Chapter 224
The outcome of the great battle between Konoha and Sunagakure in the Land of Rivers quickly spread throughout the entire shinobi world.
Every village, large or small, reacted differently.
Some minor villages far removed from the Five Great Nations adopted the classic attitude of "none of our business."
Others, however, paid extremely close attention to the results.
Among them, the two most concerned were undoubtedly Iwagakure and Kumogakure.
In Ōnoki's eyes, Sunagakure was nothing but useless trash.
Ever since the war began, they had done nothing but lose to Konoha again and again.
He had deliberately kept pressure on Konoha from the western front to divide their attention, yet Suna still performed so miserably.
When they fought Iwa, weren't they supposed to be far tougher than this?
If it weren't completely impossible, Ōnoki would have genuinely suspected that the Fourth Kazekage had secretly been planted by Konoha just to feed them free victories.
As for Third Raikage, this battle result was simply wonderful news.
Sunagakure's defeat meant their military strength had suffered enormous losses.
That was an incredible advantage for the Kumogakure force currently infiltrating Wind Country.
At the very least, there would be far fewer Suna ninja waiting to oppose them.
The more the Raikage thought about it, the happier he became.
Without even realizing it, he added two more weights onto the barbell he was lifting, using the increased burden to suppress his excitement.
Now he only looked forward to one thing—
His son returning with even more spoils of war.
Throughout the shinobi world, everyone expected Konoha and Sunagakure to continue escalating the conflict into an even bloodier war.
Yet to everyone's surprise, both villages displayed remarkable restraint.
Neither side launched any new offensives.
Naturally, the outside world interpreted this strange calm as both villages licking their wounds and redeploying forces in preparation for an even greater clash.
Amid this eerie silence, the Konoha camp in the Land of Rivers finally received new orders from the village.
Inside the command tent, Jiraiya stared at the orders in his hand and let out a helpless sigh.
What he had expected had finally arrived.
From the moment they achieved victory, he already knew the village would inevitably reduce support for the southern front and redirect resources toward other battlefields.
Without saying anything, Jiraiya casually tossed the orders toward Shikaku for him to review as well.
Shikaku accepted the scroll and quickly scanned through it.
His reading speed was astonishingly fast.
However, when his gaze landed on a certain name within the personnel transfer list attached to the order, he paused slightly, confusion flashing across his face.
He handed the document back before calmly speaking.
"Why trouble yourself over this, Jiraiya-sama?"
"The village's decision is understandable."
"Sunagakure's losses are becoming increasingly severe. If the situation continues unchecked, it could eventually drag down Konoha as a whole."
"We achieved a great victory here, and Suna no longer appears capable of continuing the war."
"So naturally, the village intends to reduce support for this front."
"In a way, isn't that proof of our success?"
Jiraiya naturally understood all of that.
His frustration merely came from the fact that they had failed to completely destroy Sunagakure.
Still, Shikaku soon brought up another matter.
"However, there is one strange detail."
"There are no issues with the orders themselves…"
"But why is Taichi included in the rotation list returning to Konoha?"
"He only went back recently."
"And more importantly, only his name appears."
"None of his squad members are included."
Jiraiya frowned immediately.
Earlier, he had only focused on the strategic contents of the order and hadn't carefully reviewed the attached roster.
Yet now that he saw it—
The village's intentions suddenly became difficult to understand.
Taichi was one of the southern front's absolute core combat forces.
Pulling him away now would be a major loss.
Jiraiya silently considered the matter.
Could the village already be worried about Taichi earning too much fame?
Afraid he might become another Sakumo Hatake?
No…
That seemed far too premature.
The kid was still young.
No matter how many accomplishments he accumulated, there was no chance he could threaten the position of Fourth Hokage anytime soon.
Unable to figure it out, Jiraiya simply gave up thinking and directly asked the smartest man present.
"What do you think the village is trying to do?"
Shikaku smiled faintly.
"Maybe they're calling him back to promote him to jōnin?"
Though he spoke jokingly, his true thoughts were different.
After all, Taichi was effectively half of Jiraiya's disciple.
Every major achievement Taichi earned indirectly increased Jiraiya's prestige as well.
If this continued long enough, perhaps the Third Hokage might eventually begin viewing that growing influence as a threat.
Of course—
Shikaku personally felt such worries were completely unnecessary.
But politicians rarely behaved rationally.
Still, he kept all those thoughts to himself.
There was no reason for an outsider to interfere with a teacher-disciple relationship.
Jiraiya froze briefly.
Thinking about it carefully, promotion truly was possible.
Yet he also knew that once Taichi returned to Konoha, there was a high chance he would never return to the southern front.
Recalling everything Taichi had done since arriving on the battlefield, Jiraiya couldn't help sighing emotionally.
Without him, the entire camp felt as though it had lost one of its supporting pillars.
If not for the reduced intensity of the war, the camp's operation itself would probably fall into temporary chaos after his departure.
Finally waving the matter aside, Jiraiya gave his orders.
"Enough thinking about it."
"Go make arrangements."
"Notify the returning personnel."
"According to the orders, they depart tomorrow morning while escorting the wounded back to Konoha."
"Yes, Jiraiya-sama."
While Jiraiya and Shikaku were still worrying over Taichi's return to the village, the person in question himself was completely relaxed.
At that moment, Taichi was training in a small forest near the camp.
Currently, he had no particularly urgent responsibilities.
The medical camp was still operating smoothly thanks to the four shadow clones he left behind.
As a result, his main body finally had time to himself.
For the past several days, he had spent nearly all his free time training there.
The battle against Shukaku had taught him an important lesson.
Although he ultimately won—
He had also clearly realized his own limitations.
Without the enormous chakra reserves provided by the Strength of a Hundred Seal, defeating a tailed beast would have been nearly impossible.
At best, he could probably fight one to a standstill.
Victory itself would have remained a fantasy.
The problem was that the chakra stored inside the seal required long-term accumulation.
It wasn't a conventional source of power.
Even now, the once-vast chakra lake within his seal had been reduced by half.
Recovering it completely would take months.
And if continuous wars broke out in the future?
What then?
Once the seal's reserves were exhausted, would he simply become an "ordinary" top-tier jōnin again?
Just imagining that possibility left Taichi dissatisfied.
The issue wasn't a lack of offensive power.
Whether it was Water Release: Severing Wave, Wind Release: Vacuum Blade, or even the Rasengan—
All of them could genuinely injure tailed beasts.
But tailed beasts were simply too massive.
Even Shukaku, considered relatively small among them, still stood around fifty meters tall.
The Eight-Tails and Nine-Tails were even larger, towering well above sixty meters.
Creatures of that size caused earthquakes with casual movement alone.
Their destructive power fundamentally exceeded human limits.
This time, the battlefield environment had favored him.
Water Release techniques naturally restrained Shukaku to some extent, which allowed the battle to proceed so smoothly.
But if he encountered another tailed beast in the future—
Things definitely wouldn't be that easy anymore.
What Taichi lacked most right now was a reliable method of restraining tailed beasts.
After thinking it through repeatedly, he realized the answer still ultimately came down to either sealing techniques or genjutsu.
Techniques like Hashirama Senju's Sage Art: Gate of the Great God and the Uzumaki Clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains were all terrifyingly powerful methods specifically capable of suppressing tailed beasts.
The problem was—
Those techniques either relied heavily on natural energy or functioned like bloodline inheritances.
Learning them was anything but easy.
Still, when Taichi thought about his already Level 2 sealing proficiency, his confidence quickly returned.
At worst, he could simply develop his own sealing technique.
With knowledge of those existing techniques as references, combined with the assistance of his status panel, creating a new seal didn't seem impossible.
As for genjutsu…
That path was even more troublesome.
Ordinary illusion techniques in the shinobi world worked well enough against regular ninja, but truly high-level genjutsu almost always involved bloodline abilities.
The Kurama Clan's manipulation of the five senses.
The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan.
And above all—
The Mangekyō Sharingan's overwhelming suppression over tailed beasts.
Just thinking about it gave Taichi a headache.
Looks like he would have to discuss things with Yōhei again.
Unfortunately, Yōhei himself wasn't particularly skilled in genjutsu either.
Otherwise, with the foundation of a Mangekyō Sharingan, becoming a genjutsu specialist would have been relatively simple for him.
Taichi finally stopped his frog jumps after completing today's goal—
One thousand repetitions.
With both his Strength and Agility already at twenty-six points, increasing his physical attributes further had become extremely difficult.
Part of that was due to his current physical limits.
The other issue was his age.
His body wouldn't truly begin fully developing until next year at the earliest.
Honestly, if this weren't the Naruto world—
If chakra didn't exist—
This level of training would have long since destroyed his body.
After finishing today's exercise, Taichi cleaned up the area and headed back toward camp.
He wanted to find Minato Namikaze and discuss possible sealing methods capable of countering tailed beasts.
After all, among Konoha's current ninja, there really weren't many skilled seal masters left.
Minato happened to be one of them.
However, the moment he entered the camp, someone shouted toward him.
Turning around, Taichi saw a ninja hurrying anxiously in his direction.
What now?
At a time like this, what could possibly be urgent enough to warrant such panic?
Still, although the man looked hurried, his expression didn't seem particularly grim.
At least it probably wasn't bad news.
Taichi stopped where he was and waited for the ninja to approach.
"Taichi-sama! I've been searching everywhere for you!"
The man was clearly impatient by nature.
Before Taichi could even respond, he shoved a scroll into his hands.
"Here! Your transfer orders!"
"You need to pack immediately, or you won't make tomorrow morning's departure!"
Taichi blinked in confusion.
Transfer orders?
At a time like this?
Where exactly was he being reassigned to?
And why had there been absolutely no prior notice?
Opening the scroll, he quickly scanned its contents.
The message itself was simple.
He was ordered to depart alongside the main convoy tomorrow morning.
Destination—
Konoha.
Looking at the authorization seals below, he saw the official stamp of the Hokage's Office.
So this was a direct order from the village itself.
Otherwise, someone like him—who had only arrived at the frontlines two months earlier—would never normally be sent back unless it involved a special assignment.
"Understood. I've received the orders."
"Sorry for making you search everywhere for me."
Taichi thanked him politely.
He always treated those helping him with proper kindness.
"No, no, this is what I should be doing!"
The ninja suddenly became visibly excited.
"You may not remember, but you saved my life!"
Taichi looked at him more carefully.
"You're… that poisoned patient, right?"
"Yūta?"
"Yes! Yes!"
Yūta looked almost overwhelmed with happiness.
"It's an honor that you still remember my name!"
But after only a second, he seemed to remember something and hurriedly urged him again.
"The orders were issued a while ago already."
"You should hurry and prepare."
"I heard most of the returning ninja are already busy handing over duties. The entire camp's become chaotic."
"Alright. Thanks for the reminder."
After parting ways with Yūta, Taichi continued staring at the transfer order in confusion.
Originally, he had planned to seek out Minato.
Now that idea would have to wait.
Turning around, he headed toward his tent.
There were still things to pack, and he also needed to formally hand over his duties at the medical camp.
Once he left, they would lose a tremendous amount of free labor.
Fortunately, the southern front had temporarily stabilized.
After so much battlefield experience, the medical staff should be capable of handling things properly on their own.
When Taichi lifted the tent flap and entered, he immediately spotted Yōhei and Saori inside.
But what surprised him was—
The two of them were casually chatting away with absolutely no signs of packing.
"You two just got back?"
"Haven't received your return orders yet?"
"Return?"
"Orders?"
The pair looked at each other blankly.
Clearly, they knew nothing about it.
"We've been meditating inside the tent this whole time."
"We haven't gone anywhere."
"And nobody came to deliver any orders."
Taichi frowned.
"That's strange."
"Yūta—the ninja who delivered mine—said the orders were issued a while ago already."
"You two came to the frontlines with me as part of the same squad."
"Logically, you should be returning together unless…"
He suddenly stopped midway through the sentence.
Unless…
"Unless only you are being recalled," Saori finished directly.
"And we're staying here."
Taichi fell silent.
Now even he couldn't understand the situation anymore.
They had arrived together as one squad.
Yet now only he was being transferred back to Konoha.
That definitely wasn't normal.
And once he thought about the higher-ups in Konoha—
Especially a certain someone who clearly disliked him—
His thoughts immediately started drifting in unpleasant directions.
Perhaps his latest achievements had irritated that person again.
Maybe they found some excuse to recall him…
Only to arrange an "accident" on the way back.
Of course, Taichi knew this was mostly paranoia.
But the actions of Konoha's upper leadership in the past had already destroyed much of his trust in them.
"Eh, if we're not returning, then so be it."
Yōhei lazily sprawled across the bed while speaking casually.
"It's wartime."
"We follow the village's orders."
"Besides, there's not much fighting happening on the frontlines anymore."
"Whether we're here or back in the village doesn't make much difference."
"And honestly, there are still plenty of strong people here to spar with."
"Back in Konoha, opportunities like that would be much harder to find."
Taichi understood immediately.
Yōhei was deliberately acting relaxed so he wouldn't worry.
That thoughtfulness wasn't lost on him.
"In that case…"
"Let me treat your eyes one more time."
"If I really return to Konoha, who knows when I'll next come back."
The moment Yōhei heard that, he instantly sat upright like a spring-loaded puppet.
"Perfect timing!"
"I've been training too hard lately anyway."
"My vision's started getting blurry."
"Quick, Taichi, fix me up!"
Taichi didn't hesitate.
Walking behind him, he placed both hands gently against Yōhei's temples.
A soft green glow spread from his palms, slowly nourishing Yōhei's strained eyes.
For a moment, the tent fell completely silent.