I have a bunch of relatives who want to become Hokage.

Just because the Three Legendary Sannin are gone, you think the Konoha Ninja Army has become weak? They need to be taught a lesson!

Minato Namikaze and Hiruzen Sarutobi were both in high spirits as they watched the enthusiastic ninja clans sign up.

There was no bidding process at all; everything had been decided long ago. This was just a routine pre-battle mobilization.

Chapter Ten: Entering the Land of Hot Springs

Konohagakure is located slightly west of the center of the Land of Fire.

The leaders who founded the village may not have thought that much about it, but this location is indeed very advantageous for Konoha to mobilize its forces on the mainland front. If any of the major villages of Suna, Iwa, or Kumo attack, the Konoha ninja army will arrive at the same time to provide support.

The only exception is the southeast, where the distance to Kirigakure is almost double that of the other three major villages, while the former ally, Uzushiogakure, is right at Kirigakure's doorstep.

Konoha's military strategy has always been to focus on the three major powers on the continent, while others are sidelined.

Therefore, Konoha made a much faster decision-making process in the face of the Cloud Ninja's southward advance than when they were rescuing Uzushiogakure.

The meeting was held at noon on the first day to make arrangements. All ninjas were notified to be in place by the afternoon of the same day. By noon on the second day, the vanguard force of two thousand Konoha ninjas left the village from the north gate and headed to the Land of Hot Springs.

Behind them were no fewer than five thousand ninjas as reinforcements, who would advance alongside the organized supply train.

The main task of these two thousand vanguards was to join forces with the remnants of the Hot Spring Ninja, establish a forward base within the territory of the Hot Spring Ninja, and eliminate the vanguard of the Cloud Ninja Army.

At the very least, the Cloud Ninja Army should be forced to halt its advance in the Land of Hot Springs.

Considering the heavy and intense combat missions of this unit, all members were at least Chunin level.

The elite fighting force consists of Jonin from the Hiruzen, Uchiha, and Hyuga clans, commanded by Hyuga Hizashi.

This branch family member's strength is about the same as his elder brother, the clan chief, and his strength is enough to convince everyone.

Most importantly, the Byakugan at the Jonin level is truly effective on the battlefield, a fact that everyone can attest to.

The Uchiha clan sent six Jonin with three tomoe this time, including Uchiha Shingen. He beat his chest and stamped his feet in frustration at Uchiha Fugaku, successfully replacing Uchiha Shisui.

Among the three clans, the Uchiha clan has the fewest Jonin, while the Sarutobi clan has the most. The total number of Jonin from the three clans is about thirty.

This combat power is enough to completely destroy a third-tier ninja village.

Despite being the only ninja village close to Konoha in size, with around 20,000 Chunin and higher-ranking ninjas, Kumogakure's number of Jonin is less than Konoha's.

In theory, Konoha could mobilize more Jonin, but this number is the limit that the three clans can mobilize this time, and the Hokage Building is also unable to send more personnel.

It's not that everyone is stingy, but the Cloud Ninja have made a move, so Konoha has to be wary of the Iwa Ninja. Minato Namikaze, who is very familiar with the styles of both Cloud and Iwa, has already prepared for a two-front war.

Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage, was renowned throughout the ninja world for his martial prowess. During the Third Shinobi World War, he launched a surprise attack on Konoha and Kumogakure. Konoha's attack was thwarted by Minato Namikaze and his students, but the Kumogakure suffered even greater losses, losing a Kage as a result.

Not to mention Konoha, even Kumogakure is worried that this old man will sneak up on their base again.

Uchiha Shingen understood Onoki's thoughts to some extent. This fat man's attitude towards Konoha was that he would take a bite out of it whenever he had the chance, but he treated Kumogakure as a long-term enemy.

Just as much the Hidden Cloud Village coveted the Leaf Village, so too did Onoki covet the Hidden Cloud Village.

In the last major battle, he suddenly mobilized 10,000 Iwa ninja soldiers, intending to attack the already vulnerable rear of the Kumo ninja. However, he did not expect the Third Raikage to be so stubborn and block him.

Including the casualties suffered against Konoha, Iwagakure, which had suffered the fewest losses during the war, suddenly jumped to second place on the casualty list.

In the original timeline, the conflict between Iwagakure and Kumogakure never ceased. Akatsuki's biggest client was Iwagakure, and Onoki frequently hired Akatsuki ninjas to deal with Kumogakure.

The two thousand Konoha elites who left Konoha marched at a rapid pace. Since there were no genin in the group, the jonin did not need to deliberately slow down their pace.

That very night, they stormed into the Land of Hot Springs.

The Land of Hot Springs is now even more chaotic than when Uchiha Shingen last visited.

This chaos is not due to rampant thieves.

On the contrary, the thieves are all gone.

The Cloud Ninja are ninjas from the Great Ninja Kingdom. They adhere to the "two superiors and three inferiors" hierarchical system of the Ninja Kingdom. They maintain etiquette towards the nobles of the Land of Hot Water and protect the lives of their lords, but not towards ordinary people. In the eyes of the Cloud Ninja, thieves are also ordinary people.

The tradition of ninja armies in battle is to first kill off a wave of thieves as a warm-up.

For these unregistered residents who are of no benefit to social production and are not even considered "marginalized people," but instead consume food, the ninja army, out of the need to requisition food locally, will annihilate them with a spirit of ownership that transcends national borders. The local nobles will only applaud this, while turning a blind eye to the casualties of their subjects.

Nothing in the world is more cruel than this.

In the Ninja World War, the people who died the most were never ninjas, which is also the reason for the existence of allied nations.

After entering the Land of Hot Springs, the Konoha Vanguard rested on the spot to recover their strength. At the crack of dawn the next day, they began searching for the remnants of the Hot Springs Ninja.

There's no need to consider Yugakure for now; such an obvious target would only be breached by the Cloud Ninja Vanguard in the first instance.

And indeed, the Konoha ninjas quickly found these hot spring ninjas and learned of the situation.

The Cloud Ninja appeared suddenly and launched a fierce attack. They immediately withdrew from the village and fled towards the border of the Land of Fire. Because they withdrew in time, the Cloud Ninja did not wipe them out.

Not many people escaped, only a few hundred, but to Tang Ren, this was a large force.

The number of ninja in Yugakure has been shrinking, to the point that nobles from the Land of Hot Springs no longer commission missions from Yugakure, but instead come to Konoha. Yugakure is now more of a symbolic village, and the Yugakure ninja generally abhor war, preferring to make money from the village's hot spring resources.

But it is still a ninja village after all, and in terms of location, it is the place with the highest strategic value in the Land of Hot Springs and is conducive to the allocation of domestic resources. For the Konoha ninja, it is a ready-made and best front-line base.

The Hidden Hot Springs Village may have become a base for the Cloud Ninja's operations, or it may be bait prepared by the Cloud Ninja Army for the Leaf Ninja Army.

Hyuga Hizashi, along with representatives from the three clans, held a small meeting. The Jonin from the three clans discussed the matter and decided to fight first.

Thus, led by the Yu Ninja Army, the vanguard of the Konoha Army bypassed the village via a secret route and circled around to the rear of Yu Ninja Village.

Yugakure Village is located in the hot spring town of the Land of Hot Springs.

The Land of Hot Springs has about three thousand springs scattered throughout the country, and the Hidden Hot Spring Village has more than one hundred of them, making it the number one "hot spring city" in the Naruto world. With the help of these abundant hot spring resources, as long as there is no war, the hot spring ninja can live a good life.

With the help of the local thugs in the Yugakure village, the Konoha ninjas appeared silently on a high point north of Yugakure.

Looking down from here, the layout of Yugakure Village is laid out in its entirety.

This is a quiet and ancient village, where most of the area still retains a pristine natural environment. The overall architectural style is relatively consistent, but the village is mostly filled with low-rise houses. Time seems to have stood still here for a hundred years. It lacks the hustle and bustle of big cities like Konoha Village and instead has a more leisurely pace.

Judging from the style of Yugakure, it's clear that the Yugakure ninja enjoy fighting, which is a bit difficult for them.

However, the arrival of the Cloud Ninja swept away this languor.

The Cloud Ninja who have occupied this place are transforming the village, enhancing its basic capabilities as a military facility.

Attacking at this point would make it easy to break through.

Chapter Eleven: The Night Raid Begins

The commotion in Yugakure was completely transparent to the Hyuga ninja.

Even when some Cloud Ninja were slacking off, they couldn't escape the Hyuga's disapproving looks.

That's going too far. It's not that your boss caught you slacking off, it's that your enemy discovered it.

However, after one round of inspection, the situation is good—there are no ambushes.

If the Hyuga clan says there's no ambush, then there really isn't.

These people could see incredibly far; they all had superhuman vision and X-ray vision. Chakra had no chance of escaping their sight. They watched Yugakure for a full hour, leaving them with absolutely no secrets.

The Hinatas even thoughtfully counted everyone.

There are over five hundred Cloud Ninja in Yugakure, and nearly two hundred more are camped to the south of the village.

The Cloud Ninja captured many civilians from the Land of Hot Springs to serve as laborers. There were nearly a thousand laborers in Hot Spring Village, who were engaged in infrastructure construction under the command of the Cloud Ninja.

There were also more than a hundred people in Tangren, but they were all imprisoned.

Of those hundred-plus people, more than thirty were Cloud Ninja who had used the Transformation Technique, which the Hyuga clan members could clearly see.

So the Konoha ninjas could focus on recovering their strength and preparing for battle, while the Hyuga and Uchiha clan ninjas were responsible for guarding the area.

They did not attack immediately.

After all, the Cloud Ninja are working so hard to help repair the infrastructure of Yugakure. They demolished the village walls and are expanding the village.

We should at least wait until they build the new wall.

The Konoha ninjas hid in the forest, and when it was mealtime, they took out their rations and began to eat.

This is only the first day. When Konoha ninjas go into battle, they will carry no more than five days' worth of rations with them. If the logistics don't keep up, they'll have to eat dumplings.

But this is the unique extravagance of Konoha ninjas. The Sand Ninjas, who are the most food-deficient among the five villages, can only carry one day's worth of rations. After that, they have to eat pills. Moreover, even if the logistics are up to par, the rations of military food are still very tight.

During meals, the Jonin would sit together and discuss their fighting strategies.

It's called a staple food, but it's pretty good. Rice balls are the basics, and there are also sushi, sausages, etc. There are both meat and vegetables, and all the ingredients are of the highest quality.

After all, Jonin (high-ranking ninja) generally live in good conditions.

Uchiha Shingen ate sushi and chatted quietly with his clansmen.

Next to him sat Yecang.

Having joined the police department, she participated in this battle, and in Konoha, she was labeled as a member of the Uchiha clan.

At this moment, Yekura was eating her own portion, and apart from marveling at how superior the living conditions in the Land of Fire were, she didn't have any other thoughts.

Moreover, she barely speaks to anyone other than Uchiha Shingen, and they are not familiar with each other.

However, he was a famous scorching ninja, so someone struck up a conversation with him.

"Yakura, are you participating in the attack tonight?"

“I’m fine,” Ye Cang said, then took a sip of water.

Based on the discussion among the Jonin, considering their absolute advantage in combat power and the need to preserve the facilities of Yugakure as much as possible, they decided to avoid using ninjutsu with excessive destructive power during the nighttime attack.

Yekura's Scorch Release works very well in this environment.

"Then, how about the Sarutobi clan take charge of clearing out the Cloud Ninja outside the village?" Uchiha Shingen suggested after finishing his meal.

“Okay.” The Jonin of the Sarutobi clan had no objection. “However, we need some Hyuga clan ninjas to provide support as well. This way, we can also ensure that the Cloud Ninjas don’t escape in time.”

Compared to the Uchiha clan, the Sarutobi clan is more adept at group fire-style attacks, and they can operate more freely outside the village.

At the end of the Warring States period, the Sarutobi clan was the second largest clan after the Senju and Uchiha.

They were a powerful ninja clan that Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha valued highly. At that time, if we disregard Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, the Senju and Uchiha clans were not much stronger than Sarutobi.

After the village was established, Hiruzen Sarutobi was the most outstanding member of the new generation in Konoha.

After agreeing on the division of tasks, everyone stopped talking and focused on recovering their strength.