Konoha Notes

Chapter 260 Defense System
"The leader of Sunagakure, Mr. Maki, seems to be in a very heavy mood."

Inside the conference room, Samui watched Maki leave in a hurry and commented.

The initial consultations among the three parties regarding Sunagakure's participation in the practical exchange activities that were originally led only by Konoha and Kumogakure have just concluded.

Given that the participating ninjas are genin and newly promoted chunin, the event has been temporarily renamed "New Elite Joint Martial Arts Competition".

Before deciding to include Sunagakure, there were alternative options.

Konoha favors "New Leaf Swift Thunder Festival," while Kumogakure insists on "Swift Thunder Swift New Leaf Festival."

Some even suggested a flexible approach, with "New Leaf" appearing first when Konoha is at home, and "Thunderbolt" appearing first when Kumogakure is at home.

However, an unfixed name would be detrimental to long-term promotion, and the proposal was ultimately rejected.

Later, the name "New Sprout Competition" was proposed.

However, considering the new shoots, it seems more inclined to choose wood leaves.

In short, after a discussion that was neither particularly heated nor harmonious, a relatively neutral term was finally chosen.

In this particular negotiation, Maki, representing Sunagakure, did not participate much throughout the process. This was probably because Kumogakure, as the proposing party, intended to give Sunagakure, which had just lost to Konoha, a chance, and therefore was not too demanding.

The representatives from Konoha, aside from occasionally raising some objections on a few specific points, did not offer any further comment.

Despite hearing Samui's words, Shuji's gaze remained fixed on the draft of the agreement that had just been signed by the representatives of the three parties.

"As for why Mr. Maki is in such a heavy mood, I'm probably not in a position to comment," a representative from Konoha replied calmly.

Whether he's still thinking about the land reclamation plan or something else, it's probably all related to him.

"Speaking of which, Mr. Shuji should have met the Sunagakure air combat force, right?"

"Ah."

To be precise, those were the air combat units of the air ninja.

However, hardly anyone is paying attention to this matter anymore.

"Recently, Sunagakure has taken on many escort missions at sea, all of which have been carried out by this air combat unit," Samui mentioned another piece of intelligence. "It is said that the results have been remarkable."

Xiu Si nodded: "They want to open up maritime routes, and the current size of their air force is far from enough."

He received this intelligence as well. The Sand Village's air combat forces do indeed have a vision advantage over the sea, and coupled with the slow movement and turning of large ships, they are difficult to effectively avoid air attacks.

But this is, after all, the ninja world.

Among the pirates were many ninjas who possessed chakra and could walk on water.

Perhaps at first, they would still follow the traditional method of plundering by ship to make it easier to take away goods.

In this situation, air combat forces are sufficiently deterrent, since larger ships are not maneuverable enough to dodge air combat shells.

But as time goes on, solutions will always emerge. He can even come up with several immediately.

It was simply that the strongest pirates traveled by fast boats, or even used water-based escape techniques to attack merchant ships directly from underwater.

Once a ship is damaged, its cargo is difficult to protect. Even if protection is successful once or twice, repeated incidents will eventually lead to oversights.

In the long run, maritime caravans will ultimately have to pay tribute to the existing maritime powers. For the Sand Village, whose specialties are Wind Release and puppetry, gaining a share of the vast ocean territory will not be so easy.

It's not even as good as the Hidden Cloud Village, after all, Lightning Release is probably quite a challenge for those who enjoy underwater operations.

But this is not a reason to ignore the future of air combat forces.

Or rather, Konoha's technical department never stopped analyzing the equipment sent back from the front lines during this period.

After all, this kind of thing poses no threat to a powerful individual ninja, but it's a different story for a large force like a ninja village.

As long as the bombing technique is improved.

Increase the bomb's falling speed, expand the blast radius, optimize the explosive formula...

Even for Konoha itself, with sufficient early warning, dealing with this would be quite difficult.

Samui only briefly mentioned the Sand Village Air Combat Unit before leaving without going into further details.

Shuji sat quietly in the conference room for a while before getting up and returning to the Hokage's office.

Pushing open the door, Nara Shikaku was indeed already inside. Not only was this Jonin class leader present, but also the two advisors, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, were among them.

Tsunade was listening to Nara Shikaku's report.

"The technical team has completed its analysis of the captured equipment."

“Reverse engineering is not impossible, but it will take a long time. The key is that the materials and processes for some core components differ from our existing technology. It is estimated that it will take at least six quarters to fully understand and achieve mass production.”

Shikaku nodded to Shuji, who had just entered, and continued, "The more pressing issue at present is the rebuilding of the defense system."

"Once the Sand Village's air combat forces complete their tactical optimization according to the existing approach, they will pose a serious threat to our fixed facilities, logistics lines, and even personnel assembly areas."

"Currently, we rely on the continuous deployment of ninja forces to the border of the Land of Rivers to maintain a forward presence and ensure border security. Our patrols cover a long area from the coastline of the Land of Rivers to the coastline of the Land of Tea..."

“This level of regular troop deployment is a huge burden on the village’s finances and is difficult to sustain in the long term.”

“Therefore, the most urgent task is to upgrade the existing perception and early warning system,” Shikaku said in a deep voice. “We need to rely on the village’s own perception system to add perception and early warning points specifically targeting abnormal chakra reactions at high altitudes at key nodes throughout the Land of Fire.”

“The establishment and maintenance of such a system requires huge financial and resource support, which is beyond the village’s regular budget, so additional financial assistance from the daimyo is also needed.”

Mitokado Homura pushed up his glasses, a glint of light flashing in the lenses: "Should we go and negotiate with the Daimyo Prefecture?"

Shikaku nodded: "That's right. Even if Sunagakure becomes an ally again, building this defense system is still of great strategic necessity."

"After all, once the Sand Village's air combat force proves its value in the future, other ninja villages will not sit idly by and will inevitably try to follow, imitate, or even surpass it."

"Given Konoha's geographical location and the length of its borders that need to be protected, we cannot maintain a high-intensity permanent defense along every border."

"This early warning system is essential."

"After all, even if we have the ability to retaliate afterward, it is too unrealistic to rely entirely on the absolute rationality of our opponent for our safety."

"And once an oversight is made, the actual losses will be difficult to recover."

(End of this chapter)