Grind is My Ninja Way

"Summoning all the Jonin for a meeting, is it related to Iwa?"

Looking at the disappearing figure of the Konoha Chunin outside the door, Seimei muttered to himself.

As for why he guessed it was related to Iwa...

It was simple. In the current situation, unless it was a major matter related to Iwa, Omura Yuino wouldn't summon all the Jonin for a meeting.

Moreover, in the past few days, there had been news that Iwa seemed to be intending to restart the war.

Seimei had also noticed from his daily patrols and reports from his subordinates that the Iwa infiltration teams had indeed become more active these days.

All of this indicated that Iwagakure was very likely preparing to launch a new offensive.

At this time, Omura Yuino suddenly summoned all the Jonin for a meeting. Apart from this, Seimei couldn't think of any other reason.

And this was definitely not good news for Seimei because war meant chaos. The stable environment would be disrupted, and his training would inevitably be affected.

Closing his eyes, Seimei carefully sensed his body and estimated that it would take about three or four more days to complete the accumulation of foundation and undergo transformation.

"What a pity, what a pity!"

Sighing inwardly, Seimei stopped thinking about it.

He raised his hand and formed seals, skillfully using the Mystical Palm Technique. Pure Yang Release chakra was generated and flowed within his body.

After a few cycles, Seimei felt that the time was about right. He went out to find Yamanaka Kiku, instructed him on some matters, and then went down the mountain to the meeting place.

Arriving at the Kaze no Sato stronghold and entering the meeting room, the timing was just right. He didn't have to wait long before Omura Yuino arrived.

The meeting quickly began, and the content of the meeting was, as Seimei had expected, indeed related to Iwa's latest movements.

However, what surprised him was that the Iwa ninjas on the other side were not planning to make their location the main target of their next attack.

Instead, they planned to disperse their forces and launch attacks on several nearby strongholds.

"Is this information accurate?"

A Jonin, after hearing Omura Yuino's description, voiced his doubts, and the others also looked at Omura Yuino.

Seeing this, Omura Yuino nodded affirmatively and said in a deep voice, "This information is absolutely reliable!"

Although he didn't mention the source of the information, all those present were Jonin, and no one was foolish. They instantly realized that there was someone on the Iwa side acting as a spy.

Moreover, this person was highly trusted by either Omura Yuino or the village's higher-ups, which was why Omura Yuino could speak so confidently.

In other words, Iwa splitting their forces was almost a certainty.

'Then why would they do this?'

Everyone was puzzled.

Seimei immediately thought of the answer. It wasn't that he was quick to react or anything, but rather that this scene was too familiar.

Back then, the reason they retreated from the frontline stronghold was that the surrounding strongholds were taken down, leading to their isolation and forcing them to retreat.

The current situation was so similar!

Obviously, Iwa was planning to use the same tactic, first taking out the strongholds near Kaze no Sato, creating the fact that Kaze no Sato was isolated, and then exerting pressure.

If they really succeeded, given the current situation in Kaze no Sato, they might actually have to retreat.

Seimei even began to suspect that the commander who forced them to retreat back then and the current Iwa commander were the same person.

Otherwise, how could they be so skilled at this?

However, these things weren't important. What was important was what to do next?

Although other Jonin might not have thought of this before Seimei, with a little thought, they could also guess Iwa's intentions.

Therefore, everyone was thinking of countermeasures.

To be honest, the main reason they were so passive was the lack of troops.

The two years of the Great War had caused Konoha to suffer heavy losses, and now all fronts were short of personnel.

If it weren't for this, each stronghold could be staffed with hundreds or even thousands of people, and no matter how Iwa divided their forces, it would be useless.

Unfortunately, Konoha didn't have that many people.

In the past month, to support the Kaze no Sato stronghold, several surrounding strongholds had even transferred many personnel and were currently in a state of defensive weakness.

Therefore, in the end, they could only come up with a temporary solution, which was to also divide their forces and try their best to protect the surrounding strongholds.

Only in this way could they ensure that Kaze no Sato wouldn't be isolated and helpless.

The meeting ended, and Seimei returned to the West Mountain stronghold. He selected some familiar personnel from there and then took some of the people assigned to him by Omura Yuino.

In total, there were about a hundred people. They headed towards a stronghold about twenty kilometers southeast of Kaze no Sato.

That's right, Seimei was assigned the task of supporting other strongholds.

Not just him, but several other relatively strong Jonin also received similar tasks.

Obviously, Omura Yuino wanted to use the strength of these people to balance Konoha's numerical disadvantage.

Seimei didn't comment on this.

He led the support team, took a detour, and under the cover of night, finally secretly arrived at the target stronghold.

This stronghold was called the Kogatani Village stronghold. As the name suggested, it was established within a village called Kogatani Village.

Kogatani Village was a medium-sized village that could accommodate at most seven or eight hundred people.

However, with the outbreak of the ninja world war, there were no villagers left here, only a little over a hundred Konoha ninjas stationed there.

Now, with the addition of Seimei's hundred people, it became a stronghold with three hundred people.

If the Iwa ninjas didn't receive the information in time, they would definitely be caught off guard when they launched their attack after dividing their forces.

This was the advantage of obtaining intelligence in advance.

...

Soon, the next day arrived.

Seimei and the other ninjas from the support troops didn't reveal themselves. Patrols, guarding, and other tasks were still handled by the original ninjas in the stronghold.

From the outside, nothing seemed to have changed here.

Now, it depended on whether the Iwa ninjas would fall for the trap.

Time passed by, the sun rose and set, and in the blink of an eye, a day had passed. The Iwa ninjas still hadn't appeared.

However, Seimei wasn't anxious.

According to Omura Yuino's intelligence, the Iwa ninjas wouldn't launch their attack later than three days from now. He just needed to wait patiently.

At the same time, he could also take advantage of this last bit of peaceful time to continue strengthening his body and accumulating his foundation.

In a blink of an eye, another day passed.

Just when everyone thought they would have to wait another day in vain, a sudden explosion that night startled everyone.

Instantly, the entire village became noisy.

However, because they were mentally prepared, no one panicked too much.

...

At the same time.

Outside the village.

An Iwa-nin Tokubetsu Jonin looked at the corpse of the Konoha Chunin in front of him, whose face was disfigured by the explosive tag, his gaze very gloomy.

His mission was to deal with this lookout. He originally thought it was a sure thing, but unexpectedly, there was a slip-up in the end.

The opponent's vigilance was too high, and he actually reacted at the critical moment, preventing him from achieving an instant kill.

In the end, the opponent even ignited an explosive tag, attempting to perish together with him.

It was only because of his quick reaction that he wasn't caught in the explosion.

However, with this explosion, their operation was exposed.

Fortunately, they were well prepared this time, with twice the manpower as the opponent. They could completely overwhelm the opponent with their strength.

With this thought, the Iwa-nin Tokubetsu Jonin immediately ordered everyone in the squad to advance at full speed.

After hearing the explosion, other Iwa ninja teams also knew that the operation was exposed, so they didn't hesitate and immediately started advancing at full speed, converging on Kogatani Village.

(End of this chapter)