kazekage Rasa and the Scorch Style User Pakura are key targets that need attention."

"The older generation's Chiyo should still be able to fight. Puppet Masters are very little affected by age factors, and Chiyo is also a standard Shadow-level combatant."

"In addition, we must be careful about the One-Tail Shukaku jinchuriki who might be sent to the battlefield if the Sand Ninja are defeated. However, I heard that this generation's jinchuriki doesn't seem to like fighting, though I don't know if this news is true or false."

Uchiha Feiyu actually knew a little about the jinchuriki; it should be that monk Fenfu.

Although this old monk became a jinchuriki and was even a perfect jinchuriki, he never used the power of the Tailed Beast in his entire life and could only be considered a container for the Tailed Beast.

Even the Sand Ninja had no understanding of their own jinchuriki's situation—otherwise, they wouldn't have locked the old monk in prison until he died out of fear of Shukaku.

Of course, even if the Sand Ninja invited the old monk Fenfu out, given his personality, he probably wouldn't take action, so there was absolutely no need to consider the issue of the Sand Ninja's jinchuriki.

After Nara Luye finished analyzing the intelligence on Sunagakure, there was a moment of silence below. A moment later, a Jonin frowned and said:

"This battle is not going to be easy to fight... Speaking of which, did the Sand Ninja get sand in their brains? They actually concentrated all their Shadow-level combatants on this battle line. Aren't they afraid of sneak attacks from other ninja villages?"

"This bunch of sand scorpions has always had this kind of personality. Every time a Ninja World War starts, they act like they are gambling with their lives. After so many times, they still haven't truly learned their lesson!"

Akimichi Torifu, who had experienced three Ninja World Wars, said with a cold snort.

(End of chapter)