In a ninja's handbook, when facing an insurmountable enemy, the first thing a ninja must do is to try their best to protect their life and bring back intelligence alive. Sometimes, even if it means some sacrifice, as long as the intelligence brought back can save more lives, it is worth it.
The Konoha ninjas present all understood this principle, and as members of the logistics department, they understood it even more deeply than others.
The Kirigakure ninjas in front of them didn't seem to be many, but their demeanor indicated that they were reconnaissance ninjas, meaning there was a unit following behind them.
Even if they eliminated all the Kirigakure ninjas in front of them, they themselves would likely face the desperate situation of being surrounded. In the end, they would just sacrifice their lives for nothing.
Therefore, they did not rush out impulsively, but cautiously observed the enemy, trying to determine how many Kirigakure ninja squads were following behind.
However, this information was too vague, and to get further details, they still needed to get it from the Kirigakure ninjas themselves.
According to common practice, Konoha ninjas should capture a Kirigakure ninja and use genjutsu or other means to extract information.
However, fearing to alert the enemy, they did not act rashly, but instead pondered how to capture a Kirigakure ninja to obtain information.
"If only all of us knew how to use genjutsu, we could set up a feint to temporarily block the enemy," one of them whispered.
During the First Great Ninja War, Senju Touka, a genjutsu master of the Senju clan, was an excellent practitioner of this method.
Genjutsu has no substantial destructive power; genjutsu that directly kills people is almost non-existent, at most it causes mental collapse, rendering people no different from invalids.
The positioning of genjutsu has always been inclined towards support.
And the moment the role of genjutsu ninjas expands to the battlefield, its auxiliary role becomes more and more obvious. As long as the genjutsu ninja does not expose their whereabouts, continuously creating genjutsu traps in suitable terrain, guiding and deceiving the enemy, can often throw the enemy into chaos for a period of time.
When Senju Touka was short on troops, she relied on this method to gradually wear down the combat capabilities of the Kumogakure ninjas, forcing them to fail to achieve their expected results and eventually retreat to rendezvous with the main force, making a huge contribution to disrupting Kumogakure's lightning war.
After Senju Touka became a teacher at the Ninja Academy, she openly taught her strategies to the students in her classes, allowing these young genjutsu ninjas to have a mature combat plan.
Although the Konoha ninjas present were not genjutsu specialists, they all learned about Senju Touka's great achievements in history class, and her war experience was regarded as a typical case of genjutsu's role on the battlefield.
However, not to mention that none of them could use genjutsu, even if they could, the genjutsu traps they could create with so few people would not be enough to completely block the enemy.
Nevertheless, delaying for a while was still worthwhile. If planned properly, a feint might even buy them more time.
"Can't a feint be achieved by other methods?" Might Guy couldn't help but ask.
"Yes, it can. If we quickly eliminate this reconnaissance squad, the Kirigakure ninja squad, suddenly losing intelligence, might become suspicious and think there's an ambush ahead, not daring to act rashly for a while. But how long we can deceive them is still a question," someone replied.
"And more importantly, can we quickly eliminate this reconnaissance squad? Although our numbers are similar, they are ninjas specialized in reconnaissance missions.
They are probably very skilled at avoiding enemies and quickly transmitting information, which we might not be able to handle," another Konoha ninja said.
"What do you think of these people's strength?" Might Guy asked.
"I don't know," the others shook their heads, "but presumably, their combat ability should be similar to that of a regular Chunin.
As for their intelligence capabilities, that's hard to say."
Intelligence ninjas are inherently specialized in gathering information. While training in this area, they often neglect other abilities, such as combat ability.
Only a few rare geniuses can possess strong combat abilities while also having strong intelligence capabilities, like Hatake Kakashi and Yakushi Kabuto.
However, such people are too rare. Even Yakushi Kabuto's adoptive mother, Yakushi Nonō, a genius intelligence ninja known as the "Walking Miko" in Root, with her rich experience and prime age of thirty-one, was counter-killed by Yakushi Kabuto when she went all out.
No matter how much of a genius Yakushi Kabuto was, given that his primary focus was intelligence gathering and combat training was secondary, his strength at the mere age of eleven could not have been very great.
The fact that he could still kill Yakushi Nonō only indicates the low combat ability of intelligence ninjas.
Even if these reconnaissance ninjas in front of them were incredibly skilled at gathering intelligence and exceptionally good at escaping danger, their frontal combat ability would at most be at the regular Chunin level, unless there were some extraordinary geniuses among them, but such situations are generally not factored in.
Moreover, to ensure the safety of reconnaissance ninjas, a squad might include individuals who are not as strong in intelligence gathering but possess certain combat abilities.
These individuals can buy time for the intelligence ninjas to transmit information when danger arises.
In other words, such reconnaissance squads are neither particularly strong nor particularly weak; their strength is relatively average.
Although that's the case, as logistics ninjas, their strength is also at the regular Chunin level, probably on par with intelligence ninjas.
How could they expect to quickly eliminate these guys?
Might Guy also pondered in his heart. His normal strength was not very strong. After arduous training, he barely managed to reach the Chunin level.
If it weren't for his diligent and selfless work in the logistics unit, being regarded as a model worker, he probably wouldn't have been granted the Chunin rank.
This was also a special treatment only possible in the current Konoha Ninja Village.
If it were in the original Konoha Ninja Village, where the standard requirements for each position were consistent, Might Guy, who lacked the talent to lead a team, would have remained a Genin for life, jokingly called the "Eternal Genin."
It was only when protecting his son that his ordinary life erupted with unprecedented brilliance.
However, Might Guy, through his own personal experience, painstakingly practiced the Eight Gates technique, step by step correcting unnecessary movements and finding the right sensation, finally opening each of the chakra points known as the Eight Gates.
He has now reached the Fourth Gate. This is truly the realm of the Eight Gates Released Formation.
Although there were occasionally people who opened the Eight Gates in the past, no one with a certain level of talent could open them up to the Fourth Gate, and those without talent never opened them due to a lack of training conditions.
In this regard, Might Guy is the first person to practice the Eight Gates.
Every time he trained, Might Guy felt his talent was meager, and his body quickly reached its limit, subconsciously opening the First and Second Gates.
This was also the foundation for Might Guy's persistence in training—if it weren't for the amplification provided by these two gates, where would Might Guy get the strength to continue training?
In comparison, Might Guy's future son, Guy, had even greater talent in this regard.
Might Guy's normal strength could reach the Jonin level, while Might Guy barely climbed to the Chunin level.
Their experience in opening the Eight Gates would naturally be different—at least, if it were Might Guy, he could persist in training solely with his own physical strength, unlike Might Guy, who needed to be forced to open the First and Second Gates to continue training.
Even so, as long as he opened up to the Fourth Gate, Might Guy's strength would instantly swell to an extremely powerful level.
He couldn't say he could compare to a Kage, but there shouldn't be much difference from a regular Jonin, and the strength of a regular Jonin would be enough to eliminate these reconnaissance ninjas.
Might Guy was never a far-sighted person. He believed he could eliminate these reconnaissance ninjas, and in the absence of genjutsu ninjas, this was the only way to set up a feint and delay the enemy.
He quickly said to the others, "Let me try. I have a way to quickly eliminate them."
"What, Guy, you're not kidding, are you? With your strength, how is that possible?" The others didn't believe Might Guy.
Might Guy's strength was obvious in their daily lives, and he had no reason to hide his strength.
In their opinion, Might Guy's strength was similar to theirs, so it was impossible for him to quickly eliminate the enemy.
"Don't overexert yourself, we can think of other ways."
"No, I'm serious. I've been training a taijutsu technique. Although it puts a considerable strain on my body, it can temporarily boost my strength.
I think it's worth a try," Might Guy said earnestly.
"Really?" The others were half-skeptical, but seeing Might Guy's confident demeanor, they somewhat believed him.
However, they didn't know how powerful Might Guy's so-called taijutsu was, and it would also put a strain on his body, which seemed a bit risky.
Should they think of other methods—
Just then, they suddenly noticed that the Kirigakure reconnaissance ninjas seemed to have discovered something.
They immediately gathered together.
Because of the distance, the Konoha ninjas couldn't see what they were looking at, but from their position, they could vaguely guess.
"Hey, they wouldn't have seen traces of the transport truck, would they?" Someone asked cautiously.
"It's possible. Come to think of it, we don't seem to have covered all the tracks very well." Someone slapped their head in annoyance.
They weren't professional intelligence ninjas, but only responsible for logistics and transportation.
Although they understood how to conceal their presence, they couldn't guarantee it would be foolproof, and it was very likely that professional intelligence ninjas would spot problems.
"It's too late. If we let them follow the trail, the supplies will be in danger," Might Guy said anxiously to the others when he saw this.
At this moment, the others also made up their minds. If the other party hadn't noticed anything, they could still think of other ways.
But now, the other party had already detected the presence of the transport squad, so they couldn't remain indifferent.
Once they transmitted the information, the transport squad would be in great danger.
At the same time, the Kirigakure reconnaissance squad was carefully observing the traces on the ground.
One of them said, "Although it's been concealed, you can still tell these are truck tracks.
And this method of concealment is from ninjas, which means this could be a truck transporting supplies for a ninja unit."
"How lucky! It looks like they're all amateurs, otherwise it wouldn't be so crude.
There must be no professional intelligence ninjas among them, so there probably aren't many professional combat ninjas either."
"Even if there are, it's impossible to deploy many in this kind of place.
As long as our squad presses forward, they absolutely won't be able to stop us."
"Quickly notify the captain. We've caught a big fish.
If we can follow the clues, we might even find where they're stockpiling supplies, which would be a great achievement."
Just as they were discussing amongst themselves and about to transmit the information, they suddenly felt something strange on the ground.
They instinctively retreated, only to see earthen walls rapidly rising around them, enclosing them.
These were Earth Release techniques performed by the Konoha ninjas.
Among these logistics ninjas, because of certain road issues, Earth Release was sometimes needed to solve them.
Therefore, with the exception of Might Guy, all the others knew how to use Earth Release, which happened to be a jutsu that countered Water Release.
And because the enemy had gathered together for their investigation, it gave the Konoha ninjas the opportunity to use Earth Release to trap them.
Immediately, one person leaped onto the wall. He took a deep breath, and his muscles subtly swelled, as if something was being released from within his body.
At the same time, his body temperature rapidly rose, and even his skin turned blood red.
A vibrant green chakra was released visibly to the naked eye.
"Th-that is..."
"A Konoha ninja."
"This is bad."
By the time they noticed the Konoha headband on Might Guy's head, the Kirigakure ninjas had no time to react.
Might Guy's figure vanished before their eyes, and the strongest Kirigakure ninja suddenly felt a heavy blow to his chest.
His heart seemed to stop, and his mind went blank.
In such a confined space, the Kirigakure ninjas had no room to dodge.
Before Might Guy, who had opened the Fourth Gate, they were like lambs to the slaughter.
Without even time to cry out, their vital points were repeatedly struck by Might Guy.
A roaring sound seemed to echo in their ears as they collapsed.
The Konoha ninjas outside saw a gap smashed open in the wall, and Might Guy, looking like a steamed shrimp, dragged a Kirigakure ninja out.
Before anyone could go out, Might Guy let out a muffled groan, blood seeping from the corner of his lips.
He couldn't help but kneel on one knee.
Seeing this, the Konoha ninjas immediately rushed out with shouts of alarm.