Chapter 534: Counterattack Plan

Before arriving at the Land of Grass, Mu Yue used Konoha's special communication method to contact the Land of Grass's ninja unit.

Out of caution, Mu Yue did not inform the Land of Grass ninja unit about the specific troop numbers of the support unit, but directly discussed the matter of rendezvousing.

Upon learning that support was coming, Jiraiya was very happy, but he refused Mu Yue's request to rendezvous and told Mu Yue about their current situation.

After regrouping his forces, Jiraiya's ninja unit still had six hundred seventy ninja.

Jiraiya suspected that there were still undiscovered spies within his ninja unit, so he broke up the main force into small squads to impede the Iwa unit.

After two probes, Jiraiya confirmed that spies still exist in the ninja unit, but for the moment he couldn't determine exactly who the spies were or how many there were.

Jiraiya believed that they could not rendezvous until the spies were found, otherwise the previous failure would be repeated.

"Commander Mu Yue, how should we reply?" Nara Suzaku asked Mu Yue.

Before asking Mu Yue, Nara Suzaku had already thought hard in his mind but couldn't come up with a good solution.

The best and most direct method would certainly be to find the spies, but Jiraiya's ninja unit was stronger than the support ninja unit and had more elite talents.

If Jiraiya's own ninja unit hadn't been able to find the spies, it wasn't necessarily that the support unit would be useful.

Mu Yue showed a thoughtful expression and did not reply immediately.

Finding the White Zetsu hidden among the troops was not difficult for him; it just took effort to identify them one by one.

Mu Yue was thinking about how to turn the situation to his advantage and use White Zetsu to set a trap for Iwa.

Since White Zetsu could act as spies for the Iwa unit, that meant Iwa's side had also been infiltrated by White Zetsu.

Under these circumstances, he could let White Zetsu learn false information, which would then be passed to the Iwa unit, causing them to be misled by the false information.

"Right now, what has arrived is the vanguard of the support unit, only fifty ninja. We can rendezvous first and discuss the upcoming battle," Mu Yue said after thinking.

"Just reply with that."

"Oh, and include the information that I'm in the vanguard unit," Mu Yue added.

Nara Suzaku and the other ninja involved in the discussion looked at Mu Yue with puzzled expressions, not understanding why he wanted to reply that way.

Before finding the spies, rendezvousing would only expose their own information and repeat past mistakes.

Although Mu Yue had deliberately given false information that there were only fifty ninja.

But what use was that? When they actually rendezvoused, if the spies weren't found, they'd still be exposed.

"Commander Mu Yue, are you planning to take fifty ninja to help Lord Jiraiya's side find the spies?" Nara Suzaku asked after a moment of thought.

Only with this as a reason could Mu Yue's reply be justified.

Mu Yue nodded and replied:

"That's right. I have a perception ability that can sense others' goodwill or hostility toward me. Although a ninja with hostility isn't necessarily a spy, it can still greatly narrow down the search."

The effect of the Appraisal Jutsu was too overpowered; Mu Yue would never voluntarily reveal it.

Moreover, Mu Yue did have a jutsu that could perceive good and evil; Observation Haki could be developed in that direction.

However, Mu Yue's Observation Haki had only just reached the proficient level, and his proficiency was still low, so it didn't have this effect yet.

Nara Suzaku looked surprised, not expecting Mu Yue to possess such an ability.

Perceiving good and evil was indeed an excellent ability for distinguishing spies, especially for a ninja with a good reputation like Mu Yue.

If they were allies, how could they have hostility toward someone as gentle and kind as Mu Yue for no reason?

If they were enemy spies, toward a famous genius powerhouse like Mu Yue, they would certainly want him dead as soon as possible; it would be impossible for them not to have hostility.

"In that case, it really is more appropriate to first lead a small unit to rendezvous," Mimura Hamaki nodded in agreement.

This way, they wouldn't expose the support unit's information, and they could quickly help the Land of Grass ninja unit break free from the crisis.

Moreover, fifty ninja was not a small force; it could handle most situations.

After Jiraiya gave a positive reply and agreed on a rendezvous point, Mu Yue called out the ninja he had already selected.

"From now on, we are the vanguard of the support unit. The real support unit has not yet arrived in the Land of Grass. Do you all understand?" Mu Yue reminded after assembling the fifty ninja.

"Except for me, no matter who talks to you about the support unit, you must not reveal the true information."

White Zetsu needs to absorb the corresponding ninja's chakra to perform the Imitation Technique and transform. Muyue is confident that White Zetsu will never absorb his chakra, but he can't guarantee that other ninjas won't have their chakra absorbed.

Seeing Muyue's serious expression, the ninjas all nodded earnestly, memorizing everything he said.

After stating the precautions, Muyue led the ninjas to the designated meeting point.

To ensure the remaining support unit had sufficient combat strength, apart from his five disciples, Muyue brought only chūnin and genin among the remaining forty-five ninjas, leaving most of the jōnin and tokubetsu jōnin in the support unit.

When they were about to reach the meeting point, Muyue first used Observation Haki to sense, then activated his Byakugan to carefully observe the surroundings. Only after confirming there were no issues did he lead his subordinates forward to rendezvous.

To prevent any accidents, Muyue did not deactivate his Byakugan and kept it active.

Now that Muyue had the Yang Seal, his chakra was much more abundant, so using a bit of chakra to maintain the Byakugan was no problem.

Jiraiya, Minato Namikaze, and his other two disciples had already arrived and were waiting at the designated spot.

Seeing Muyue approaching with his unit, Jiraiya quickly stepped forward and said:

"This Iwagakure business is really too strange. Their intelligence capabilities are ridiculously strong. I have no idea how many spies are in the unit."

To ensure there were no issues with the rendezvous with Muyue, Jiraiya had acted very covertly, not only keeping the number of people in the know extremely small, but also bringing only his three disciples.

By now, Jiraiya no longer blindly trusted those clan ninjas. If even a jōnin from the Sarutobi clan could become a traitor, then traitors from other clans wouldn't be surprising either.

But his own disciples were different. From childhood to now, Jiraiya could be sure there were no problems with them.

"I've looked at the battlefield intelligence, and there are indeed many suspicious points." Muyue nodded, then looked at the fifty ninjas behind him.

"Except for Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Obito, and the others, the rest of the ninjas spread out to maintain a perimeter alert!"

Muyue sent all the ninjas except his disciples to the surrounding area to stand guard.

Although Muyue's Byakugan meant he didn't need them to keep watch, it was better that fewer people heard their upcoming discussion.

"Toad Sage, Sensei Minato, are you two injured?" Obito couldn't help asking.

Minato Namikaze smiled and shook his head, indicating he was fine.

"What are you talking about? I'm one of the Sannin. A little difficulty like this can't hurt me. And it's not 'Toad Sage,' it's 'Toad Immortal'!" Jiraiya tapped Obito's head and emphasized.

"Got it, Toad Sage." Obito replied, unmoved, nodding.

In his mind, there was only the Sage of Six Paths and Immortal Muyue.

Jiraiya: …

"Sigh, Shuhei, we're so pitiful. Even though we're in the same unit as Minato, it's like we don't exist. We helped with training before too, you know." Dekai sighed and said.

"Senior Shuhei, Senior Dekai, are you injured? I can provide treatment." Rin Nohara asked gently.

"Hehe, no need." Dekai chuckled and waved his hand. He was just grumbling that the two of them lacked presence and were always overlooked.

Ignoring the slightly irritating Obito, Jiraiya looked at Muyue.

Sending subordinates to set up a perimeter alert was a very normal thing, but having almost all subordinates do guard duty made Jiraiya think that Muyue probably had something important to say.

Giving everyone on Jiraiya's side a look, Muyue spoke:

"Actually, the support unit has all arrived. Apart from me, there are five hundred ninjas, including fifteen jōnin and fifteen tokubetsu jōnin…"

Muyue first briefly explained the support unit's situation.

"Huh? Didn't we say only the vanguard unit had arrived?"

Dekai was a bit confused, not expecting that their own intelligence exchange could be false.

"Probably worried about spies obtaining intelligence." Minato Namikaze analyzed.

In fact, when he first got the intelligence, he had found it a bit strange.

Right now, the Iwagakure forces in the Grass Country were far stronger than Konoha's. Sending a fifty-man elite squad on a forced march to the Grass Country didn't make much sense; it couldn't change the battle situation unless each of those fifty people had strength comparable to Muyue's.

"In that case, Muyue, are you thinking of catching the spies?" Jiraiya asked.

Muyue's strength was formidable; even alone, he could make their small unit safer.

But Jiraiya didn't think Muyue had gone to the trouble of rendezvousing just for that.

If he hadn't seen Muyue among the so-called vanguard unit, Jiraiya would definitely have refused to meet up to avoid problems.

Mu Yue nodded and repeated the explanation he had given to the support unit.

"Perceiving goodwill and malice—that really is a good method!" Jiraiya's eyes lit up.

If someone universally hated had this ability, using it to identify spies might not be very efficient.

But if the person with this ability was Mu Yue, Jiraiya thought he could catch every single one.

Mu Yue was kind to others and cooked deliciously; under the condition that the spy was a fellow village ninja, the thought of someone harboring malice toward Konoha—Jiraiya didn't dare imagine how deep that person's hatred toward everyone else must be.

It was impossible for Mu Yue to be liked by everyone, but those who disliked him probably wouldn't go so far as "malice"—at worst, they might just be indifferent.

"That's why he's Mu Yue the Sage." Obito praised inwardly.

Jiraiya at most could fight a bit, but Mu Yue seemed capable of everything.

"My idea is to first use my ability to find the spy, then turn the tables and let the spy obtain false intelligence, thereby creating a favorable situation for our Konoha." Mu Yue pushed up his glasses with his right hand and outlined his general plan.

"Then those hidden four hundred and fifty ninjas will become a surprise force!" Jiraiya laughed and patted Mu Yue on the shoulder, roughly guessing part of Mu Yue's plan.

He had to admit that Mu Yue had fully considered every aspect, even better than him, a veteran commander.

Of course, it was also because Mu Yue possessed key breakthrough abilities that he could make such considerations.

"What do you think we should do next? Should we investigate each small unit individually, or gather all the troops together?" Jiraiya thought for a moment and asked.

In Hiruzen Sarutobi's orders, the support unit was not to merge into the Grass Country Konoha unit directly, so Mu Yue was currently a unit commander on par with Jiraiya; they had to coordinate with each other, and neither could order the other around.

"Let's gather all the troops together. Investigating one by one would be too slow, and it would increase the chance of exposing the plan." Mu Yue replied after thinking.

If he investigated each small unit individually, he would eventually have to gather them anyway. Mu Yue was worried that new White Zetsu might appear during this process, and then cautious Mu Yue might choose to screen everyone again.

So Mu Yue thought it was better to assemble the troops at once for an overall check, then start the plan directly.

The faster the plan progresses, the less time the enemy has to think.

"Alright." Jiraiya found Mu Yue's reasoning sound and agreed.

When they had finished discussing the plan, Mu Yue called back the subordinates guarding the perimeter and followed Jiraiya to Jiraiya's small unit.

"I'm really sorry, but it looks like you'll have to take care of Kushina yourself until this war is over." On the way, Mu Yue said to Minato Namikaze with a smile.

Not long after Minato Namikaze had sent him the letter, Hiruzen Sarutobi's orders came down.

Minato Namikaze gave an awkward smile, then sighed, "I hope so. There have been too many unexpected surprises lately."

He had written that letter because he had a premonition about the situation in the war with Iwa, but the course of events had still exceeded Minato Namikaze's expectations.

If not for Mu Yue's ability to sense malice, Minato Namikaze estimated that the Grass Country unit would have been forced into a passive defense for a long time, even with reinforcements.

"If the reason for the Grass Country unit's defeat was the spy…

Then with his special perception ability, Master Mu Yue would definitely become Iwa's number one target. Could it be that he gets surrounded and killed by many Iwa elites because of this?" Kakashi thought to himself.

Kakashi had never been part of a ninja unit's high command, but he had been to the battlefield many times in recent years.

A spy incident that could cause the Grass Country unit to be defeated without any warning could not be an ordinary spy incident.

"Keep your talk to a minimum when we get there." Kakashi couldn't help but remind Obito.

Following Mu Yue, they now knew quite a lot of classified information.

Obito's face darkened. "Kakashi, you're seriously underestimating me. I'm not some blabbermouth who goes around telling everything he knows."

"Heh." Kakashi smiled lightly and said nothing.

Obito got red in the face; if the timing weren't so inappropriate, he would have wanted to fight Kakashi.

"Just you wait and see!" Obito threw down a harsh remark.

To show Kakashi his ability to keep secrets, he decided that once they arrived, he wouldn't interact with ninjas who weren't his friends—that way he couldn't possibly leak any information.

Kakashi observed Obito's reaction and nodded to himself.

PS: Another chapter coming later, probably around three o'clock.

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