"Hmph! Those guys from Cloud Village are all brainless brutes."
Hiruzen Sarutobi snorted softly.
His teacher, Tobirama Senju, had once done exactly the same thing as Third Raikage—choosing to stay behind voluntarily to protect them, and eventually dying at the hands of Kinkaku and Ginkaku, two rogue ninja from Cloud.
This act had once left a deep impression on him, but now Hiruzen no longer agreed with it.
As he aged, his views on many matters had changed significantly.
A Kage was the soul of a village and should remain in the center—how could he recklessly risk himself?
Someone like Third Raikage, acting without regard for consequences, simply didn't understand politics.
Now that he's dead, Cloud Village must be in complete chaos by now, right?
If it were him, he would never have made the same choice.
But perhaps this wasn't so bad after all—while Cloud and Iwagakure fought each other, Konoha could reap the benefits like a fisherman.
Just then, someone knocked on the office door.
"Enter."
"Lord Hokage, it's terrible!"
Seeing the Anbu rush in urgently, Hiruzen frowned slightly. "What happened?"
"Ninja from Cloud have attacked our frontline camp!"
"What?!"
Upon hearing the report, Hiruzen was shocked and immediately stood up from his seat.
"Lord Hokage, this is the secret report from the frontline."
Taking the intelligence scroll handed over by the Anbu, Hiruzen's expression became unpredictable.
Although in his view, such intelligence seemed absurd, he also knew nobody would dare joke about something like this.
"What nonsense are those fools thinking?"
Hiruzen nearly spat blood from anger; things had gone completely differently than he had planned.
The Third Raikage died at the hands of Iwagakure ninja—in normal logic, shouldn't Cloud go after Iwagakure for revenge?
Why attack Konoha?!
Did they really think he was an easy target?
"Go, bring Orochimaru here."
"Yes!"
Rubbing his temples which had begun to throb painfully, Hiruzen felt a wave of helplessness rise inside him.
The war with Sunagakure was already headache enough, and now Cloud joined the mix...
In the shadows lurked Iwagakure and Kirigakure, watching hungrily.
If another Great Ninja World War were to break out, would Konoha still be able to endure attacks from other villages as it had before?
...
Three days later.
After receiving Hiruzen's orders, Mirai Uchiha headed straight toward the battlefield against Cloud Village the very same day.
During that time, Tajima Uchiha had specially come looking for Mirai Uchiha. He even offered to give up part of the Uchiha Clan's interests just to ensure Mirai Uchiha remained in the village.
The conditions were so favorable that even Hiruzen Sarutobi found them tempting.
However, Mirai Uchiha firmly refused this offer and insisted on going to the battlefield in Cloud.
His determined attitude gave Hiruzen even more confidence in his plan.
That battlefield was a real meat grinder where one could easily lose their life.
No ninja would deliberately look for thrills on the battlefield.
But... a genius from a prestigious ninja clan who enjoyed full support from his family resolutely chose to go there.
Wasn't this exactly what it meant to inherit the "Will of Fire"?
Fortunately, he hadn't listened to Danzō's advice back then; otherwise, such a promising talent would have been wasted.
Hiruzen believed that Mirai Uchiha, with this kind of awareness, would inevitably become a keen-edged dagger ready to strike against the Uchiha Clan whenever needed.
As for the increasingly scheming Hiruzen Sarutobi, Mirai Uchiha naturally knew nothing about these thoughts in the other's mind.
With his current strength, he no longer needed to care about the opinions of people like Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō Shimura.
If they became angry, well, then they might as well break ties early.
The only reason why he wanted to go to the battlefield was simple: to seize rewards by killing enemies.
...
After traveling at full speed for two days, Mirai Uchiha saw Orochimaru, who served as the overall commander, at the main headquarters.
When he saw Mirai Uchiha, Orochimaru smoothly extended his slightly pale right hand toward Mirai Uchiha.
If Mirai didn't already know that Orochimaru was interested in his body, he might really mistake the guy for having some unusual kinks.
"Mirai-kun, I've heard your name for a long time. It's a pleasure to finally meet you today."
"The pleasure is all mine."
"Do you know what the current situation is like at the frontline?"
Mirai Uchiha smiled but did not reach out to shake hands with Orochimaru.
Orochimaru wasn't offended. Instead, he pulled out a map and began explaining.
"Cloud has more ninjas than us, but their overall strength doesn't match that of our village's ninjas."
"Except for the initial surprise attack at the beginning, which caught us off guard, the current situation has gradually stabilized."
"However... there's still a significant gap between us and Cloud regarding high-level combat power."
At this point, Orochimaru sighed.
Especially A and Killer B—they had been constantly raiding Konoha's ninjas in various places, causing heavy casualties.
And they always avoided direct confrontation with Konoha, disappearing immediately after each attack.
Even if they occasionally fell into an ambush, there was little he could do alone against those two.
"Mirai-kun, do you have any thoughts on this matter?"
Orochimaru asked Mirai Uchiha while looking at him.
He had always been stubborn and self-willed, yet for some reason, he really wanted to hear what this young man had to say.
Faced with Orochimaru's question, Mirai Uchiha answered calmly, "This matter isn't as difficult to resolve as it might seem."
"Oh?"
Orochimaru felt somewhat surprised.
Could it be... that this acknowledged prodigy actually had a good idea?
Seeing the curious look in Orochimaru's eyes, Mirai Uchiha smiled slightly. "It's simple—we just need to eliminate more of their ninja than they manage to take from us."
Upon hearing Mirai Uchiha's words, Orochimaru's eyes lit up.
He had never considered this approach before.
Kumo lags far behind Konoha in overall combat strength. If they started killing each other's low-level ninja, Kumo would suffer the heavier losses.
"Mirai-kun, you were sent here to assist even when your peers were still only qualified for missions like caravan escorts. Indeed, you possess exceptional strengths."
"Then... shortly I will assign two jonin to join you in forming a raiding squad. Your task will be to eliminate Kumo's genin and chunin teams."
Hearing Orochimaru's words, Mirai Uchiha shook his head. "No. I prefer working alone."
"Very well, but be careful."
Orochimaru did not say more, simply waving at Mirai Uchiha. "Mirai-kun, go rest for now."
As the commander, he needed to finalize the mission plans quickly.
If he could accumulate enough prestige on this battlefield, nothing would stand in his way of becoming Hokage.
And once that time came, he would wield all the authority necessary to pursue every experiment he desired.
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