Uchiha's personal opinion

Uchiha Shisui spoke with a probing tone.

"Keep an eye on my cousin Fugaku... don't give him any chance to act on his own."

Uchiha Tokumitsu said in a low voice, then slapped a stack of battle plans onto Shisui's chest, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Take a good look at this, and then do a good job of handling things!"

"I obey your command!"

Uchiha Shisui immediately straightened his chest and blushed as he accepted the sacred mission entrusted to him by his teacher. Then, with the heroic spirit of a secret front warrior, he strode away.

"Come out, Fugaku clansmen."

After Uchiha Shisui left, Uchiha Tokumitsu shouted towards the office cubicle.

"Ugh……"

Fugaku Uchiha sighed and walked out of the cubicle. "Tokumitsu-kun, if you keep using me as a cover, Shisui will probably keep a close eye on me."

"If he doesn't keep an eye on things, would the Four Clan Chief let you go to the front lines?"

Uchiha Tokumitsu smiled and asked in return.

"...That's true."

Fugaku Uchiha was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"Don't worry, Shisui may be stubborn, but he's not the kind of person who likes to act on his own. It's good for him to accompany the army and see what ninja warfare is like..."

Uchiha Tokumitsu took a scroll out of the drawer and handed it to Uchiha Fugaku. "This scroll contains Nekomata's summoning technique. If anything happens, just tear open the scroll, and Nekomata will decide whether to summon me through the reverse summoning technique, depending on the situation."

"This is going way too far..."

Although Fugaku Uchiha felt that Tokumitsu Uchiha was making a mountain out of a molehill, he still took the scroll and put it away safely.

"You can never be too cautious..."

Uchiha Tokumitsu sighed slightly, "According to Hizashi's report, there may be as many as three thousand Ninja frogs and snakes in the Akatsuki's secret base..."

"The ninja force deployed this time is less than three thousand men..."

Fugaku Uchiha's expression was somewhat solemn.

"There's no other way; we need to avoid alerting them..."

Uchiha Tokumitsu picked up his pen to continue working on the documents. "In addition, I have also informed Hanzo of the Salamander. After you lead your troops north, he will be transferred to the eastern part of the Land of Birds to confront Iwagakure under the pretext of providing support. If the battle with those aliens becomes deadlocked, I will have him come to help."

"I hope I won't need to trouble Mr. Hanzo..."

Fugaku Uchiha immediately stood up, bowed, and took his leave.

……

"Akatsuki..."

After Fugaku Uchiha left, Tokumitsu Uchiha, still somewhat agitated, casually signed a few documents, then put down his pen, rubbed his eyes, and got up to pace back and forth.

Uchiha Tokumitsu always felt something was surreal.

To be honest, if Hyuga Hizashi hadn't repeatedly risked using his Byakugan to get close enough to scout out the Akatsuki's base and draw a partial diagram of the underground tunnels, Uchiha Tokumitsu wouldn't have believed that the Akatsuki's whereabouts were actually reported by one of its early members.

As for the battle between three thousand ninja soldiers and three thousand aliens, Uchiha Tokumitsu had no worries about the combat capabilities of the lower-level ninja soldiers. His only concern was how many powerful individuals, such as Fukasaku, existed in the Akatsuki's base.

Furthermore, according to the sealing team's calculations, the large-scale sealing barrier that will be set up will be ineffective below certain depths. Therefore, if there is still a summoning array below the Akatsuki's secret base, not only will it be unable to cut off the escape route of the heretics, but theoretically, reinforcements from the Akatsuki base will also be unrestricted. Thus, this battle is very likely to turn into a protracted tug-of-war.

And this kind of battle is also the bloodiest and most brutal.

Uchiha Tokumitsu and Hatake Sakumo both conducted numerous simulations, but the final decision was to send several thousand ninja troops directly into battle, with multiple ninja troops deployed in the rear for support as needed.

Although the speed of reinforcements from the rear ninja forces cannot compare with that of the Myoboku Mountain and Ryuchi Cave aberrations that use summoning jutsu arrays, it will not leave the ninja forces that went into battle in the first round isolated and helpless.

……

"Chief of Staff Yukihira, you can lead the third to twelfth squads to the eastern part of the Land of Rain tomorrow."

Far away in the Land of Grass, at the Himon Shogunate, Uchiha Himon, upon receiving the military order from the Governor-General's Office, immediately issued a command to Nara Shinpei, the Chief of Staff of the Northwest Border Army.

"Ten detachments..."

Although Nara Shinpei was somewhat surprised, he immediately began to carry out his superior's orders.

Uchiha Tokumitsu's order only required him to assemble a ninja force of more than a thousand men to garrison the Land of Rain, and to create some conflicts with Iwagakure on the border of the Land of Grass. He didn't say anything else. However, Uchiha Himon, with his fairly keen political sense, noticed the abnormality in this military order.

Therefore, after some deliberation, Uchiha Himon decided to draw upon the direct ninja forces of the headquarters rather than conscript the weak vassal ninjas of the Grass Village.

"There shouldn't be a war, right..."

Although he faithfully carried out military orders, Uchiha Hamon still couldn't quite understand it.

……

"A border conflict has begun between Konoha and Iwagakure?"

Two days later, at the Akatsuki's secret base in the Land of Birds, Jiraiya received intelligence from Greninja.

"Yes, but it's not a large-scale conflict. No one on either side has been killed, and it's currently just a stalemate."

"This is what Akatsuki's operations assistant, Kyusuke, replied respectfully."

He wasn't Jiraiya's disciple; he was just one of the orphans taken in by Konan and Yahiko. In addition, his talent was rather mediocre, so he had never been highly regarded.

Naturally, his true thoughts were never taken seriously by others.

For example, after his female companion was swallowed by a giant snake in Ryuchi Cave, he begged Jiraiya to uphold justice, but in the end, he never heard from her again.

Therefore, Kyusuke gave up hope.

As for the Akatsuki's various lofty and righteous visions and goals, in his eyes they were all utterly hypocritical and deceptive.

In addition, since taking charge of the operation planning, the snake-like spirit beasts of Ryuchi Cave have committed many tragedies such as destroying villages and devouring people. These kinds of tragedies also make Kyusuke constantly recall the scene of his female companion dying tragically in the mouth of a snake.

Although Akatsuki's various branch bases are often located in remote areas, and even if a village is wiped out, it will not be discovered by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Force, after being processed by Kyusuke, who is specifically responsible for erasing traces of the operation, certain specially enhanced intelligence information was quickly discovered by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Force's reconnaissance team, and several branch bases were destroyed based on the guidance.

According to Kyusuke's account, Jiraiya still believes that the existence of the base was exposed because the giant serpent of Ryuchi Cave disobeyed orders and acted on its own.

"...Kyusuke?"

Jiraiya frowned, staring at Kyusuke who had suddenly drifted off into thought for some unknown reason.

"Ah! Lord Jiraiya! I'm listening!"

Kyusuke shuddered and quickly came to his senses.

"...Never mind, why don't you take a few days off and go out to relax?"

Jiraiya scrutinized Kyusuke's expression. Although he sensed some panic, he didn't notice anything unusual. So, he said something that excited Kyusuke for no apparent reason.

"Um... Jiraiya-sama, may I go for a stroll in the town?"

"I can't help but ask," Kyusuke asked cautiously.

"I understand! You want to go to the tavern, right? I understand!"

Jiraiya immediately gave him a knowing look, and patted Kyusuke on the shoulder with a big smile, saying, "Go ahead, go ahead, it's fine to have some fun, but don't get addicted!"

Kyusuke expressed his gratitude repeatedly.

"You've finally moved on~ That's great!"

Jiraiya sighed again.

Upon hearing this, Kyusuke's fingers trembled slightly, but his face showed no unusual expression.

Only after returning to his cave did his expression quickly turn cold.

"They've come out..."

A series of deliberately suppressed cold laughs echoed in the damp and cold cave.

Chapter 350 Counter-espionage and Chaos

"Is Konoha really going to war with Iwagakure?"

After Kyusuke took leave, Jiraiya had to temporarily take on the task of intelligence analysis and filing since there were few normal humans in the Akatsuki organization.

However, perhaps because he was temporarily in charge, Jiraiya felt that this conflict came a bit suddenly.

"Three incidents occurred at the border of the Land of Grass, and five incidents occurred at the border of the Land of Rain..."

After compiling all the recent border conflicts between the two countries, Jiraiya discovered a pattern.

That is, the border conflict is spreading from west to east, and the scale of the conflict is getting larger and larger.

The most recent border conflict within the Land of Rain resulted in a brawl involving over a hundred people, with at least ten Rain Ninja suffering casualties.

Meanwhile, the Fire Gate Shogunate of the Grass Country has mobilized over a thousand ninja soldiers to the Rain Country overnight, which finally subdued the restless Iwagakure.

Although Jiraiya was unable to obtain relevant intelligence from the Konoha Ninja Army, whose counter-espionage work was exceptionally effective, he did receive indirect information from the Iwagakure (Hidden Stone Village).

Iwagakure was also becoming restless due to the sudden conflict, with the pro-war and pro-peace factions starting to argue amongst themselves.

Moreover, given Jiraiya's understanding of Onoki, this stubborn old man wouldn't be willing to lower himself to cater to the likes of Uchiha Tokumitsu or Hatake Sakumo and do anything pointless.

Furthermore, Konoha not only shows no signs of mobilization, but has also begun to recruit yakuza performers from all over the ninja world to Konoha to participate in the so-called "anniversary festival." Even Uchiha Tokumitsu has been making strange pronouncements in public, such as "abundant prosperity" and "the golden age of the shogunate."

Even within Konoha, there was little attention paid to the escalating border conflict.

Based on his previous understanding, Jiraiya concluded that this series of conflicts was merely a pretext used by the shogunate rebels to deceive the public and seize power under the guise of border unrest. He even suggested that it wouldn't be surprising if Uchiha Tokumitsu declared himself the new Hokage in a while.

Therefore, this is unlikely to be a targeted charade.

Moreover, Iwagakure is no saint either; their infighting with the Shogunate is a boon for Akatsuki.

After a fierce analysis, Jiraiya came to the above conclusion.

"It's a pity we don't have any capable people to sow discord... Otherwise, it would be a good thing if the Shogunate and Iwagakure went to war!"

Jiraiya muttered to himself with some regret.

He then set the intelligence documents aside and pulled out his notebook to begin "artistic creation."

This is also a rare hobby that Jiraiya, who now spends his days with oddballs, can find some solace in.

……

"Gentlemen!"

Standing atop a high platform at the training ground of the western border defense forces, Fugaku Uchiha shouted majestically to the more than two thousand ninja soldiers gathered below.