I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 496 People always say things they don't mean and do things against their will.

"So, I'm thinking, should we feign weakness for a while to lure the Cloud Ninja into making a move?"

Compared to conventional war camps, Konoha's war camp against Kumogakure was luxurious. It was not just a hasty tent erected on the ground; the flatness of the wooden buildings' floors and walls far exceeded industry standards.

In a meeting room, Tatsuma watched as Shikaku, who had arrived and hadn't even had time to put down his luggage, was pulled into a discussion by him, and waited for his opinion.

If there were evil sword immortals in the ninja world, then Shikaku's resentment at this moment would be enough to create eight or ten more. He tugged at his backpack strap and said resentfully:

"I haven't had lunch yet, and I have a habit of taking a nap."

"Lunch is already being prepared. Since you're just waiting anyway, why don't you help me think of a solution?"

Tatsuma seemed oblivious to the unspoken meaning in Shikaku's words. Shikaku sighed deeply. He had never done anything wrong, so why was this happening to him?!

If he could go back in time, he really wanted to go back to fifteen years ago and give that version of himself who listened to his father's advice and started associating with Tatsuma a good beating.

He looked at Tatsuma, whose eyes were filled with anticipation, and said, "It might be useful for others to feign weakness, but I'm afraid the Cloud Ninja are more likely to believe that the Third Raikage died after the battle, rather than that you are seriously injured and unable to recover."

Moreover, it's not just Kumogakure; even in Konoha, the village's assessment of your situation is that you don't need rest, and it's highly likely you'll face the same situation in every battle from now on. Giving you a day to recover your stamina should be enough.

As for injuries, nobody would believe you have any. The Hidden Cloud Village is the same; even if you feign weakness, they'll just continue to observe.

Tatsuma nodded. To be fair, the village's assessment was quite accurate. It would take him about a day to recover his strength. After all, he wasn't really at the point of chakra depletion, and his body could quickly replenish its losses.

But feigning weakness won't work. Shika glanced towards the door, his nose twitching as if he could already smell the food. He turned back, his voice quickening slightly, and said:

"So why not publicize it widely, expose your 'evil deeds' against the Hidden Cloud Village over the past few years, and deliberately hype it up? Oh, and that guy Tianfeng, we can also fabricate a story that he wants to avenge his family."

In short, since we can't influence the decisions of the decision-makers, let's change our target and incite the large number of grassroots people and grassroots ninjas, whose individual voices are very limited.

However, when public opinion and military morale are highly aligned, even the decision-making body dares not defy public opinion and allow the grassroots to force decisions at the top.

"That's interesting."

Tatsuma nodded. He had indeed fallen into a fixed mindset. Faced with a number of Cloud Ninjas that outnumbered him several times over, his thought had always been to play the victim and lure the Cloud Ninjas, the predators, like prey.

The reason for bringing a "small number" of ninjas was due to this mindset. The reason for splitting the troops into smaller squads to lure the Cloud Ninjas was also due to this mindset.

Once he benefits from this mindset, he will unconsciously continue to follow this methodology. At this moment, Shikaku's reminder as an outsider made Tatsuma realize the truth.

He pursed his lips and said, "The Hidden Cloud Village has been accusing the Leaf Village of harming their Jinchūriki for the past few years. I thought I would disclose and publicize it at that time, but the official tone might be a bit too much of a bait and bait."

"The village is celebrating right now, so it's not surprising that Lord Sakumo let something slip when he's drunk."

"You're right. Then please make the arrangements, is that alright?"

Tatsuma nodded, while Shikaku shook his head decisively, saying, "There's a problem. I'm not familiar with Lord Sakumo, and I want to emphasize that I don't want to do this either."

"Shikaku, isn't that how life is? We always have to say things we don't mean and do things against our will. Keep it up."

Tatsuma patted Shikaku on the shoulder and said, "Is a week enough time for you?"

"Just punish me directly."

"Ten days? Hey! Don't go! Two weeks, two weeks is fine, okay?"

Tatsuma quickly chased after Shikaku, pulling and arguing with him until he finally got Shikaku to agree to do it.

For Shikaku, coming up with an idea wasn't difficult, but the reason he resisted it was because there were too many procedures involved in getting an idea from being proposed to being implemented, which was just too troublesome.

Take this matter for example. After Lu Jiu agrees, he has to perfect the whole plan and then submit an application to the village, providing convincing reasons and conditions before the village can agree to release the top-secret files that have been sealed for six years.

In addition, it is necessary to persuade Hatake Sakumo, and then, after a series of preparations, make sure that Hatake Sakumo's inappropriate remarks happen to reach the ears of spies from Kumogakure or other ninja villages.

After these remarks spread, he also had to ensure that the information was not blocked and that public opinion could spread and ferment within the Land of Lightning and the Cloud Ninja's camp.

Every link in the upstream and downstream chain needed to be controlled by Lu Jiu. After agreeing, he began to regret it, to the point that he couldn't even take a nap. Ding Zuo and Hai Yi, who were assigned to the same barracks, listened to Lu Jiu scolding Chen Ma for two whole hours without stopping or repeating himself.

But after he finished yelling, Shikaku started to regret it. He didn't regret yelling at Tatsuma, but he regretted that he shouldn't have used his nap time to yell at Tatsuma.

Otherwise, he wouldn't need to start working in the afternoon with his already exhausted mind, wasting his precious rest time, which is not worth it at all.

Tatsuma could tell from Shikaku's resentment that Shikaku couldn't possibly be in a good mood towards him, but he didn't care. If scolding someone could motivate his subordinates to work harder, he was even willing to personally instruct them on how to scold them.

After the arrival of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Tatsuma's workload decreased significantly, and the overall operational efficiency of the camp improved markedly.

In terms of camp management, Lu Jiu completed the handover in less than half a day and issued a series of instructions to optimize and renovate the camp.

Meanwhile, Choza brought his pre-planned border defense strategy and began training the Konoha ninjas in drills. In this area, Tatsuma, who had always been on assault missions, was not as knowledgeable as Choza.

As for Haiyi, this "crown prince" of the intelligence system brought an upgrade to the camp's intelligence system, not only bringing more and newer equipment, but also bringing his own network of contacts.

Previously, the communication system was somewhat cumbersome, and it usually required several rounds of communication and confirmation to complete the handover of intelligence. However, after Hai Yi arrived, several rounds of intelligence communication were completed in just one afternoon.

After dinner, Tatsuma was scribbling and drawing in the command room, also brainstorming some new ideas. Shikaku, on the other hand, looked exhausted and was just slacking off. Inoichi, carrying a stack of documents, entered the command room and said:

"The plan has been sent back, and the village has also sent back some interesting plans. Although they are not directly related to us, they are still important intelligence. You should all take a look."

He divided the information into two parts and gave them to the two men. Tatsuma took them and looked through them with some curiosity. He wasn't in the village, and given the personalities of Hiruzen Sarutobi and Homura Mitokado, it was unlikely that they would issue an "interesting" order.

As expected, this intelligence wasn't from the village, but from the Sannin's camp. Looking at the audacious plan, even Tatsuma was speechless, exclaiming:

"They're really bold over there, Shikaku. I think we could take this into consideration in our plan: inciting public opinion and then striking in reality. That should ignite the Cloud Ninja's anger much faster, right?"

"The idea is good, but can you connect everyone with chakra like Kurama (the Nine-Tails)?"

After reviewing the information, Shikaku looked at Tatsuma. Tatsuma had many trump cards, and in recent years, he had even been able to use some of the tailed beast's techniques. Maybe he really could.

These words, half inquiry and half test, silenced Chenma; it seemed he truly did not possess such a method.

"Should we go find the Nine-Tails?"

The thought popped into Tatsuma's mind: the Nine-Tails' ability was just too overpowered. If he could learn such a powerful technique, it would definitely be very useful.

But Tatsuma quickly rejected the idea himself. Putting aside the uncontrollability involved, even if he could guarantee success in the next match and win the talent, Kurama might not necessarily engage in a non-physical battle with him.

In terms of physical combat, Tatsuma was only bullying the Nine-Tails, which was sealed by the Tail-Sealing Seal. He was quite confident, but the Nine-Tails was a stubborn creature, and it would not accept defeat if he was beaten too lightly.

If the fight gets too intense, the other side is eager to use the Nine-Tails' power. If the Nine-Tails gets seriously injured, it would be a waste of such a good opportunity.

Seeing the expression on Tatsuma's face, Shikaku knew without a doubt that he couldn't do it. He looked away and said, "Chakra connection is the foundation of this tactic. If you can't achieve this, then you can't replicate this tactic."

"Well, then we'll have to think of another way. How about targeted bombing?"

"Could you send your Flying Thunder God Technique seal into the Cloud Ninja camp? Given the current level of Cloud Ninja defenses, even if you left a Flying Thunder God Technique seal nearby, it should have been destroyed, right?"

Shikaku asked, and Tatsuma nodded, saying, "That's right. There are no more Flying Thunder God Technique seals of mine around the Cloud Ninja camp. Of course, it's not that I don't have a way to send them in."

"What method?"

"With Magnet Release, they can easily dispose of objects and even people entrusted to the Flying Thunder God Technique, but they can't detect things that don't actually contain the Flying Thunder God Technique. If we use Magnet Release to create a Flying Thunder God kunai in the Cloud Ninja camp, wouldn't the problem be solved?"

Upon hearing this, Shikaku's expression turned extremely strange, and he asked, "Magnetic Release? Isn't that a technique from Sunagakure? You know it now?"

"Yes, after that battle, I tried it out and got a basic grasp of it."

Tatsuma shrugged, and Shikaku fell silent for a long time before suddenly asking, "So what did you learn from the Third Raikage and the Eight-Tails?"

"Lightning Release and..."

The sudden question caught Tatsuma off guard. After all, he trusted Shikaku completely and wasn't prepared at all. Shikaku stared at Tatsuma and asked, "Let me consider a possibility."

"You don't actually possess both the Sharingan and the Byakugan, do you? After all, those two guys, Tenka and Sento, got beaten up quite a few times under the guise of training when they were in the Anbu."

Clearly, Shikaku had made a bold conjecture in a certain direction. Tatsuma's lips twitched slightly. To be honest, he had imagined it, but... it didn't. He said:

"If I possessed such a monstrous ability, the ninja world would have been named after me long ago."

"Really not?"

"No, really."

"I don't believe it. Maybe you'll take it out someday, like after you kill the Uchiha and Hyuga."

"."

(End of this chapter)