Chapter 74: An Epoch-Making War
After their declaration of war, the Hidden Cloud Village made a great show of mobilizing its forces, gathering troops and supplies, giving the impression of a full-scale mobilization.
But in reality, the western and southern fronts were just for show, consisting mainly of Chunin and Genin. The western front, in particular, was a long way from the Land of Earth, having to cross the lands of Moon, Hot Water, Sound, Iron, and Waterfalls to reach the border. And since they had to get permission to cross each border, it was possible the war would be over before they even arrived. The Land of Iron, a permanently neutral country, was unlikely to grant them passage. The western forces would likely be stopped at their border.
Privately, the commanders of the western and southern forces saw this as a training exercise. The ranks were filled with rookies and young ninja. The risks were manageable, and it was a good opportunity for them to experience the battlefield and group life, and to learn essential skills like setting up watch and making camp.
Students from the advanced ninja school would also be participating, including Hiroto Uzumaki, who was consistently ranked first in his class, and his sister Kayo, who had just enrolled. They were both assigned to the southern forces.
The real main force, the "Special Attack Force" personally led by the Third Raikage, was a completely different story. It was small and elite, a gathering of Jonin. Chunin were only assigned to support roles. You couldn't even stand on the front lines without being at least a Special Jonin. It was a symbol of strength in the Cloud, and the war-loving ninja of the village were all vying to join.
This method of dividing forces was a first in the ninja world. In the past, villages would form squads of two or three Genin led by a Jonin or Chunin, ensuring a broad coverage of combat personnel and allowing even Genin to play a role (e.g., as cannon fodder), thus expanding the scale of the war. The Cloud's new method, however, focused on extreme combat power in a localized area.
In other words, as Dana had said, they were not fighting on a broad front, but at a single point.
On the fifth day after the declaration, while the southern and western forces were still mobilizing, the Third Raikage's Special Attack Force had already set out.
They carried only the bare essentials and no heavy supplies. They marched at a rapid pace, and because the entire unit was composed of elite ninja with no dead weight, they were incredibly fast. They reached the border of the Land of Rain in just three days. They made no attempt to conceal their movements, not even stopping to pursue the scouts they encountered along the way. They just tore through the landscape, leaving a trail of bewildered spies in their wake.
"Lord Tsuchikage," a scout reported, "a Cloud force has been detected in the Land of Grass. It's led by the Third Raikage."
Onoki quickly looked at the map. "How can they be so fast?" he said, surprised. "It's only been a few days since they declared war. Were they already prepared to march, just waiting for an excuse?"
Normally, when a great village went to war, it would mobilize thousands, even tens of thousands, of troops. The logistics of supplies and transport were a massive undertaking, requiring at least a month or two of preparation.
"My lord! There are only about three hundred of them, and they have no supplies. We've scouted the area they came from. There are no follow-up forces."
Meanwhile, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who had been forced to come to the front lines after the capture of his three students, also received the news of the Cloud's impending arrival.
"No supplies? Did the Rain prepare them? But they only sent three hundred men. What's the point?"
He was at his wit's end. All three of his students had been captured, and Hanzo of the Salamander hadn't even given him a chance to negotiate, instead just continuing to mop up the small enemy units in his country. Hiruzen had thought he could just pay a ransom, but the Hidden Rain had become surprisingly stubborn.
On the third day after setting out, the Cloud's Special Attack Force reached the Land of Rain. They had only rested once, but because they were all elite, their fatigue was manageable.
They arrived at a plateau-like mountain with a water source nearby, a perfect place to make camp. The Third Raikage surveyed the area and then turned to Dana. "This will be it," he said. "Let's begin."
Dana nodded and spread a large map on the ground. He and the members of the "Special Strategy Division" huddled around it, making calculations. A short while later, they had determined their exact coordinates. Dana formed a hand seal and used the Summoning Jutsu.
A small, milky-white snake appeared in a puff of smoke. Dana took an egg from his ninja pouch, cracked it open, and fed it to the snake, which closed its eyes in pleasure. He then tied a note with the coordinates to the snake's tail. "Take this back to the village," he said.
The white snake nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Dana gave the signal. The Third Raikage, A, sighed. "Times are changing," he said.
Arashi, his arms crossed, his muscular frame now almost as large as his father's, added, "It's not that times are changing. It's that the Cloud is changing. The other countries don't have this kind of technology."
The relatively small figure of Dana replied, "This jutsu was invented a long time ago. It was just never perfected."
As the three of them were talking, a loud boom echoed from the horizon. Several streaks of rainbow-colored light shot across the sky, leaving a trail of thunder in their wake.
"They're here."
Seven afterimages flew from the distant sky, and then, adjusting their trajectory, fell vertically to the ground, embedding themselves in the earth. They were seven red-hot, spindle-shaped metal objects.
The earth trembled, and the grass beneath them was instantly scorched.
The metal spindles were over two meters tall and one meter in diameter, thin at both ends and thick in the middle, with a streamlined shape. They stood upright in the ground, radiating an incredible amount of heat.
The Cloud ninja gathered around. When they had cooled, a seam opened on each of them, and a metal plate fell away, revealing a compartment inside.
In each compartment was a sealing scroll.
This was the Cloud's new tool of war, a combination of the "Heavenly Transfer Jutsu" and the "Super-Sized Sealing Scroll": the All-World Material Support System.
It was instantaneous, low-cost, un-interceptable, and one hundred percent secure.
The super-sized sealing scrolls had already provided an incredible logistical capability, a mature technology that the "blacksmith's shop" project had been using for years. The Special Attack Force could have just carried the scrolls with them. But Dana had insisted on this experimental supply drop.
The "Heavenly Transfer Jutsu" had been in the Cloud's possession for years. It had been developed for long-distance transportation of objects, but it had never been practical because very few objects could withstand the friction and heat of high-speed flight.
Of course, there was another option: a person of incredible toughness could withstand it. That was how the Third Raikage had come to rescue Dana and Arashi. But such individuals were extremely rare. At present, only the Third Raikage in the entire Cloud Village could do it, and probably only one person in the entire ninja world. And even he had been seriously injured upon landing. For anyone else, it would have been a one-way trip.
But with the progress of the "blacksmith's shop" project, and the accumulation of metalworking and craftsmanship knowledge, and the breakthroughs in "sealing jutsu" research, the Heavenly Transfer Jutsu now had a practical application.
The spindle shape of the delivery pods minimized air friction. The design was provided by Dana. He didn't know if it was the optimal shape, but from his knowledge, it was a good one.
Combined with the super-sized sealing scrolls, it was a game-changer.
But the system still had its flaws. It was highly dependent on accurate coordinates. It worked well in the major regions of the ninja world, but in unmapped areas, it could be off by hundreds of miles. And human error in calculation could also lead to massive inaccuracies.
Another problem was the reliance on summoning jutsu for real-time communication. The Cloud was lacking in this area. They didn't have many summoning animals that could use the Reverse Summoning. Of course, they could still do scheduled drops, but it wasn't as flexible or timely. The summoning animal problem was being worked on.
The potential of this delivery system was enormous. It had become one of the Cloud's top secrets. And the ninja, with their ingenuity for combat, were already coming up with new ideas: explosive tag delivery pods, ninja delivery pods, sealing jutsu delivery pods. They were moving forward, one step at a time.
But no matter how you looked at it, it was an epoch-making invention.
Dana checked the pods. "One of the sealing scrolls was damaged due to a sealing problem," he reported. "The other six are fine."
The Third Raikage, A, nodded. "No matter. We brought enough with us. Let's make camp."