In his battlefield tent, Hiashi listeo Yumi's report. Even though he k was inappropriate, he really felt like rolling his eyes.

  "The operation proceeded exactly as pnned, Hiashi-sama. Captain Masashi's strategy proved effective in seg the westeror," Yumi tinued. "The civilian areas remained untouched, as ordered."

  No, he had to maintain posure. His younger members were watg—he couldn't ruin his image.

  "Yumi, you did well this time. You may go now."

  "Yes, Hiashi-sama!"

  Yumi cheerfully turned a.

  Outside the tent, Keita was already waiting. The two young people left together, chatting away happily.

  Hiashi withdrew his gaze and turo look at Masashi, who was sitting on a stool nearby, casually mung on his banana.

  "Masashi, what do you think of this child, Yumi?"

  "She's a good kid, Hiashi-sama," Masashi said with a grin. "She and the Inuzuka boy seem to have great chemistry. Beyond her skills, her judgment is sound. Though her heart might cloud it sometimes."

  This recisely what gave Hiashi a headache. The elders won't stay quiet about this much longer.

  In theory, the Hyūga had very few main family members. In each geion, only one child was usually born into the main family.

  The "Caged Bird" seal could be pced on or removed from members. For example, those who made signifit tributions to the could transition into the main family. The so-called "elders" weren't exclusively from the former head's lineage.

  Thus, the distin between the main and branch families wasn't immutable. But the bar for such a transition was incredibly high.

  Yumi was clearly not one of the lucky ones. She bore the Caged Bird seal. And her mutual affe for Keita was something both s' elders were fully aware of.

  However, for a Hyūga girl to marry outside the was exceptionally difficult—practically impossible.

  It wasn't because they were afraid of losing the Byakugan bloodline. In truth, marriages between ninja s within the same vilge were retively on. The Hyūga's high rate of Byakugan activation was supported by a bination of pure bloodlines and unique ninjutsu systems.

  Even if someone married out, after a few geions, the bloodline would naturally dilute.

  But even so, inter- marriages were approached with great caution. For ohe preferred to keep strong members within tthen their ranks. Sedly, alliances between ninja s were fickle—friends today could bee eomorrow. members caught in such situations would face immense personal and familial difficulties.

  The biggest obstacle between Yumi aa was the ideological divide between their s. The Inuzuka were mostly militants, while the Hyūga leaoacifism. Though their retions weren't terrible, they hadn't reached the level of mutual marriage alliances.

  Still, the elders had no iion of harshly separating the young pair. They believed that, with time and faced with the reality of tless obstacles, the two would naturally give up.

  After all, every elder had once been young themselves. None wao be the vilin. Who knew? A beht step in to help the pair, and such things had happened before.

  "After all, those two have been friends since childhood," Hiashi said, defleg the topiow, on to serious matters. I'll write to the Hokage about the Uzumaki girl's situation. As for the Tsuchikage's apprentid granddaughter, do you have any ideas?"

  "Treat them well for now," Masashi said with a shrug. "Though they're bargaining chips, we 't openly use them as such."

  "You're right. The Uzumaki girl and her mother's ashes should be brought to Konoha as soon as possible. It's truly tragic."

  "Indeed. What I did in Kusa was just venting a little anger."

  "Not at all. You had good cooperation from the Iwa ninja."

  Hiashi had to admit—Iwa had been surprisingly cooperative.

  Truly, they were a group of rades willing to risk their lives for friendship.

  "Kusa's motives are suspicious. Weakening them is no issue; the vilge won't object," Hiashi said with a smile. "Masashi, I never realized before—you're quite the militant yourself."

  "No, I'm just loyal to the Uchiha fa," Masashi replied. "Hiashi-sama, if there's nothing urgent, I'll head bad rest."

  "Of course, you've worked hard. Rest well."

  Bidding farewell to Hiashi, Masashi left the tent. By the time he returo the camp with Yumi aa, it was already te at night.

  He was geired.

  A heavy rain had fallen during the day, leaving the ground muddy and difficult to traverse. Despite the Konoha ninja's best efforts to maintain the campgrounds, the aftermath of rain was always messy.

  Camping in the Land of Rain came with its challenges—chief among them being the sheer amount of water everywhere.

  Even though the Konoha forces had chosen a retively well-drained high ground and added drainage facilities, every rai behind a sy mess.

  Finding his tent, he slipped inside.

  "Fialking with Hiashi?" Pakura was sitting at the table, anizing her equipment. Seeing him enter, she asked casually.

  "Yes, all done. Just routiters," Masashi said.

  As he spoke, he grabbed a basin and used his water jutsu to fill it with water.

  Removing his shoes, he pced his feet into the basin to them.

  "How's the war effort?"

  "Not great—same as always," Pakura sighed. "I envy your mastery of Water Release."

  "You're wele to it. Where's your basin? I'll fill one for you, too."

  Pakura immediately fetched her basin, and Masashi kept his word, preparing one for her as well.

  The two sat side by side on the bed, soaking their feet together.

  The Konoha forces weren't riough to assign individual tents to everyone, not even jonin. in and genin usually shared a tent with about ten others, while jonin shared with fewer people.

  For example, Hiashi shared his tent with two branch family guards.

  When it came to mixed genders, tents were generally shared by married couples or couples iionships.

  Masashi didn't have a wife irlfriend, but whe arras were made, he ended up sharing oh Pakura.

  her of them miheir retionship was somewhere between friends and something more, regardless of how it had started.

  The war had a way ing people together in ued ways.

  Pakura only felt fortable around Masashi. Her retionships with others were distant at best.

  As for Masashi, he had a fondness for beautiful women and was friendly with all of them.

  "The Tsuchikage's apprentid granddaughter being captured—will it push them into an early battle?"

  "Not necessarily. They might wait for Kumo to make a move."

  "If I were the Tsuchikage, I wouldn't. The forces are trained enough; dragging it out would only lead to more losses."

  "How you be so sure?"

  "Because Suna and Iwa often do this to each other. I've gotteo it."

  "Fair enough," Masashi said, finding her logiving.

  He hoped she was right. The soohe war ehe sooner everyone could go home.

  After washing up, the two ed their gear, washed their shoes, and y down on the bed fully clothed to sleep.

  A few hours ter, both woke up and climbed out of bed.

  They pulled back the tent fp—the sky was just starting thten. Many others were stepping out of their tents as well.

  Soon, a messenger ninja arrived to deliver orders from the aer, handing scrolls detailing missions to the jonin.

  Those with leadership roles quickly left after reading their assigs.

  Masashi received his own mission.

  Opening the scroll, he saw that the task was simple: both he and Pakura would apany the main forces, advang to pressure Iwa into a decisive battle.

  Iwa's resources were tight, but ever sihe Third Great Ninja War, Konoha had been strained as well.

  Now that they had captured the Tsuchikage's apprentid granddaughter, Hiashi had decided to take the initiative.

  "We're the ones f the battle," Masashi said, handing the scroll to Pakura with a smile. "Let's go—time to meet Iwa's main forces."

  He was eager to witness Dust Release firsthand. After all, he hadn't seen it in his previous life.

  ---

  On the Land of Rain, the Iwa ninja army was already on the move.

  After days of small-team skirmishes, the Iwa ninjas, uhe Tsuchikage's orders, solidated their forces and began advang in their preferred rge-scale formation.

  The ground trembled slightly with each synized step of thousands of shinobi moving as one.

  ōnoki hovered midair, looking down at the vast army below with a stern expression.

  Too many rookies. This had always been Iwa's most troublesome issue.

  But there wasn't much they could do about it. The Land of Earth's remote location, far from the populous tral pins surrounding the Land of Fire, left it disadvahat fertile region housed over half the ti's popution, who were wealthier on average than those ilying nations.

  More wealthy civilia more missions.

  Konoha didn't just have a monopoly on missions from the Land of Fire but also received a steady stream of jobs from its neighb small nations—Hot Water, Rice, Waterfall, Grass, Rain, River, Tea, Whirlpool, and Wave.

  These nine tries provided a signifit portion of Konoha's annual mission quotas.

  Even after the Third Great Ninja War, some missions from the Land of Wind were redirected to Konoha.

  Since Hashirama established the vilge, Konoha's ninjas had never experienced a she of work. In trast, Iwa's ninjas peted fiercely for limited assigs, especially among genin and in.

  The scarcity of missions had a direct impact: Iwa had the highest proportion of rookie ninjas among the Five Great Nations.

  And because of the limited missions, lower-ranked ninjas accumuted too quickly, outpag natural attrition, whi tured bottlenecks for promotion. This had begun to hihe development of the Iwa's ninja corps.

  To address this, war was often the most effit solution.

  The Earth Daimyō wahe Land of Rain stabilized and aligned with the Land of Earth. ōnoki, oher hand, sought to train his troops and optimize their structure.

  Both goals aligned perfectly. But this war roving far from smooth.

  The early stages had gohey'd suppressed Ame, established unication els between the Earth and Rain Daimyō, and ducted small-scale drills with their troops. Sending out ninja squads to weed out the weak while keeping pace with Konoha had worked effectively.

  Until they dispatched the Explosion Corps.

  The entire unit suddenly lost tact.

  If the squad had been wiped out, it meant the enemy had ralized them so decisively they couldn't even send word back...

  ōnoki shook off these thoughts as a bck tide appeared on the horizon.

  The Konoha ninja army.

  There was no point dwelling on it now, with battle immi.

  As the Konoha forces emerged, the Iwa army's advance slowed aually came to a halt.

  ōnoki carefully observed the opposing ford estimated their o be around seven thousand.

  Their side, by trast, had over ten thousand troops deployed for this campaign, with their genin alone nearly matg Konoha's entire t. While ret drills had reduced their numbers slightly, they still held a numerical advantage.

  He desded.

  "Tsuchikage-sama!"

  A group of jonied him.

  He nodded and looked at his son. "Kitsuchi, you'll take and."

  "Yes, Tsuchikage-sama."

  After giving his orders, ōnoki waved his hand, signaling everyoo take their positions while he began serving his strength.

  The Hokage rarely led armies personally—a major weakness of theirs. So, ōnoki po use his Dust Release to thhly educate these Konoha ninjas.

  The Iwa forces began to mobilize.

  Using their superior numbers, Kitsuchi spread out the battle line.

  ---

  Within the Konoha ranks, Hiashi's Byakugan observed every movement of the Iwa forces. His expression tightened as he spotted ōnoki.

  He was well aware of Dust Release's reputation but chose not to alter Konoha's formation. Instead, he summohe jonin from their mobile unit to brief them on his observations.

  "The Tsuchikage himself leads them," he annouo the gathered jonin.

  "We've prepared for this."

  Hiashi nodded slowly. "True, but preparation and execution are differes." He turo address the wider group. "Here's the situation. The Tsuchikage is present. But if we try to match their spread, we'll only fall into their trap."

  The jonin nodded in agreement.

  Iwa's yered Earth Release teiques could be highly troublesome, especially wheo exploit their numerical superiority.

  "What's your pn, Hiashi-sama?"

  "Our advantage is clear—so long as we avoid being overwhelmed by their numbers, victory will be ours," Hiashi replied, then turo the Uchiha 's se. "Masashi, I'm sorry to ask this of you, but you're our only Kage-level among us. you take a thousand men and deal with their left fnk's full-strength unit?"

  "A single unit?" Masashi nodded, his expression showiher ement. "I'll ha myself."

  While the standard ninja army structure revolved around small squads, even in rge-scale operations, troops were divided into units with reserves.

  A typical Iwa unit sisted of about four thousand ninjas.

  Given Iwa's structural weakhis unit likely had no more than ten jonin. He could mahat alone.

  After a full night's rest, he was filled with energy.

  "You should still take some support," Hiashi advised. "Iwa excels in group bat. Better to err on the side of caution."

  "No need," Masashi reassured him, uanding his . "I have the Flying Thunder God—I retreat anytime. My only worry is actally hitting our own men."

  "That's unlikely... isn't it?"

  He looked at Masashi and saw the unmistakable "Oh, it absolutely is" look in his eyes.

  "Fine," Hiashi ceded. "But if things get difficult, retreat immediately. Don't push yourself."

  He then turo the Hyūga and Inuzuka jonin.

  "The Hyūga and Inuzuka s will form a special unit with the Uchiha to support Masashi. Any objes?"

  The Hyūga aepped forward. "The Byakugan will track their movements."

  "And we'll keep them ho on the ground," the Inuzuka leader added, fshing a fanged grin.

  "While we provide the firepower," an Uchiha representative cluded.

  The jonin from the three odded in agreement.

  The Uchiha jonin, for their part, weren't surprised by Masashi's request. He had a reputation for solo missions—whether it was against Kiri or Kumo, he preferred w alone.

  Everyone was used to it by now; they just o back him up.

  The Hyūga , loyal to their leader, followed orders without question, while the Inuzuka —currently enjoying a "honeymoon" phase in their retionship with the Uchiha—also readily agreed.

  Shisui unsciously touched his eyes. "Masashi-nii, let me go with you."

  "Don't worry, Shisui." Masashi's tone softened slightly. "If I 't win, I at least escape. Save your eyes—don't use them recklessly."

  "Brothers, keep an eye on Pakura for me!"

  "Don't worry, Masashi!"

  "Yeah, we've got this!"

  With everyone aligned, Hiashi waved his hand, signaling the operation to begin.

  The teams scattered, each taking their positions.

  The thousand-strong unit of Hyūga, Inuzuka, and Uchiha s quickly assembled and marched to intercept Iwa's left fnk.

  Thanks to the Byakugan, they successfully blocked Iwa's maneuvering route.

  The Iwa left fnk, which had been trying to spread out further, halted and began regrouping.

  Masashi stepped forward from the crowd, standing at the forefront as he gazed at the Iwa forces in the distance.

  Adjusting his attire, he started walking towards the distant formation of eroops. Behind him, the elite ninjas from three of Konoha's stro s watched their stro member advance alone, ready to support him if needed.

  But those who knew him best uood—they probably wouldn't be all.