"What?! Are you saying it again?" Nara Shikaku asked incredulously when he heard Hyuga Hiashi's report.
Hyuga Hiashi was also frustrated. Hearing this, he could only reiterate, "Chao Yanqian intends to confront the frontline forces of Kirigakure alone and wants you to lead a squad to flank Kumogakure's troops and cut off their retreat."
"Too reckless!" Nara Shikaku said angrily. "There are more than 3,000 shinobi on Kumogakure's front lines. No matter how strong Chao Yanqian is, he can't withstand a prolonged war of attrition. And by doing this, he's completely disrupted our previous strategic deployment! Hiashi, why didn't you stop him at the time?"
"Shikaku, you know Chao Yanqian's temperament. We couldn't stop him even if we tried," Hiashi said bitterly.
"Damn it!" Shikaku gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath.
"What do we do now?" Hiashi asked.
"What else? Of course, we support him!" Despite his calm nature, Nara Shikaku couldn't suppress his frustration: "He can't take on thousands alone. He might use the Flying Thunder God Technique to retreat if needed, but if we fail to wipe out Kumogakure's frontline forces, this will become a drawn-out war!"
" Chao Yanqian said he'd launch his assault in an hour. It took us forty minutes to return there are only twenty minutes left!" Hiashi said with a frown.
"That brat is too reckless!" Shikaku snapped. "It'll take at least five minutes to gather the shinobi in camp, maybe more for other units. By the time we arrive, he'll have already been fighting for over thirty minutes! Damn it!"
"Sigh..." Hiashi could only let out a helpless breath.
"Send the order! Assemble immediately! We're moving to support Chao Yanqian at the northern front!" Shikaku commanded.
From their earlier conversation, Nara Shikaku clearly understood Chao Yanqian's intent.
Chao Yanqian undoubtedly wanted to prove to Shikaku that he was already strong enough to handle unpredictable situations on his own.
Looking deeper, this wasn't just about defeating Kumogakure,it was also a political message. A show of force to Konoha's higher-ups, to make them wary of Chao Yanqian's power and prevent them from acting rashly in the future.
However, as Chao Yanqian's former instructor, Nara Shikaku actually wished Chao Yanqian would keep a lower profile. In recent years, the Mikuni clan had drawn too much attention in Konoha. Their high visibility had triggered suspicion and fear among Konoha's leadership. If things continued this way, relations would only worsen.
But Chao Yanqian didn't see it that way.
To him, keeping a low profile meant hiding strength, but there's a big difference between being low-key after showing power and doing so before demonstrating it.
If no one knows your true strength, they'll keep testing you. Even lesser figures may provoke you just to gauge your limits.
But if you first show overwhelming power, then retreat into obscurity, people become wary. They may even respect your restraint. With time, others might wonder if you're holding back even more.
That's Chao Yanqian's current stance. Now that he's at odds with Konoha's higher-ups, it's better to show overwhelming force, intimidate them, then shift into a quieter phase so they'll both fear him and feel secure in his restraint.
This strategy is similar to the First Hokage's approach in distributing the tailed beasts: everyone knew the Kurama were powerful. Because of that, during the shinobi world wars, major villages were cautious and avoided pushing each other too far.
---
Yugakure Frontline - Kumogakure Camp
"Fifty-nine... sixty. Time's up."
Whoosh! Splurt!
A special kunai flashed through the air and lodged into the throat of an unlucky Kumo-nin. Blood spurted as the man fell to the ground with wide, unaccepting eyes.
"Who's there?!" a Kumogakure ninja shouted.
"Enemy attack!"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Boom!
With a burst of teleportation and the activation of Sage Mode, Chao Yanqian slammed his fist into the ground at the Kumogakure camp, creating a crater over 30 meters wide. Cracks spidered out from the impact, and debris exploded in all directions.
He quickly formed hand seals
[Sage Art: Inorganic Reincarnation]!
The earth surged like a tidal wave, animated with chakra-infused life, crashing down upon the Kumo shinobi in waves.
The ground rose in massive walls of mud, slamming down upon the cloud-nin with crushing force. The onslaught gave them no time to react those caught were dragged underground and crushed by the chakra-empowered terrain.
Inorganic Reincarnation gave life to inanimate matter, allowing Chao Yanqian to manipulate the landscape freely. The form of the attack depended on the terrain and how the user shaped it.
This particular application was inspired by Gaara's Quicksand Waterfall Flow, but while Gaara controlled sand, Chao Yanqian commanded earth and mud.
More importantly, Chao Yanqian's version was enhanced by Sage chakra, making it deadlier than Gaara's technique.
After all, this was a jutsu capable of restraining even the Nine-Tails.
The mud churned violently, surging forward with roaring momentum, striking down every Kumo-nin within its 200-meter radius. No building, no shinobi remained untouched. They were all buried and then crushed under the immense weight of chakra-charged earth.
Eventually, Chao Yanqian's chakra stopped flowing into the technique, and the battlefield returned to a deceptively calm state. Not a single scratch remained on the surface only the eerie emptiness bore witness to what had occurred.
"Who is it?"
"Has Konoha's main force arrived?"
"It looks like... just one person."
As the dust settled, the remaining Kumogakure shinobi squinted into the distance and spotted a lone figure in Konoha gear, about 200 meters away. Though they couldn't see his face, his slender build suggested youth.
"Kill him! Avenge our fallen comrades!"
With the frontline commander's cry, the Kumo shinobi rallied, their battle cries full of fury and resolve. Despite the unknown power and ambush, not a single one showed fear.
"Hmph."
Seeing this, Chao Yanqian charged in to meet them. Purple eyeshadow lined his eyes, a white horn gleamed from his forehead, and several serpent-shaped chakra extensions writhed around him like living weapons.
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