The brand-new Fox Squad first entered the Land of Grass, then headed north into the Land of Rivers. It took over ten days for the Fox Squad to reach the northeastern border of the Land of Earth.
Iwagakure and Kumogakure had signed a ceasefire agreement at the end of the previous year, but the border of the Land of Earth still bore many scars left by the war.
Such as abandoned villages, dilapidated terraced mountain fields, and a sparse population of animals.
During the war, ninjas would capture any edible animals nearby to supplement their protein.
Yōkō had the four squads spread out to search for the large craters created by Tailed Beast Balls.
Each of the four squad leaders was someone Yōkō valued most, and all were full of fighting spirit.
Soon, the White Sheep squad was the first to find the target.
White Sheep was proud. When it came to reconnaissance, his Parasitic Destruction Insects were still slightly superior.
Yōkō stood by the deep crater and instructed Purple Cat to record.
"Blast core area, approximately 200 meters in diameter, about 3 meters deep.
Blast shockwave area, approximately 800 meters in diameter, trees and rocks destroyed by the shockwave.
A chakra scale of this magnitude is suspected to be a Tailed Beast Ball released by a complete Tailed Beast.
The Tailed Beast's chakra volume is extremely exaggerated, at least over ten times that of an ordinary Jōnin."
Yōkō said with lingering fear: "If hit by such a Tailed Beast Ball, wouldn't one be bruised black and blue?"
Purple Cat looked up, puzzled: "Huh? Bruised black and blue? Should I record that line too?"
"Don't record that line."
If they only obtained data on the Tailed Beast Ball's explosion range, the higher-ups would surely be disappointed.
The entire Fox Squad was mobilized just to find out an explosion range; it was completely insufficient.
Yōkō said: "Everyone change into Suna-nin ANBU equipment. We need to obtain more intelligence from the Iwa-nin and also capture Iwa-nin prisoners.
Changing into Suna-nin equipment is so we can use the gliders to escape in an emergency.
As everyone knows, Suna-nin have copied the gliders. Regardless of whether they believe it or not, it at least gives our Konoha a pretext for denial."
After changing into Suna-nin equipment, Yōkō looked at the map.
On the border of the Land of Earth, there was a stronghold fortress from Iwagakure every 30 kilometers.
These stronghold fortresses housed at least one battalion of Iwa-nin.
These stronghold fortresses constituted the outermost defense of the Land of Earth.
Iwa-nin Chūnin and Genin wouldn't know much key intelligence; the valuable ones were the Iwa-nin Jōnin.
The stronghold fortresses were equipped with sensor ninjas and barrier ninjas. Sneaking in silently to capture the responsible Jōnin was too difficult.
Yōkō looked at two stronghold fortresses and made a decision.
He said to his team members: "This is our squad's first major mission since its establishment. It must be completed perfectly.
My tactic is a feint.
White Sheep, Flower Deer, Hippo, Yak, your four squads are responsible for the feint attack, assaulting Stronghold Fortress A.
The momentum must be massive, forcing the nearby Stronghold Fortresses B and C to send reinforcements.
I will take advantage of the void and infiltrate Stronghold Fortress B to capture or kill their battalion commander and obtain the body.
In this tactic, your four squads will face great danger.
You must be careful. Combined with the Iwa-nin reinforcements, you will face several Iwa-nin squads.
You need to fight spectacularly, but also be able to escape.
Flower Deer, take out our gliders; they will have a surprising effect. The Iwa-nin have never seen such high-end ninja tools."
Both White Sheep and Flower Deer were very excited.
Such a dangerous mission, and if successful, capturing an Iwa-nin Jōnin and obtaining key intelligence... this mission seemed a bit like an S-rank.
Wouldn't promotion to Special Jōnin be hopeful?
White Sheep said: "Captain, please rest assured. It's not like we're storming a stronghold fortress of Iwagakure itself. A feint attack and then escape, I think we can accomplish that."
Flower Deer also said: "We can definitely complete it!"
Yōkō thought to himself, I know you can complete it, the question is how many will survive.
He didn't want his newly formed squad to suffer heavy casualties on its first mission.
Yōkō said: "This mission is very dangerous. We must prepare contingency plans and conduct drills. In the next few days, we will hide in the Land of Rivers, find a place with similar terrain, and secretly conduct drills."
The area bordering the Land of Earth and the Land of Rivers had terrain similar to the Loess Plateau from his previous life.
Washed by rainwater, the plateau was crisscrossed with gullies and had many ravines.
The four squads practiced how to use the ravines for quick escape and how to use gliders in the latter half to disengage rapidly from combat.
--
The full moon was like a silver plate.
Yōkō once again awaited the new full moon.
On the afternoon of the 20th, Yōkō separated from his four squads.
It must be that the New Year was too leisurely and comfortable, Yōkō thought, that I've actually grown soft.
He wanted both White Sheep and Flower Deer to become Special Jōnin, but also feared casualties in the squad.
No, I need to adjust my mindset. These four squads are all consumables for me to complete missions.
Yes, consumables.
I can't worry excessively about my subordinates. Completing the mission comes first.
Yōkō spent half a day reaching the vicinity of Stronghold Fortress B.
He lay concealed in the loess, watching the fortress from a distance.
Thick rammed earth adobe formed a circular, multi-story fortress.
There were many small round windows on the fortress, observing the outside.
The reconnaissance range of a Hyūga clan Jōnin reached an exaggerated 3 kilometers. Apart from them, most sensor ninjas, like White Sheep, had a sensing range between a few hundred meters and 1 kilometer.
Hiding over 1 kilometer away, Yōkō thought, If only I could get my hands on a Byakugan, it would patch up the shortcoming in my reconnaissance ability.
In the latter half of the night, Yōkō saw two consecutive messenger sparrows fly into the stronghold fortress.
White Sheep and the others' actions had taken effect. The stronghold under feint attack had sent a request for help to this fortress.
Not long after the messenger sparrows entered the fortress, two more messenger sparrows flew towards the direction of Iwagakure, reporting the attack on the stronghold to the village.
The two messenger sparrows flew in different directions, an extra layer of insurance to increase the success rate of information delivery.
The heavy door of the stronghold fortress opened, and two companies of ninjas left the fortress.
It seemed the Iwa-nin battalion commander judged that two companies were needed for support.
After the two companies had gone far, Yōkō began his infiltration.
The initial infiltration went very smoothly. He wasn't discovered even after getting within 300 meters of the stronghold fortress.
When he reached about 200 meters from the stronghold fortress, Yōkō suddenly felt an unusual chakra fluctuation.
A barrier!
The stronghold's barrier had been activated!
A sharp alarm sounded inside the stronghold fortress.
The infiltration had failed...
Yōkō pondered. Should he assault this stronghold fortress?
Assaulting a stronghold fortress would surely prompt Iwagakure to dispatch a large number of pursuit forces.
This place was over ten days' journey from Konoha. Iwagakure was powerful; it was very likely they wouldn't be able to escape back.
He still had a resurrection chance for this lunar cycle.
Yōkō thought, This life will focus on gathering intelligence. I'll deliberately die in the fortress and formulate a perfect infiltration plan for the next life.
Having made his decision, Yōkō charged forward while forming hand seals with both hands, fully utilizing the Water Release: Water Cutting Wave.
A stream of water shot out, instantly piercing over a hundred meters, breaking through the highest round window.
Water Body Flicker!
In the next instant, Yōkō had followed the water stream, instantly appearing via Body Flicker in the highest room.
The Iwa-nin battalion commander was stunned. A Suna-nin had suddenly appeared in front of him?
***
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(End of Chapter)