Uchiha's personal opinion

Although his words carried a hint of a smile, the three tomoe in his eyes spun faster and faster, as if he could no longer suppress his anger and killing intent.

"It's the First Border Defense Detachment."

Hinata Toshiki stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, then replied with a seemingly nonsensical remark.

Oh, it's not the Uchiha clan.

Uchiha Tokumitsu nodded knowingly.

"Commander Deguang, should we go and provide support?" another middle-aged ninja cautiously offered his opinion.

He was a member of the First Border Defense Detachment. As a veteran Konoha border ninja, the decline of his subordinates made him feel extremely ashamed.

Uchiha Tokumitsu glanced at him, offering no comment.

After a while, the Konoha ninjas in the distance were once again engaged in fierce fighting with the Iwagakure.

"Kensuke, Jonin." Uchiha Tokumitsu called to Uchiha Kensuke, a Jonin from the guard squad, "You lead your men to provide support."

"Don't let a single one escape!"

"As ordered."

The three ninjas from Kensuke's squad nodded silently, their right hands forming a hand seal in front of their chests!

Body Flicker Technique!

The next moment, the three members of Uchiha Kensuke's team appeared on the battlefield at the same time. Without needing to speak or give commands, they spontaneously formed an assault formation with Uchiha Kensuke at the core and two Chunin subordinates on the two flanks.

The Iwagakure ninjas, who were locked in a fierce battle with the Konoha ninjas, were shocked by this and quickly tried to use their teleportation ability to create distance.

After dodging a round of ninja tool attacks, he didn't even have time to catch his breath before hurriedly forming hand seals, ready to cast a spell.

"Earth Release·Yan..."

Before his ninjutsu could be fully formed, his chest was pierced by the katana of two Uchiha Chunin.

"Magic Illusion: Golden Binding Technique!"

Uchiha Kensuke, his hands forming hand seals, looked disdainful. An enemy who was so weak that he didn't even realize he was under the control of the Sharingan's genjutsu was too weak.

"A Jonin from Iwagakure... is that all..."

With a disdainful expression, Uchiha Kensuke slowly drew the katana from his waist.

Since Iwagakure's strength is lacking, let's practice our swordsmanship then.

……

The one-sided situation of the Iwagakure advance force did not improve. Although there were occasional fierce resistances, they were promptly discovered by Uchiha Tokumitsu, who was standing on high ground, and reinforcements were quickly dispatched to support and kill them.

"Twenty-six minutes."

Uchiha Tokumitsu took out a pocket watch, glanced at it, and said this.

"Twenty-six minutes have passed since the attack began."

Uchiha Tokumitsu's words still carried some dissatisfaction.

Judging from their performance on the battlefield, although Iwagakure suffered a defeat, it was mainly because they were caught off guard by the sudden attack and were unable to utilize their tradition of united and coordinated combat despite Konoha's numerical advantage.

However, this battle also exposed several problems with the Konoha Ninja Army.

While conventional ninja armies composed of civilian ninjas possess considerable resilience and strong combat awareness, they clearly lack offensive capabilities, resulting in insufficient attack power and difficulty in achieving ninjutsu suppression in a short period of time. This can be seen from the process of the First Border Detachment attacking the western city wall.

While the clan ninja army composed of Uchiha ninjas was indeed strong, its large-scale tactical coordination was somewhat lacking. The Uchiha Jonin tended to fight alone, emphasizing defeating the enemy with strength, using flashy ninjutsu and genjutsu combined with excellent taijutsu and swordsmanship to defeat the enemy. Their tactical coordination was also limited to three-person teams. Throughout the entire battle, there was not a single example of two or more Jonin cooperating to kill the enemy. Although the Uchiha ninjas ultimately won, it was still a slight imperfection.

"Nobuhiko, the clansmen still prefer to fight alone," Uchiha Tokumitsu said to Uchiha Nobuhiko with a hint of regret.

Uchiha Nobuhiko nodded silently. Although he understood what Uchiha Tokumitsu meant, he didn't actually think there was anything wrong with it.

Making the Uchiha cooperate is either a way to steal kills or to be mistaken for a lack of strength.

This was intolerable for the proud Uchiha ninja.

However, Uchiha Nobuhiko wouldn't be foolish enough to deny Uchiha Tokumitsu's words.

"...Perhaps the clansmen were used to the police department's small-team combat mode and did not adapt their combat mindset in time for the ninja army's operations."

Uchiha Nobuhiko offered a brief explanation.

The civilian ninjas around felt somewhat powerless upon hearing this.

Although they all prided themselves on being seasoned Jonin and Chunin veterans with countless battles under their belts, when faced with red-eyed Uchiha clan members of the same rank and seeing those scarlet Sharingan eyes filled with killing intent, they always felt like they were still those weak, helpless, and pitiful Genin.

Even so, their commander, Lord Uchiha Tokumitsu, was still dissatisfied.

The commoner ninjas were secretly gossiping to themselves.

"You all go down and clean up the battlefield too," Uchiha Tokumitsu said, turning around to the ninja beside him.

"We can capture a few survivors and take them back, but we must leave no one injured from Iwagakure alive."

His calm tone betrayed an endless bloodthirsty killing intent.

"Yes!"

The ninjas on the castle tower felt as if they had been granted a pardon. After bowing, they left the rooftop and charged into various areas of the castle where battles were still raging.

"What a boring battle..."

Since Konoha, as the attacking side, had a numerical advantage and the number of Jonin far exceeded that of Iwagakure's advance force, the attack on the city did not last long, and Uchiha Tokumitsu had nothing to do after killing three Iwagakure members.

"It should be about time..."

Hyuga Toshiki, who was still observing the battles in various parts of the city with his white eyes, understood Uchiha Tokumitsu's intentions and reported to him.

Uchiha Tokumitsu nodded silently.

As expected of the Hyuga clan, a prestigious ninja family, they know their place.

Although he felt that the battle was still somewhat lacking, the results were still very fruitful. When the news of the great victory was reported back to the village, regardless of the original intention of the Hokage lineage's decree that "no one should start border conflicts without authorization," the victory of this raid was acknowledged with a forced acceptance and a decent reward was given.

Otherwise, not only the Uchiha clan, but also the other ninja clans and common ninjas in the village would not agree.

The Konoha ninjas, accustomed to their pride and glory as the number one ninja village, could hardly bear the suppression of the rule that "no one should provoke conflict on the borders."

……

The dust has settled, and the battle is over.

"...The Uchiha First Division killed 77 enemies, captured 6, and suffered a total of 16 wounded..."

After the battle ended, the captains of each division inspected the situation at their headquarters and returned to the castle tower to report their achievements to Uchiha Tokumitsu.

"The Uchiha Second Division killed 61 enemies, captured 3, and suffered a total of 9 injuries..."

"The First Border Defense Detachment killed a total of 69 enemy soldiers and captured 12. The entire detachment suffered a total of 11 deaths and 22 wounded..."

As expected, the most severe losses were suffered by the First Border Defense Detachment, which consisted of ordinary ninjas.

Uchiha Tokumitsu sighed inwardly; the strength of each faction was still severely unbalanced.

"How are your wounded comrades?" Uchiha Tokumitsu asked.

"All have been sent to the field hospital by the field rescue team for emergency medical treatment, and none of them are in life-threatening condition," said Doi Taizo, the captain of the support detachment, an elderly medical ninja.

"very good."

Although the ending wasn't perfect, I'd still give myself a 95 out of 100.

Uchiha Tokumitsu expressed satisfaction with the results of the report.

"It would be better if the sealing team could be strengthened. Quite a few Iwagakure members probably escaped using earth-based escaping techniques, which is somewhat of a drawback..."

Uchiha Tokumitsu gave a slightly Versailles-like comment before changing the subject.

"However, no one can deny that this is still a glorious victory!"

"A complete victory!" the ninjas cheered.

"A complete victory!" The Konoha ninjas cleaning up the battlefield in the city cheered upon hearing the sound.

Chapter 33 Aftermath of the War

The battle for the border mountain city of the Grass Country ended amidst the smoke of gunpowder.

In this battle, the Konoha Northwest Border Defense Force took the initiative and launched a surprise attack before Iwagakure had a firm foothold. With nearly twice the total strength and nearly ten times the number of Jonin, they quickly defeated Iwagakure's vanguard, achieving a record of 207 killed and 21 captured. The Konoha side only suffered 11 deaths and 47 wounded. Among the wounded, only 9 suffered serious injuries such as limb disabilities, and the rest of the wounded can return to their combat positions after emergency medical treatment and a maximum of three months of recuperation.

Konoha currently has two main areas of conflict. The first is the direction of the Land of Rain, where it is engaged in a protracted war with the Rain Village, led by Hanzo of the Salamander, but the front line is difficult to advance. The second is the northwestern border defense force where Uchiha Tokumitsu is stationed in the Land of Grass. They not only wiped out various underground organizations in the Land of Grass in a short period of time, but also annihilated the regular ninja army of Iwagakure in one fell swoop.

The achievements of Uchiha Tokumitsu's troops can be described as the greatest victory they have achieved in the fierce battles fought on the border of the Land of Fire since Konoha thirty years ago.

Regardless of how arrogant and domineering Uchiha Himon and Uchiha Tokumitsu were before, and what considerations led to the Hokage's order "not to start border conflicts without authorization," and regardless of whether Uchiha Tokumitsu's annihilation of the Iwagakure vanguard would affect Iwagakure's next move, victory is victory. Even for Konoha, which claims to be righteous, the victor still has the right to speak.

"The victors are not condemned."

The Hokage's office in Konoha.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, looked at the elaborate battle report compiled by Tokumitsu Uchiha and said helplessly to his advisors, Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane.

"But as a Konoha ninja, he openly disobeyed the Hokage's orders and arbitrarily provoked a war with Iwagakure, which will lead to the loss of thousands of Konoha ninjas in the subsequent wars!"

Mitomon frowned and offered a different opinion.

“Hiruzen, just as Danzo said, the Uchiha clan is hard to trust…” Koharu Utatane continued, “The village is facing immense war pressure. Danzo’s forces are struggling to advance in the Land of Rain. If we allow the Uchiha to continue their conflict with Iwagakure, the scale of the war might spiral out of control…”

The third generation shook his head, but remained silent.

"Then we must recall Uchiha Himon and Uchiha Tokumitsu back to the village, and send someone else to command the northwestern border defense forces. Otherwise, if the stationed ninja troops follow suit and habitually act independently, the consequences will be unimaginable..."

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, habitually took out his pipe and carefully filled it with tobacco.

The two advisors, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, knew that this was the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi's habit before he started thinking, so they remained silent and waited quietly.

"call……"

A thick plume of smoke shot out like an arrow, transforming into wisps of cloud in the air.

"What was our initial purpose in placing the Uchiha clan in the Land of Grass?"

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, said quietly.

"Furthermore, if the village continues to send ninjas to fight, the village's remaining forces will inevitably become weak, and the Uchiha will be the biggest destabilizing factor."

With that, the third generation leader turned his gaze to the two advisors, "So, have we achieved our initial goals...?"