News of the battle between Leaf and Sand in the Land of Rivers spread fast across the ninja world. Smaller villages mostly shrugged it off. The ones that actually cared were Iwagakure and Kumogakure.
Ōnoki saw Sand as a complete disappointment. They had been losing to Leaf at every turn, and he couldn't understand how they had put up such a fight against his own forces earlier. If it weren't impossible, he might have wondered if the Fourth Kazekage was secretly working for Konoha.
The Third Raikage was in a much better mood. Sand's defeat meant they were weaker, which made things easier for the Cloud forces already moving into Wind Country. He added more weight to the dumbbell in his hand, grinning as he imagined the prizes his son would bring back.
While the rest of the world braced for another round of heavy fighting, Leaf and Sand stayed strangely quiet. No new offensives. Just both sides licking their wounds and shifting troops around.
In the Leaf camp, Jiraiya finally received the orders from Konoha.
He read them in the command tent and let out a long sigh. He'd expected this. The moment they won, he knew the village would cut back support here and send resources elsewhere.
He handed the scroll to Shikaku without a word.
Shikaku scanned it quickly. When he reached the list of people being sent back to the village, his eyes stopped on one name. He looked up, confused.
"Jiraiya-sama, the orders make sense on paper. Sand took heavy losses. We don't need to keep feeding everything into this front. But why is Taiichi on the return list? He just got here a couple months ago. And it's only his name. None of his teammates."
Jiraiya frowned and took the scroll back. He hadn't looked at the attached list yet. Now that he did, the choice stood out.
Taiichi was one of their strongest assets on this front. Pulling him now felt like a serious hit.
Shikaku tried to reason it out. "The village probably just wants to promote him. He's earned it. Or maybe they're worried about him getting too much credit too fast."
Jiraiya didn't buy it completely, but he didn't argue. Taiichi had done too much out here. Sending him home now probably meant he wasn't coming back anytime soon.
He rubbed his face. "Fine. Don't overthink it. Go notify everyone on the list. They leave at first light with the wounded."
"Yes, sir."
---
While Jiraiya and Shikaku dealt with the orders, Taiichi was out in the small grove near camp, pushing through another round of training.
There weren't any major missions right now, so his only real responsibility was the medical tents. Four shadow clones were already handling that. His real body had time to move.
He'd been training hard since the fight with Shukaku. He won that battle, but it showed him exactly where he stood. Without the massive chakra from the Yin Seal, he would've been lucky to just survive against a tailed beast. Beating one cleanly was still out of reach.
The Yin Seal wasn't something he could rely on every time. Right now the chakra lake inside it was already half empty. Refilling it would take months.
If another big fight came before then, he'd be back to being just another top-tier jonin. That thought pissed him off.
He had strong attacks—Water Severing Wave, Vacuum Serial Waves, Rasengan. They all hurt Shukaku. The problem was size. Shukaku was only about fifty meters tall. Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails were over sixty. At that scale, normal ninjutsu barely slowed them down.
He needed something that could actually restrain a tailed beast. Sealing techniques or genjutsu were the only real options.
Hashirama's Wood Release gates, the Uzumaki Adamantine Sealing Chains—those worked. But they either needed natural energy or bloodline-level talent. Taiichi didn't have either.
Still, his sealing skill was already at Lv12. That gave him real confidence. He could probably create something new if he had the right references and enough time.
Genjutsu was worse. Most of the strong ones tied into bloodlines—the Kurama clan's five senses control, Uchiha Sharingan, especially Mangekyō. Yohei had the eyes for it, but he wasn't good with genjutsu.
Taiichi stopped mid-frog jump. He'd hit his daily goal of a thousand. With his current strength and agility, pushing the numbers higher was getting difficult. His body still hadn't hit its growth spurt either. Without chakra helping him recover, this kind of training would've wrecked him already.
He cleaned up and headed back toward camp. He wanted to talk to Minato about sealing ideas. Minato was one of the few people in camp who actually understood advanced sealing.
Before he got far, someone called his name.
A shinobi was jogging toward him, looking rushed but not panicked.
Taiichi stopped and waited.
The man reached him and shoved a scroll into his hands without preamble. "Here. Transfer orders. You need to pack tonight if you want to make the departure tomorrow morning."
Taiichi blinked. "Transfer orders? Now?"
He opened the scroll. Short and direct. He was to leave at first light with a group escorting the wounded back to Konoha. The orders came straight from the Hokage's office.
No explanation. Just his name on the list.
He thanked the messenger out of habit.
The man grinned. "It's the least I can do. You saved my life back then. Name's Yuta, by the way."
Taiichi studied him for a second. "Right. The poison case. Good to see you on your feet."
Yuta looked genuinely happy that Taiichi remembered. Then he got serious again. "A lot of people are already handing off their tasks. Camp's getting busy. You should get moving."
Taiichi nodded and headed for his tent.
When he pushed the flap open, Yohei and Saori were both inside, sitting around like they had nowhere to be.
"You two just get back?" Taiichi asked. "Haven't seen the transfer orders yet?"
Yohei and Saori looked at each other.
"Transfer orders?" Yohei said.
"We've been meditating in here all day," Saori added. "Nobody brought us anything."
Taiichi's stomach tightened. "Yuta said the orders went out earlier. We came here together. You should be on the list too… unless it's only me."
Saori caught on fast. "So they're only pulling you back. We stay here."
That didn't sit right. Same squad, same mission, but only one of them was being sent home. Taiichi's mind went straight to the worst possibility—Danzo deciding he was getting too dangerous and finding a quiet way to remove him.
He pushed the thought down for now.
Yohei stretched on his cot. "If we're not going, we're not going. War's quiet right now anyway. Might as well stay and keep training. At least here we've got people to spar with."
Taiichi knew Yohei was just trying to keep things light so he wouldn't worry.
He walked over anyway. "Sit up. Let me treat your eyes one more time before I leave. I don't know when I'll be able to do it again."
Yohei sat up fast, eyes bright. "Yeah, perfect timing. I pushed too hard the last couple days. Everything's getting blurry again."
Taiichi placed his hands on Yohei's temples. Warm green chakra flowed out, steady and careful, working to soothe the strain on his eyes.
The tent went quiet.