『What kind of hell is this—last time I went to sweep the battlefield and ran into danger, and now I'm doing transport and running into danger too!』 The more tense Tōji got, the more his mind wandered to random nonsense to calm himself down.
"Attention!" Hizashi's voice suddenly rang out, slightly higher-pitched than usual. Out of habit, everyone focused their attention on him…
"A mass of chakra moving toward us from the front… one person. Unknown whether friend or foe for now!" The gravity on Hizashi's face deepened.
『One person! One person probably wouldn't be an enemy, right?』 Tōji calculated silently. 『More likely a Konoha shinobi—but what's he doing here?』
Hizashi added, "Looks like one of ours—but don't let your guard down!"
A few dozen seconds—short, but it felt long to Tōji and the others. The newcomer finally stopped about ten paces from the convoy…
"Is this Lord Hyūga Hizashi's supply transport convoy?" The newcomer was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, wearing standard Konoha chūnin attire. He had a Konoha forehead protector, a standard green vest, and his clothes were riddled with tears and burn holes, with traces of still-damp dark red blood visible.
Ordinary people's chakra didn't have much distinctive about it, so Hizashi deactivated his Byakugan. Going by experience, he judged the newcomer to be a fellow Konoha shinobi. "That's right! How's the fighting up ahead?"
"I'm part of the support squad. We had over twenty people originally, heading here to reinforce—now more than half are dead or wounded. The Iwa forces sent over a dozen jōnin and over twenty chūnin…" The newcomer was sizing up the convoy's strength, glancing briefly at the bodies still lying on the ground.
"If possible, can you spare some people to help over there? The main camp probably can't send any more support either!" His tone was urgent.
Hizashi was caught in a dilemma. He couldn't abandon the convoy—that would be making the same mistake as Konoha's White Fang!
But… the support squad had only been ambushed because they'd come to rescue them!
The other three jōnin in the convoy all had standing to weigh in, but none of them spoke. The three of them… shook their heads slightly.
It wasn't that they were afraid of dying and wanted to stay—it was that they didn't want to violate the village's current emphasis on "following orders."
For these seasoned shinobi, they were no longer afraid of falling in battle… What they feared was making a mistake that would bring disgrace to their entire clan!
The newcomer could probably see the problem. He gritted his teeth. "This is the order of Sarutobi jōnin!"
『Sarutobi jōnin? Which Sarutobi?』
Tōji was baffled by the messenger's words.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was the Hokage—and Asuma Sarutobi had only been promoted to chūnin last year…
『Is there any outstanding figure in the Sarutobi clan? I've never heard of one. I only know that the Sarutobi clan lost a lot of people in the Third War… Could it be Hiruzen's eldest son, Asuma's older brother, Konohamaru's father?』
『Is it the legendary Sarutobi Shinnosuke?』
『So… Konoha's initial commander on the front line against the Iwa invasion was Sarutobi Shinnosuke, and the Sarutobi clan's heavy losses in the Third War were caused by this battle? And because of that, Shinnosuke was recalled to the village and later "shelved" in the Anbu?』
『After that—if I remember correctly—Konoha replaced the commander on this front with Uchiha Fugaku, while sending the first-generation Ino-Shika-Chō as his deputies. Those were hardcore Hokage loyalists meant to counterbalance the Uchiha.』
『Calculating the timeline—Itachi Uchiha would be going to the front with Fugaku next year…』
『But… this chūnin messenger is clearly lying about the orders, isn't he!』
『So this time, Shinnosuke ended up shouldering the blame—and that's what made the hot-headed Asuma turn rebellious?』
Tōji's mind raced through the analysis…
At this point, it was hard for Hyūga Hizashi not to see that the young messenger was lying!
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Author's Note: Since each of my chapters is actually pretty short in terms of word count, I'll keep updating two chapters a day from now on. Also, I'm going to look into —I know other authors use it to make money, but I haven't tried it yet. That said, as for how this novel really is... you guys haven't left any comments. Would anyone actually pay to read my story?