Chapter 153 – A General in the Field
The decision from Konoha's high command reached Orochimaru on the northern front in just one day.
As he read the sternly worded order in his hand, a complicated mixture of emotions surfaced within him.
In the end—
It all dissolved into a silent sigh.
Still, even if the village forbade him from launching a full offensive, he remained the commander of the front line.
Flexibility was still within his authority.
At worst, he would push forward only slightly—
Just enough to drive the Cloud ninja completely out of the Land of Hot Water.
Then he would stop.
With that thought, Orochimaru immediately summoned his advisors.
One order after another was issued.
The camp responded almost instantly.
Squads of shinobi received new assignments and departed toward the Land of Hot Water.
The once-quiet encampment suddenly roared back to life.
Like a lion awakening from sleep—
Stretching its claws.
And the prey waiting beyond the border…
Was the Kumogakure forces stationed in the Land of Hot Water.
Taichi's squad naturally received a similar mission.
The anger they had bottled up since the previous ambush now had somewhere to go.
Without hesitation, the three set off at top speed toward the Land of Hot Water.
Their mission objective was simple:
Eliminate every Kumogakure ninja encountered.
Taichi, Yōhei, and Saori moved like three blades drawn from their sheaths—
Driving deep into the enemy-controlled territory.
However—
Orochimaru's purge order had come slightly too late.
Kumogakure's strategic withdrawal had been executed with ruthless efficiency.
As Taichi's squad rampaged through the country, they soon discovered that resistance was almost nonexistent.
Occasionally they encountered scattered Cloud ninja—
But these were mostly reconnaissance teams composed of chūnin.
It felt as though they were slashing at cotton.
All momentum—
No resistance.
An extremely frustrating experience.
After several days, the squad's initial enthusiasm cooled.
They discarded their impatience and returned to a calmer operational rhythm.
Moving steadily through the Land of Hot Water, they deployed shadow clones to widen their search range.
The strategy paid off.
They uncovered several hidden Kumogakure forward supply caches.
These had been abandoned during the enemy's hurried retreat.
Supplies that could be transported had already been taken.
The rest had been hidden on-site.
Anything portable was confiscated.
Anything immovable was destroyed.
Fortunately, both Taichi and Saori were skilled in sealing techniques.
With sufficient materials, crafting temporary storage scrolls was trivial.
After discovering five separate supply points, the value of the seized materials alone—
Explosive tags
Medicines
Weapons
—already exceeded tens of millions of ryō.
More importantly—
In wartime, such materials were priceless.
Even with gold in hand, these strategic supplies couldn't be purchased.
The only reason they had obtained them was because Kumogakure had retreated too hastily.
To preserve their manpower, they had been forced to abandon equipment.
Victory followed victory.
Their advance seemed unstoppable.
Each success only strengthened the squad's confidence.
And confidence slowly turned into boldness.
Gradually—
Their patrol route extended further north.
From the heart of the Land of Hot Water…
Toward the borders of the Land of the Moon.
Then one day—
While surveying a complex canyon region in northern territory—
They encountered something different.
A Kumogakure squad.
Three members.
Just like them.
But the moment Taichi sensed their chakra—
They sensed him too.
Almost instantly—
Their chakra signatures vanished from his perception.
Taichi's eyes narrowed.
That meant one thing.
They had a sensory ninja as well.
Otherwise, they couldn't have concealed themselves so quickly.
Even from that fleeting glimpse—
Taichi knew.
These opponents were not ordinary.
He spoke quietly.
"Be careful."
"About 1.5 kilometers ahead—three Cloud ninja."
"Two of them feel like jōnin."
"The third… is a girl about our age."
He paused slightly.
"There's something strange about her."
"I can't determine her strength."
Taichi quickly relayed everything he sensed to Yōhei and Saori. At the same time, the three altered their route and moved directly toward the enemy squad.
At this moment, the trio were truly bold because of their skill. Even knowing the enemy had two jōnin, they showed no hesitation.
The battle erupted without warning.
When the two sides met halfway through the canyon, neither exchanged a single word. Their jutsu were already flying toward each other.
Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!
Lightning Release: Lightning Bind!
The two techniques collided in the center of the ravine. Fire and lightning exploded outward from the impact point, sparks and flames scattering across the canyon walls.
Within seconds, the valley was engulfed in a raging sea of fire.
Taichi charged forward right behind his jutsu.
His short blade had already been coated in blazing golden flames. Originally he planned to use the firestorm as cover to launch a surprise attack—
But the moment he entered the flames, he ran straight into his opponent.
Steel clashed.
The instant their blades met, Taichi knew something was wrong.
The opponent's strength was overwhelming—far beyond his own.
And the lightning crackling around the man's body confirmed it.
Lightning Release: Body Activation.
A secret technique of Kumogakure.
Not the crude, half-developed version Saori had experimented with—this was the genuine thing.
Now Taichi's weakness—his young age and comparatively lower physical strength—was amplified.
Normally he compensated using monster-strength chakra control, allowing him to overpower stronger enemies.
But against a Kumogakure elite also boosted by ninjutsu—
Those advantages canceled each other out.
What remained was raw physical strength.
Taichi's strength stat was only 23.
Even the baseline for jōnin was 25.
In close combat, he was immediately suppressed.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
After several exchanges, Taichi quickly changed tactics. Realizing brute force was useless, he abandoned direct clashes and began fighting using his superior swordsmanship skill.
The shift worked.
Gradually, the momentum tilted back toward him.
"Careful!" Taichi shouted. "These aren't ordinary jōnin!"
The warning was mainly for Saori. Something about this squad was clearly abnormal.
Yōhei heard the warning and immediately pushed his Three-Tomoe Sharingan into Mangekyō form.
Because Taichi had crafted special contact lenses to conceal his eye pattern, the enemy couldn't detect the change.
With Mangekyō enhancement, Yōhei's attack power skyrocketed.
Especially whenever he activated Susanoo-no-Mikoto.
The sudden doubling of his power forced the jōnin fighting him into pure defense.
With both jōnin occupied, only the third enemy remained—
A girl around eleven or twelve years old.
But instead of fear, she looked excited.
She stretched her limbs casually, bouncing in place like a wild cat.
Then lightning flashed.
Her figure shot forward with speed far exceeding that of someone her age—straight toward Saori.
Saori remained calm.
She had long grown accustomed to dealing with high-speed opponents from sparring with Taichi.
Hand seals flashed.
A web of lightning nets spread toward the charging girl.
But the enemy was too fast.
Her movements were fluid and agile—like a real feline. She leapt and twisted through the air, dodging every attack with pure body movement.
Once the enemy closed the distance, Saori abandoned ninjutsu.
Lightning burst across her body.
She charged forward, fists raised.
Her taijutsu was no joke.
After all, Taichi's foundational training regimen never stopped.
Heavy impacts echoed through the canyon.
Every collision of fists and kicks sent sparks flying.
Saori's lightning-enhanced body made her movements ferocious and powerful, and her near-berserk fighting style gave her attacks intimidating momentum.
But the Kumogakure girl was even faster.
Her small frame moved like a true wildcat—springing through Saori's strikes.
Her thin arms deflected blows at strange angles, dissolving Saori's attacks with uncanny efficiency.
Suddenly—
"Ah!"
The girl ducked low, bending with impossible flexibility to evade Saori's sweeping kick.
Her hand shot forward like lightning toward Saori's waist.
Saori twisted desperately, barely avoiding the strike. She slammed her elbow downward—
But the girl used the momentum to flip sideways like a cat, even pushing off Saori's leg with her toes to leap several meters back.
Saori staggered.
When she regained balance, her eyes narrowed.
This opponent's taijutsu had no formal structure.
It was wild.
Predatory.
Like a hunting beast.
Saori stared at the girl across from her, her expression more serious than ever.
Meanwhile the girl smiled brightly.
Her blue eyes had transformed into vertical feline pupils.
Her back arched.
Her hands curled like claws against the ground.
Her entire body lowered into a crouch.
A low hiss escaped her throat.
This was no longer the stance of a human fighter.
"Big sister from Konoha…"
"I'm going to get serious now."
"Try not to die."
The moment she finished speaking—
She vanished.
Only a deep crater remained where she had stood.
"Fast!" Saori gasped.
She instantly retreated while forming seals. A lightning barrier spread before her.
But the girl crashed straight through it.
Blue light flashed across her body.
Her nails elongated into claw-like blades as she slashed toward Saori's throat.
Too fast.
Saori didn't even have time to counter.
At the critical moment—
An amulet hidden on her body activated.
It was the Multi-Point Formation sealing tag Taichi had once given her.
The barrier flashed briefly.
The Kumogakure girl froze for a fraction of a second before tearing free.
But that instant was enough.
Saori raised her arms to defend, pouring chakra into them—
CRACK!
She was still blasted backward.
Four deep claw wounds tore through her arm despite the chakra protection.
Taichi had been watching the fight from the corner of his eye.
His swordplay had locked down the enemy jōnin, leaving him enough awareness to monitor the other battles.
When he saw the girl's movements earlier, he felt uneasy.
But when the blue chakra burst from her body—
His expression changed instantly.
"Damn it!"
"You actually sent a Jinchūriki to the front lines?!"
"Are you trying to start a war with Konoha?!"
With a powerful strike, Taichi forced the jōnin back and hurled several fireballs to keep him occupied.
Then he vanished in a Body Flicker toward Saori.
"Yugito, be careful!" the jōnin shouted.
But the girl—Yugito—only clicked her tongue.
If she had just one more chance to strike, the Konoha ninja would already be dead.
Inside the strange mental space within her body, a voice spoke.
It was the Two-Tails, Matatabi.
"Brat… be careful."
"That boy from Konoha isn't simple."
Yugito immediately dropped her arrogance.
For Matatabi to give such a warning was rare even in Kumogakure.
By then Taichi had reached Saori.
Two shadow clones appeared instantly.
One began healing her.
The other guarded the surroundings.
Taichi himself faced Yugito and the approaching jōnin.
His hands flashed through seals.
Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!
But this time—
It wasn't the same attack as before.
Taichi unleashed it at full power.
A blazing golden fire dragon roared forward with terrifying heat.
At first the enemies underestimated it.
They had seen the technique earlier.
But the moment they felt the temperature—
Their expressions changed.
Yugito dropped to all fours like a cat and entered partial tailed-beast transformation, sprinting backward with explosive speed.
The jōnin reacted just as quickly, twisting his body ninety degrees and barely skimming past the dragon's edge with lightning-boosted speed.
"You're Matsushita Taichi," the jōnin finally spoke.
"The rising genius of Konoha."
"With firepower like that… no wonder you killed one of our higher command."
---
Yugito returned to the battlefield.
Behind her swayed a blue flaming tail.
Because of her young age, the partial transformation had already clouded her consciousness.
Seeing the jōnin in front of her—
She swiped at him instinctively with a claw.
The jōnin avoided the attack smoothly and retreated farther, allowing the Two-Tails to rush past him.
Taichi frowned.
A Jinchūriki.
The best counter would be Yōhei's Mangekyō genjutsu.
Unfortunately—
Yōhei was terrible at genjutsu.
And his Mangekyō was still newly awakened.
Taichi sighed internally.
He would have to handle this himself.
Still—
Both he and Yōhei clearly needed to improve their genjutsu abilities.
Focusing again, Taichi prepared for the real battle.
Golden Pheonix Sage fireballs formed around him, launching toward Yugito from every direction.
Yugito retaliated with Fire Mouse Jades, which exploded into dozens of blue flame projectiles.
Some intercepted the phoenix fire.
Others shot straight at Taichi.
But Matatabi underestimated the power of Taichi's flames.
A single blue projectile couldn't cancel a phoenix fireball.
By the time Yugito realized it—
It was too late.
Several fireballs struck her body.
A piercing catlike scream echoed through the canyon.
Blue flames erupted violently around her.
Behind her—
A second tail appeared.
Taichi cursed.
"Damn it… full tailed-beast transformation!"
He shouted across the battlefield:
"Yōhei, run! It's a tailed beast!"
But Taichi and Yōhei weren't the only ones thinking about retreat.
Even the Kumogakure jōnin were backing away.
Because Yugito was not the perfect Jinchūriki she would one day become.
Now that she had fully transformed—
She had lost control.
The one controlling the body now was Matatabi.
And when it came to tailed beasts—
Kumogakure shinobi weren't necessarily any safer than Konoha's.
If anything—
Matatabi might hate Kumogakure even more.
After all…
They were the ones who had kept it caged all this time.