Chapter 569: Never Fought a Battle This Well Supplied
That night, inside a simple temporary tent, many jonin of the ninja force gathered.
There were no chairs in the tent, only a large stone table formed with Earth Release. Spread across it was a map of the Land of Grass and the surrounding regions.
Mugetsu and Jiraiya stood side by side on the north side of the table. Behind them stood Minato and Kakashi respectively, while the other jonin took their places around the table.
"I believe many of you must have a lot of questions," Jiraiya began slowly. "Why did we regroup so quickly after dispersing, and why is Lord Mugetsu here?"
Several jonin nodded. With such a sudden change and so little information, it was only natural that they were confused.
"First, Lord Mugetsu has come to the Land of Grass to support us with a reinforcement unit," Jiraiya explained. "Because the frontline situation is critical, Lord Mugetsu selected elites from that unit and rushed ahead as quickly as possible. So the main force has not arrived yet. Only the fifty elite ninja of the vanguard unit are here."
Some jonin immediately brightened and could not help asking, "Lord Mugetsu, how many ninja are there in the reinforcement unit in total?"
Now that the elite vanguard had already arrived, even if the main force was slower, it would not be too late. The speaker was already eager to wash away their previous defeat.
"Including the elite unit, there are a total of one thousand ninja," Mugetsu replied in a steady voice.
"Excellent! With the support unit here, our numbers won't be inferior to the Iwa force anymore. This time, we definitely won't lose again!" the jonin said excitedly.
This was an entire thousand-man reinforcement unit. Since the war began, this was the first time he had seen Konoha send such a powerful supporting force in one go.
It was not because Konoha was stingy. Konoha's military strength simply was not that large compared to the other great villages.
From the founding of Konoha until now, there had only ever been around twelve thousand official ninja in total.
And now, with the world already deep into the Third Shinobi World War, years of attrition and the ordinary deaths of old age had reduced the number of active shinobi considerably.
If the true number of active ninja in each village were public knowledge, Konoha might well rank near the bottom among the Five Great Nations.
The other jonin looked just as surprised. For a moment, they felt as though they had never fought such a lavishly supplied battle before.
"As expected of Lord Mugetsu. He's even good at lying," Obito thought to himself, giving Mugetsu a mental thumbs up as he watched everyone in the tent accept the number without question.
White Zetsu, disguised as Hiraga, also put on a surprised expression and silently memorized the information, preparing to pass it along later.
"We dispersed before because our combat strength was insufficient, and because we were worried that once our position was exposed, we would be wiped out," Jiraiya continued. "But now that a thousand reinforcements have arrived, there is naturally no reason to keep hiding."
The jonin all nodded. If both sides had the same number of ninja, Konoha had never feared anyone.
"Where do you think would be the best place to rendezvous with the support force and establish a temporary base camp?" Jiraiya asked, inviting suggestions.
Each jonin studied the map carefully and voiced their opinion.
Once the discussion ended, Jiraiya looked around the tent and gave a serious reminder.
"There may still be spies inside our force. The contents of this meeting must not be leaked under any circumstances."
When Jiraiya had been attacked by the Sarutobi jonin before, not many people had witnessed it, and he had deliberately concealed the matter. So the force still did not know that their defeat had been caused by spies.
The jonin inside the tent all grew solemn.
"Don't be too tense. Everyone called into this meeting is someone who can be completely trusted," Jiraiya said with a smile.
"As long as nothing unexpected happens, this time we will absolutely turn defeat into victory."
The jonin exchanged glances and found that what Jiraiya said made sense. Most of the people gathered here were jonin from major clans, or veteran jonin with distinguished records. It was hard to imagine any of them being spies.
And if there was no problem within this group, then the information would not leak, and nothing would go wrong.
"I really want to cancel the Transformation Technique and let them all see. That would be so interesting," White Zetsu cackled inwardly.
Hiraga was indeed trustworthy.
The only problem was that the one standing here now was not Hiraga at all, but White Zetsu.
Of course, White Zetsu only entertained the thought for a moment. His real mission was still to transmit intelligence.
Still, it did not matter if he could not reveal his true face just yet. When Jiraiya and the others were finally surrounded and driven into despair, he would reveal himself then, mock them to their faces, and leave in style.
After the meeting, the jonin dispersed, including Jiraiya and Mugetsu.
But after leaving, Jiraiya, Mugetsu, and Minato quickly slipped away, leaving behind Shadow Clones in their place. The three then met again in a concealed location.
The meeting just now had been held for White Zetsu's benefit. The real strategy meeting had already taken place, and only the three of them had attended.
"The bait has been set. Now it just depends on whether Iwagakure takes it," Jiraiya said as he looked toward the northwest, where the Iwa force was stationed.
To deceive the spy, very few people knew the true battle plan. Aside from Mugetsu, Jiraiya, and their disciples, only the upper ranks of the support force were aware of it.
"Judging from the way Iwagakure has been acting, they definitely want to wipe out Konoha's force in the Land of Grass in one decisive strike. They will absolutely take the bait. The problem is that swallowing such a large fish won't be easy for us," Minato said thoughtfully.
The thousand-man support unit Mugetsu mentioned earlier was only bait to make Iwagakure commit.
In reality, even after combining the support force and Jiraiya's force, Konoha only had twelve hundred ninja.
Minato did not know the Iwa force's exact numbers, but from what had been observed so far, there were at least eighteen hundred enemy ninja, at minimum six hundred more than Konoha.
Six hundred ninja was not a trivial difference. That was an entire combat unit.
"After all, the overall situation is still unfavorable for us. Completely annihilating them is definitely unrealistic. Let's aim to wipe out half," Mugetsu said after giving it some thought.
Jiraiya nodded in agreement.
"Half would already be a fine result. If news like that gets back to Iwagakure, Ohnoki's heart will ache for a long time."
Half of eighteen hundred was nine hundred. The resources needed to train nine hundred qualified ninja were immense.
"If you defeat the Four Tails Jinchuriki this time, you'll truly become the number one of Konoha's younger generation," Jiraiya said with a grin, patting Mugetsu on the shoulder.
During the real battle meeting, Mugetsu had volunteered. He stated that his Water Release had made major progress recently, and that he alone would be enough to handle the Four Tails Jinchuriki and the ninja assigned to protect him.
"Minato, you also need to work harder. Why not go to Mount Myoboku right now and learn Sage Mode?" Jiraiya added, then patted Minato as well.
Minato gave a helpless smile. "Jiraiya-sensei, please don't joke around. How could I possibly make it in time now? Besides, didn't Lord Fukasaku say last time that my chakra foundation still wasn't sufficient?"
As a special skill that provided an all around boost, Sage Mode was naturally something Minato wanted to learn.
The problem was that learning Sage Mode itself required powerful chakra.
And Minato's chakra reserves were not yet at the level of what could be called powerful.
"Insufficient chakra really is a hard truth. Otherwise, with your talent, Minato, you might genuinely have learned it quickly under this kind of pressure," Jiraiya said as he stroked his chin.
It had taken him a very long time to learn Sage Mode.
Of course, Jiraiya's case was somewhat special. When he learned it, he had not stayed on Mount Myoboku for uninterrupted intensive training. He practiced whenever he had time, so the total real practice time was somewhat misleading.
Still, compared to someone like Naruto, who had an outright cheat, Jiraiya had definitely spent far longer on it.
Back in camp, Obito lay against a tree, staring at the sky with a bored expression.
"The feeling this time really is completely different from the last time I came," he muttered quietly.
Even though it was still the same Konoha force, compared to the last mission, morale and spirit were obviously much lower.
"That's only natural. We suffered a crushing defeat," Kakashi replied.
"Huh? Kakashi, why aren't you asleep yet?" Obito asked in surprise, looking up at Kakashi, who was sitting on a tree branch.
They would be moving again soon, so everyone had simply found a random place to sleep for the night.
"So why aren't you asleep?" Kakashi shot back.
Obito scratched his head, then finally answered honestly.
"I'm worried about the spy in the unit. And also about the atmosphere this time."
By now, Obito had gone through quite a lot. But the forces he had been part of had never suffered a major defeat, and Konoha ninja had never openly betrayed the village and become spies.
"There's no need to worry too much. Once they became spies, whatever their reason, they stopped being Konoha shinobi and became Konoha's enemies. And as for the atmosphere in the force, one major victory will bring back the old feeling," Kakashi replied coolly.
"Oh, come on."
Obito wanted to say that what really bothered him was not the surface mood, but the uglier truth revealed underneath everything after this incident.
But he did not know how to express it clearly, so in the end he could only scratch his head and sigh.
Then he remembered something.
"So, Kakashi, why aren't you asleep?"
This time, Kakashi answered directly.
"I'm keeping an eye on you. I'm worried you'll accidentally leak information."
Obito's face instantly darkened. He wanted to curse Kakashi on the spot, but then remembered it was late at night, so all he could do was glare at him in silence.
"You evil white-haired menace. You actually dare to look down on me like this," Obito cursed inwardly.
To prove that he could keep a secret, Obito lay down at once and forced himself to sleep immediately.
After Obito fell asleep, Kakashi activated Transparent World and silently observed the surroundings for a while before closing his eyes as well.