Chapter 159 151: New Teammates

Making such a decision without consulting the other few who were in the know, Uchiha Hisaku seemed to lack some trust in them.

What was the reason?

Uchiha Gen did not know what exactly had provoked this father and son recently, but the clan leader's move was undoubtedly beneficial to them.

Everyone believed that the clan leader's injuries were healing and he would soon be able to return to duty, so the surging undercurrents in the short term could be temporarily suppressed, delaying the internal clan conflict that had the potential to erupt.

With this time, the Great Elder could more calmly lay out his plans within the clan, and he could also devote his full energy to the war.

Only the battlefield of the Ninja World War, with its highest frequency and average quality of missions, was the place where he could level up the fastest.

Uchiha Gen withdrew his focus and turned his attention back to the Clan Meeting.

After many days, Uchiha Hisaku presided over the Clan Meeting again, yet there was no sign of rust; he handled it with ease.

It was evident that he had kept himself fully informed about the situation within the family and the Police Force through Fugaku and other confidants in the clan during this recent period.

Uchiha Gen was not particularly concerned about what the old clan leader and Fugaku were plotting.

The Ninja World was ultimately a place where strength spoke; within the power-worshipping Uchiha Clan, as long as he, Uchiha Gen, possessed the strength to suppress everyone else and could guard against open attacks and hidden arrows, then any scheme could be resolved with overwhelming, upright force.

Once the order was issued, Konoha's speed in assembling its army was swift.

At this time, once Konoha was operating at full capacity, it was the strongest war machine in the entire Ninja World.

In just one day, nearly eight thousand Konoha Ninja completed their assembly and headed to various battlefields.

Among them, nearly four thousand Ninja heading to the Kumogakure front were commanded by Orochimaru, who led them to the Land of Hot Springs to link up with Danzo's forces stationed there.

However, before they could even reach Danzo, they received bad news.

Kumogakure had made their move one step ahead of them.

The Third Raikage personally led a large army, cooperating with a group of Kumogakure powerhouses to forcibly break through the defense line guarded by Danzo.

To preserve his strength, Danzo voluntarily abandoned a portion of the territory, retreating to the front of the national border to defend using the home-field advantage, waiting for Orochimaru's reinforcements to arrive, and seeking a counterattack after strengthening his forces.

In theory, what Danzo did was feasible.

Given his strength and the troops at his disposal, even if he could hold back the Third Raikage, it would inevitably result in significant losses.

Trading space for time, waiting for reinforcements to arrive, and then reassembling a more powerful force to push back—it made perfect sense logically.

However, doing this was actually causing trouble for Orochimaru's side.

Large swathes of territory were abandoned, making many areas along the border unsafe, and the terrain had been destroyed. Once the army marched through, even if they had powerful sensory Ninja who could detect enemy attacks in advance, it remained unsafe.

To say nothing of anything else, the Third Raikage only needed to lead an additional elite team to break through, cutting up the battlefield, which would be enough to render powerful techniques commonly used by large Ninja armies, such as joint Ninjutsu, ineffective.

Therefore, Orochimaru had to implement corresponding countermeasures to better link up with Danzo.

Only when both sides were united could they arm-wrestle with the large force that Kumogakure had assembled; if either side encountered them alone, they could only defend passively.

Uchiha Gen, wearing the green tactical vest of a Konoha Ninja with practical clothing underneath, walked through a forest more than ten miles ahead of the main army.

His strength had progressed too quickly. In this army of nearly five thousand heading to the front lines of the Land of Hot Springs, he was the powerhouse second only to Orochimaru, and the responsibilities he bore were incomparable to the past.

The previous squad had just been a temporary reorganization of three remnant squads from the Land of Rain, and the squad's strength could no longer keep up with him.

This time, he was assigned to a new squad to serve as the temporary captain, conducting reconnaissance ahead of the army and clearing the way.

After this mission ended, he would have other missions and be reassigned to different teams.

Generally, once one reached the level of an Elite Jonin, many would end up in his situation—becoming a brick that is moved wherever it is needed, potentially teaming up with different people at any time.

The average quality of the squad assembled this time was not low; even the lowest-ranked member was a Special Jonin.

The newly promoted young Jonin of the Aburame Clan, Aburame Shikuro; the female Special Jonin of the Yamanaka Clan, Yamanaka Natsuki; and the Special Jonin of the Sarutobi Clan, Sarutobi Toriyama.

Two Special Jonin, two Jonin—one of whom was a top-tier powerhouse approaching Kage level—might seem like overkill for such a reconnaissance mission. However, in reality, this squad was the core of all the dozens of reconnaissance teams distributed at the front of the main army.

Aburame Shikuro and Yamanaka Natsuki were both first-class sensory Ninja of Konoha, ensuring the squad had the ability to conduct uninterrupted reconnaissance throughout the journey. At the same time, the large number of parasitic insects and the Yamanaka Clan's Mind Transfer Secret Technique allowed for rapid, long-distance communication with other squads.

Sarutobi Toriyama came from the Anbu directly under the Hokage. Although his sensory and combat abilities were not that strong—only average among Special Jonin—he had high achievements in intelligence analysis and infiltration reconnaissance. At the same time, he possessed excellent proficiency in Sealing Technique, putting him in the upper echelon even within the Sealing Squad. He had the ability to break most enemies' concealment and defensive barriers, making him a rare type of functional Ninja.

As for Uchiha Gen, although he could act as half a sensory Ninja, he was not as professional as these people. He was mainly here to lead these three talents who possessed extraordinary abilities in specific fields, acting as a bodyguard and keeping things under control.

There were people to handle the reconnaissance and guard duties, so before the actual work requiring action arrived, Uchiha Gen was actually the idlest person in the squad, only needing to listen to his teammates' reports every so often.

It was precisely because of this that Uchiha Gen had time to shift some of his attention to other matters.

[Character Name: Uchiha Gen]

[Character Level: 35]

[Currently Loaded Character Cards: Kakashi Hatake (Young), Sasuke (Road to Ninja)]

[Currently Available Item Cards: 0]

[Available Gacha Attempts: 0]

[Special Items: None]

[Current Attribute Values: Ninjutsu 7; Taijutsu 7; Genjutsu 7; Strength 7; Speed 9; Stamina 7; Seal 8; Wisdom 8; Total: 60]

Excluding the two character cards, the sum of his own eight Ninja attribute values had reached sixty.

Once past this number, his strength would at least reach the level of an Elite Jonin, and the values were relatively balanced, with none lower than seven.