Chapter 78

Land of Wind.

Hidden Sand Frontlines.

Since Hidden Sand declared a full-scale war against Hidden Leaf, nearly all the ninjas in the village went to the frontlines, only few ninjas were left to garrison and those still in the academy were left in the village.

There's a reason they dare do this. One, the Land of Wind is located in the middle of a desert, so their resources are scarce. Ninjas who are not well adapted in this environment would be greatly suppressed and their abilities might be somewhat hindered.

The next is their geography. The only one that can try and sneak inside the territory of Land of Wind is Hidden Rock Village. However, who can easily sneak an army and not get noticed? Hidden Sand scouts would immediately be alerted with that kind of large movement.

These factors allow them to conduct a full-scale attack against Hidden Leaf.

Inside the Hidden Sand Village's Central Tent.

"Lord Kazekage, our battle statistics for today... 21 died, 43 were severely injured with 109 slightly wounded..."

A ninja handed the detailed documents regarding the war to the current Fourth Kazekage, Rasa.

Rasa took a glimpse of the contents of the document and placed it on the table and said in a deep voice, "There's no need for us to change the combat plan, just continue what we've planned tomorrow."

"Yes."

The ninja responded and left immediately.

The Fourth Kazekage was not the only individual inside the Central Tent, he was also accompanied by Hidden Sand Villages' high ranking ninjas along with the most and highly revered Honoured Siblings: Honoured Grandfather Ebizo and her sister Honoured Grandmother Chiyo.

"We have to conserve as much manpower as possible and reduce casualties from piling until Yanagi and Pakura launch an attack on their side, but doing so may attract Hidden Leaf's suspicion..."

The one who spoke was Honoured Grandfather Ebizo as he looked at the map on the table.

Rasa nodded and said: "Indeed, so in order to avoid their suspicions, we have no choice but to have some casualties. So for now, we must maintain this 'stalemate' against Hidden Leaf until we have some news about the successful assault of Pakura's army on the other side. Once that happens, we'll immediately reverse this situation!"

Chiyo glanced at Rasa and said solemnly "I hope things will go smoothly..."

Rasa saw the worry in Chiyo's eyes, but he didn't take it seriously. Instead, he said to her: "It's already late, Honourable Chiyo, you should head back and take a rest. Tomorrow I'll need you to lead a team to also launch an offensive against Hidden Leaf. "

"..."

Chiyo didn't say much, and just walked out of the tent.

Rasa looked at Chiyo's back with a faint light flashing in his eyes.

Among all the current Kage's of the Five Great Ninja Villages, Rasa's strength is considered to be the weakest. If the previous Third Kazekage didn't turn out to be missing, it would be incredibly difficult for him to successfully inherit the title of being the current Fourth Kazekage.

But when he hurriedly took over the position, even though his own subordinates were far weaker than the Third Kazekage, he still managed to successfully secure the title of Fourth Kazekage!

It all depended on his means!

It was the reason he launched an all-out war against Konoha and started the Third Ninja War!

The so-called 'revenge' was just a nonsense he came up with, even plundering some of Hidden Leaf's resources is just some small bonus for him.

The main objective of him in this war is to solidify his position as the Fourth Kazekage!

Using the war to weaken the families that were against him being the Kazekage and at the same time, use this opportunity to train and strengthen his subordinates. He doesn't bother about their casualties, along with the outcome of this war.

Feng's impression of the Fourth Kazekage was worse than Danzo. After all, at least Danzo wanted to unify the entire Ninja World.

But Rasa?

He just brainlessly launched an all-out war against Konoha, sacrificing the lives of his fellow villagers just for him to stabilize his status as Kazekage.

Then later on, after Pakura raked achievements one after another that increased her influence and was eventually named Hero of Hidden Sand. Rasa felt threatened for his status once again and collaborated with Hidden Rock to ambush and kill Pakura.

Then after the Honourable Siblings retired, there was no longer anyone in the village who could compete with him in terms of status.

But the most laughable thing was, he was then killed and betrayed by Orochimaru during the Chunin exams.

It can be said that throughout Hidden Sand's history, the Fourth Kazekage was the most useless Kage they have ever had as he had not done anything beneficial to their village. Everything he did was just for himself.

Yes, Rasa's means were indeed formidable, from being assigned as the Kazekage prematurely and with opposition against the previous Kazekage subordinates to grasping Hidden Sand in the palm of his hands in just a short time.

However, Feng despised this sort of act from Rasa.

The reason is simple.

He was looking at the bigger picture, while Rasa was like a frog at the bottom of a well!

This world is not about status or influence, but a world where power is absolute. In front of existences like Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju, who cares about prestige?

Chiyo and Ebizo actually knew the real objective of Rasa, but they couldn't do anything about it. Since Rasa used the disappearance of the Third Kazekage as the reason to declare an all out war against Hidden Leaf, the villagers fully supported him. In addition, there is a deep enmity between the two villages.

"Elder Ebizo, you should also go ahead and take a rest too."

Rasa turned to look at Honoured elder Ebizo who was still sitting there and observing the map.

Elder Ebizo was fumbling on the map and gradually raised his head, a trace of unease appeared on his face, and said, "I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep. I don't know why, but I have this bad feeling."

"Hmm?"

Rasa was shocked but then shook his head: "You're just tired Elder. Go ahead and rest. We still need your help to command our troops on the battlefield."

"I guess."

Ebizo sighed as he stood up and was preparing to leave the tent.

But at this moment, a figure rushed into the camp and knelt down on one knee towards Rasa with a somewhat anxious voice as he reported: "Reporting to Lord Kazekage, we have lost contact with our surprise troop!"

The atmosphere suddenly changed inside the tent..

Ebizo scoffed in his heart as he looked at Rasa.

Rasa's expression changed slightly. Although the surprise attack troops were not his direct subordinates and didn't care much about their lives, it was impossible for him to remain indifferent after hearing such news.

"Since when?!"

"This afternoon."

The ninja added: "According to our original plan, our surprise troops should've made contact with us this afternoon, but we never received any transmission from them. So we tried to contact them, but we never received any replies even until now, so we sent a summoned beast towards their location and finally received some intel… o-our entire surprise troop were annihilated!"

Ebizo's countenance turned solemn.

His bad feeling was actually correct.

The ninjas responsible for communications are always vital in a mission, so they would always be protected and would usually be placed in the center. Their death would mean that their team is faced with a huge problem!

"..."

Rasa's expression also turned gloomy, but some parts of it were just a disguise.

The surprise attack was planned by Elder Ebizo so if something goes wrong, then he would have to be responsible for it affecting his status greatly which would be beneficial to Rasa.

"Lord Kazekage, Honourable Elder w-what should we do next?"

The ninja asked anxiously.

Ebizo took a breath and said in a deep voice: "Don't panic, Pakura is with our surprise troops, if they really encountered something or someone, I'm sure they can handle it. They should be scattered, that's why we have lost our contact with them… Send a reconnaissance team to investigate what happened and continue to send transmissions to them!"

"Do it."

Rasa nodded and said in a deep voice.

The ninja immediately responded and left the central tent.