Reporting to Fugaku

The next day, Kira hurried towards the area that was in between the land of fire and the land of wind, also called the land of rivers where the hidden valley village was located at.

Konoha was basically at a defensive against hidden sand village which was from the land of wind. The war against them was at a stalemate as the shinobi from hidden sand were specialised in three different fields.

One was puppetry, second was sand/ iron sand manipulation and the third was wind release. Sand manipulation was mostly used by the kazekage and the top brass, but most of the shinobi chose puppetry as this helped them preserve their lives better.

One person controlling more than two to three puppets was the average and some of them could control up to ten puppets at the same time.

As for wind release, it was wind release and had an advantage over lighting release.

Shinobi from Konoha had no choice but to sit and defend their lands due to the destructive and defensive mechanisms of sand manipulation. If they went on the offensive, they'd get attacked by sand and if they slacked off on defending, they'd get attacked by puppets and wind releases.

In short, the hidden sand village was using the geography to their advantage and was also using Konoha's lack of manpower to harass them while they defended their lands. As for how Konoha managed to fight off multiple puppets while lacking manpower?

It was because the Uchihas were deployed in this area to fight off against the hidden sand shinobi. Their fire release had an advantage over wind release while their sharingan's ocular abilities helped them fight multiple puppets at once.

After two days of fast running, Kira finally reached the camps that were placed at the border of the land of river and land of wind. The first thing he did was to go to the nearest shinobi and ask him for the commander's whereabouts.

"Oh there's nothing like a commander here, but the one who's leading us Fugaku. All of us just call him Captain Fugaku and not commander though." the guy said before pointing towards a certain direction.

Kira nodded and thanked him before rushing towards the said direction. It didn't take him too long to find Fugaku as the man was busy talking to someone Kira was familar with.

A smile bloomed on his face as he increased his speed and stopped right in front of the two men.

"Sensei Raichi, it's been a long time!" Kira exclaimed while ignoring Fugaku completely.

Raichi, who was originally busy with talking to Fugaku, turned to look at Kira and said, "You've grown pretty tall. You're probably eleven years old right now?"

"Yeah, I came here on lord hokage's orders."

Raichi nodded and turned to look at Fugaku, "This kid is the one I told you about. He learned flying raijin at the age of seven. It's a pity that he's not an Uchiha, isn't it?"

"Yeah, a pity indeed. But he's still a shinobi of Konoha just like us so that's still a great thing. Kira right? Tell me about your strengths." Fugaku said as he looked at Kira, trying to gauge his strength.

"I can scout with my bugs, go on the offensive with flying raijin and I can also transport items with the same jutsu. I have a large arsenal of jutsus and I also learnt the water armour jutsu from a missing ninja who was from the hidden mist too. Oh yeah, I'm also very good at medical ninjutsu." Kira told him about the things he knew, but also kept his wood release a secret.

Fugaku silently turned to look at Raichi, "Flying raijin, medical ninjutsu and also scouting... You bastard, your student is an indispensable asset but now I don't know what to do with him."

For the first time, Fugaku didn't know what task to assign to the people under him.

Before Raichi could say anything, Kira shared his thoughts, "Uncle Fugaku, why don't we do it like this? My bugs will take care of the scouting while I stay here and help the injured. When there is an emergency and you need some assistance on the battlefield, you can always call me."

Fugaku nodded as he looked at Raichi before shifting his attention back to Kira, "Yeah sure, let's do that."

"Great, but I have a condition." Kira said before adding, "I simply want you to give me orders in the form of missions. No need for rewards, but for every task, I want a mission to be assigned to me. It doesn't matter who does it."

Fugaku thought about it and nodded, "Sure, not like it makes much of a difference. From now on consider all of my orders as missions."

"Wow, you're a genius, uncle Fugaku." Kira said as he turned his head to look around, "Why don't you give me an order now?"

Fugaku gave him a weird look, but then pointed at Raichi, "Catch up with Raichi and ask him about the situation we are currently in."

Kira nodded and looked at the man whom he still considered his sensei, "Let's go find some nice place to sit, sensei."

"Hahaha sure sure." Raichi said, smiling widely as he led Kira to his tent.

The two of them talked about the things that happened in the past three years and then began discussing about the current situation against the hidden sand.

Once they were done, Kira got a notification.

[Achievement unlocked: Complete 1 mission]

'Good thing I asked Hiruzen to promote me to Chunin temporarily. Since now is the time of war, there is no need for chunin exams.' he thought as he walked out of Raichi's tent.

As for why he asked for a temporary promotion? It was because he could get a character point from passing the chunin exam, so as long as the war ended, he could simply go and take the chunin exam to get a character point for himself.