Although the Land of Grass was unwilling to offend the Land of Earth, it was also unwilling to antagonize the Land of Fire. Before the arrival of the Konoha ninja forces, they could naturally go easy without limits, but once they arrived, they had to do their best on the surface and would not secretly trip up the Land of Fire. Whatever demands the other party made, the officials of the Land of Grass handled them perfectly.
Of course, on the front lines, they would not fight the Land of Earth's army with all their might, even if the Land of Fire considered them weak and incompetent. Anyway, everything else was handled perfectly. Military weakness was a characteristic of these small nations, and the Land of Fire had nothing to criticize.
As for Konoha Village, it didn't expect the Land of Grass to play a significant role in direct combat. Maintaining logistics was enough. For the sake of reputation, the village purchased necessary supplies from the Land of Grass at reasonable prices and compensated the Land of Grass for maintaining supplies sent from within the Land of Fire. The rest was entirely up to Konoha Village.
Inuzuka Shigeru planned to launch a battle first to halt the advance of the Land of Earth's army. The senior officers in the unit discussed specific combat plans while dispatching scout ninjas to gather intelligence from the front. After combining the returned intelligence, everyone decided on the next combat objective.
After determining the combat route, Inuzuka Shigeru personally led the ninja forces forward, approaching the recently established stone fortress of the Iwagakure ninjas. From a distance, it looked like a forest of rocks. Under the full construction efforts of Iwagakure Village, the area had completely transformed into a section with a distinct Land of Earth style, showing no trace of its original status as land of the Land of Grass.
"How impressive, all these fortresses were built by the Iwagakure ninjas themselves." Maki held a cylindrical tool, holding it to one eye, her other eye slightly squinted, all her attention focused on the scene presented in the tool.
This was a device called a telescope, created by the scientific research department under the guidance of Kazamori Masaharu. Since it didn't require chakra intervention, it was produced after solving basic craftsmanship issues. Although it wasn't as convenient as reconnaissance ninjutsu performed with chakra, its greatest value was its ability to perform a certain degree of long-distance observation without chakra, making it very popular among samurai armies.
Maki didn't need to observe the Iwagakure ninja fortress in detail; that was the responsibility of the Hyūga clan, Aburame clan, or other sensory ninjas. She only needed to observe the basic situation. After watching for a while, she was deeply shocked by the enemy's sturdy defenses. She handed the telescope to Asuna and Yamanaka Risa beside her, and both of them also exclaimed in surprise.
When Hatake Sakumo saw the enemy's sturdy fortress with his own eyes, he nodded slightly and said, "I saw in the scrolls before how sturdy the fortresses built by Iwagakure ninjas were. During the First Great Ninja War, they caused a lot of trouble for Kirigakure Village. Although it was due to Earth Release countering Water Release, their strength was indeed astonishing."
"From the perspective of chakra counter-elements, shouldn't Lightning Release easily destroy these fortresses?" Maki looked at Hatake Sakumo and asked.
Hatake Sakumo nodded and said, "Indeed. In the face of Lightning Release, even the sturdiest fortresses can be easily torn apart. However, to tear apart Earth Release fortresses of that height would require a considerable amount of chakra, and with so many of them, it's not something an individual's Lightning Release can handle."
"So, let Sakumo-san be the one to assault here, not the one to attack the stronghold," Asuna said. As the vanguard of the Fourth Ninja Squad's First Platoon, they were assigned here, waiting for Hatake Sakumo to lead the charge into the flank for an ambush once the main force struck the enemy.
"Hmm. Although there are quite a few people in our village who use Lightning Release, we are still not as good as Kumogakure Village, which can establish a structured Lightning Release unit. If we had such a unit, we would gain a huge advantage in the war against the Land of Earth." Hatake Sakumo exhaled softly.
"But, since we don't have a structured Lightning Release unit, how exactly will the main force deal with these Earth Release fortresses?" Maki asked, a little confused.
If they couldn't deliver a powerful enough blow to the enemy and tie down the enemy's main forces, even with Hatake Sakumo, a master of Lightning Release, leading them, the first squad would undoubtedly fall into a bitter battle. Maki didn't believe the village would adopt such a risky tactic.
"If I hadn't returned to the village this time, I might have had the same questions as you," Hatake Sakumo turned the telescope to the other side, where Konoha's ninja forces were slowly advancing and would soon reach their designated position. "But when I learned about the new achievements of the scientific research department in recent years, I knew where the village's trump card lay. It seems the village had been considering the situation for fighting the Land of Earth a long time ago."
At these words, the three girls looked at Hatake Sakumo with great curiosity, wondering what the village's trump card was. When they had returned to the village before, they had mainly spent time with their families, unlike Hatake Sakumo, who paid close attention to the war situation, and thus hadn't learned about the village's new achievements immediately.
"You'll find out soon. Although I've seen its report, it was only on a scroll, and I don't know its actual combat effectiveness," Hatake Sakumo put down the telescope, creating suspense. "However, if it's truly as the report says, the scene that follows will be truly spectacular."
The three became increasingly curious, especially since Hatake Sakumo said the scene would be spectacular, which made them very much look forward to what they would see next. With this feeling, they turned their attention back to the distant Earth Release fortresses. Before the signal appeared, the only thing they could do was wait here and watch for any approaching attackers.
At the same time, Iwagakure Village was also observing the movements of Konoha Village. They naturally used traditional reconnaissance ninjutsu. They noticed that Konoha Village was not adopting the scattered formation typical of ninjas; although they maintained a certain distance, they were generally more concentrated, which puzzled them.
"What is Konoha planning? With this formation, are they intending to engage us in a head-on confrontation?" The Iwagakure ninja responsible for observation looked astonished, completely unable to understand Konoha Village's intentions. This formation had been used by every ninja village in the early stages of the First Great Ninja War, but after realizing it was easy to get encircled by large samurai armies and couldn't fully utilize ninjas' mobility advantage, this combat style was largely abandoned. It was only used in certain special circumstances, for example, when Iwagakure Village built fortresses for defensive operations, they would still adopt such a formation, as too few people would be insufficient to use sufficiently powerful Earth Release.
But what was Konoha Village planning? The only thing the Iwagakure ninjas could imagine was that the other side intended to concentrate their forces for a breakthrough. The composite ninjutsu tactics used by Konoha Village during the First Great Ninja War left a very deep impression on the Iwagakure ninjas. However, if this were the case, Iwagakure Village would have other tactics they could use, and there was a high probability they could concentrate on eliminating Konoha ninjas.
One must know that the Earth Release fortresses built by the Iwagakure ninjas were extremely numerous, and for Konoha Village to destroy them, or rather, to tear open a gap, might require a great deal of chakra. And this was Iwagakure Village's opportunity.
It seemed that even Konoha Village could only adopt a frontal assault method like others, as they didn't have a Lightning Release unit like Kumogakure Village. For Iwagakure Village, it seemed this was the only way to fight. Every Iwagakure ninja was anticipating the moment Konoha Village launched its attack. They would use the fortresses to block any enemy attacks, and then, once the enemy's momentum waned, it would be their time to counterattack.
However, the next scene was beyond the Iwagakure ninjas' imagination, leading them to deeply regret after the battle that they shouldn't have underestimated Konoha Village.
When Konoha Village assembled at the designated location, under the orders of the jonin, the squads stood by at the front, one after another laying down their huge scrolls. With the release of the seals, the ninja tools buried within appeared before everyone's eyes. It was a ninja tool shaped like a long spear, with numerous black holes at the front. To some ninjas with keen perception, those holes emitted a dangerous aura.
As scroll after scroll was unsealed, these ninja tools appeared in large numbers on the battle lines, their front ends pointing toward the Earth Release fortresses ahead. Not only the Iwagakure ninjas, but also the Konoha ninjas who saw these for the first time were astonished. Maki quickly put down her telescope and said to Hatake Sakumo, "Sakumo-san, is that the village's trump card you mentioned?"
"Yes. It's my first time seeing it too, but it's exactly as described in the report," Hatake Sakumo nodded slightly.
"What exactly is that thing?" Asuna looked at the shape of the new ninja tool and felt it was completely different from traditional ninja tools. It didn't look like something a ninja would throw.
"Its name is the Explosion Cannon. Hearing that name, you should have some idea, right?" Hatake Sakumo said.
"Explosion Cannon? Explosion, explosion, could this thing have something to do with explosive tags?" Maki thought for a moment and said in surprise.
"Yes, that's right. This is a new type of ninja tool based on explosive tags. There's nothing particularly special about it, to be honest. Its key lies in transferring the responsibilities that ninjas usually handle to mechanical power," Hatake Sakumo then explained the principle of this new ninja tool. "The ninja tool, which would originally be thrown by a ninja, will be launched by a device inside the Explosion Cannon. Its power exceeds what any ninja can throw—of course, if a ninja adds nature transformation, that's another story—and what's being thrown isn't a kunai, but something you're very familiar with: 'shells' developed based on chakra storage blocks."
"Chakra storage blocks, why would that be needed?" Yamanaka Risa asked, surprised.
"Because, to release an explosive tag, doesn't a ninja have to inject chakra? If that were still required, even if the launching part was handled by the ninja tool, it would still consume a huge amount of chakra. So, the ninjas in the scientific research department considered using chakra storage blocks to solve this problem," Hatake Sakumo said. "Although the key technology for the new ninja tool to perform nature transformation has not yet been broken through, if it's just about releasing already sealed jutsu formulas, the ninjas in the scientific research department have managed to solve that."
"I see, the ninja tool handles the throwing problem, the chakra storage blocks solve the chakra problem needed to release the explosive tag jutsu, and then they came up with that thing?" The three girls were all intelligent, and quickly understood the key.
"Hmm, because of this thing, the Sarutobi clan and the Uchiha clan received a huge order for explosive tags. Maki, didn't you know?" Hatake Sakumo asked.
"Ah, now that you mention it, the workload for making explosive tags in the clan did suddenly increase. I guessed it was due to battlefield needs, but I didn't realize the massive production of explosive tags was because of this." Maki finally connected the situation in her clan at this moment.
The essence of explosive tags is to seal Fire Release into a paper talisman using sealing jutsu. Clans like the Uchiha and Sarutobi are veterans in this field. In the past, explosive tags were also important strategic resources, but because they required individual ninjas to provide chakra for release, the demand, though large, remained within controllable limits. However, with the advent of the Explosion Cannon, explosive tags will become an even greater consumable. The Uchiha and Sarutobi clans, currently delighted by large orders, do not realize that their two clans will not be able to bear the village's future consumption of explosive tags.
"I heard the village is currently researching the production of Lightning Release explosive tags, but not to mention the people who make them, sealing Lightning Release, which is even more active than Fire Release, onto a paper talisman is no easy feat," Hatake Sakumo said, while focusing his attention on the battlefield.
At this moment, Konoha's position was ready, all preparations complete. With the commander's order, amidst the loud shouts of the Konoha ninjas, the Explosion Cannons emitted a "swish, swish, swish" sound. The talisman bombs launched from the holes made no loud noise; instead, a dense black mass, like a swarm of bees, rushed towards the Earth Release fortresses.
When they first slammed into the Earth Release fortresses, there was no unusual sound. However, the chakra storage blocks contained within the talisman bombs then released chakra due to the violent impact, causing the chakra to flow along the jutsu formula's path and instantly release the Fire Release sealed within the explosive tags.
In an instant, a series of explosions continuously erupted, and blinding, towering flames burst forth on the Earth Release fortresses. Under everyone's gaze, one of the Earth Release fortresses, which had been subjected to concentrated bombardment, slowly collapsed, while the Iwagakure ninjas, who had been waiting in strict formation behind, slowly became enveloped in shadows, their faces filled with shock.