Uchiha Akaishi Tour

Chapter 291 Supply Troops

After successfully taking down the Hidden Village and achieving their goals, the "Red Stone Team" did not return.

Only Guan Ze of the Anbu returned to Konoha to report, while Akaishi and Nonou were theoretically to join the Special Countermeasures Unit and take command of Kensuke.

Akaishi had initially thought he would go to the front lines with everyone to report back, and then directly join the Sand Village's operations, but—

"Akaishi, I order you to go to the battlefield in the Land of Rain. Within ten days, report to Commander Jiraiya of the reserve forces." Kensuke gave Akaishi the order directly.

"Back to the battlefield of the Land of Rain?" Akashi was taken aback upon hearing this.

Although Konoha's battle lines have now been pushed into the Land of Wind, harassment battles still occur from time to time within the Land of Rain because Mount Shiyu has not been captured.

Having traveled a long distance and fought on foreign soil, Konoha naturally had to leave a reserve force within the Land of Rain to ensure its rear and supply lines remained open.

But----

"Chieftain, are there any battles involving the reserve forces?" Akashi complained.

"Orochimaru will probably be transferred to the reserve forces soon," Kensei advised.

After Orochimaru was removed from his post as the frontline commander, he recuperated in Konoha and then dealt with the backlog of S-rank missions outside the battlefield.

Jiraiya was taken back along with Orochimaru, but he returned first and became the commander of the reserve force.

"There's no need to rush to Orochimaru, is there?" Akaishi was still a little annoyed—as an Uchiha, Akaishi's Sharingan was always thirsty for more intense battles.

Jian Cheng, however, said with a stern face, "This is not a matter of urgency. Even without this matter, I was prepared to send you to the reserve supply unit."

"Huh? Orochimaru and Jiraiya are in the reserve force, and Tsunade should be there too—that's already exaggerated enough, do we really need so many people?" Akaishi was even more puzzled upon hearing this.

Although Tsunade is not officially part of the reserve forces, her medical unit is currently stationed in the rear, within the Land of Rain. The seriously wounded from the main battlefield in the Land of Wind will also be transferred here for further medical treatment.

In Akaishi's view, the presence of three elite Jonin within the Land of Rain already indicates an overflow of combat power.

"Don't be picky. This time, we're sending you to the reserve supply unit. The mission is very important," Jiancheng advised.

"Hanzo is just a commoner, how could he have the guts to attack our rear? At most, there will be some sporadic fighting—" Akaishi was not so easily fooled.

Unless Hanzo is determined to start another full-scale war with Konoha, the reserve forces will not have any major battles, only some scattered skirmishes, which are not important.

As for "collecting provisions for Hanzo," simply put, it means that Konoha would collect food, meat, eggs, and dairy products from the Land of Rain and send them directly to the battlefield in the Land of Wind as supplies. Ninjas can go without food for a long time, but they cannot go without food indefinitely. Moreover, the overall consumption is very high; the consumption of a Chunin far exceeds that of an ordinary person.

After all, chakra comes from the combination of physical strength and mental strength. Physical strength goes without saying, but the mental strength of a typical ninja is also generated by the brain, which consumes a lot of energy—refining chakra requires a lot of nutrition in the long run.

When Chief Chishi Tingjian Cheng suddenly brought this up, he was taken aback.

"I understand." Akaishi nodded.

Although this matter had nothing to do with Akaishi, it was very controversial at the time. Akaishi even voted in favor at the Jonin meeting.

As a noble village, we certainly cannot steal from it.

However, theoretically this is collecting taxes on behalf of Amegakure!

"Before the war ends, Konoha and Sunagakure will be allowed to levy taxes in the occupied territories"—this was originally written into the ceasefire agreement.

"Because of this matter, there have been some bad rumors circulating in the Land of Rain lately—so your mission to the supply unit is to represent the garrison and oversee the orderly collection of food supplies by our ninjas, so as not to tarnish the reputation of Konoha," Kensuke and Akaishi emphasized.

Akaishi then understood that he was being sent to resupply the troops not for combat, but for oversight.

"Huh? Chieftain, I've never worked a single day in the guard force—" Akaishi was now worried that he wouldn't do a good job.

After all, Akashi was only nominally in charge of the security department before, but this time, according to Chief Tsurugi Cheng, he is actually in charge of the security department's supervisory duties.

Jian Cheng shook his head and said, "Don't worry, this mission is very important, but it's also very simple. You just need to make a gesture, appease the people of the Land of Rain, and dispel the rumors that Konoha is allowing ninjas to plunder."

Before Akaishi even arrived in the Land of Rain, Kensuke had already labeled it a "rumor."

Although the Uchiha clan often "stirs up trouble" during mission acceptance and review, causing resentment among the other Konoha ninja, however—

At this critical juncture, the Uchiha clan certainly won't cause any trouble!

If it were something truly offensive, Kensuke wouldn't have sent Akaishi.

All we need now is a significant Uchiha to make a gesture in the Land of Rain. The outcome is already decided, so it's impossible for them to do anything that could affect the course of the war at this point.

"That's true. We Konoha ninjas are usually most careful not to harm the innocent. Even if such a thing really happened, it would definitely be people from Amegakure or Sunagakure pretending to frame us!" Akashi said with certainty.

After clarifying what he needed to do, Akaishi accepted the task.

"Take that Root person with you too. Be careful that she doesn't leave behind any evidence that could harm the Uchiha clan. Remember to always have countermeasures in place, and if necessary, be able to prove that Root was involved in all the decisions!" Kensuke emphasized.

Although Kensuke felt that Shimura Danzo wouldn't dare to cause trouble at this time, but—

After all, it concerns Akaishi!

When Shimura Danzo was targeting Akaishi, he seemed to be more proactive than when he was targeting ordinary Uchiha.

Therefore, Jiancheng gave him a special reminder.

On January 17, seven days after Akaishi officially received the order from the clan chief Kensuke, Akaishi and Nonou had already arrived at the Konoha supply force headquarters in the Land of Rain.

The headquarters was not large, after all, the supply troops had limited personnel and needed to be scattered throughout almost the entire Land of Rain. The headquarters had fewer than twenty ninjas in total.

-

Here, Akaishi met Jiraiya again —

"Jiraiya-sensei!" Akaishi addressed his teacher directly without any hesitation.

Jiraiya wasn't exactly a competent commander to begin with, but he was pleased to see Akaishi and didn't correct his form of address: "Akaishi, I was quite surprised when I received the letter from the Uchiha clan head—it was you who came."

Indeed, Jiraiya was also surprised by this arrangement—in the end, "a sufficiently influential Uchiha" didn't actually need Akaishi to come.

Although Akaishi, as a genius of the Uchiha clan and the famous "Konoha Akaishi," certainly carries enough weight, in the end, Akaishi is not the most suitable candidate, and his own situation is even completely opposite to the requirements of this mission!

The most suitable candidate would be a one-eyed tribal elder.

With a significant status but lacking strong combat capabilities, he's basically just sitting around doing nothing.

As a young genius and expert, Akaishi's reputation is actually his weakness—although he has enough, it wastes his potential in terms of combat power.

Ultimately, Chief Jiancheng had ulterior motives in sending him to supply the troops!

The incident at Duanyun Pass left Jiancheng with lingering fear.

Therefore, the red stone was placed in a safe place again this time—we can't afford to have our escape route compromised again, can we?

As Akaishi previously stated, unless Hanzo suddenly goes crazy and decides to officially resume the war with Konoha and personally lead the main force of Amegakure to launch an attack, the supply troops will not encounter any crisis; at most, it will be a difference in how well the mission is completed.

"I heard that someone is impersonating a Konoha ninja, poisoning the people of the Land of Rain, and ruining Konoha's reputation. The clan head is very worried, which is why he immediately sent me to refute the rumors," Akaishi said righteously.

Jiraiya, however, grinned somewhat guiltily and said, "Actually—there were indeed several instances of deliberately injuring people, but subsequent investigations revealed that someone had used the Transformation Technique to frame us. However, it's also true that the supply troops were rather sloppy due to manpower shortages and tight deadlines."

Akaishi:————

At this moment, Jiraiya-sensei was also taken aback. If Orochimaru were here, he would definitely take the opportunity to push all the responsibility onto the Sand Village and Rain Village together with Akaishi. There is no reason for him to feel guilty first.

"That's just a matter of attitude. More training and emphasis will solve it!" Akaishi said immediately.

It's not entirely unfounded, since Konoha ninjas are educated from a young age and supervised during missions, so it's impossible for them to intentionally rob and kill.

The only problem was that the collection process was a bit rigid, since no one had done this before. Because the harassment was so severe, although the supply corps' battles weren't particularly dangerous, the Land of Fire couldn't send anyone to follow up. That's why the ninjas had to do it directly, which inevitably led to some chaos.

Especially since the commander's leadership skills are still somewhat weak.

"Thank goodness Orochimaru is almost here." Jiraiya didn't hide his exhaustion and resignation in front of the students.

Jiraiya didn't object to carrying out heavy tasks or being a captain, but—it was really difficult for him to be a troop commander and coordinate a large force.

If Orochimaru and Sarutobi hadn't had their ongoing argument after they returned to Konoha, Jiraiya wouldn't have come here.

"When is Captain Orochimaru arriving?" Akaishi asked curiously.

"It'll be another two months. The old man made him mentor the graduates," Jiraiya said.

March is the month when the new ninjas of the Ninja Academy graduate.

but----

"Wait, why bring a recent graduate here? If they just graduated—" Akaishi was taken aback by his words.

Aren't all recent graduates genin?

"Hmm, the old man thinks it's more suitable for genin to do this kind of mission. Later, the Rain Country battlefield will be open to genin—"