The Great Hero Uchiha

It took Uchiha Miyuki a month to reach the Land of Rice Fields. It was the first time he had fought such a rich war. The two sides were almost evenly matched in terms of military strength. Of course, this was only on the surface. In reality, the number of Chunin was scarce, and the number of Genin made up a very large proportion. They relied on positional warfare and passive defense to reduce the mobility of Chunin squads to maintain the situation.

This is also the fundamental reason why Minato Namikaze decided to participate in the war and end it quickly.

The casualties in the previous war were too great.

The number of ninjas is currently maintained at about half of what it was before the war, thanks to the expansion of the overall number of genin! Otherwise, the number of ninjas would be less than one-third of what it was before the war.

Originally, Iwagakure was in a better situation than Konoha after its defeat, but under Kirigakure's frenzied retaliation, it has become similar to Konoha.

The long-term battle between Kumogakure and Konoha, the surprise attack by Iwagakure, and the defeat of Sunagakure left them with nearly half of their forces.

Sunagakure survived a surprise attack by Kumogakure and was defeated by Orochimaru, but still retained two-thirds of its forces.

Only Kirigakure is relatively well preserved.

Four of the five great nations have been ravaged to such an extent that the ninja villages of smaller countries are almost wiped out! At least 40,000 ninjas have been killed or wounded throughout the entire ninja world, and the number of civilians who died directly or indirectly from the war is incalculable. Yet, the war continues despite this devastation, which is the fundamental reason why the average lifespan of ninjas is only in their twenties!

The war will only stop when a victory is achieved, or when all countries lack sufficient troops to wage war.

Moreover, this kind of war breaks out about once every twenty-five years!

This is why people's lives are so primitive, and no construction can withstand the impact of such a terrifying ninja war.

It is precisely because the way of life is so primitive that even a slight natural disaster or man-made calamity, coupled with limited resources and a slight increase in population, can overwhelm domestic resources, triggering a crisis that affects the entire country. Therefore, the only option is to wage war to plunder the resources of other nations and deplete the excess population, thus allowing the country to weather the crisis. However, war destroys everything, keeping the way of life primitive.

The headquarters of Konoha is situated on a farmland.

This place used to be a golden field during harvest season, but now it is a scorched earth. The villagers who lived nearby have all died, and the fertile land will become wasteland after this war. When someone restores this place to its former golden state, it will be around the time of the next Shinobi World War.

But that's how it is—

The two opposing armies are still sucking blood from the land of the fields.

The Land of Lightning is too far from the Land of Rice. Even if it weren't so, they would still collect grain from their own territory. After all, from a geopolitical point of view, the Land of Lightning can only control the Land of Rice for a short time. In the long run, even if the Land of Fire doesn't try to reclaim it, the Land of Rice will try every means to break free from the control of the Land of Lightning and continue to depend on the Land of Fire.

Because the fundamental control of their country is in the hands of the Land of Fire!

Even if Konoha doesn't actively collect grain, the Land of Rice Fields will still provide grain to Konoha as a sign of loyalty.

The Konoha ninjas hate the Hidden Cloud Village for forcibly requisitioning grain from the people of the Land of Rice regardless of their lives, but they don't know that if the situations in the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire were reversed, it would be Konoha that would be the one forcibly requisitioning grain from the people.

It's simply impossible to rely solely on local support without levying taxes, because food has a shelf life. Transporting food from the Land of Lightning to the battlefield in the Land of Rice Fields would put immense pressure on logistics, and even if the Land of Lightning were willing to do so, by the time the food arrived, most of it would already be moldy and spoiled. This is even with ninjas using sealing scrolls for transport.

A sealing scroll can seal items, but it cannot seal time along with them; the contents inside will still be affected by time.

This is one of the reasons why the Land of Lightning chose to hold the battlefield in the Land of Fields.

Of course, you can also send the grain from the Land of Fields to the Land of the Moon, and then send the grain from the Land of the Moon to the border areas of the Land of Lightning, and then transfer the grain from the border areas to the inland!

This is the ideal situation.

In fact, such a large project is simply impossible to implement; the losses would be too great, the costs too high, and the efficiency too low.

Uchiha Miyuki shifted his focus from strategy back to the present world.

These things may seem useless, but they can actually be used to deduce the strategic intentions of the Land of Lightning this time.

After pondering for a moment, he understood the Cloud Village's strategy this time: to take advantage of the chaos to plunder the Land of Rice Fields one last time and squeeze out the last bit of profit. The Land of Lightning was also well aware that the Land of Rice Fields' vassalage would eventually return to the Land of Fire, so naturally they wanted to squeeze out as much profit as possible within their control.

These two small countries are too close to the Land of Fire and overly dependent on it, and too far from the Land of Lightning.

Based on the Land of Lightning's strategy and the intelligence he possessed, Uchiha Miyuki calculated the location of the main force of the Hidden Cloud Village on the map.

This is Konoha's only advantage right now: they can analyze the opponent's specific strategy, while the opponent cannot analyze Konoha's specific strategy.

Previously, in order to avoid the two armies continuing to be deadlocked in the Land of Rice Fields, it was natural to withdraw each other's troops from the Land of Rice Fields and leave this buffer zone. Now, the two sides have only been at war for a little over a month, and both armies have only been temporarily transferred into the Land of Rice Fields. Therefore, the war is still at the stage of probing the weak points of each other's battle lines and the positions of the main forces.

As for relying on the country of Tian to tip them off?

Do they really think the ninjas of Kumogakure are just for show? How could they make such a basic mistake?

"Here! The main force of the Hidden Cloud Village should be deployed in this area. Send the intelligence unit to investigate this area. The war cannot drag on; it must end as soon as possible!"

There are simply too many genin on Konoha's side; the longer the war goes on, the more severe the casualties will be.

Furthermore, a protracted war would expose Konoha's weaknesses.

The Hidden Cloud Village is the kind of country where the weaker you are, the more motivated they become.

This is one of the reasons why Kumogakure, instead of seeking revenge, attacked Konoha after the Third Raikage was ambushed and killed by Iwagakure.

Because Konoha is weak!

P.S.: The update schedule seems to be getting increasingly unpredictable—

171. Some losses you only learn from after experiencing them.

The intelligence unit quickly confirmed Uchiha Miyuki's idea; the main force of Kumogakure was indeed at that location.

With this intelligence advantage, Uchiha Miyuki stared at the map, quickly calculating in his mind how to maximize the other party's advantage.

Direct combat is always a last resort, not a conventional method, since this time we are facing a near-perfect Eight-Tails Jinchuriki and the Fourth Raikage.

A plan came to mind.

"Marching, to this place."

Under the command of Uchiha Miyuki, the army began a rapid march.

Along the way, Uchiha Miyuki issued a series of orders, using the characteristics of Kumogakure to create the illusion of Konoha's weakness, gradually luring Kumogakure to the final battlefield chosen by Uchiha Miyuki. During this time, Uchiha Miyuki was naturally not idle and did nothing.

If we have too many low-ranking ninjas, then we should adopt a legion-based strategy.

The fire technique gradually evaporates the river water, increases the humidity in the air, and heats the surrounding air.

That's right!

He manipulates a genin to replicate Uchiha Sasuke's [Lightning Release: Kirin]! As for the hit rate, it doesn't matter at all. As long as he uses Water Release in conjunction with the rain, making the ground full of water, it doesn't matter where Kirin lands. If the power is not enough, he can rely on the ninja to release Lightning Release to make up for it!

This effectively leveled the gap in strength between the two sides' forces.

If the ninjas' overall strength is insufficient, then they should rely on the power of nature.

After repeated testing, I finally mastered this move.

The main force of Kumogakure also noticed the main force of Konoha, and the two sides met at the battlefield chosen by Uchiha Miyuki!

"Why is the air so muggy around here? It shouldn't be this muggy at this time of year, right?"

The Hidden Cloud Village noticed the anomaly in this area.

However, they could not see through the mystery behind it.

Furthermore, the fact that Konoha had been constantly showing weakness had made the Kumogakure forces a little overconfident. In addition, Kumogakure has always been reckless, and after sending out reconnaissance teams to conduct a large-scale search, they confirmed that Konoha had not laid an ambush. Moreover, Kumogakure also had the advantage in strength, and even though the weather was a little abnormal, they still advanced little by little.

We can't just withdraw our troops because we think the weather is unusual, can we?

If it were Iwagakure, they would have definitely retreated by now... It's just that they suffered a loss, and no matter how much others say, they can't understand it until they've experienced it themselves!

Uchiha Miyuki calmly gazed at Kumogakure.

Killer Bee, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, and the Fourth Raikage stood before the main force of Kumogakure, facing off against Uchiha Miyuki. On the Konoha side, only Uchiha Miyuki, who had activated Susanoo, could rival the two in terms of raw strength; the others were slightly weaker, and there was a significant gap in their high-level combat power.

Overall, without Uchiha Miyuki, this war could only be fought with a roundabout strategy, a war of attrition and attrition, but even then, Konoha's chances of winning would be very low.

And it is often at this time that someone from Konoha will step forward and change the course of the battle.

In short, every time Konoha was able to turn the tide of battle, it was through a series of miracles.

This situation arises entirely because many powerful individuals eliminate their own allies or force them to leave the village before the enemy can even make a move.

The Hidden Cloud Village has entered the designated area.

Uchiha Miyuki immediately gave the order.

"Water escape!"

As soon as the words fell, Uchiha Miyuki took the lead in forming hand seals, and the genin and jonin around him followed suit.

Various water-based techniques were released almost simultaneously.

The most outrageous of them all was the [Water Dragon Bullet] released by Uchiha Miyuki!

The enormous power was terrifying, and with the cooperation of other Jonin, the entire river was directly cut off by ninjutsu and gathered into a giant dragon.

Yamato's Wood Release cells pushed Uchiha Miyuki's Water Release Nature Transformation to a new level. As long as he didn't wear his clan crest and used his Sharingan, no one could associate him with the Uchiha clan based solely on his ninjutsu. After all, the Uchiha clan was one of the most skilled in Fire Release in the ninja world, and when had they ever seen such a freak who had mastered Water Release to this extent?

The terrifying water-style attack swept towards the Cloud Village army like a natural disaster, with Uchiha Miyuki not even caring about the outcome.

These measures, while not enough to defeat the Cloud Village army, could indirectly block their most proficient Lightning Release techniques. With the surrounding area now a vast ocean, using Lightning Release at this point would not only have its power dispersed but also risk accidentally injuring allies!

"Fire escape!"

In terms of Fire Release, Uchiha Miyuki was completely slacking off.

The air, which had cooled down, heated up rapidly again, and the clouds, which had already stored a lot of rain, began to fall, accompanied by rolling thunder and lightning.

"Tudun!"

Together, they built a huge platform to separate Konoha from the ocean below.

Uchiha Miyuki gave Kumogakure no chance to react at all.

"Lei Dun!"

The genin used lightning release ninjutsu to teleport directly to the ocean below, while the jonin and chunin worked together to summon natural lightning from the sky.

Like a thunderous unicorn, the thunderous roars seemed like the furious cries of a divine beast!

At this moment, only this roar, seemingly capable of tearing the heavens and earth apart, remained between heaven and earth!

Terrifying lightning bolts pierced down, connecting heaven and earth—

Before Uchiha Miyuki could give any orders, the surrounding ninjas once again used Earth Release to completely isolate the troops from the ocean, to prevent them from being accidentally injured by the terrifying Lightning Kirin. This wasn't to defend against lightning damage, but rather to cut off the surrounding water flow to prevent the lightning from spreading upwards. However, even this defensive Earth Release was directly shattered by the spreading lightning! Pierced through!

The Konoha ninjas were filled with fear as they watched the Kumogakure troops being devoured by the Lightning Kirin in the distance.

Finally, all eyes were drawn to Uchiha Miyuki, who was in charge of everything, and he truly seemed like a god.

The right time!

geography!

People!

Uchiha Miyuki utilized everything, completing hand seals as if releasing a ninjutsu, and unleashing a ninjutsu called "The Might of Heaven and Earth"—normally, the accumulated lightning in nature wouldn't be this much, nor would its power be this great, yet Uchiha Miyuki had prepared for this for a whole month!!