"Alright. For our plan, we'll cut things off with Konoha-" Mito started but the First Elder immediately interjected.
"Mito-sama!" He hurriedly called out.
"For now, that's how it must be! If a strong alliance is to be forged, Konoha must learn to value Uzushio appropriately first." The Uzumaki matriarch strongly declared.
With that decision made, Shiki moved forward with his explanation of the plan he thought up.
"The enemy has already given up on securing complete victory. They cannot achieve it quickly and getting bogged down in Uzu, losing forces and tiring themselves out while Konoha and Suna remain fresh and ready is not something they can tolerate." The boy began.
"But after committing so many resources and taking significant losses, how could they be willing to back off?" The First Elder questioned.
"That's right. And so, they decided to go for a sort of middleground solution. They'll make a big move, an all out attack to push us to the gates of Uzushio and a big strike to cap things off provided that their ally can bring down the Defense Barrier as promised.
They'll use this to force a ceasefire after extracting as much from us as they can. Namely, they will want to force us to return their Tailed Beasts along with some Uzumaki Fuinjutsu added on top, this will make up for their losses nearly completely.
Yes, many on the enemy side died in my initial ambush using Mito-sama's large-scale sealing array to boost my jutsu but they were just low level fodder. Ultimately, their lives are not that important to their leaders.
Their Tailed Beasts are the only unacceptable loss to them." Shiki revealed the enemy's plan along with some of his own observations based on what he heard and saw.
"I see your plan, Shiki. Essentially, we'll be aiming for the same ceasefire as the enemy but by putting up a more effective resistance, we can get much better terms than what the enemy is planning on giving." The Fourth Elder deduced.
"And now that we know things will be settled in a single decisive clash before a ceasefire, we can unhesitantly pour all our resources into it instead of saving up for a war of attrition." The rescued Second Elder spoke.
Although things ending in a ceasefire was not what he wished for, pouring everything into a single big decisive battle was an idea he could get behind.
"We'll have to put on a convincing performance though, let them push us back to Uzushio before launching our final counterattack." The Sixth Elder added.
"Those arrogant bastards, even if we can't kill them all we'll fleece them for daring to set foot in our land." The Second Elder spoke up again.
"Unfortunately unlikely. The main goal will be to secure peace for us through the war that will soon engulf the world. Even if Uzu is to be the kindling for the first spark, the fire that follows should leave us untouched if this plan goes well." The First Elder spoke more conservatively.
That sure wiped the bloodthirsty smirk on the Second Elder's face.
Unfortunately, despite being the unjustly attacked party, Uzushio would not be able to recoup any of their losses, even if their plan worked perfectly. It was indeed unfair but, then again, so was the world in and of itself.
"But why would Konoha suffer from this?" The Sixth elder confusedly questioned.
"Kiri, Kumo and Iwa will have made peace with us who serve as Konoha's bulwark against attacks via the sea. Suddenly, with us falling or giving any notice, an elite force of Three Great Villages will swarm into the Land of Fire from a completely unexpected direction.
This will likely trigger an assault on them from Suna as well while each of the three villages might call for reinforcements through land routes." The First Elder explained.
"Actually, though I did not mention it, the enemy Kage have already sent communications to their home villages to prepare for a land offensive, just so they are already set up and waiting as soon as the elite force currently stuck here in Uzu makes their landing in the Land of Fire." Shiki revealed.
It was a tidbit of information he had neglected to mention because it was not all that relevant and one of the reasons he was so sure Konoha was in for quite a bit of suffering.
'And as a Konoha shinobi, I'll likely be right in the middle of that mess. Even if I don't really care much for that place, Mito-sama still does and so do her grandchildren. Nawaki and Tsunade will fight to keep that village safe and so I'lll have to fight to keep them as safe as I can.'
Inwardly, the boy was full of complaints.
It was not all bad though.
'Then again, war is perfect to test and develop several of my less ethical ideas. The availability of dead shinobi to feet to my Nirvana Seal will also be at an all-time high.' Shiki tried putting a positive spin on the situation.
Well, positive for him. For everybody else though? Yeah, definitely not so much.
"All this is well and good but we still need to organize a defense powerful enough to withstand an all out attack." Mito spoke up, reminding everyone of the main issue at hand.
Weathering the attack would likely result in massive casualties.
In that case, even if there was a risk of provoking certain entities to act, Mito might as well come out and crush the enemy.
Yes, there would be chaos and countless consequences, so many that it was impossible to predict, even for Shiki with his future knowledge and understanding of the shinobi world.
But this was still better than the Uzumaki being nearly wiped out . . . Probably.
That doubt . . . that was the reason that the Uzumaki matriarch was unwilling to step forward unless absolutely necessary, especially after Shiki gave her all kinds of warnings about mysterious enemies.
They were ramblings that any reason and logic told her to ignore but she trusted her wards far too much to make such a foolish mistake.
"Yeah about mounting our defense . . . I got some ideas about that as well." Shiki suddenly spoke up.
"Of course you do." Mito replied with a rather undecipherable tone. Pride, love, exasperation, scolding, so many elements imbued into a single short sentence.
"Hehehehe . . ." Shiki laughed sheepishly.
Only in these incredibly rare occasions did the people around the boy remembered they were technically dealing with an actual child.
"I may have a plan but I won't be playing the main role so Mito-sama can rest assured that I won't put myself in the most dangerous position . . . Probably." Shiki added.
The last word made Mito's projection glare at him so hard that he felt the temptation to "accidently" lose the genjutsu connection to his mistress.
"I can imagine what you want to do." The Uzumaki matriarch spoke.
She had very much the same idea even if the means of achieving the same result might differ between the two of them, the plan remained largely the same.
The plan . . . Was to take a page out of good 'ole Madara's playbook.
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Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -