Second Body naturally didn't know she had been recognized as a daughter by Otsutsuki Hagoromo; otherwise, she would have definitely blown his dog head off. Uchiha Ling would never acknowledge a thief as her father.
She would make that old man understand what it means for a true man to live between heaven and earth—how could he be content to always live under others?
The next morning, they had to continue their march. There was no need for breakfast; Soldier Pill were enough, but Second Body couldn't bring herself to do that.
If she didn't get a single cent of salary each month, why would she risk her life? Her body was her own, wasn't it? When she rose to power, all these unreasonable things would be reformed, preferably into a dual-track system.
While running quickly through the trees, keeping up with the team, Second Body took out a pre-prepared roujiamo with beef filling, but it was already cold.
But it didn't matter; Second Body had ways. Today, she would demonstrate the 'palm pancake' technique. The Chakra on her palm transformed into fire nature, and soon the roujiamo was heated.
As she ate, she enjoyed the rapidly receding scenery, which made her meal more enjoyable. Second Body was full, but the Ninja behind her, who had been smelling the roujiamo all the way, were practically drooling.
You couldn't blame Second Body for this; if you had to blame something, blame the Ninja system itself. They fought in wars without getting a single cent, and were even fooled into risking their lives.
After a day of rapid travel, they finally reached the frontline outpost in the Land of Rivers by dusk. Here, Orochimaru commanded a thousand-strong vanguard unit.
They had already been vying for advantageous terrain with the Hidden Sand Village's small-scale infiltration units in the Land of Rivers for a long time. Although the intensity of the probing attacks wasn't high, the casualty rate was terrifyingly high.
Of the small teams sent out on missions, almost half returned each day. The daily attrition of a dozen or so people was more terrifying than a meat grinder.
The tasks here naturally had nothing to do with Second Body, because after assisting with the establishment of the field hospital and the deployment of the Vigilance barrier, she was to go to Lou Lan.
Whoever wanted to stay on this battlefield where people died every day could; she certainly didn't like it here. As soon as she arrived, she had to heal a dozen severely wounded individuals.
Second Body didn't use Reversal Technique or overly powerful Medical Ninjutsu to instantly restore them. It was better for them to lie down for another day. If they were healed today, they might die on the battlefield tomorrow.
Keeping them moderately injured could also allow them to live a few more days. Orochimaru was not a leader who cherished cannon fodder; the number of deaths was just a statistic in his eyes.
Having completed her tasks at the outpost, Second Body arrived at the main command tent. At this time, Orochimaru, Minato, and Uchiha Fugaku were discussing the situation and strategy.
Orochimaru wanted to take advantage of the reinforcements' arrival to launch a full-scale push tonight, with so many strong individuals. It must be said that Second Body really liked this strategy.
However, Minato Namikaze and Uchiha Fugaku were somewhat hesitant. They informed Orochimaru of the Third Hokage's orders and their own concerns, but Orochimaru merely scoffed.
In reality, there were three Kage-level powerhouses here, while according to Orochimaru, the Hidden Sand Village only had Ebizo and Pakura on the front lines.
They had fewer than two thousand Ninja, and at this time, they had no reinforcements, mainly due to the meddling of Hidden Cloud Village and Iwagakure.
The Third Raikage, perhaps to test Rasa, sent people into the Land of Wind to assassinate Rasa. Unfortunately, Rasa was not made of mud and could easily deal with some Jonin.
Meanwhile, Iwagakure increased its garrison on the border between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, making the Hidden Sand Village feel very insecure, which also led them to increase their border garrison.
The reinforcements heading to the Konoha battlefield should have just departed, so this was indeed a good time. Second Body felt that Orochimaru's strategy was very good.
Speaking of strategy, the wars in the Ninja World were actually like something conceived on a whim, completely illogical and absurd.
For example, in the First Great Shinobi War, Iwagakure and Hidden Mist Village were not even neighboring countries; their territories were on opposite diagonals, separated by several countries, yet they comically fought each other.
The Second Tsuchikage and Second Mizukage even died together, which was utterly absurd. Second Body highly suspected that Kishimoto had never studied international relations and just made things up.
In the Second Great Shinobi War, a small country like the Land of Rain actually dared to declare war on the Five Great Ninja Villages. He wasn't like the Empress Dowager, with such an iron head.
In the Third Shinobi World War, the Hidden Sand Village could actually fight against the Hidden Mist Village, another non-contiguous war, and even let their already few Kage-level powerhouses die to vent the Hidden Mist Village's anger.
It was like absurdity's mother opening the door for absurdity; it was utterly absurd. In any case, it was too painful to look closely, so Second Body would tentatively assume they had reasonable reasons for these wars.
If only Kishimoto had drawn the territories of the Five Great Nations as contiguous, such absurd things wouldn't have happened.
Second Body entered the tent. At this moment, Orochimaru was about to decide on a night raid on the Hidden Sand Village tonight. Second Body's entry interrupted their discussion.
"Hehe, it's Second Body. *Slurp*. It's been a long time. Seeing Second Body again, I sense danger. Truly the strongest genius!"
Orochimaru initially thought this sense of crisis came from Second Body's hidden trump card that could be activated, but upon closer sensing, he realized it was Second Body's inherent strength.
"Orochimaru-sensei, long time no see? Orochimaru-sensei seems so eager; I suppose your experiments have made progress. I wish you an early realization of your dream."
Second Body gave a forced smile, not responding to Orochimaru's praise, but instead walked to the sand table, looking at the marked positions of both sides.
"Orochimaru-sensei, what are you arguing about with Minato-nii and Clan Head Fugaku? Can you tell me?"
"Of course, Second Body is so smart, perhaps she has an even better idea."
Then, Orochimaru told Second Body about the strategic dispute, not feeling at all that Second Body's low rank meant she shouldn't hear such top-secret matters.
"I think Orochimaru-sensei's plan is very good, but Minato-nii and Clan Head Fugaku's considerations are also correct. So, why not compromise?"
"We take two thousand five hundred people to raid the Hidden Sand Village's front line, pushing all the way to their outpost. Clan Head Fugaku takes these five hundred people to guard the Medical Ninja and supplies. If there's any situation, immediately transmit intelligence and retreat. How about that?"
Second Body felt that the doctrine of the mean from her previous life was still somewhat useful. Although it could sometimes lead to missed opportunities, it was fine for reconciling conflicts.
"Minato, Clan Head Fugaku, what do you think?" Orochimaru looked at the two with a cold smile.
"Moreover, I can fly over from the sky and use the Multiple Exploding Tag technique, bombing them all the way to break their formation. You can follow behind and harvest the scattered enemy. How about that?"
Second Body also knew that in previous Great Shinobi Wars, there was rarely collective army combat. It was all small-scale infiltration, assassination, beheading, and so on. They only went all-in after thoroughly understanding the enemy's outpost location and pushing the front line close to it.
However, with Second Body's perception ability, flying all the way, she could quickly find the enemy's outpost. Aerial bombardment and ground harvesting, a blitzkrieg, would definitely catch the Hidden Sand Village off guard.
Hitting them hard, making them lose a thousand Ninja, and then encircling to strike reinforcements, taking them out wave by wave, would quickly resolve the battle.
However, this tactic required sufficient breakthrough capability, such as a large number of Exploding Tags to perform the Multiple Exploding Tag technique.
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