Trading homes.
This was an asymmetric, over-limit strategy proposed by a great man when facing an irresistible enemy.
It was an open scheme. There was no need to truly carry it out. Just by publicly explaining the strategic content, it successfully crushed the enemy's arrogance and prevented an unimaginably terrifying war.
Uchiha Yoru could only be a clumsy imitator. He did not possess the ability of a true master of war, whose greatest victories left no glorious record. He could only directly carry out the home-trading strategy and let the Kirigakure shinobi feel the pain of being unable to take care of both ends.
When he led the confused Tiger Unit Uchiha past the edge of the storm, the Kirigakure shinobi were naturally even more confused. They completely could not understand what was wrong with the world.
The lower-level shinobi were only stunned, but as the commander-in-chief who gathered intelligence, the Yuki clan's leader, Hotaru, finally understood what they were doing after the Uchiha figures disappeared.
They were going to steal his home.
Hotaru was completely dumbfounded.
Without the blizzard's cover, could the five hundred Kirigakure shinobi he brought defeat that Tiger Unit?
Impossible.
Just look at that formation.
Four people in a team, four teams in a group, four groups in a cluster. They flowed past in perfect order like water. It was truly pleasing to the eye.
Especially when they came into contact with the outer Kirigakure shinobi, they could instantly complete formation changes. No matter which angle the Kirigakure shinobi approached from, they could ensure that every exchange became four against one, and every time, four ninjutsu would hit at once.
Facing such attacks, the Kirigakure shinobi were knocked down without any resistance. They could not even launch a proper counterattack.
Hotaru could now confirm it.
This group of Konoha shinobi was the Tiger Unit that had become famous over the past few months. They undoubtedly had the ability to directly defeat him.
The reason the enemy had circled around was because of the oversized storm he was losing control over. Their Fire Release could not contend against the Yuki clan's Ice Release in this environment.
Hotaru saw the Konoha shinobi test with the Phoenix Sage Fire Technique and the Great Fireball Technique. Large and small Fire Release techniques lost control after entering the storm's range and were quickly extinguished under the endless beating of snowflakes and hail.
Without a doubt, if they fought inside the storm, Kirigakure would win.
The problem was that the Konoha shinobi did not rush in at all. Instead, they bypassed the storm and charged toward his starting point.
There were no Kirigakure shinobi there.
Only his departure point.
Hotaru froze.
The departure point had all his supplies.
If the enemy seized his supplies, then without logistics, he could only retreat in humiliation.
Although Hotaru's purpose was not to win the battle but to collect intelligence on the Konoha shinobi, if the two sides did not even make contact, and no battle occurred at all, then of course he could not obtain any intelligence.
That meant this Kirigakure operation would be a complete failure.
Such a failed operation could not be explained to the Fourth Mizukage-sama.
Hotaru also did not want to wear the hat of a loser.
After several deep breaths, he finally made his decision.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves. We will leave the iceberg, abandon this storm, and attack the Konoha shinobi from behind!"
"My lord!"
"My lord?"
Amid countless questioning voices, Hotaru calmly said, "This storm is too large. I cannot control it to turn around."
"The enemy knows that fighting us in the blizzard means certain defeat, so those cowards do not dare fight us. They are shamelessly going to attack the island we departed from."
"That island holds most of our supplies: food, medicine, and ninja tools. Without those supplies, we will lose the ability to continue fighting. Even if the enemy does not attack, we will be forced to retreat."
"Now, we can only abandon our absolute advantage and make the enemy feel that they have a chance to defeat us. Only then will they turn around and fight us."
"We must decide now. Do we abandon our absolute advantage and fight, or do we simply take a detour back home after they leave?"
The Kirigakure shinobi fell silent.
To be honest, their morale was not high.
These four months had been miserable. First, they had suffered a great defeat and were forced to shrink back to Kirigakure Village. Immediately afterward came a brutal village civil war, where heads rolled and blood flowed like rivers.
But the current situation was also far too humiliating.
They had launched an attack with great fanfare, yet the enemy had merely brushed past them with incomparable ease.
Then more than five hundred Kirigakure shinobi could only slink back to Kirigakure Village in disgrace.
If they went back like that, would they still be able to raise their heads before others?
If they gained a reputation for fleeing before battle, would they still be able to receive missions in the future?
Thinking of the consequences of returning in disgrace, the impulse to fight to the death surged up in the hearts of most Kirigakure shinobi.
The policy of the Village of the Bloody Mist was not something that could be erased in a short time.
"Fight!"
…
Uchiha Yoru suddenly heard someone shout, "Big Brother Yoru, the Kirigakure shinobi have come out of that big storm!"
He instantly used the Body Flicker Technique and jumped from the front of the unit to the very rear, standing shoulder to shoulder with Uchiha Tadamichi.
Looking out, he saw several hundred Kirigakure shinobi walking out of the great storm. In the middle stood more than two hundred neatly arranged Yuki clan shinobi, while the two wings were formed by Kirigakure shinobi in the new four-man team pattern, spread out loosely.
Yoru smiled and said to Tadamichi, "Looks like the enemy really is afraid of us trading homes with them. They're actually willing to fight us decisively."
Uchiha Tadamichi responded with a simple smile. "That's exactly what we wanted. Trading homes is quite troublesome."
Yoru nodded. "You're right. Trading homes is very troublesome."
"If we can annihilate the enemy here, then we gain everything."
"If the enemy were sensible enough to go home on their own and save us the trouble of fighting, that would be even better." Yoru said his ideal plan aloud, then laughed himself.
Retreating without a fight was impossible. Any shinobi who dared do that would affect their ability to accept missions in the future.
Since it concerned income and livelihood, unless a shinobi had decided to retire, not one shinobi could treat it calmly.
Yoru stuffed his newly made bronze whistle into his mouth and blew hard.
The long, loud whistle echoed over the sea. The Tiger Unit's First and Second Squadrons stopped advancing. Their rear became their front, and the attacking groups and support groups immediately switched roles.
In only six seconds, the two Tiger Unit combat squadrons completed their turn. In the next two minutes, they changed from a diamond-shaped marching guard formation into a horizontally expanded attack formation.
Meanwhile, the Kirigakure shinobi, who had begun forming up several minutes earlier, still had a loose and disorderly overall formation. Many team leaders and division leaders were shouting loudly, trying to organize the formation properly.
But the ones lacking sufficient training were not only the lower-level shinobi. These large and small team leaders also lacked enough training. They even issued contradictory orders one after another, making the already chaotic formation even more chaotic.
Only the Yuki clan's two hundred-plus shinobi quickly completed their formation.
They had once been the oddballs of the Yuki clan. Under Hotaru's leadership, they had spent years training in combined ninjutsu, which included formation training. That was why they could arrange themselves within minutes and complete battle preparations.
But at this moment, they also discovered in terror that Konoha's Tiger Unit had changed from marching formation to attack formation even earlier than them, and had already launched its attack in advance.
Watching Phoenix Sage Fire flames rise across the sky, Hotaru could only shout, "Combined ninjutsu!"
The panicked Yuki clan shinobi heard their clan leader's shout. Although their minds were still dizzy, their bodies, relying on muscle memory from training, smoothly began extracting chakra and forming seals.
When surging chakra gathered into Hotaru's body, he discovered that his clan members had output too much chakra in their nervousness.
And not just a little too much.
It had exceeded what he could bear.
But the Phoenix Sage Fire filling the sky was already extremely close. Hotaru had no time for a second attempt. He endured the intense headache and muscle tearing, ignored the blood pouring from his nose, and stubbornly activated the combined ninjutsu.
Ice Release: Combined Ninjutsu: Blizzard.
First came violent wind.
Cold, violent wind began to roar. Moisture in the air condensed and gathered into icy mist, interfering with vision.
Inside the increasingly powerful cold wind, the icy mist collided and gathered into snowflakes. The snowflakes condensed into hailstones. The hailstones continuously grew in size, then were gradually polished into sharp ice spears through constant collisions.
The first wave of Phoenix Sage Fire was still one step too late. It could only slam into the already formed blizzard and was quickly extinguished under the impact of snowflakes, hailstones, and ice spears.
Yoru widened his three-tomoe Sharingan. Through the Sharingan's copying ability, he finally saw clearly the casting process of Kirigakure's combined ninjutsu, and he immediately relaxed greatly.
He said to Miwa Masayo, who had just been summoned, "After all that, it turns out I was scaring myself."
"Kirigakure's combined ninjutsu is not a group of people synchronously casting ninjutsu, relying on tacit understanding and chakra resonance to realize a combined ninjutsu."
"Now I can relax."
Miwa Masayo felt that this ice-snow storm was very powerful. She had no way to solve this giant ninjutsu, so she asked curiously, "Yoru, why do you feel relieved after seeing such a powerful ninjutsu, nya?"
Yoru answered, "Because they are collectively gathering chakra, then letting one core shinobi cast the ninjutsu. The power of this technique is limited by that shinobi's chakra control."
"Looking at that Yuki clan shinobi, he isn't even Kage-level. At most, he is a jonin. The power he can display is limited."
As he spoke, he rubbed his chin and said with slight surprise, "The scale of this blizzard is larger than I imagined. Looks like this Yuki clan shinobi is quite a bit more impressive than I expected."
Miwa Masayo noticed that her litter-scooper was very relaxed. She narrowed her eyes curiously and asked, "Yoru, since you are so relaxed, you probably do not need my help, nya?"
Yoru quickly hugged the tabby cat to prevent her from slipping into a flame and disappearing off somewhere to enjoy herself.
"Rika-chan, you can't slip away. With you here, I have a ninety-five percent chance of winning. Without you, my chances fall below eighty percent."
"Nonsense, nya. How could I be that powerful, nya?" Miwa Masayo retorted, but the delight in her heart could be seen all over her face.
Yoru chuckled and explained, "Rika-chan, you are very powerful. And with you here, I can use your cover to perform senjutsu. Isn't that an incredible difference?"
Miwa Masayo: "…"
The tabby cat got angry. She jumped out of Yoru's arms and returned to her most familiar shoulder, directly lying down while muttering:
"I'm just a shield, nya…"
"A smokescreen, nya…"
"You go fight by yourself, nya. Making a little cat cover for you…"
At that moment, thousands of ice spears inside the Yuki clan's ice storm finished being polished. Under Hotaru's control, using the sharpness of the storm, they fired toward the Uchiha formation.
These transparent ice spears reflected crystalline light under the sunlight, like countless crystal gems sweeping over from every direction.
As tangible ninjutsu creations, the physical force of the ice spears was far greater than the flames of Phoenix Sage Fire. During their flight, they smashed and extinguished countless Phoenix Sage Fire flames.
Before being extinguished, the Phoenix Sage Fire explosions also blasted large amounts of ice fragments and water vapor from the ice spears. The position where the two sides intersected instantly became a vast white fog.
The ice spears extinguished most of the Phoenix Sage Fire. Most ice spears did not break apart from the Phoenix Sage Fire explosions. After passing through the white fog zone, they still maintained their basic shape and enough killing power.
When the Uchiha saw this, they almost moved in unison and began forming seals.
They were preparing the Great Fireball Technique, which had a stronger explosive force, intending to use the explosion storm to blow the ice spears away.
At that moment, a clear whistle rang out.
It was Yoru's whistle.
Toot toot toot, toot toot toot, toot toot toot toot toot—
When the Uchiha heard that peculiar rhythm, they all understood that Yoru was ordering the Tiger Unit squadrons to charge.
According to training rules, during a charge, they had to ignore all enemy attacks and focus completely on carrying out offensive tactical movements.
In the current situation, that meant ignoring the ice spears overhead.
The Uchiha looked at the ice spears flying above them and knew that as long as one hit a vital point, their lives would end completely.
But not a single Uchiha from the Tiger Unit's First and Second Squadrons hesitated. They immediately followed the tactical movements they had trained in for so long and launched an attack at the Kirigakure shinobi, completely ignoring the ice spears falling toward them.
Clearly, the authority Yoru had previously established played a huge role at this critical moment.
This satisfied him greatly.
The four-four tactic had almost no difference from team to division level, but when it came to cooperation between squadrons, new requirements appeared.
On top of fulfilling their respective duties, all members had to trust one another and achieve the highest degree of cooperation.
For example, now, when the two squadrons launched their charge, they did not need to worry about the enemy's Ice Release ninjutsu attack. They trusted that Yoru, who had ordered the charge, would solve this ninjutsu and would not let the attack fall on them.
Because of that, they could focus on their own tactical movements, charge toward the enemy at the fastest speed, and shorten the time needed to strike the enemy as much as possible.
And Yoru had to live up to everyone's trust.
He had to effectively intercept the attacking ninjutsu, suppress and draw the enemy's ninjutsu attacks, and prevent the enemy's large-scale ninjutsu from attacking his team members.
"Come, Rika-chan. Cover me!"
"Again with the smokescreen, nya. Annoying Yoru!"
Miwa Masayo complained with her mouth, but her body nimbly and quickly jumped onto Yoru's head. She gathered natural energy and blew out a blue-white flame line.
Sage Art: Fire Release: Blue-White True Flame.
To outsiders, it looked like the cat sage was providing Yoru with natural energy support, allowing him to release a mighty senjutsu.
But in reality, after confirming that there were no observers on Orochimaru's level, Yoru directly mobilized the wind and fire natural energy inside his meridians, combined it with the Wind Release and Fire Release chakra squeezed from his own cells, generated senjutsu chakra, and cast a wind-fire fusion senjutsu entirely by his own power.
Sage Art: Golden Flame Coiling Dragon Tornado.
An incomparably thick cylindrical spiral flame appeared from his hand seal and shot straight into the sky. Then it coiled like a mosquito coil, forming a giant coiling dragon flame pillar.
The flame tornado brought up a scorching and violent storm, pulling all falling ice spears in the sky into the coiling dragon flame pillar. The ice spears spun inside the blazing flames for only a dozen seconds before completely melting into water.
The water then evaporated in an even shorter time, becoming white cloud vapor at the edge of the giant coiling dragon pillar.
After the Golden Flame Coiling Dragon Tornado eliminated all the ice spears, under Yoru's control, it transformed into a spiraling firestorm and crashed toward the ice storm created by the Yuki clan's combined ninjutsu.
The ice storm was created by Ice Release combined ninjutsu, and Ice Release was formed from the fusion of Wind Release and Water Release.
The firestorm was composed of Wind Release and Fire Release senjutsu chakra.
The two giant storms each had their advantages. One was cold and the other was hot, yet they shared the same storm attribute. Their collision caused the most intense conflict.
The giant ninjutsu and giant senjutsu opposed each other, crazily releasing their respective power. The entire battlefield's environment changed.
The half where the Kirigakure shinobi stood became a blue-white ice and snow winter, while the Uchiha side became an orange-red scorching summer.
In the air, half an ice storm and half a firestorm almost merged into a red-blue taiji. The violent conflict between ninjutsu and senjutsu naturally attracted lightning natural energy, and dense lightning erupted at the boundary between ice and fire.
Feeling the familiar lightning natural energy, Yoru almost manipulated the ready-made lightning to sweep through the Kirigakure shinobi group and directly lock in victory.
He was truly only a hair away.
Fortunately, Yoru noticed in time that the fastest Uchiha teams had already entered the Kirigakure shinobi group. Only then did he forcibly suppress the urge to summon chain lightning.
The Tiger Unit teams rushing into the enemy group also locked in victory.
After all, the Tiger Unit was the organization in Konoha with the highest Sharingan awakening rate. First Squadron's awakened ratio was close to ninety percent, and Second Squadron also had sixty percent.
The Sharingan was the strongest amplifier for chaotic close combat.
When the Tiger Unit shinobi dragged the enemy into close-range melee, they could still use the Sharingan's dynamic vision to coordinate their fighting with one another.
The melee initiated by the Tiger Unit was actually their organized attack crushing the enemy's disorganized resistance.
Once close combat began, the Kirigakure shinobi unsurprisingly fell into disadvantage. Soon, the screams of Kirigakure shinobi rose one after another.
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