Chapter 165: Prestige
One morning, Yoru was looking at a scroll in his office.
Having a private office felt great.
Purple Cat walked into the office.
“Fox Jonin, there’s a notice from the Jonin Class asking all Anbu Jonin to attend the Jonin Meeting.”
Yoru could also attend the Jonin Meeting now, not as a meeting guard, but as an Anbu Jonin.
“Alright, I’ll go right away.”
Yoru arrived at the Anbu Base entrance and saw Kiiroinu, Kuroari, and Lynx.
He was now on equal footing with these captains; for the Jonin Meeting, they had to call on him.
Anbu was known as Konoha’s elite, but the number of Jonin in Anbu was not large.
Many Anbu Ninja left Anbu after being promoted to Jonin, taking some opportunity to become Jonin in the sunshine.
Yoru took another look at Lynx; this man was Danzo’s confidant, and he didn’t know what he specialized in or what his abilities were.
The four left the Anbu Base together and entered the Jonin Meeting Room on the second floor of the Hokage Building.
Yoru, wearing the Fox Mask, sat on a cushion in the third row.
One by one, Jonin entered; excluding those from the Land of Earth front line, Land of Whirlpools front line, and the Daimyo’s Guardian Jonin, a total of 121 people attended this Jonin Meeting.
The first and second rows were for Elite Jonin and various clan heads.
Hatake Sakumo, Tsunade, and others who had served as battlefield deputy commanders sat in the first row.
The last to enter were the village’s high-ranking officials: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu Utatane, and Nara Shikaku.
Among the high-ranking officials, Mito Mon’en was in the Land of Earth, and Danzo was in the Land of Whirlpools, serving as commanders-in-chief of those two battlefields respectively.
Yoru thought to himself, was this the feeling of being close to power?
Let me see what kind of closed-door meeting you’re holding behind the backs of Konoha’s genin, and what matters can’t be said openly?
After Nara Shikaku signaled for everyone to quiet down, he spoke first:
“In the Land of Rivers War, we achieved a brilliant victory, but the Second Ninja War is far from over.
The Mist Village has declared war on Konoha and invaded the Land of Whirlpools.
There are two items on today’s agenda.
The first is to review the gains and losses on the Land of Rivers Battlefield.
The second is to conscript ninja to enter the Land of Whirlpools and end the Land of Whirlpools War as soon as possible.
The village plans to add a deputy commander on the Land of Whirlpools Battlefield and dispatch 20 Jonin and 1000 ninja to the Land of Whirlpools Battlefield.”
Yoru looked toward Kiiroinu’s back.
The Kiiroinu Battalion would surely be sent to the Land of Whirlpools; he wondered how Kiiroinu planned to become Anbu Deputy Minister.
The simplest way was to earn a huge merit, making it impossible for Danzo to oppose Kiiroinu’s promotion.
Danzo’s desire for power was extremely strong; he absolutely would not want others to share his power.
Nara Shikaku said:
“The Hidden Sand Village’s war reparations have arrived in batches; in the next couple of days, death benefits will be distributed to over 900 sacrificed ninja.
We paid a heavy price and completely frustrated all of Hidden Sand Village’s strategic intentions.
The Land of Rivers Daimyo’s guardian ninja slots and Land of Rivers mission quota remain firmly in our hands.
In the war, we destroyed Suna Harbor in the Land of Wind and 21 oases large and small along the Land of Wind border.
Both the Land of Wind and Hidden Sand Village will fall into exhaustion and weakness, unable to threaten us in the short term.”
Tsunade stood up first:
“Konoha sacrificed over 900 ninja, but the front line medical post also restored over 600 ninja to combat readiness.
If the village is willing to invest more medical resources, the death toll would absolutely be much less than “
Hearing Tsunade’s high-pitched voice, Yoru thought to himself that only Tsunade would dare interrupt Nara Shikaku in such a setting.
Nara Shikaku hurriedly said:
“Princess Tsunade, I’m not saying the sacrifice of over 900 is due to inadequate work at the front line medical post; this number is already much less than the 1700 Sand Ninja deaths.”
Tsunade said: “What I mean is that the village should increase investment in medical care to save more Leaf Ninja!
Medical supplies were short at the Land of Rivers front line; in the later stages, with no medicine, all injuries and illnesses were treated purely with medical chakra by medical ninja.
How could medical ninja’s chakra possibly handle so many injuries and illnesses?”
Hiruzen Sarutobi said: “Tsunade, during wartime, medicine and doctors are scarce everywhere.
It’s not that the village doesn’t value medical care; it’s that the Land of Earth and Land of Whirlpools front lines also need to share medical supplies, so naturally fewer went to the Land of Rivers.”
Koharu Utatane also said: “Tsunade, after the meeting, you can come with me to see our warehouse; the village has been dealing with multiple battlefields in succession, and all warehouses are empty.”
Several high-ranking officials took turns speaking, finally soothing Tsunade.
Hatake Sakumo then stood up and said:
“As deputy commander, let me say something as well.
On the Land of Rivers Battlefield, the Ninjutsu Assessment System was implemented.
Post-war statistics show that many chunin and genin improved their strength considerably.
I believe the Ninjutsu Assessment System can be widely promoted, teaching ordinary elemental ninjutsu to chunin and genin with outstanding mission records and willingness to contribute.”
Nara Shikaku was somewhat weary of responding; first it was Tsunade, now Hatake Sakumo. He said:
“Sakumo, the effects of the Ninjutsu Assessment System still need evaluation.
According to intelligence from spies, Hidden Sand Village obtained much of our Konoha ninja techniques’ intelligence during the war.
The widespread dissemination of ninjutsu due to the Ninjutsu Assessment System, leakage of ninja intelligence, and targeted countermeasures by other ninja villages are also issues to consider.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi and Koharu Utatane didn’t even bother explaining; they just glanced at Hatake Sakumo.
Seeing the high-ranking officials’ dismissive looks, Hatake Sakumo sat down disappointedly.
Pushing for some reforms was too difficult.
Even the Ninjutsu Assessment System faced heavy resistance; the Ninja Position Assessment System would be even harder.
If not for the war victory, the high-ranking officials would have wanted to punish Hatake Sakumo for massively leaking ninjutsu.
Yoru felt the high-ranking officials must be quite uncomfortable; the troublemaker Tsunade and the idealist Hatake Sakumo both jumped out to stir things up.
Why couldn’t all Konoha ninja just raise their hands in agreement and clap in approval?
Raising hands had to involve jumping around, clapping had to involve shaking heads—that would be the ideal subordinates.
“Now moving to the second agenda item,” Nara Shikaku said:
“After village consideration, Tsunade is appointed deputy commander of the Land of Whirlpools Battlefield, to lead 20 Jonin and 1000 Leaf Ninja into the Land of Whirlpools front line.”
Yoru looked at Tsunade and saw she had no objection; it seemed she accepted the appointment.
Then, Nara Shikaku began reading out the Jonin names.
Neither Kiiroinu nor Yoru was on the list; Anbu’s actions were only accountable to the Hokage and didn’t need the Jonin Class’s knowledge.
Once the list was read, the Jonin calmly accepted the conscription.
Those whose names weren’t called felt a bit disappointed.
Hatake Sakumo stood up again: “Hokage, Leader Shikaku, my name should be on the list; I’m willing to help the village end the Land of Whirlpools War quickly.”
Nara Shikaku said:
“Sakumo, the commander-in-chief of the Land of Whirlpools War is Danzo Advisor, the deputy commander is Uchiha Kane Clan Head, and with Princess Tsunade going, it will just supplement the front line medical and logistics shortages.”
“Leader Shikaku, I don’t need to do commanding; just let me go to the front line and command a battalion.”
