Chapter 259 Iwagakure’s War Strategy

After training, the five of them gathered again at the Tuanzi Shop.

“Kakashi, where did you meet Minato-senpai this morning?” Obito asked impatiently.

“Did you ask Minato-senpai about Muzuki-sensei’s preferences? You didn’t forget, did you?”

Today was the last day they had agreed to brainstorm gift ideas, so they had to decide on a gift today no matter what.

“Do you think I’m like you? The reason I was a little late than usual was precisely because of this,” Kakashi said, nodding, with a hint of aggression from the morning’s events.

Hearing this, the other three also looked at Kakashi, but Kakashi’s next words disappointed them somewhat.

“I asked, but Minato-senpai didn’t have the kind of information we were looking for either,” Kakashi replied.

“Minato-senpai doesn’t know either? Maybe Muzuki-sensei only has two hobbies, calligraphy and teaching, and no deeply hidden interests,” Obito sighed, feeling like he had hoped for nothing.

He thought about it, and it made sense; even his disciples, who spent time with him every day, didn’t know, so what could Minato Namikaze know?

“But I think Minato-senpai said something very reasonable, just like Rin said before, it’s enough to convey your feelings,” Kakashi said seriously.

“Think about it, does Muzuki-sensei teach us so we can give him good gifts? No, he’ll be happy as long as we train diligently.”

The disciples fell into deep thought; Muzuki had said this to all of them.

“Your improvement in strength is the best reward for me.” Might Guy’s thoughts couldn’t help but drift back to the first time he got first place in his class during a practical exam; Muzuki had said those very words to him then.

The longer he spent with Muzuki, the more he felt that Muzuki’s words came from the heart and were not just empty pleasantries.

“That’s right, the most important thing is to convey our feelings,” Might Guy said, giving Kakashi a thumbs-up, his face full of approval.

“Indeed, Muzuki-sensei probably doesn’t want us to get caught up in such matters and delay our training either,” Shisui also nodded.

“Then let’s quickly discuss what to give,” Obito no longer dwelled on it.

Rin Nohara looked at the faces of the four, and a good idea suddenly popped into her head, so she smiled and said,

“How about we make a few small statues for Muzuki-sensei? Each of us makes one of ourselves, and then we all work together to complete Muzuki-sensei’s, following how we usually train, and finally, when they’re all done, we put them together.”

Kakashi thought about it; it was excellent, both in terms of division of labor and the meaning of the gift, so he said, “I think that’s a good idea.”

“That’s simply too good, Rin, are you a genius?” Obito praised with a chuckle.

Might Guy and Shisui thought about it and also nodded in approval, thinking it was a very good gift.

“I just suddenly felt that this would be very nice; even if we aren’t by Muzuki-sensei’s side, our statues will be accompanying Muzuki-sensei,” Rin Nohara said with a smile.

It passed unanimously; the joint gift for Muzuki was decided. For the first three days, they would complete their own statues, and for the next two days, they would work together to complete Muzuki’s statue.

The issue of what to give was resolved, but Obito quickly faced a new problem: this thing was not easy to make.

After buying the materials and equipment and returning home, Obito looked at the statue he had carved of himself, sighed, and finally threw it into the trash can.

“Shadow Clone Technique!”

Obito finally decided to use Ninjutsu to help himself; this was going to be left with Muzuki, so he didn’t expect it to be perfect, but at least it had to look like him.

Considering this, Obito specifically bought several extra tools, and the Shadow Clone didn’t waste words; as soon as it appeared, it started practicing.

Besides the collective gift, Obito also didn’t forget his own gift and finally finished the blueprint before going to bed.

“It’s a good thing Rin came up with a good idea; otherwise, I’d really be too busy,” Obito sighed to himself.

Practicing sculpting also helped him make the inkstone; if he had to switch to something else, he would definitely mess one up.

“I wonder how everyone else’s is coming along?” Obito couldn’t help but think about the other people’s sculptures as he lay in bed.

First was Rin Nohara, who had given him a rock sculpture before; Rin had experience, so hers shouldn’t be bad.

As for Kakashi and Shisui, Obito felt they might be similar to him, as they also knew the Shadow Clone Technique.

As for Might Guy, Obito couldn’t say.

Three days passed quickly, and on the fourth day, the five disciples gathered with their finished products, ready to begin making Muzuki’s statue.

Since they were making something, they didn’t choose the Tuanzi Shop as the location, but rather Kakashi’s house.

“Kakashi, you’re so amazing! How did you do it?” Rin Nohara immediately saw the lifelike Kakashi statue on the table.

She leaned in to look closer and found that Kakashi had completed every detail, wearing a mask, holding the White Fang Short Blade in his right hand, and appearing to be charging forward and slashing.

“Let me see.” Obito, who had just entered, heard Rin Nohara praise Kakashi like that and immediately accelerated his run over.

After seeing Kakashi’s sculpture, Obito swallowed the words he had prepared in his mind; he really couldn’t criticize this level of skill.

“Obito, what do you think? I feel it really looks like Kakashi,” Rin Nohara asked, smiling at Obito.

“It’s pretty good, quite similar, but I feel there’s still a lot of room for improvement,” Obito commented in reply.

If it were Rin Nohara’s work, he would say it was simply invincible, incredibly amazing, exactly like the person himself, but since it was Kakashi’s work, Obito could only say it was acceptable, still needing practice.

“Obito, your standards are too high. I feel this is already very impressive compared to mine,” Rin Nohara said, placing her sculpture on the table.

Obito looked at Rin Nohara’s statue; compared to Kakashi’s, Rin Nohara’s was indeed slightly rough, with decent facial carving, but the clothing and other details were far inferior to Kakashi’s.

“I think you did very well, Rin, not much worse than Kakashi, just a different style,” Obito praised.

Kakashi:…

“You’ve said so much, Obito, why don’t you take yours out for a look?” Kakashi asked blandly.

His sculpture had been meticulously carved using Earth Release, and he didn’t believe Obito could do better than him.

“Ahem, mine and yours have very different styles; mine is a bit more rugged,” feeling Rin Nohara’s curious gaze, Obito also placed his statue on the table.

Kakashi looked at Obito’s statue; Obito had sculpted himself using Fire Release, with the statue’s palms pressed together, pinky and ring fingers crossed, and the remaining fingers upright. This was the Tiger hand seal, the last hand seal for Fire Release is usually the Tiger hand seal.

But Obito had only managed to sculpt the fingers clearly; the face was very rough, and Obito’s daily goggles were also missing.

“It looks pretty good too; the hand seals are very standard,” Rin Nohara praised with a smile.

“It can’t compare to yours, Rin; after all, I haven’t had much contact with it before,” Obito chuckled.

“Only the hand seal motion is decent; the other areas are too rough, and did you forget the goggles on your head?” Kakashi commented sharply.

Since his own was only ‘acceptable,’ he would use Obito’s standards to evaluate Obito’s statue.

“I sculpted myself on a day I didn’t want to wear goggles,” Obito said stubbornly, though in reality, it was because he couldn’t manage that detail, so he simply omitted it, and he had spent a long time perfecting the hand seals.

“Is that so? I was thinking if you really couldn’t do it, I could help you with it, but if that’s the case, then never mind,” Kakashi said with a look of regret.

Although he was sharply criticizing, Kakashi still wanted this gift for Muzuki to be better, at least everyone should have their own likeness.

“Uh… I…”

Obito wanted to see how Kakashi would do it, but he found it hard to say. Asking Kakashi for help would be the death of him.

“Actually, that day I probably forgot to wear them, not that I didn’t want to. Please help me with it, Kakashi,” Obito finally spoke.

Although pride was important, the gift for Muzuki was even more so.

“My best friend, I’ve been waiting!” Might Guy walked in at this moment and greeted them.

Kakashi responded to Might Guy, then turned to Obito and asked, “What did you just say? I didn’t hear you.”

Obito thought to himself that Might Guy’s timing was really off. Saying it once already made him uncomfortable, and now he had to say it a second time.

“I said, please help me, the statue forgot its goggles, thank you,” Obito used all his strength to say this sentence. After speaking, Obito felt as uncomfortable as if ants were crawling all over him.

Kakashi’s lips curled into a wide smile; he had heard it, but he had said that on purpose.

Seeing the smile in Kakashi’s eyes, Obito instantly felt tricked but was helpless. In the end, he could only give Kakashi a ‘you owe me one’ look and watched how Kakashi operated.

Kakashi took out a block of earth, then performed hand seals and used Earth Release Ninjutsu. Soon, a pair of goggles was complete. Then, Kakashi placed the goggles on Obito’s statue, adjusted their size with Earth Release, and finally merged them together.

“So you did it with Ninjutsu!” Obito was shocked, feeling as if he had painstakingly completed his homework only to see someone cheat and finish it in a few minutes.

“What’s wrong with using Ninjutsu? Do you think it’s easy to perform such precise operations with Earth Release?” Kakashi said blandly.

Obito couldn’t refute; being able to use Ninjutsu was also a skill.

Finally, all five of them brought out their sculptures, and Obito discovered a statue even rougher than his own: Might Guy’s.

Might Guy had sculpted himself using the Leaf Whirlwind, with one leg kicked out.

“Guy, do you want to refine your face a bit more? It looks a little blurry,” Obito reminded him.

“No need, I think it looks pretty much like me,” Might Guy said, waving his hand.

“Indeed, thick eyebrows and a bowl cut, you can recognize him at a glance,” Kakashi gave his approval.

Might Guy’s was indeed very rough, but all the necessary features were there, making it easier to recognize than Obito’s before the goggles were added.

Shisui’s statue was of him practicing with a short blade, holding the short blade in his right hand and thrusting forward.

“Shisui, your weapon is so exquisitely made,” Rin Nohara noticed that the small short blade in Shisui’s statue’s hand actually had many details.

“It took a lot of time,” Shisui nodded. The short blade on the statue was the one Muzuki had given him as a birthday present, and he had spent most of his time on it.

“The head will be handled by Kakashi, the hands by Obito…” Rin Nohara assigned tasks based on the strengths shown in everyone’s statues.

Besides Muzuki’s body, there were actually other parts to make, such as the base of the statue and the scenery. For example, Rin Nohara wanted to make a broken tree next to her statue to make the training scene more realistic.

With their combined efforts, Muzuki’s statue was completed, and the scenery also became richer.

Muzuki stood in the center of the entire work, displaying a gentle smile. Surrounding Muzuki were the five disciples: to the north was Shisui practicing with a short blade, with a wooden dummy cut in half beside him.

To the south was Obito, with explosion marks on the base in front of him. To the west was Might Guy, appearing to be kicking several large trees. To the east was Kakashi, with a severed wooden stake in front of him. And to the southeast was Rin Nohara, with a broken tree beside her.

“It’s finally finished, but something this big would be too difficult to carry around,” Obito said, wiping sweat from his forehead.

“Let’s put it in the South Border Forest. We can give the gift to Muzuki-sensei there,” Kakashi suggested.

The other four thought it was a good idea. If they carried such a large item, Muzuki would definitely notice something, and the surprise wouldn’t be as great.

So, the five of them went to the South Border Forest together at night, and Kakashi used Earth Release to hide the gift, which was placed in a large box.

…

Land of Earth, Iwagakure, Tsuchikage’s office conference room.

“Sandaime, will such an action truly make Kumogakure increase its forces against Konoha?” A long-bearded Iwagakure elder was somewhat confused by Ōnoki’s plan.

Both Jinchuriki had been sent out, and a large number of Ninja were hidden within the Ninja Village.

“Don’t worry, based on my understanding of Kumogakure, they will definitely think we truly don’t have the strength to contend with Konoha. To prevent us from withdrawing from the war, they will certainly send stronger forces to attack Konoha,” Ōnoki, sitting on a high chair, replied with a smile.

“When Kumogakure, Konoha, and Sunagakure are all deeply embroiled in war, that will be the time for us to strike with full force.”

“But Kumogakure and our relationship isn’t good; they should be somewhat wary of us,” another elder pointed out the problem.

Now the Ninja World had entered a chaotic war, and Kumogakure and Iwagakure were also in a state of war.

“It’s precisely because of this that I want Kumogakure to underestimate us even more. Kumogakure is reckless; they definitely won’t expect that we still have an army of tens of thousands of Ninja,” Ōnoki explained in detail the benefits of feigning weakness.

Due to its terrain, the Land of Earth was difficult to invade. Even if he showed weakness, those enemies would have to consider this. For a weak and difficult-to-conquer Land of Earth, Kumogakure would definitely choose the Land of Fire and clash with Konoha.

Once the foundations of the other great Ninja Villages were clear, that would be the time for their Iwagakure army to strike.

“Sunagakure is weak, Kumogakure is reckless, and Konoha is also showing signs of decline. Iwagakure will be the ultimate winner of this war!” Ōnoki said with confidence.

Once, their Iwagakure Village went to Konoha for an alliance and suffered humiliation; Ōnoki and his teacher, the Second Tsuchikage Mu, were both severely injured. This time, he wanted Konoha to witness the might of his Iwagakure Village and make Konoha actively seek peace with Iwagakure after being beaten.

“Before that, we cannot withdraw from the war; we must continue to send Ninja to fight,” Ōnoki arranged the next course of action.

If he simply stopped fighting, the other Ninja Villages would definitely secretly guard against him.

4.2k, there’s another chapter coming up.