Meanwhile, at Konoha's southeastern coastal headquarters...
Inside the command center, Koharu and Homura sat side by side at the head of the room. Spread across the table before them were battle reports arriving from every defensive line.
Unlike in previous days, both elders looked noticeably more at ease. Every now and then, a faint smile even appeared as they exchanged opinions.
Before the war had begun, they had hardly dared imagine things turning out this well.
As two of Konoha's most senior veterans, Koharu and Homura had both lived through the previous two Great Ninja Wars.
At the start of each of those wars, the battlefield had been filled with heavy casualties, chaotic command structures, and one emergency strategy meeting after another.
The front lines between attacker and defender had constantly interlocked like the teeth of a comb, with the situation changing by the minute. Headquarters had almost always been operating under extreme pressure.
But this time, ever since the war began—whether against Sunagakure, against Kumogakure, or now against both Sunagakure and Kirigakure at the same time—the initiative had remained firmly in Konoha's hands.
Kumogakure, in particular, had been the enemy they feared the most. Everyone had mentally prepared themselves for a bloody war of attrition.
Instead, the problem had been resolved in a way no one had anticipated.
Higashino Shinichi had led the Shinichi Battalion deep into the heart of the Land of Lightning, throwing Kumogakure's rear into complete chaos. In the end, they had forced Kumogakure to withdraw from the war ahead of schedule, allowing Konoha to concentrate fully on dealing with Sunagakure and Kirigakure.
And after Kumogakure's withdrawal, although Konoha was now fighting on two fronts simultaneously, casualty ratios had remained within an exceptionally favorable range. The introduction of medical scrolls had also greatly improved the efficiency of treating the wounded, keeping morale among the frontline shinobi consistently high.
"I've lived a long time and fought in more battles than I can count," Homura said with a shake of his head, unable to hide the emotion in his voice. "But I've never fought a war this worry-free before. Even though we're fighting on two fronts and the pressure is certainly immense, the situation here has turned out far better than I ever expected."
Koharu nodded slightly, her gaze settling on the documents before her, each covered in dense handwritten notes.
"Indeed. To achieve this, our comrades have all risked their lives on the battlefield..."
"...but that child deserves an enormous share of the credit."
She never spoke the name aloud.
Neither of them needed her to.
After a brief silence, Koharu set down the report in her hand.
"Homura, once the war is over, I'm planning to recommend to Hiruzen that the boy become the Head of the Jōnin Council and begin participating directly in the village's overall decision-making. What do you think?"
Homura paused for a moment before replying quietly.
"Koharu... isn't he a little too young?"
According to the strategic analysis Shinichi had submitted before the war, the conflict was expected to last roughly three to four years.
That meant Shinichi would only be fourteen or fifteen by the time it ended.
Far too young.
The Head of the Jōnin Council stood above all the village's jōnin, second only to the Hokage and the three advisors. The position carried enough authority to directly influence Konoha's long-term planning and its most important decisions.
And Homura had caught the deeper meaning behind Koharu's proposal.
She wanted to elevate that boy.
To make him the next Hokage.
The Head of the Jōnin Council position was merely the first step.
"Yes, he is young," Koharu admitted with a sigh. "But his ability and accomplishments speak for themselves. We shouldn't allow age alone to hold back someone with genuine talent. The sooner he joins the village's highest decision-making circle, the sooner Konoha will benefit from his abilities."
"And if he shoulders greater responsibilities earlier, then when the village eventually entrusts him with something even more important, he'll already be prepared. He won't end up like Hiruzen did back then—thrown into the role without knowing anything, making a complete mess of things at the beginning."
At that, she shook her head helplessly before looking steadily at Homura.
"Ten years from now, people of our generation will all be old. It's about time we gradually passed the burden on to the younger generation."
The implication could hardly have been more obvious.
Homura remained silent for a long while before finally nodding.
"I have no objections. But the most important part is still whether Hiruzen agrees."
A smile appeared on Koharu's face.
"I don't think Hiruzen will object. He was the first among us to recognize that child's potential. Even Danzō won't oppose it."
"After all..."
"...that child is the one who inherited our sensei's will and wisdom."
"That's true."
Homura nodded gently.
"To witness the rise of a successor like him within our lifetime... perhaps that's the greatest blessing for both the village and ourselves."
The room fell silent once more.
Yet in that silence, the two old partners had quietly reached an understanding.
After the war, they would support Higashino Shinichi's rise.
"Report! The four captains have arrived at headquarters and are awaiting orders outside!"
A messenger shinobi stepped into the command room.
Koharu and Homura exchanged a glance before nodding in unison.
"Send them in."
...
A short while later, inside the command center...
After Koharu and Homura had quietly listened as the four captains delivered detailed reports on their respective sectors, Koharu smiled faintly before her expression turned serious once again.
"You've all worked hard."
"Kirigakure's offensives have been repeatedly thwarted these past few days. They won't simply let this go. My guess is that their full-scale offensive is coming next."
"What are everyone's thoughts?"
As she spoke, Koharu slowly swept her gaze across the four captains before finally stopping on Shinichi.
At almost the exact same moment, the other three captains—Minato, Fugaku, and Hiashi—also turned toward Shinichi in perfect unison.
Seriously?
You've all gotten so lazy you can't even be bothered to think anymore, huh?
Shinichi grumbled inwardly, but his expression remained perfectly calm.
After a brief moment of thought, he organized his ideas, walked over to the large coastal defense map, and pointed at the marker indicating Rinkai City.
"I recommend abandoning Rinkai City."
The moment those words left his mouth, the command center fell silent.
After a moment, Homura frowned slightly.
"Abandon Rinkai City? Shinichi, you know as well as anyone that it's our strongest foothold along the southeastern coast. It has ample supplies. If we give it up, Kirigakure will gain a solid base of operations inland. Once that happens, driving them back out..."
"...will be extremely difficult," Shinichi finished for him, nodding calmly.
"Shinichi, explain your reasoning," Koharu said.
"Just as Elder Koharu predicted, Kirigakure's multi-pronged infiltration strategy has failed over the past several days. I believe their commander will soon change tactics and launch a full-scale offensive instead."
"When that happens, they'll undoubtedly commit everything they have to making Rinkai City their primary breakthrough point, pouring massive forces into a frontal assault. With the troops we currently have, even if we manage to hold the city through a desperate defense, our casualties will be enormous."
"More importantly, even if we successfully defend Rinkai City, all we've accomplished is holding onto one city. Kirigakure's main force will still be intact, and they'll continue shipping reinforcements and supplies across the sea without interruption."
"So we can't fight according to Kirigakure's plan. If they want a decisive offensive, then we simply won't give them one. What we need to do is continue controlling the initiative on the battlefield."
"In other words..."
"They fight their war, and we fight ours."
They fight their war, and we fight ours?
Everyone in the room fell into thoughtful silence.
"So what happens if we voluntarily abandon Rinkai City and hand it over to them?"
"Kirigakure will have spent tremendous effort concentrating their forces for a full-scale assault, only to arrive at an empty city."
"Do they occupy it?"
"And if they do... what choices are left before them?"
"They can either use Rinkai City as a secure foothold, advancing inland steadily and methodically..."
"Or they can press their advantage and attempt to crush our main force in one decisive blow. But if they do that, their front lines will stretch rapidly into unfamiliar inland territory, and their forces will become increasingly dispersed during the pursuit..."
"As for us, while abandoning Rinkai City, we'll evacuate every supply we can. Anything we can't take, we'll destroy, leaving Kirigakure nothing but an empty city."
"We know this terrain far better than they do. We can take advantage of the vast surrounding area by sending small detachments to harass and ambush them continuously, gradually wearing down their manpower."
"Simply put, this is a proactive strategic withdrawal—one where we cast off our burdens and fight as a lighter, more mobile force."
Shinichi slowly looked around the room.
"Everything comes down to one strategic principle:"
"Preserve the army, and the land can always be retaken. Lose the army defending the land, and you'll lose both."
"From there, our operational plan is simple:"
"Draw them in, split them apart, wear them down, and destroy them when the moment is right."
"Furthermore, this plan carries another important advantage."
"As a major coastal city, once Kirigakure occupies Rinkai City, they'll inevitably turn it into the central logistics hub for their entire campaign."
"Their supplies will be shipped regularly from their rear bases to Rinkai City. During the time we're drawing them deeper inland, our constant harassment and reconnaissance operations will gradually reveal the patterns of their supply routes."
"And ultimately..."
"...we'll locate the true logistical heart of Kirigakure's frontline headquarters."
As he spoke, Shinichi picked up a pen and drew a sweeping arc across the map, extending from Rinkai City toward the waters surrounding the Land of Waves.
"The moment we destroy the heart of their logistics network, Kirigakure's frontline army becomes an isolated force."
"And once that happens, they'll have no choice but to retreat without a fight."
The command center fell completely silent.
Everyone carefully contemplated the strategic framework the young man had just laid out.
Shinichi said nothing more.
He simply waited quietly for them to digest it all.
At the same time, another thought quietly surfaced in the back of his mind.
Maybe, someday, he could write his own treatises on strategy—works like On War or The Theory of Total War.
And then follow them up with books on battlefield tactics.
Beware of Tanks...
No, scratch that.
Beware of Ninja.
Books like that could further reinforce how the world perceived him as a military theorist.
Come to think of it, it really was absurd.
The world had been at war for nearly a thousand years. Large and small conflicts were too numerous to count.
Yet no one had ever produced a truly systematic body of military theory.
Every clan passed down its knowledge through oral instruction from one generation to the next, supplemented by personal experience. Even the hidden villages relied primarily on the commander's talent and intuition when planning military operations.
No one had ever tried to elevate warfare into a structured academic discipline with a theoretical framework that could be taught, replicated, and inherited.
Although Shinichi had never personally read those classic military treatises in his previous life, he had watched plenty of historical analysis videos from content creators breaking down famous campaigns.
With his current intelligence and deductive ability—especially with the support of the Piercing Insight Entry—he was fully capable of reconstructing the general framework behind those strategic theories.
Of course, many aspects couldn't simply be copied wholesale.
After all, this world possessed chakra, a supernatural power capable of allowing individual combatants to alter the course of an entire battlefield.
But he could absolutely adapt and rebuild those theories around the realities of this world, particularly the influence that supernatural abilities had on the nature of warfare.
If he could eventually organize those ideas into a complete body of military theory and spread it throughout the ninja world...
...he would firmly establish himself as the supreme military sage who had reshaped the very rules of warfare.
Just how much recognition and influence would that earn him throughout the ninja world?
The mere thought of that scale of recognition was enough to fill Shinichi with anticipation.
Koharu fell silent for a moment, exchanging a glance with Homura before turning back to Shinichi.
"Shinichi, I understand the general outline of your analysis and deployment. Abandoning Rinkai City, trading space for time, luring the enemy deep inland, and seeking opportunities to destroy them through mobile warfare... strategically speaking, the plan is certainly sound."
"However, Rinkai City is one of the Land of Fire's most important strongholds along the southeastern coast. Abandoning an entire city isn't purely a military matter—it also involves the Daimyō's position. We'll need to report this to the Hokage first. Once he approves it, we'll explain the situation to His Lordship the Daimyō."
Homura nodded in agreement.
"That's right. This isn't something we can decide on our own. Besides, evacuating all of Rinkai City's civilians safely will be a massive undertaking in itself."
Shinichi nodded calmly.
"I'll leave the decision to the two Elders."
"Then that's settled for now. The four of you should get some rest. Homura and I will contact the village immediately. As soon as we receive a response, I'll inform you at once."
"Yes, ma'am!"
The four captains answered in unison before turning and leaving the command center.
...
More than ten minutes later...
Konohagakure, Hokage's Office.
The encrypted report, jointly signed by Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, was transmitted through the Communications Division's secure channel and delivered to the Hokage's desk at the highest possible speed.
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, set down his pipe and carefully read through the detailed report and strategic analysis.
After a long silence, he picked up his pipe once more, lit it, took a deep drag, and began drafting an official document to be submitted to the Daimyō of the Land of Fire.
That very afternoon...
The Land of Fire's capital, the Daimyō's Palace.
The Daimyō of the Land of Fire sat in the seat of honor, carefully reading the urgent letter and strategic report sent by the Third Hokage.
He read every word with great care.
At times his brows knitted together.
At others, they relaxed slightly.
His expression shifted repeatedly as he turned each page.
After setting the documents down, he remained silent, his face clouded.
It was only natural.
After all, the very purpose of Konoha's shinobi was to protect the nation and defend every inch of the Land of Fire.
Yet now they were proposing to abandon one of its cities.
Emotionally, that was not an easy decision to accept.
Moreover, Rinkai City was the key overland gateway along the Land of Fire's southeastern coast—a prosperous coastal metropolis.
Before the war, merchants had gathered there from every direction, and the taxes it generated each year amounted to an extremely considerable sum.
Abandoning it would not only mean enduring immediate economic losses, but also investing enormous manpower and financial resources into rebuilding it once the war ended.
Still, the Daimyō of the Land of Fire was no stranger to hardship.
He had weathered twenty years of political storms.
On second thought, the nation was now at war. Trade throughout the surrounding region had all but collapsed, and Rinkai City's economic value had become little more than a name on paper.
Rather than allowing it to be reduced to rubble during the fighting, it was better to cooperate with Konoha's strategy and bring the war to an end as quickly as possible.
A city could always be rebuilt afterward.
But if all the people were dead, that would be the true loss.
Besides...
The one who had proposed this strategy...
The Daimyō's gaze once again settled on the name written in the report.
Higashino Shinichi.
He remained silent for a long while before finally setting the documents aside.
"So be it."
"We'll do it."
He turned toward the elderly minister standing beside him.
"Sōsei, pass down my orders. Every level of the administration is to cooperate fully with all of Konoha's operations. There must be no mistakes."
"At once, Your Lordship."
Sōsei bowed respectfully, accepted the order, and quickly withdrew from the hall.