"Anshi-kun, you are so strong!"
Looking at the scattered puppets, even Sakumo Hatake couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
Although this Sand Village Jonin puppeteer had used all three of his puppets to target him, leaving him without other puppets to deal with Li Anshi's attack.
But ninjas who could become Jonin were all powerhouses without obvious weaknesses.
Even if that Sand ninja puppeteer didn't have any spare puppets, his strength was not something an average Chunin could compare to.
However, it had only been a few breaths since he had spoken, and this Sand ninja puppeteer had already been killed by Li Anshi. This showed that Li Anshi's strength was far beyond that of an ordinary Chunin.
This could be seen from the speed at which Anshi-kun had arrived.
The Chunin puppeteer who had gone to attack Li Anshi and the others also hadn't been able to last long against Anshi-kun.
"Not at all, Captain Hatake is the one who is truly strong. To be able to handle three puppets of a Jonin puppeteer all by himself, I'm afraid Captain Hatake's strength is not inferior to those Jonin."
"Not at all, compared to the seniors in the village, I'm still far behind."
Facing Li Anshi's praise, Sakumo Hatake shook his head.
Li Anshi smiled slightly.
Sakumo Hatake said that he was still far behind compared to the seniors in the village, but he didn't refute Li Anshi's statement that his strength was not inferior to a Jonin.
"Encountering Sand ninjas here, it seems the situation at the front line is not very good. We must rush to the front line as soon as possible and report the encounter with the Sand ninjas to the commander."
"Mm."
After returning to the convoy, Sakumo Hatake ordered the entire convoy to speed up. This was something that neither Anshi nor Yoshikawa nor Kitamura refused.
The bodies of the four Sand ninjas had been sealed away by Sakumo Hatake using a sealing scroll. They could be handed over to the interrogation unit later to see if they could extract any useful information from the minds of these Sand ninjas.
It also served as evidence of the Hatake squad's encounter with the enemy, as well as their merits.
In any case, killing one Sand Village Jonin and three Chunin could be considered a great achievement.
Because of the increased speed, Li Anshi and his group arrived at the front line in less than a day.
Contrary to Li Anshi's expectations, the atmosphere at the front line was not that tense.
The main force fighting the Sand ninjas was the Uchiha clan.
The Uchiha clan was arrogant and conceited.
But no one could deny the strength of the Uchiha clan.
When Li Anshi and the others entered the camp, they could see that the atmosphere in the camp was relatively relaxed. There were also some Uchiha ninjas patrolling the perimeter with their Sharingan activated.
No Sand ninja could escape the gaze of the Sharingan and successfully sneak attack the Konoha camp.
Not only that, the Sand ninjas' sneak attacks were also used by the Uchiha clan ninjas to annihilate many Sand ninjas.
"Anshi-kun, Yoshikawa-kun, Kitamura-kun, you three set up camp here for now. I'll go find the camp commander to hand over the mission."
After finding an open space in the camp, Sakumo Hatake informed Li Anshi and the other two before immediately heading to the main tent.
Unlike Genin like Li Anshi and the others, Sakumo Hatake was now a Chunin, with the ability and authority to lead a team to complete missions independently.
Therefore, Sakumo Hatake had to report to the camp commander and be ready to take on missions at any time.
The battle between the Uchiha clan and the Sand ninjas was much simpler than Li Anshi had imagined.
Because of the existence of the Sharingan, it was impossible for the Sand ninjas to successfully sneak attack the Konoha camp.
And on the front lines, after multiple clashes, the Sand ninjas were directly crushed by the Uchiha ninjas, and they also summarized their combat experience against the Uchiha ninjas with Sharingan.
That was, when fighting against ninjas of the Uchiha clan with Sharingan, do not face them one-on-one, but rather two together, one in front and one behind.
In this way, the Uchiha Sharingan could only cast genjutsu on one person at a time, and the other person could attack the Uchiha from behind, giving their teammate time to break free from the genjutsu.
With this tactic, the Sand ninjas also inflicted considerable casualties on the Uchiha.
However, even though the Sand ninjas had a tactic against the Uchiha, they did not gain any advantage on the battlefield.
The Uchiha clan's Sharingan was the eye that reflected the heart.
The activation and advancement of the Sharingan required the Uchiha clan members to experience extreme mental stimulation.
On the battlefield, the Uchiha clan members did indeed suffer considerable casualties.
But these casualties also caused more Uchiha clan members to awaken their Sharingan, or for their Sharingan level to advance, greatly increasing the strength of the Uchiha clan members.
This left the Sand ninjas speechless.
The ninjas of other families became weaker and weaker the more they fought, but only the ninjas of the Uchiha clan became stronger and stronger the more they fought.
Therefore, the battlefield between the Sand ninjas and the Uchiha clan gradually shifted from a frontal decisive battle to a harassment war with small units.
At the very least, in this way, when the Sand ninjas encountered Konoha ninjas, they could decide whether to fight or retreat based on whether the opponent had Uchiha clan members and the number of strong individuals on their own side.
After all, Uchiha ninjas were still very easy to identify.
That ping-pong paddle-like Uchiha clan crest was much easier to spot than the ninja forehead protector on their foreheads.
It must be said that these measures by the Sand ninjas greatly reduced the casualties of their own ninjas and also slowed down the progress of the Uchiha clan members' strength.
In addition, because the Sand ninjas avoided fighting the Uchiha clan, the Sakumo Hatake squad's chances of encountering Sand ninjas increased.
Up to this point, no Sand ninja who had encountered the Hatake squad had escaped.
However, in wars between ninjas, intelligence was also a battle in itself.
Eventually, the information about Li Anshi and Sakumo Hatake was leaked.
This gave Li Anshi and Sakumo Hatake some reputation among the Sand ninjas.
However, because they hadn't encountered any strong individuals, neither the Konoha side nor the Sand side paid much attention to Sakumo Hatake and Li Anshi.
Of course, after a year of fighting, Li Anshi had also successfully been promoted from Genin to Chunin.
During wartime, the promotion of ninjas was relatively fast.
After a year of fighting, the battlefield on the Sand ninja side had been stabilized by the Uchiha clan.
However, the other two battlefields of Konoha were having a hard time.
The Sarutobi clan suffered heavy losses on the Cloud ninja battlefield. Sasuke Sarutobi repeatedly clashed with the Third Raikage, A. Although he was not A's opponent, he could still hold him back.
Kagami Uchiha, on the other hand, displayed overwhelming strength in the battle with the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. The appearance of the Mangekyo Sharingan also made the Cloud ninjas remember the fear of being dominated by Madara Uchiha.