Orochimaru's prediction was not only correct—if anything, he had underestimated Sunagakure's cruelty.
Shortly after Konoha's forces returned to camp, new intel arrived:
The rear-line Konoha field hospital had been attacked.
The report was brutal.
The entire medical camp—tents, equipment, medicine—had been reduced to ruins. Most of the medical-nin were dead. Only two or three out of ten had managed to escape with their lives.
Orochimaru's face turned so dark it seemed like ink might drip from it. Around him, the ninjas in the command tent erupted in anger. Striking at an enemy's medical corps on the battlefield was a vicious move, even by shinobi standards.
Of course, "vicious" meant little in the ninja world.
This was an occupation where villages would send children not yet ten years old to the front lines if pushed hard enough. Compared to that, attacking a hospital was practically child's play.
The real problem was who they were fighting.
against Suna, medical support was the most critical pillar.
Sunagakure was the village most adept with poison in the entire ninja world. Any puppeteer walking down the street with fewer than seven or eight lethal toxins up their sleeve would be laughed out of the profession.
This strike had hit Konoha right in its weak spot. It was like striking a snake directly at seven inches—the vital point.
"Pass the word," Orochimaru said, voice low but steady. "For the time being, our squads will switch to a defensive posture. Also, report to the village immediately and request medical-nin and supply support. In the short term, Suna will definitely intensify their raids and provocations. Everyone must learn to endure it. Once reinforcements arrive, we can reverse this situation."
He issued orders in an orderly fashion.
The medical system in camp was more than half destroyed, and they had just fought a massive battle with Iwa. Even in victory, Konoha had taken losses. For now, facing Suna head-on would be asking for disaster.
Then Orochimaru turned to look at Uchiha Feiyu.
"Feiyu," he said, "I have a mission for you as well. I want you to cut Sunagakure's supply lines—disrupt their logistics as much as possible."
Feiyu blinked innocently.
"That sounds… a bit much, doesn't it? I've only been out of the Academy for a year. I'm not sure I'm qualified for a mission like that."
Cutting the Land of Wind's logistics line—how was that supposed to be easy?
For missions like this, if three out of ten operatives made it back alive, the village would already consider it a blessing. More often than not, a hundred shinobi would be sent, only for three to five half-crippled survivors to crawl home.
Feiyu trusted his current strength, but going into Wind Country to tangle directly with Suna?
That was still a substantial risk.
He had already made up his mind: if Orochimaru really insisted he go deep into Wind Country to kill and sabotage, he'd just drag things out on the way. Once out there, Orochimaru wouldn't be able to monitor him. As long as he wrote the report, who could say otherwise?
If questioned, he could always say, "I got lost," or "Bad luck, never ran into any Suna convoys." Orochimaru wasn't going to execute him over that… probably.
Listening to Feiyu's attempt to wriggle out of it, the jōnin in the tent all had complicated expressions.
Do you feel no shame saying that?
Did you forget the hundreds of shinobi already dead by your hand?
But once they calmed down, they felt a faint chill in their hearts.
Graduated from the Academy for just one year—yet able to slaughter enemies like that on the front lines.
This Uchiha brat's talent—and mental state—were both a little terrifying.
Orochimaru also felt a headache coming on.
This brat was too slippery.
But the problem was that Uchiha Feiyu's combat power was exactly what Konoha's camp needed most right now.
After a brief silence, Orochimaru spoke again:
"In that case, I'll allow you to select three ninjas from camp to assist you. That should make the mission more manageable, yes?"
Feiyu thought it over.
If the right people were chosen, three subordinates could indeed reduce the danger considerably.
Of course, once he had a three-man support team, it would be much harder to slack off. He'd actually have to fight Suna in Wind Country, for real.
In the end, it wasn't duty or honor that swayed him.
It was the souls.
He already had nearly three hundred Iwa souls banked. If he collected a good number of Suna souls on top of that, he'd be able to offer them to the Demonic Compendium and redeem something truly powerful.
Plus, if things got too dangerous… he could always throw the three subordinates behind him and run.
—
Orochimaru kept his word.
He had the records of all tokubetsu jōnin and Chunin in the camp brought out and handed them to Feiyu for selection.
Full jōnin were off the table; there were only a dozen or so in camp, and each one already had a critical role. None of them could be spared, and Feiyu wasn't exactly in a position to order them around either.
Tokubetsu jōnin, however, were a different story.
In terms of raw ability, many were not weaker than full jōnin. Some had been stuck at that rank for purely political reasons and were long overdue for promotion.
After scanning through the roster, Feiyu first picked his previous mission partner—Yamanaka Seiichi.
Then he chose a tokubetsu jōnin from the Hyūga branch family.
For the final slot, he picked a tokubetsu jōnin who had also trained in medical ninjutsu.
Professional medical-nin rarely went to the front lines—but a surprising number of combat shinobi learned basic healing. Some of them were, in fact, better at certain treatments than full-time medics.
Bad luck for Feiyu, though.
For all the hundreds of shinobi he'd killed, not a single one had possessed truly advanced medical ninjutsu. At best, some knew basic hemostasis or low-grade healing techniques.
Orochimaru glanced over the three names, then waved his hand.
"Approved. The four of you depart for Wind Country tomorrow."
—
At the camp gate, Feiyu stood with Yamanaka Seiichi, looking at the other two he had picked.
"Since we're about to start working together, let's introduce ourselves," Feiyu said. "I'm Uchiha Feiyu. I specialize in kenjutsu, Lightning Release, and stealth—standard high-speed combatant."
He gestured to Seiichi.
"This is Yamanaka Seiichi. We've worked together before. He's a sensor-type ninja with long-range telepathy."
The two newly selected shinobi exchanged a glance. The Hyūga spoke first.
"I'm Hyūga Ichirō. Like most of my clan, I specialize in Gentle Fist and sensory."
The last Konoha ninja introduced himself:
"My name is Itō Ryōma. I specialize in Earth Release and taijutsu. I also practice medical ninjutsu—specifically the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique and Mystical Palm Technique."
The Delicate Illness Extraction Technique was poison's natural enemy.
With that jutsu, as long as treatment began in time, poisoning was no longer an immediate death sentence. The only issue was how few shinobi actually knew it.
If more did, Sunagakure's poisons would never have gained such a fearsome reputation.
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