Chapter 449: The Allied Forces' Post-War Conference
Jiraiya looked between Fugaku and Shikaku, a wide, confident grin spreading across his weathered face.
The mere mention of the name—Uchiha Akira—carried an almost magical weight.
Fugaku's posture, previously rigid with the immense stress of command, relaxed visibly to the naked eye. The tight, anxious lines around his mouth softened. Beside him, Shikaku let out a long, slow breath, shaking his head with a wry, bitter smile.
"With Hokage-sama backing us up, our worrying here was indeed a bit redundant," Shikaku muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
"In that case." Shikaku's gaze sharpened, the lazy strategist vanishing in an instant as he looked toward the command tent's exit. "Pass down the order."
"Strengthen the camp patrols. Every single squad must be equipped with either a Sensor Ninja or a Dojutsu user. We need strict, overlapping guard rotations to guard against the infiltration of those pale, parasitic white monsters."
Meanwhile, miles away.
The Ninja Allied Forces' main command camp.
The atmosphere here was entirely devoid of the high morale found on Konoha's side. Instead, the air was suffocatingly heavy, thick with a toxic, volatile mixture of despair and simmering rage.
"Bastard!!!"
A deafening crash shattered the silence. Inside the commander-in-chief's tent, a massive, solid-wood tactical table was instantly reduced to splinters and fine sawdust.
The Fourth Raikage, Ay, held his fist suspended in the air. His massive chest heaved violently, and wild arcs of blue lightning crackled furiously across his dark skin, scorching the ground beneath his boots.
"Ōnoki!!" Ay snapped his head to the side, his furious glare locking onto the short, elderly man floating just above the chair opposite him. "You old fossil!"
"If you hadn't ordered the retreat, how could Kumogakure have suffered such a crushing defeat?!" Ay roared, his voice shaking the canvas walls. "So many of our finest, scared off just like that by a bunch of Uchiha brats?!"
Facing the Raikage's thunderous wrath, Ōnoki merely floated in mid-air, a hand reaching back to massage his aching spine. His expression remained infuriatingly calm.
"Raikage, calm yourself," Ōnoki said, his tone flat and dry. He cast a sideways glance at the towering man. "It is not that this old man wanted to retreat. It is that we had to retreat."
"Did you not see the situation on the left wing?" Ōnoki gestured toward the tent flap, where the agonizing wails of wounded soldiers drifted in from the medical triage outside. "The Uchiha Clan's elite vanguard broke in and pierced straight through our defensive line in a single breath."
"The forces from Kusagakure and Takigakure collapsed in a heartbeat. If Iwagakure hadn't pulled back when we did, once they flanked us, our entire coalition would have been surrounded and swallowed whole." Ōnoki's eyes narrowed, his voice dropping. "By then, the casualties would have been catastrophic. Perhaps even total annihilation!"
"Excuses! Nothing but excuses!!" Ay bellowed, slamming his remaining fist into his palm. "You were just afraid!! You were terrified of burning through Iwagakure's foundation!"
"Enough!!"
A shrill, broken cry suddenly pierced through the Kages' argument.
Huddled in the darkest corner of the tent, the leader of Kusagakure sat slumped against the canvas. Covered in dried blood and grime, the man buried his face in his trembling hands, weeping like a lost child.
"They're all gone..." he choked out, his voice hoarse. "Everything... it's all gone..."
The Grass leader slowly raised his head. His eyes were completely hollow, dilated with a primal, unshakable terror. "My subordinates... my clan members... slaughtered."
He gripped his own hair, his breathing ragged. "The Uchiha Clan... they aren't human at all! They're demons!! Monsters from hell!!"
"Waaaah..."
Listening to the Grass leader's pathetic lament, the other representatives of the minor ninja villages inside the tent exchanged terrified glances. Their faces were pale as ash, and they remained as silent as winter cicadas.
Konoha was too strong.
Or rather, the Uchiha were simply too strong. That overwhelming, brutal display of power had planted a deep, suffocating seed of despair in their hearts.
"Shut up!!" Ay barked, his irritation boiling over into a thunderous shout. "What the hell are you crying for?! We aren't all dead yet!"
Though he cursed the broken man, the Raikage's own heart felt like a lead weight in his chest. He shot a covert glance at Ōnoki. Beneath the old fox's calm exterior, Ay caught a fleeting glimmer of deep wariness.
The Konoha of the past, while undeniably strong, still operated within the world of logic and understanding. But the current Konoha... under the absolute, iron-fisted rule of Uchiha Akira, it had transformed into a ravenous, primordial beast waiting to devour its prey.
"Cough, cough..."
Mifune, who had remained entirely silent until now, slowly cleared his throat. The General of the Land of Iron leaned heavily on his katana, a look of deep, bone-aching exhaustion etched into the lines of his face.
"Gentlemen, venting your anger upon one another will not solve our crisis," Mifune said quietly. He pointed a bandaged finger toward the ruined remnants of the sand table. "Given our current situation, taking the initiative to launch a frontal assault is no different from mass suicide."
"Konoha's morale has reached its absolute peak." Mifune took a slow, measured breath, a sharp, calculating light flashing within his cloudy eyes. "I suggest we immediately initiate the 'Iron Wall Tactic'."
The Raikage looked up sharply, his thick brows knitting together. "Iron Wall? Are you suggesting we hide in our shells like turtles and just wait to take a beating?"
"It is a defensive counterattack," Mifune corrected, his voice dropping to a low, serious timbre. "We use the natural terrain advantage to construct multiple, overlapping layers of defensive fortifications. We do not seek to kill the enemy. We only seek to delay them."
"Konoha may possess terrifying strength, but their supply lines are stretched dangerously thin across this terrain. As long as we can hold the front, acting as an iron wall to blunt the edge of their offensive, we will slowly grind down their momentum."
"And then..." Mifune's gaze turned frigid, his tone taking on a ruthless edge of killing intent. "We apply the 'Wolf Pack Tactic'."
Ōnoki narrowed his eyes, stroking his beard as he processed the strategy. "Exactly."
Mifune nodded. "The front line serves as the iron wall, and our flanks become the wolf pack. We break our remaining forces into highly mobile, specialized smaller units."
"Like a pack of starving wolves, they will roam the chaotic edges of the battlefield. They will hunt for isolated Konoha squads, forward scouts, or even... the wounded." Mifune's grip on his scabbard tightened. "Once an opportunity presents itself, they swarm. Tear the prey apart, and then scatter before reinforcements can arrive."
Hearing the brutal pragmatism of the plan, the furious tension in Ay's jaw finally relaxed a fraction.
"However..." Ōnoki suddenly spoke up, his raspy voice cutting through the tent. "Just this is not enough."
The old Tsuchikage slowly floated over to the far side of the ruined sand table, hovering over the section that represented the lush heartland of the Land of Fire.
"Konoha's foundation runs too deep. Relying solely on a war of attrition at the front lines will hardly cut them to the bone," Ōnoki muttered, his eyes darkening. "To make them truly feel pain... to make them feel panic..."
"We must bring the flames of war directly to their home."
The Raikage's eyes lit up with a dangerous spark. "Tsuchikage, you mean..."
Ōnoki let out a cold, chilling chuckle. "I will dispatch Iwagakure's most elite Explosion Corps. They will bypass the front lines entirely."
"They will turn the rear of the Land of Fire into a sea of ash and plunge their precious civilians into absolute panic." Ōnoki's smile widened into a cruel sneer. "By then, as the Hokage, will Uchiha Akira still be able to sit comfortably on his throne?"
"As long as he is forced to split his forces to reinforce the rear, the crushing pressure on our front lines will naturally be relieved."
It was a strategy that could only be described as utterly sinister, abandoning all pretense of honorable shinobi warfare.
"Ha! Since you old fossil are willing to go this far, then my Kumogakure certainly cannot lag behind!" Lightning flared violently across the Raikage's imposing frame, casting harsh blue shadows against the tent walls.
"I will deploy Kumogakure's fastest, most lethal elites," Ay declared, cracking his knuckles. "They will raid the very heart of the Land of Fire! We will make Konoha run themselves ragged!"
"I want that bastard Uchiha Akira to know the bloody price of angering us!"
Watching these two Kage completely abandon their moral bottom lines, Mifune sighed inwardly. Yet, he made no move to stop them.
This was war. When survival was on the line, one resorted to any means necessary.
"In that case," Mifune added, stepping forward and pointing his finger at a specific red line drawn on the map. "Then I will add more fuel to this fire."
"Here lies Konoha's primary supply route," Mifune explained. "The daily rations for tens of thousands of shinobi at the front, the massive consumption of ninja tools, the explosive tags—everything depends entirely on this single artery."
"If we can sever it..." Mifune raised his hand, making a swift, horizontal cutting gesture through the air. "The Konoha shinobi at the front, no matter how monstrous their strength, won't have the energy to throw a single kunai after starving for three days."
Ōnoki nodded slowly, a vicious gleam in his aged eyes. "The supply line is indeed the fatal choke point."
"However, the vast majority of Konoha's war supplies are funded and shipped directly from the capital of the Land of Fire."
Ōnoki's gaze drifted, finally resting on a prominent red dot on the map—the political center of the Land of Fire.
"That puppet Daimyo, Chiba."
Just uttering the name filled Ōnoki's eyes with unfiltered disdain. He spat on the ground.
"Nothing but an obedient dog, propped up by Uchiha Akira."
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