Traveling through Naruto with Heroes of Might and Magic.

As one of the five great ninja villages, Kumogakure's intelligence is naturally far superior to the rumors circulating among the common people.

Not to mention Jonin, even Chunin from every village are in the intelligence files.

"A genius ninja? Hmph!" Raikage scoffed. "Konoha's 'Yellow Flash' is genius enough, isn't he? Where is he now?"

Mabui coughed lightly and lowered his head to examine the details in the intelligence report. "Lord Troy's corpse has the Gentle Fist Chakra of the Hyuga Clan. There's probably more to this story."

"Hyuga? So it was the two of them working together?" The Raikage gritted his teeth. "No wonder that idiot Troy got killed."

Mabui patted his forehead in exasperation. "Lord Raikage, what exactly are you focusing on?"

"No matter what, whether it's one person or two people!"

Raikage sneered, "Those who kill my Cloud Village's envoy must pay the price! Issue the order!"

He whirled around, staring at the massive map of the ninja world on the office wall, his finger slamming heavily onto the border of the Land of Fire:

"Have Tsuchikage push the front line to the border of the Land of Rice Fields! Press them! If Konoha doesn't dare to fight, then occupy all the outposts and strongholds along the border."

"Calm down, Raikage!" Mabui tried to persuade him again.

The Raikage's tone, however, seemed to have regained its composure, "If Konoha dares to respond or retaliate, then fight! Fight them hard! Fight them until they beg for peace talks and hand over the murderer!"

"Lord Raikage, this could trigger a full-scale conflict," Mabui warned, frowning.

"Let's have a conflict then!" The Raikage slammed his fist on the map, cracking the wall. "I want to see if Konoha has the guts to start a war with Kumogakure!"

"Yes!"

The Raikage may be a bit reckless on a regular basis, but the cohesion of Kumogakure is undeniable.

Once the decision was made, the massive "machine" of the Hidden Cloud Village sprang into action!

……

Noon, on the border of the Land of Fields.

The silver Pegasus slowly landed in the woods outside a Konoha outpost.

The four jumped off the silver flying horse.

Qingwu glanced at Shisui and Hongdou and nodded, saying, "It seems you two are quite used to flying. Let's go see Lord Akimichi Torifu!"

Hongdou said enthusiastically, "I was a little scared at first, but I wasn't scared at all later."

Uchiha Shisui said in a gentle voice, "What an amazing summoning beast."

Tianzang turned his head and said, "Someone's coming!"

……

Chapter 194 Frontline Situation

The border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning is very long.

The Land of Fields, the Land of Iron, and the Land of Hot Water can all be considered buffer zones between the two sides.

Of course, the Iron Country and the Hot Country, which are close to the south, have long been neutral countries.

Therefore, in this conflict that lasted for nearly two years, the Land of Iron and the Land of Hot Water served more as logistical supply lines for both sides.

The real conflicts and frictions have always occurred on the border of the Land of Fields.

"Captain Qingwu, welcome!"

A tall, middle-aged man wearing a Konoha headband came forward; his imposing physique clearly indicated that he was from the Akimichi clan.

"It's Lord Akimichi Toudou, the Fourth Hokage's former teammate," Anko whispered a reminder.

Qingwu's heart skipped a beat; it was actually this person...

"Senior Tang Dong!"

Qingwu bowed slightly.

"Come this way, please!" Akimichi Tou had obviously received advance notice and was not surprised by their arrival. He led the group into the base.

Konoha's base was located on a high mountain pass, overlooking several important roads and valleys below.

When the four members of the Shadow Guard entered the stronghold, they could clearly feel the tense atmosphere.

There were more Konoha ninja inside the base than I had imagined, and the security was tight!

Akimichi Higashi is in charge of this base.

With a kind face and a very talkative manner, he introduced the situation of the stronghold to the Shadow Guard along the way.

"What's Yunyin up to lately?" Qingwu asked directly, without much small talk.

"Both sides retreated a few days ago, and even Uncle Tokifu went to the Land of Hot Springs. I never expected something like this to happen."

Qiu Daotang said with a wry smile, "If I'm not mistaken, Yunyin will press forward again soon."

I learned from Akimichi Tangdong's words:

Since the incident at Iwagakure forced Konoha to fight on two fronts, Nara Shikaku led an elite Konoha force to provide reinforcements.

Fortunately, the war with the Hidden Cloud Village entered a period of calm, and this year, it has even reached the point of peace talks.

After all... wars usually end in politics.

No one expected that the Cloud Village delegation would be killed at such a crucial stage of the peace talks.

"Don't misunderstand, I'm not blaming Captain Qingwu for killing someone." Qiu Daotang said with an honest face, "If I were there, I would definitely have intervened as well."

Qingwu nodded. The deed was done; now it was time to see how Yunyin would react.

Qiu Daotang led the four of them to a simple military tent. A border map was hanging on the wall, with symbols marked in different colors.

Qingwu asked, "Is Lord Qufeng in the Land of Hot Springs?"

Qiu Daotang said helplessly, "That's right. After receiving the news, I sent people to search for them, but there has been no reply yet."

What kind of situation is this?

With such a major incident occurring, and the Cloud Village poised to attack again at any moment, the commander of the Leaf Village was nowhere to be found at the camp.

"Rest here for a while, and I will take you to our main camp later."

Judging from the map, their base is located directly opposite the Land of Rice Fields, making it an outpost of Konoha's main camp. Akimichi Toudou was clearly entrusted with an important task.

"What should we do if we can't find Lord Qufeng? After all, the situation is urgent."

The outspoken Hongdou asked Qiu Daotangdong.

The latter paused for a moment, then replied, "Then I shall be the temporary commander!"

What he didn't say was that his elderly uncle was more like a figurehead, but in reality, he was the one who handled the troop deployments on the border.

Upon hearing this, Qingwu subtly re-examined Qiu Daotangdong.

Unexpectedly, this seemingly honest and kind Akimichi clansman turned out to be a man of great leadership talent.

However, he immediately realized that this person was Minato Namikaze's teammate, so... he must not be an ordinary person either.

"Since things have been relatively peaceful between the two sides recently, I'll briefly introduce some of the tricks that the Hidden Cloud Village used in the past."

Akimichi Tōtō pointed to the map on the wall, "The small reconnaissance units of the Cloud Village are very active, and there are probing attacks almost every day."

Seeing that the four members of the Shadow Guard were listening attentively, Qiu Daotang nodded inwardly and continued:

"In most cases, the Cloud Shadows don't go deep; they attack and then leave, frequently testing our defensive strength and reaction speed."

"Yes, neither side suffered heavy casualties, but Konoha has far fewer troops due to fighting on two fronts."

"So we were very passive in the face of the Cloud Village's probing attacks. We were exhausted from dealing with them, and our morale was somewhat affected."

He pointed to several locations marked with red crosses on the map, saying, "These strongholds in the land of fields originally belonged to us, but we were forced to give them up later."

At this point, Akimichi Tōtō said helplessly, "With the people of Kumogakure occupying that place, our movements will be easily detected."

Qingwu narrowed his eyes, gaining a preliminary understanding of the occupation of the border between Huo and Tian.

"Where are their main forces roughly positioned?" Qingwu inquired. "What kind of person is their commander, Tu Tai?"

After determining the border location where he would be "exiled," he naturally did some research over the next three days.

"According to intelligence and reconnaissance, the main force of the Cloud Village should be assembled here!"

Akimichi Tangdong pointed to a valley on the border of the Land of Lightning on the map:

"Most of the battles between the two sides were fought in the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Frost. After the peace talks began, both sides retreated to their own countries, leaving only some intelligence and reconnaissance units in the Land of Rice Fields."

"As for Commander Tsuchida... he is a very composed opponent. He has been the strategist of Kumogakure since the Third Raikage."

"However, judging from the harassment and probing in the early stages, it doesn't seem like his style. Perhaps his subordinates are eager to make a name for themselves, or... there are other orders."

Qingwu looked at the map and said softly, "The Frost Kingdom?"

“Yes!” Akimichi Tangdong explained:

"The Land of Lightning is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and the Land of Frost can be reached directly by water. However, that land is located between the Land of Fields and the Land of Waterfalls, so Shikaku will also help out."

No wonder Konoha can fight on two fronts; it's thanks to Kumogakure and Iwagakure that Konoha can establish connections between the two defensive lines.

If either Sunagakure or Kirigakure were to join the battle, given the terrain, Konoha would likely find it difficult to defend itself from both ends.

Hmm, we'll probably need to reactivate the Uchiha clan members who have already reached the edge of the village.

Thinking of Kirigakure, Qingwu also thought of Terumi Mei.

The woman said she wanted to establish diplomatic relations with Konoha. Even though she had already received 3000 million taels of silver as "cash," would she really give up such an opportunity to gain political capital?

Or... has something unexpected happened on the Hidden Mist side?

Mizukage Yagura? Uchiha Obito?

As Qiu Daotang continued to describe the situation at the border, Qingwu's thoughts began to wander and drift off.

It wasn't that he didn't value the battle with Kumogakure, but rather...

Well, actually he didn't take Yunyin seriously at all.

As long as the war doesn't escalate to the point of a nationwide conflict, small-scale battles are simply a way for him to gain experience.

Iwagakure has already experienced the destructive power of the military units.