Avengers of the Whirlpool Family.

Chapter 424: Offensive
I don’t know if I don’t count.

I was shocked when I counted them.

Suddenly, Obito realized that there were five tailed beasts around Menma. Originally, in Obito's eyes, Menma was the most difficult to capture and the most important target. Now, there were so many tailed beast targets gathered around Menma.

Obito couldn't help but feel a little surprised.

This should be the first time since Hashirama Senju captured the nine tailed beasts that so many tailed beasts have appeared in the same ninja village. Five, which is more than half of the total number of tailed beasts. If the current manpower of the Hikari Village could be doubled, without counting Menma, it would be able to take on the entire ninja world in a real sense. Having the means to deal with the tailed beasts and being able to truly suppress or even eliminate them are two different things.

Ever since Menma defected from the Hidden Leaf Village, every step he took was challenging Obito's cognition.

This is totally unlike the mindset and methods of a teenage boy.

Once upon a time, Obito, like everyone else, felt that Orochimaru was behind Menma and controlled everything. Menma's so-called autonomous actions must have been instructed by Orochimaru, just like those people in the ninja village. Obito also listed Orochimaru as the biggest threat target, because he has the strength and background, and as a former member of the organization, he also has a good understanding of the Akatsuki organization. In terms of scientific research capabilities, he is unparalleled. Obito has always been very wary of Orochimaru.

But now it seems.

Orochimaru is Orochimaru and Menma is Menma.

The relationship between the two is at most a joint one, a transaction one.

Obito had to admit that he had made a mistake before.

"But it doesn't matter. The five tailed beasts are gathered together, so we can just wipe them out in one fell swoop."

There was a hint of strong murderous intent in Obito's pupils.

Soon, his latest orders were delivered to the front line through the "Master" disguised as White Zetsu.

"Fight to the end at all costs, and things will change later."

This is an ambiguous command.

Of course, Obito himself was well aware that the Mist Ninjas' attack this time was a meaningless sacrifice, but that was only aimed at the Hidden Mist Village. Even if he only weakened the Hidden Light Village a little, or the power of the major ninja villages, Obito would gain. Therefore, Obito had to make the Mist Ninjas attack willingly, which required the prestige of a master.

What is more necessary is a plan that can give ordinary Mist Ninjas hope of victory.

Otherwise, no matter how great a person's prestige is, it is impossible for it to be so great that everyone can carry out an attack plan that they know will lead to death and is completely meaningless.

Death is not something that ninjas are particularly afraid of.

But death without meaning and value is something they will absolutely resist.

At the very least, before squeezing out the last bit of value from the Hidden Mist Village, Obito still needs to spend more energy to "cajole" these Mist Ninjas. His own Moon Eye Plan requires the hard work of nearly ten thousand Mist Ninjas.

We still have to give these Mist Ninjas hope.

This time after regaining control of the Hidden Mist Village.

Obito gave every order after careful consideration, not only considering its rationality, but also making sure it was suitable for the style of the Mist Ninjas.

Perhaps in front of someone who is truly familiar with the Master, or someone with amazing judgment, the flaws of the Master pretended by White Zetsu under Obito's order are still a bit obvious.

But now in the Hidden Mist Village, absolutely no one can tell.

Everything that can be seen has been cleaned up.

The rest of them are just simple thugs, like the upper ninja Fuuko from the Hidden Mist Village on the front line. They are decently strong and have decent brains, but they may not be that smart, observant, or strong.

Among the remaining people in the Hidden Mist Village now (those who have not been replaced by White Zetsu), Hyacinthus is already considered an outstanding one.

The Mist Ninjas are continuously heading to the front line.

This is also the first time that the "Master" has left the Ninja Village in decades.

Add the two together.

The morale boost it brings to the Mist Ninjas on the front lines is unparalleled.

By the time the news spread that the Master had landed on the southern coast of River Country, the morale of the Mist Ninjas had reached an extremely high level.

They firmly believed that their master had arranged everything 100%. They only needed to follow his instructions and they would be able to defeat the enemy in front of them, wash away the shame of the previous defeat with blood, and take back the Three-Tails and Six-Tails that should have belonged to their Hidden Mist Village.

"Water Style - Water Bubble Jade Technique."

"Earth escape technique - Earth formation wall technique."

"Lei Dun!"

"Wind escape!"

"Fire escape!"

"Ding ding ding ding ding!"

For a moment, the border between the Kingdom of Rivers and the Kingdom of Grass was filled with the powerful figures of the Mist Ninjas.

It has come to this.

The overly vast border and the completely inferior numbers of the Light Ninjas gave the Mist Ninjas an apparent advantage. A large number of Mist Ninjas could even cross the border and go straight into the heart of the Grass Country.

The previously impregnable chain of defensive outposts were also destroyed in less than ten days by the powerful attack of the Mist Ninja.

Nearly half of them were directly removed.

Suigetsu and Yugao can indeed still inflict a dimensionality reduction attack on the enemies they fight against. As long as they don't fall into the seals and barrier traps carefully prepared by the Mist Ninjas, the two of them don't need to transform into tailed beasts and can easily kill the attacking Mist Ninjas.

In just a dozen days of fighting before and after, the number of Mist Ninjas who died at the hands of the two had exceeded three digits.

But even so.

Under the crushing of the huge number of Mist Ninjas.

The advantage on the scene still belongs to the Mist Ninjas.

Even though the casualty ratio of the Mist Ninjas was rising infinitely at an extremely exaggerated trend, under Obito's deliberate suppression, the Mist Ninjas only saw their own side advancing to victory.

Morale was not affected in the slightest.

Instead, it further increased in a short period of time.

It is truly an attack at all costs.

As for Yugao and Mizuki, there were Mist Ninjas from the Sealing Class and Barrier Class specially arranged by Obito to deal with them. There was no requirement to win or seal. The only perfunctory tactical requirement was to delay them for one more day.

Obito didn't take the lives of these Mist Ninjas seriously at all.

Even in such a short period of time, the number of casualties among the Mist Ninjas was close to one thousand, and the death toll accounted for a full half of the total.

Obito's heart was also calm. They were just chess pieces.

It is their honor to be able to serve his plan, and to complete the plan and die peacefully. This is what Obito feels is the final meaning and value of the survival of these Mist Ninjas.

Let’s not discuss whether there are any actual results.

Anyway, after eliminating the outer strongholds, killing nearly a hundred Light Ninjas in total, and also going deep into the heart of the Land of Grass and cutting off the Light Ninjas' front-line supplies once or twice, at Obito's signal, the Hidden Mist Village directly announced to the outside world that their own ninja village had achieved a major tactical victory and had completely broken through the first line of defense of the Hidden Mist Village.

In order to further exacerbate the turmoil in the ninja world.

In order to draw the ninja villages of various countries into this melee more quickly, Obito also sent corresponding envoys to the four major ninja villages again with great fanfare.

False victory.

It is difficult to truly cover up the fact of huge casualties.

If time drags on too long and the Hidden Mist Village fails to make a substantial breakthrough, even the dumbest Mist Ninjas will be able to react, and at that time, the Hidden Mist Village will become very difficult to control.

There won't be much loss though.

But that was obviously far from what Obito had expected at the beginning. Obito didn't care whether the Hidden Mist Village was destroyed or not, but the prerequisite was to see a new war break out among the major ninja villages. This was the core goal of Obito's plan this time.

Spread the news as widely as possible.

It did indeed further attract the attention of ninja villages in various countries. The Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Iwagakure Village, which had originally deployed corresponding forces on the border because of the war between the two villages, as well as Ohnoki and Ai, once again sent support troops to the front line the moment they received the news.

Including Maki, who just wanted to be a bystander at the beginning, was also forced to mobilize part of his troops to support the border area near the Grass Country and the River Country.

It’s not that Machi has changed his mind.

But the battle between the Mist Ninja and the Light Ninja was right next to their Wind Kingdom, so Maki had to be on guard.

They really don't want to go to war and will avoid it as much as possible.

But war is not something that can be decided unilaterally by one's own decision. It is easy to be dragged into it if you are not careful.

Maki was even ready to lead the team himself.

He also ordered Gaara not to continue his missions and to stay in the village for the time being. If the situation on the front line changes, Maki will take Gaara into battle directly. Now the Sand Village can only rely on Gaara.

Maki also firmly believed that as long as the Sand Village did not cross the line at will, they would be able to withstand normal offensive and defensive battles.

The major ninja villages were constantly deploying troops, further fueling the tense atmosphere in the ninja world.

All of a sudden, the situation became critical and it seemed like a storm was about to come.

It can be said that Menma is almost in the center of the storm, but he still stands still.

"It's really a full-scale attack. It seems that the Hidden Mist Village has completely fallen into the control of that guy."

Taki no Kuni, Hikari Village.

Almost at the same time, the Mist Ninjas on the front line were advancing in large numbers.

Wuwei immediately led the team to the front line and at the same time passed the corresponding information to Menma.

No matter what, that’s a Mist Ninja Army of nearly 10,000.

The Hidden Mist Village came out in full force.

Not everyone can remain calm under the pressure that is brought about.

"Tens of thousands of Mist Ninjas are being thrown into the battlefield just like that. Isn't that crazy? In previous wars, no ninja village has ever mobilized nearly ten thousand ninjas, right!?"

Karin, who was sitting on the side, also said this with an incredible expression.

Even if it is the ultimate decisive battle between ninja villages.

Generally, only four to five thousand troops were concentrated, which was already an exaggerated figure, because the number of ninjas from the five major countries at their peak was at most 20,000, and four to five thousand was already a quarter of the strength.

Under normal circumstances, they account for more than one-third of the manpower of the ninja village.

You can't really count those young ninjas as basic combat power. They are even more cannon fodder than cannon fodder.

Now the Mist Ninja has mobilized nearly ten thousand ninjas at one time. Although it is not the total number of ninjas in the Hidden Mist Village, it is close to eighty or ninety percent, because they just lost two or three thousand soldiers before. What the Hidden Mist Village is doing is simply putting all their belongings on the gambling table. It is irrational and abnormal no matter how you look at it.

"There are precedents. The Hidden Rock Village once mobilized 10,000 troops to encircle and suppress the Third Raikage of the Hidden Cloud Village. However, this is indeed a very rare example, which is enough to prove the other party's intentions."

Menma narrowed his eyes slightly, and a hint of coldness flashed in his pupils.

"Is this really the same mysterious Uchiha who released the Kyuubi from Aunt Kushina's body fourteen years ago? Menma?"

Xianglin asked as if she was a little hesitant.

It’s not that I don’t trust Menma.

I just feel that if there is a misjudgment in such an important matter, it will easily affect their next actions.

"Don't worry, Karin. This is the only thing I can be 100% sure of. That guy has a criminal record. Remember what I told you about the Fourth Mizukage? There is very solid evidence for this. Orochimaru is also aware of this. This Uchiha and the Akatsuki organization have a very close connection. Their target is the tailed beasts in our bodies."

Menma nodded seriously and said.

If Menma was only 70% to 80% sure before, now he is 100% sure that Obito is behind the Mist Ninja.

It's not that there is any solid evidence, it's just a consideration from the perspective of rationality.

The current situation is in the best interests of Akatsuki.

The more chaotic the ninja world is, and the more the power of the major ninja villages is weakened, the more successful the Moon Eye Project will be.

The reason why this was not done in the original book can only be explained by the wrong timing or there was no better opportunity.

In this life.

It was obvious that Obito seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Menma subconsciously praised Obito in his heart.

"Then shouldn't we adjust our plan? We should deal with him first. He can control the Nine-Tails. Such power is a little too terrifying."

Xianglin pursed her lips and said solemnly.

"No, there is absolutely no need for that. Karin, it's not time to close the net yet. We still need to be patient. We need to be vigilant against this guy. The same goes for Konoha, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure. We still need some time. Everything should proceed according to the original plan."

Menma said, shaking his head slightly.

(End of this chapter)