Chapter 32: Can't Take It Anymore, Let's Fight!

Early morning.

The ecological environment of the Land of Whirlpools was quite good. No smog, plenty of trees, mountains, and water. The air was so fresh!

Or perhaps it could be said that the entire shinobi world's ecological environment was excellent. After all, the shinobi world had an advantage that Earth did not—chakra, a pollution-free, renewable energy source.

Because of this, wildlife was quite abundant here. Some animals even developed intelligence, refined chakra, and evolved into rare creatures—summoning beasts.

Of course, there were also a small number of ancient lineages that possessed secret techniques.

They forcibly occupied areas with lush greenery and fresh air, paid no taxes, did no labor, and after living comfortably for a long time, declared themselves the Three Great Sage Regions.

Hozuki Gengetsu and a group of Kirigakure higher-ups sat around a round table. Everyone was yawning, with dark circles under their eyes, looking like they had overworked themselves the night before.

Their spirits were low!

"Cough, cough."

Hozuki Gengetsu lightly coughed twice, signaling them to perk up. They were still in the middle of a war. What was the point of looking half-dead like this? Did they still want to fight or not?

Did they not want to continue? No, no, they had to fight!

Otherwise, wouldn't this entire mobilization to invade the Land of Whirlpools be a complete loss? Not only would his position as Mizukage be stripped away, but even his clan would suffer in the village!

So, whether they wanted to or not, they had to fight. They needed to pull themselves together. Once they succeeded, they could have titles and positions as they wished.

However, everyone knew they were at war. But if you stayed up for three nights straight while listening to firecrackers for three days, how would you feel?

Even the God of Shinobi would probably break down!

Not only were their spirits low, but their moods were also irritable! Hadn't they noticed the Kaguya clan members starting to brandish their bones? They were going crazy.

Three days without any real action, just fighting clouds of dust that made "bang" sounds. It was exhausting! The Hōzuki clan had never encountered something like this before.

In the past, they just had to roar, pull out their bones, and charge forward. But ever since they started slashing at balloons, they felt like they might not even be able to lift their bones anymore.

Now, the Kirigakure shinobi turned red-eyed whenever they heard a "bang" sound...

They wanted to run away!

Explosive tags would explode. Even shadow clones would explode. After listening to it for three days, everyone felt sick.

They had developed an allergy to the sound of "bang"!

And now they were being told to perk up? Don't joke around. They didn't even know where the Uzumaki shinobi were hiding. It was all just shadow clones!

The Kirigakure shinobi had something they wanted to say but didn't know if they should.

They felt like they could take on ten Uzumaki shinobi right now—all jonin-level.

This was too much. Even if you were rich, you couldn't fight a war like this!

Setting off firecrackers all night was disturbing the peace!

Now, with their spirits low, even performing ninjutsu felt sluggish, stuttering along.

"..."

Hozuki Gengetsu, dark circles under his eyes, looked solemnly at the Kirigakure shinobi present. This couldn't go on! Now he understood what the Uzumaki were trying to do—they were crushing Kirigakure's morale.

How malicious! Couldn't they see morale was already weakening?

What was war fought with? Tactics, money, and morale!

Now that morale was almost completely drained, how were they supposed to keep fighting?

Did everyone just not want to fight anymore? That wouldn't do! Did he, the Mizukage, still want to keep his dignity or not?

The Mizukage's advisor frowned as he looked at everyone present. Forget about the higher-ups—the lower ranks were in even worse shape.

At the tail end of the war, anti-war sentiments were already spreading among the shinobi. Add to that the fact that they had gained nothing from this entire operation, and anyone would be fed up.

"Perhaps we've fallen into a misunderstanding?" The Mizukage's advisor propped his chin on his hands, speaking thoughtfully.

"Oh? What misunderstanding do you think we've fallen into?" Hozuki Gengetsu asked immediately upon hearing someone propose a solution.

Right now, silence was the worst. Any idea was better than nothing. Whether it was useful or not, just saying it out loud was good enough.

It would at least help distract everyone.

"The first reason we Kirigakure have ended up in this situation is that we underestimated the enemy," the advisor said seriously. Now was the time for the Mizukage's brain to speak.

"Yes."

"Right."

"The advisor makes a good point."

However, everyone responded half-heartedly. They had heard this days ago, and it hadn't made any difference! The enemy still used shadow clones as they pleased!

"The second reason is that this is their home turf," the advisor continued. "The Uzumaki shinobi are native to this land. They know it better than we do, so hiding is easier for them."

"They might even have traps set up that we don't know about." The advisor scanned the room, frowning. "Haven't you noticed? Ever since we set foot in the Land of Whirlpools, nothing has gone according to plan."

In short, they had been led by the nose by a bunch of reckless idiots. They had been too confident, thinking a group of reckless fighters would only charge headfirst. Who knew they would actually use tactics?

Usually, one reckless fighter was manageable, but a group of them was guaranteed to be uncontrollable after all, battle cries were contagious!

Who would have thought the entire Uzumaki clan's reckless fighters could stay so calm? That was so un-Uzumaki-like!

Everyone nodded. That made sense.

From the moment they landed until now, the plan had been completely derailed. Originally, they had intended to fight a bunch of reckless idiots head-on, but instead, the enemy switched to harassment tactics.

But plans couldn't keep up with changes. If they charged in recklessly now and fell into a trap, what then?

As if sensing everyone's concerns, the advisor spoke again. "Everyone is worried about the Uzumaki clan's traps, but..."

"Have you considered that our situation is different now from when we first landed?"

Different? How was it different?

Was it their exhausted expressions? That was certainly different, they all looked like their souls had been drained.

Seeing everyone's strange looks, the advisor nearly broke out in a cold sweat. What were they all thinking?

"People. The number of people is different," Hozuki Gengetsu suddenly said solemnly. He seemed to have realized something.

People? A lot of people had indeed died, mostly from explosive tags. That was the Mizukage's fault!

He had to take responsibility! Pay compensation!

Seeing that the Mizukage had figured it out, the advisor nodded seriously. "Yes, many have died, but..."

"The ones left are all elites. So our situation is different now."

At this, everyone seemed to understand. So that was it!

A lot of cannon fodder had died, but it didn't matter. The Uzumaki clan was small in number and not particularly strong. Kirigakure could still overpower them. Even if there were traps, with so many of them left, they could react in time.

"Exactly. To break out of this situation, we need to disrupt the Uzumaki clan's plans," the advisor said gravely. They couldn't let the enemy control the pace anymore, or Kirigakure might end up completely outmatched!

"But how do we break the current deadlock?" the Mizukage asked, frowning.

"Fight head-on!!!"