Escape From Konoha

"Shikaku, what else are you planning for the afternoon?"

After the lunch break at noon, Tsunade returned to the Hokage's office and asked Shikaku what other plans she had for the afternoon.

After comparing the text on the itinerary, Shikaku glanced at it and replied to Tsunade:

"Hokage-sama, there is only a small short meeting left at four o'clock in the afternoon schedule. Other than that, all that is left is to read the report submitted by the hospital."

The lunch break has just ended, and it's only one o'clock. There are still three hours to spare before four o'clock.

According to Shikaku, there will be a three-hour 'short vacation'.

Even so, Tsunade still felt empty when she heard that there was nothing to do next.

Maybe it's because after returning to Konoha, I was used to being busy, and suddenly having nothing to do made me feel a little uncomfortable.

"In a short meeting...are you messing around with those two old guys again?"

Tsunade didn't like the two people on the advisory board very much.

In particular, the advisory group's behavior of stealing the fruits of the Hokage's achievements in the name of assisting the Hokage's work made her even more disgusted.

If he has stolen the fruits of her labor and is her supporter, then of course there is no need to say more. However, if he takes her benefits, he often does not stand on the same front, which undoubtedly creates obstacles for her.

It's just that there is currently no way to remove the balance without affecting the stability of Konoha.

Otherwise, these two old guys should have stepped down from their advisory positions long ago.

But the current balance is probably what all parties within Konoha want to see most.

It's called "ruling Konoha together with the Hokage", but the real idea is to find ways to increase one's own strength and weaken the power of the Hokage under the conditions of the establishment of the rules.

It is nominally led by the Hokage, but to truly operate Konoha, a huge ninja village organization, the approval of the roots and ninja factions is needed.

Such restrictions made Tsunade feel unhappy more than once.

Fortunately, there are several important departments with real power under her. Most of the ANBU is controlled by herself, the Hokage, and a very small part is controlled by the Sarutobi clan. Therefore, there is not too long delay in issuing government orders. He is not so depressed that even issuing a decree requires the approval of the root and the ninja clan, otherwise he will not be able to get out of the embarrassing situation of the Hokage's office.

If so, Naruto would really be a mascot on the table.

"Yes."

Being used to Tsunade's harsh words, Shikaku naturally knew who the old thing Tsunade was referring to.

Fortunately, the Inar, Deer, and Butterfly clans still gravitate toward the Hokage. In addition, the Hyuga clan, which has obtained the position of senior elder, now has a close relationship with the Hokage. As a result, the Hokage has the long-term upper hand in terms of checks and balances of power.

But to take back the lost power step by step, Lu Jiu believes that this is a long-term solution and cannot be implemented in the short term.

A major change is needed.

As for the major opportunities for such a change, Shikaku can think of two.

Danzo Shimura, the leader of a root, has naturally ended his lifespan, and the martial arts sect is leaderless. At that time, Konoha will definitely usher in a reshuffle of the internal situation.

The second is a strong external pressure environment.

But compared to the first possibility, the second possibility is basically impossible to occur.

Konoha can now use as many as 20,000 ninjas to participate in the war. Although most of them are still genin, ninjas are ninjas after all, and when gathered together, they are also a powerful deterrent force.

What's more, the next actions of the Four Nations Alliance will make Konoha's external environment even more stable.

Therefore, the real opportunity can only come when Danzo dies and the whole group is leaderless.

The arrival of this opportunity may be five years, it may be ten years, or it may be longer.

"Forget it, let's not mention them. Let's get the report from the hospital."

Tsunade had always had the idea of ​​​​out of sight, out of mind when it came to the two consultants, so she decided to read the hospital report as soon as possible.

Shikaku took out the report from the nearby bookshelf and handed it to Tsunade for reading.

The above reports are all about the research progress of several major projects carried out by Konoha Hospital recently.

For example, the research progress of medical talismans and the training progress of psychological medical personnel are all major tasks that Konoha Hospital will undertake next.

"Because the medical department has requested a large amount of research funds this year, the heads of other departments have submitted application letters many times. I hope that you, Hokage-sama, will exercise restraint in this regard."

When Tsunade read the report, Shikaku reminded him.

"About this matter, I have made it very clear. Medical research must be stepped up, so that the losses of Konoha ninjas in the mission can be reduced."

"However, the heads of those departments claimed that the hospital has been unable to produce results, and there has been no substantial progress so far. Maybe some people are lining their own pockets..."

"Research matters can never be fruitful so quickly. Back then, the village promoted medical reform during the Second Ninja War, and it took several years to gradually lay the groundwork."

Tsunade scoffed at this statement.

Because the hospital's research project was of great importance, she not only dispatched her own ANBU to supervise it personally, but also personally reviewed the research work of the research department every half month.

As a senior medical ninja, she could easily tell whether these researchers had fooled her.

After all, with so much money invested, she couldn't just leave it to the hospital's research department to deal with it herself. She didn't investigate it herself and let some people drill holes in the research department's corpses.

At present, the deputy director of Konoha Hospital, Masumi Asami, has managed these things in an orderly manner and found out many researchers who were dawdling in the research department. Although the progress is a bit slow, this research progress is actually not counted. Worse.

Apart from the shortcoming of always coming here to ask for funds, there are no other problems.

And money is something that only makes sense if it is invested.

Although it caused some complaints from other departments in Konoha this year, in Tsunade's view, as long as the results come out, it will be completely worth it.

"Furthermore, although the village's medical department has trained many medical ninjas over the years, this number of medical ninjas is completely insufficient for the entire village. Not only is it surpassed by the Kingdom of Demons in scale, but even in the professional field, It can’t even be compared with the Kingdom of Ghosts.”

After reading the report compiled by the hospital, Tsunade felt that this was the top problem Konoha would face.

She has personally gone to the Ghost Country to investigate, and knows how prosperous the medical field is there. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a paradise for medical ninjas.

Moreover, these medical ninjas are designed in a wide range of fields, and many of them are problems that medical ninjas from other countries have not noticed.

If a war breaks out, the death rate of ninjas in the Kingdom of Ghosts will definitely be far lower than that of ninjas from other countries.

Shikaku was also thoughtful about Tsunade's question.

Because of the threat from the military power of the Kingdom of Demons, Konoha has been strengthening the construction of military power over the years and constantly increasing the size of ninjas, which has led to a leap in military power. But the problem that followed was, as Tsunade said implicitly, a serious shortage of medical ninjas.

Too much emphasis is placed on the expansion of the scale of ninjas and on combat effectiveness. On the contrary, the training model and even the scale of medical ninjas have not been improved any more.

Therefore, the coverage rate of medical ninjas for the entire Konoha ninja team is now much lower than during the Third Ninja War.

In the long run, this will not be conducive to the growth of Konoha Village.

Many ninjas did not die directly on the battlefield, but died of serious injuries before they could receive effective treatment.

"However, at this juncture, the scale of medical ninja must be suddenly increased..."

Not to mention that this year's investment in the entire medical department has far exceeded previous years. In the next December, there will be a huge operation. Will Konoha's energy be able to take care of so many things?

Will it cause discord within other departments?

"Sarutobi-sensei really left me a huge mess."

Listening to Tsunade's wistful tone, Shikaku stopped talking for a long time.

He had heard this kind of complaint from Tsunade countless times. Every time he encountered this kind of thing, the other party couldn't help but sigh like this.

But...it's true.

The core policies that each Hokage focuses on will not overlap.

The Second Generation Hokage created the Ninja School and ANBU to increase the Hokage's power, which can better mobilize the village's work efficiency and enhance the village's military power to centralize power. It was also the Hokage of Konoha. During the most powerful period, no one dared to touch it. brow.

The Sandaime Hokage took office in the face of crisis. In order to ensure the stability of Konoha, he focused on the balance of all groups in the village. However, due to some mistakes in policy and personal selfishness, the roots continued to grow, leaving many confused accounts.

The Fourth Hokage died young. He only had nearly a year in power and did very little. Although he had a grand development strategy, he had no time to implement it.

Now, as the fifth generation Hokage, Tsunade is enterprising and aggressive, while at the same time ensuring the stability of the village. She is very similar to the second generation Hokage's governing strategy. She wants to concentrate the power of the Hokage again to facilitate her ideas. .

It can be said that there is a big ambiguity with the conservative policy implemented by his mentor, the Sandaime Hokage.

In Tsunade's eyes, the Sandaime's policies were too conservative. Even though he changed some styles in the later period, nothing really changed in the end. Therefore, all the pressure was concentrated on Tsunade's head.

"Speaking of which, how is Class 7 doing lately?"

Tsunade asked the question instead.

Regarding this question, Shikaku quickly responded: "The progress of Class 7 is relatively good. According to Tenzo's report, in the previous assault training, Naruto's ability to sense external dangers has been appropriately improved. Later, he returned to During the mission, the performance of the team members was also excellent. Especially Naruto's growth, his chakra control, including basic training such as physical skills, has reached the standard and exceeded original expectations. Master Jiraiya I’m thinking of taking some time to take him to Miaomu Mountain to re-train in celestial arts.”

"Did that brat achieve the training target so quickly?"

"This is all due to the quick effect of the shadow clone training method. Otherwise, there is no way to complete these trainings in just a few months."

Shikaku gave this fair evaluation.

"I heard that this method was taught to Naruto by Kakashi?"

"Yes."

Tsunade nodded, her eyes flickering, not knowing what she was thinking.

At this moment, a figure suddenly appeared in the office. A closer look revealed that the figure was wearing ANBU clothing and was obviously a ninja directly under Tsunade.

"Hokage-sama, here is an urgent letter from the daimyo."

"bring here."

"yes!"

The ANBU quickly delivered the letter to Tsunade.

Tsunade opened the letter and scanned it, her expression suddenly became serious.

"Hokage-sama, what happened?"

Shikaku knew something big had happened when he saw Tsunade's face.

"A large-scale workers' riot occurred in the Country of Ikea. The daimyo in the castle was also attacked by unknown persons while traveling. The Daimyo asked us Konoha to take over the entrustment of the Country of Ikea and go to its country to investigate."

"The Country of Ponds?"

Shikaku remembers that this is a very small seaside country in the ninja world. Like Yuno Kuni, it is a small country with a developed hot spring industry. The development of the hot spring industry is second only to Yuno Kuni and it is a good tourist attraction.

However, what he did not expect was that there would be worker riots in this country, and unknown people would attack the country's daimyo.

Shikaku couldn't help but think of the country of ghosts, and only this country, that would do such things secretly.

Inciting the workers at the bottom and bringing other countries into a chaotic state of war is what this country is good at.

Even the Kingdom of Water, which is far away from the mainland, has suffered greatly. The fourth generation of Mizukage in Kirigakure Village is still aggrieved by this matter. In the past few months, he has been sending letters asking the Hokage when You can send troops and say that his side is ready and can launch an attack at any time.

"But why did the Daimyo suddenly..."

Shikaku frowned in confusion.

As early as a few months ago, some small countries started talking to the big countries outside the Kingdom of Oni, hoping that the other big countries, led by the Kingdom of Thunder, could stop the unrest caused by the Kingdom of Oni in various parts of the ninja world.

However, regarding the judgment of this matter, the great names of the great powers chose to ignore it and allowed the forces of the Kingdom of Ghosts to stir up trouble outside and close the country's doors.

It can be said that this is a disguised rejection of the demands of those small countries, allowing their aristocratic groups to be suppressed by the Kingdom of Ghosts.

However, now the Daimyo of the Fire Country is asking Konoha to suddenly intervene in this matter...

Excuse!

Shikaku thought of these two words at once.

That's right, all he could think of was an excuse.

Although the four countries have formed an alliance, it is not easy to find an excuse for war.

It is undoubtedly the most appropriate thing for Konoha to find an excuse to attack the Kingdom of Demons by intervening in the internal war in the Kingdom of Chi.

The alliance is formed, and excuses must now be found to pave the way for joint operations in December.

"This is the only possibility. However, it is really troublesome to do it..."

Sensing the change in the expression on Shikaku's face, Tsunade's eyes flashed with sadness.

Is there going to be a war?

In a blink of an eye, this time has arrived.

I don't know why, but I feel urgent all of a sudden.

"Then what Hokage-sama means is..."

"Shikaku, look at which other teams are idle in the village."

Tsunade interrupted Shikaku's musings.

The border troops stationed in the Land of Fire could not be mobilized. This mission could only be carried out openly by a regular team, and then secretly assisted by ANBU, in a two-pronged manner.

After all, the name of the Fire Country has solemnly mentioned that this mission is an 'investigation' work, not to support the Country of Chi militarily and conflict with the Country of Ghosts.

◎

"The turmoil in the Country of Pool has already occurred, and the Country of Fire will follow suit."

Kirigakure is located in the office of the Mizukage Building. As the fourth generation Mizukage, Yagura stands at the window of the office, looking at the endless sea in the distance. It seems that he can vaguely hear the chirping of seabirds on the sea.

"Then what should we do next, Mizukage-sama?"

Terumi Mei, standing not far behind him, asked Yagura's next move.

She and Yagura were the only two people in the office. Ao and Kito Mangetsu, who were the bodyguards, were not here. The ANBU around them had also dissipated and were on guard outside.

Yagura didn't speak, just retracted his gaze that fell on the sea, turned to the desk, and picked up a sealed file bag with a note saying 'Top Secret' on it.

Putting this file bag in Terumi Mei's hand.

Terumi Mei opened the file bag without refusal, pulled out half of the file, and her pupils shrank.

"This is!"

"When the time comes, the force deployment of the Kirigakure Village to attack the Kingdom of Demons, as well as the offensive route and defense map of the sea area, including the information of the leading jounin, you hand this thing into the hands of Chiba Shiraishi. When the time comes, let him Formulate a strategy over there and send people to 'eliminate' these Kirigakure ninjas from the battlefield."

Yagura said expressionlessly.

As early as half a month ago, Kirigakure Village passed a high-level meeting and decided on the final detailed attack plan.

Therefore, this represents top-secret information about Kirigakure Village's next actions.

As long as you know this, you can completely use the offensive and defensive situation above to cause "heavy losses" to the reconnaissance troops of Kirigakure Village without any effort.

Terumi Mei's eyes flashed with praise at this.

"Mr. Mizukage is very thoughtful. There is no such thing as death in war. In this way, we will be foolproof in our actions."

"Unfortunately, each country has its own set of operational defense plans, and there is no way to get the defense plans of Iwagakure and Sunagakure."

Yagura nodded, but on the other hand he felt regretful.

If we can get the defense plans of the two ninja villages, Iwagakure and Sunagakure, they will definitely be able to suffer a huge blow. After all, it is normal for ninjas to have many dead spots on the battlefield.

As for Konoha's defense plan, it has never been a problem for the Kingdom of Demons.

Moreover, the main body of this action is not to defeat the Four Nations Alliance, but to resolve the uncertain factor of Mt. Myoboku, and at the same time undermine the trust between the five traditional powers, and buy enough time for the final stage of the plan.