Konoha: The Soul King from the Uchiha Clan

Chapter 8 Onoki's High-Stakes Gamble

After some thought, the elders of Iwagakure all nodded in agreement.

The last time they lured the enemy deep into their Iwagakure territory, they killed the Third Raikage. Although the losses were heavy, it wasn't a complete loss overall.

Before the Third Raikage stayed behind to cover the retreat alone, many people died in Kumogakure.

"The Sand Village was already weakened by internal strife due to the disappearance of the Third Kazekage. Afterwards, they attacked Konoha in order to get a share of the spoils, and suffered considerable losses as well."

"Having lost another portion of their forces to Konoha, do they still have the strength to provoke our Iwagakure?"

"If you are still worried, we can send an envoy to Kirigakure to seek cooperation."

"Our Iwagakure and Kirigakure villages have very little conflict of interest, while Sunagakure and Kirigakure villages often have conflicts of interest due to the Land of Tea and other places, so there is considerable room for cooperation."

"Therefore, some of the troops defending against the Sand Ninja can also be drawn from the army."

"If we squeeze in a little more from within the village, a force of a thousand men will be formed."

"I know this is a gamble."

"We won the bet. The future development of Iwagakure will reach a new level and create unprecedented glory."

"If we lose the bet, Iwagakure will be the first to withdraw from the Shinobi World War, and we'll get almost nothing."

"I've decided to take the gamble. What about you?"

Onoki's face was resolute as he floated in the air, his sharp eyes surveying the surroundings from his high vantage point.

"bet!"

"Let's do it!"

"Let's give it our all!"

"..."

The elders of Iwagakure Village exchanged glances, struggled internally for a few breaths, and then all agreed.

"very good."

"Since we are opening a new front, we need a new logistical support route."

"After breaking into the Land of Fire, the battle lines will be stretched out, and the logistical supply routes will even determine the success or failure of this high-stakes gamble."

"This place...cannot afford to be lost!"

Onoki flew to the map hanging on the wall behind him, and his fingertip transformed into a slender stone stick, which he then pointed at a place name.

The elders of Iwagakure took a closer look and saw that the place was called Kannabi Bridge.

Looking at the geography around the bridge on the map, the elders of Iwagakure nodded in approval.

To establish a new logistical supply route in the Land of Grass, this bridge is unavoidable.

"Alright, now let's refine this plan."

Onoki floated back to his seat and said in a deep voice.

Elder Yan Yin began to speak freely.

Some might wonder, is a mere bridge really so crucial that it cannot be lost?

In fact, it really does deserve that title.

The river under the Kannabi Bridge is not particularly wide, but it is not narrow either, and the river flows very fast.

Not all ninjas can climb trees and walk on water; that requires precise chakra control, and is generally only achievable by mid- to high-ranking ninjas.

Moreover, treading on flowing water is different from treading on calm water; the faster the flow, the more difficult it is.

In the original story, Sasuke learned to tread water on calm water, and it took him several days to learn, and he ended up covered in dirt.

What kind of education did Sasuke receive?

Born into a prestigious family, he received a complete ninja academy education during peacetime. He was the top student at the ninja academy, personally instructed by Kakashi. He was an elite who could fight two Kirigakure ninja brothers without being at a disadvantage.

The vast majority of genin from the five great ninja villages—no, the entire ninja world—know nothing but the Three Body Techniques. They're only good at close-range taijutsu, and at mid- to long-range, they can only manage kunai and shuriken. They don't even bother with explosive tags.

Explosive tags are not cheap, and normal genin usually use them as a trump card.

The qualities of the twelve Konoha 1s in the original work do not represent the qualities of most Genin. The real Genin are those insignificant extras, or even those who are just background characters without faces.

Furthermore, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, all the major ninja villages were expanding their armies and preparing for war, leaving little time for training and development, which led to a further decline in the quality of the genin.

Unfortunately, most of the land's defenses consist of vast deserts formed by high mountains and rocks, with scarce water resources.

Furthermore, Iwagakure is a village that likes to mass-produce troops, often deploying thousands or even tens of thousands at a time, so the quality of its soldiers is questionable.

Is it too much to ask genin of such high caliber to have exceptional chakra control to learn water-treading skills?

To put it bluntly, if you don't have enough chakra control, you'll never learn it in your entire life.

Therefore, if the bridge is destroyed, jonin might still be able to cross, but genin can only look at the river and lament.

Ironically, genin are the main force of the major ninja villages, chunin are barely considered experts, and jonin are the true experts, the most elite ninjas in the village.

To put it simply, a genin is like a soldier in the army, a chunin is like a captain, a special jonin is like a centurion, and a jonin is like a junior officer.

Without a large number of main forces, what can a small number of experts do?

They're not experts who can pilot a fully-fledged Gundam; even a Kage-level expert can't do whatever they want in war.

If treading water won't work, how about using Earth Release ninjutsu to build a bridge?

The answer is still no.

In the original work, the commotion caused by the three Jonin using Earth Release at the Kannabi Bridge was nothing special.

Although these three Jonin are somewhat weak, perhaps because they were recently promoted, they have at least reached the threshold of Jonin status.

Even the earth-style movements of a Jonin are so small, what about those of a Chunin?

Moreover, earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a technique that requires the use of terrain to exert its power, and there is no soil on rivers.)

Extending from both sides of a river requires a vast amount of chakra and extremely precise chakra control; very few can meet these conditions.

Small bridges are one thing, but building large bridges requires a lot of technical expertise. Modern large bridges involve a lot of preparatory work before construction and are built strictly according to standards. If there is even the slightest problem, they will collapse.

When it comes to building bridges, Yamato's Wood Release is actually more suitable than Earth Release.

If someone had the strength of Huang Tu during the Fourth World War, they could also do it in a brutal and tyrannical way, but Huang Tu has not yet grown to that level.

Onoki could very well do it, but how could the Tsuchikage possibly come to Kannabi Bridge to guard and build it?

There are still many things that Onoki needs to decide.

Therefore, for Iwagakure, Kannabi is truly not to be lost!

……

As time passed, Uchiha Gen, having not received any orders to transfer, obediently stayed in the clan's territory to cultivate.

As a rising new genius of the Uchiha clan, he doesn't need to worry about ninjutsu.

At the start of the war, the old Uchiha clan patriarch had already ordered that all the ninjutsu stored in the clan be made available to the clan's ninjas, but only those with the corresponding strength could learn the corresponding ninjutsu.

With the strength of a Special Jonin recognized by the Eighth Hokage, Gen Uchiha was already capable of learning B-rank ninjutsu.

As the most prestigious clan in the ninja world, the Uchiha clan naturally possesses a collection of ninjutsu far beyond fire-style techniques. They also have regular ninjutsu from the four elemental types: wind, earth, lightning, and water.

Once this opportunity is gone, it's gone forever. After the war, if you want to learn ninjutsu again, you have to serve your clan and make contributions.

Therefore, we must take this opportunity to fleece the family!

The progress that Uchiha Gen made in learning Fire Release ninjutsu left Uchiha Yatsuho, who was temporarily in charge of clan affairs, dumbfounded.

Learn one B-rank Fire Release ninjutsu and one B-rank genjutsu in a day?

This is way too damn outrageous!

The Eighth Hokage of Uchiha initially didn't believe it, but he had no choice but to believe it after Uchiha Gen personally demonstrated it.

The devastated Uchiha Hachiman finally granted him permission to freely browse and learn any ninjutsu within his authority.

In fact, Uchiha Gen cheated, or more accurately, he cheated halfway.

Uchiha Gen's mastery of genjutsu was indeed divinely aided.

Perhaps due to his two lifetimes and the Soul-Soul Fruit, the genjutsu collected by the Uchiha clan was indeed no challenge for Uchiha Gen; he could master it as easily as eating and drinking.

While Uchiha Gen's talent in Fire Release ninjutsu was decent, it was still within the normal range.

The reason it was able to be used was because Zhu Rong was incorporated into the Fire Release technique, which secretly cheated by helping to increase the temperature, expand the range, and control the shape, but in reality, the skill was not enough.

With the permission of the Eighth Hokage, Gen Uchiha memorized all the fire, wind, and earth elemental ninjutsu collected by the clan, intending to learn them gradually in the future.

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(End of this chapter)