"Ah, it feels so good after taking a shower."
Ayane walked over from the other side of the woods with long wet hair. There was still a little moisture on her skin, and her skin was white and rosy.
Behind her was Liuli who remained silent.
Shiraishi glanced at the two of them, quickly took out a kunai from his ninja bag, and said to Ayane and Ruri: "Before you come here, tell the code."
"signal?"
Ayane was stunned.
Liuli looked expressionless beside him and began to form seals. Chakra accumulated in his mouth and he spit it out immediately:
"Art fire escape ho fireball!"
The huge fireball attacked Shiraishi head-on.
Shiraishi threw himself to the side, awkwardly dodging the fireball attack.
Seeing the trees burned by the fireball behind him, cold sweat broke out on his face.
"How does this code answer go?"
Liuli smiled on her face and seemed to be preparing to release a second fireball.
Shiraishi stood up and twitched the corner of his mouth: "But, that's all right. It's just a joke, why don't you just hit me with fire escape?"
"That's more convincing, isn't it?"
Liuli said confidently.
"Yeah, it's much more convincing than a simple code..."
Shiraishi sighed and rubbed his sore butt.
"It's true, Shiraishi-kun, I thought we had actually set some secret code before."
Ayane came over and said.
Just when Shiraishi was about to say something, Liuli looked around and saw no sign of Sakumo, so she asked, "Where did Mr. Sakumo go?"
"I'm going to look for ingredients. There isn't much food in the backpack. I need to go to the sentry point to replenish it tomorrow."
Shiraishi took out his backpack and said.
"I really want to eat Ichiraku Ramen. I always eat dry food and game outside, and I almost forgot what ramen tastes like."
Ayane touched her belly and sat on a stone grumbling.
"Just bear with it, it will be much better after the war is over."
These days, the food Shiraishi and others eat are basically cold products. Only when there is not much food, they will use local materials, but the food is also very simple. They can catch fish from the river or find some wild vegetables in the forest. and mushrooms to satisfy hunger.
"Shiraishi-kun, why don't you just invent a portable ramen?"
"We can consider the Bingliangwan, but forget about the ramen."
Shiraishi shook his head and ignored Ayane's request.
"Okay, just eat more when you go to the sentry post tomorrow. Did you and Teacher Sakumo find anything here just now?"
Liuli carefully observed the surrounding environment and maintained a high degree of vigilance.
"No, Sakumo-sensei and I were just chatting about the next Hokage."
Shiraishi told the truth.
"Hey, Shiraishi-kun, are you interested in this kind of thing?"
Ayane was a little curious.
Shiraishi glanced at Ayane.
"Because Sakumo-sensei is the jounin closest to the position of Hokage. In ten years, when the third generation of adults grow old, Sakumo-sensei will probably have the most calls to become Hokage. Even the Sannin will be at a disadvantage. It is truly worthy of the name.”
Shiraishi analyzed rationally.
Neither Ruri nor Ayane argued against Shiraishi's opinion.
The fact is that Konoha White Fang is indeed the most popular jounin in Konoha right now, and the three ninjas are even lower.
"A village is a country. If you want to advance politically, you need more than just the support of the civilian class. Sakumo-sensei doesn't have the support of the ninja clan, and his character is not suitable for being Hokage. Sometimes, fame equals A double-edged sword, it is not only the capital for promotion, but also..."
Liuli leaned against the tree, folding his hands on his chest, with a very serious expression on his face. At the end of the sentence, Liuli didn't say any more.
Born into a seed-type ninja trained by a large family, Liuli didn't understand politics, but he was completely uninterested in it.
Sakumo's reputation, strength and character are indeed enough, but the support of civilians alone is not enough to become Hokage.
In Liuli's eyes, the so-called civilian ninjas do not have a complete whole at all. The factions are complex and the interests are too scattered. If there is no one to integrate them, these people will never become a phenomenon.
In contrast, most ninjas have already formed a community of interests. They know what they want to do, what they will get, what they will sacrifice, and they have the same goal.
"Listen up, the so-called Hokage... is just a boring game of alternation of power at the top and has nothing to do with the bottom."
Hearing Liuli making such remarks, Ayane seemed a little worried on her face: "Um, Liuli, is it a little bad to say this? I think you can become Hokage only by being recognized by the whole village."
"Are you an idiot? If you don't do this, Naruto's reputation will be ruined in the village. You are also a member of the great ninja clan. Isn't your height and knowledge enough to see the nature of Naruto? ?For me, as long as I have the power and the idea, the position of Hokage is within my reach. Teacher Sakumo just lacks that idea, so he is an excellent Jounin of Konoha, but he is definitely not the Hokage. A lump of material."
A confident smile appeared on Liuli's face, as if she was never wrong about her own opinions.
Ayane pursed her lips angrily, a little indignantly.
"Okay, okay, you two, it's still early for the next Hokage to be selected. At least the most important thing right now is how to complete the tasks assigned above."
Shiraishi quickly came over to be the peacemaker.
Shiraishi figured out Liuli's temper very early on.
She didn't have much respect or awe for the existence of Naruto.
All she respected was the ninja named Hiruzen Sarutobi who became the Third Hokage.
Respect for powerful ninjas, not out of respect for Hokage.
As long as you follow this idea, Liuli's thoughts are actually very straightforward and easy to understand.
After a while, Sakumo came back from hunting and found two hares and some fish, which were reserved for dinner in the evening.
Before that, they had to find a safe place to hide their whereabouts in the huge hunting ground of the forest.
◎
The next day, we came to the nearest sentry point.
The place had already suffered destruction, with many buildings collapsing. More than a dozen Konoha ninjas fell in the ruins, with blood flowing all over the ground.
Coming here with Sakumo's team was a small squad of ANBU.
The ANBU of this class has a total of one squad leader and three team members.
The squad leader is a jounin, and among the three team members, one is a special jounin and two are chunin.
Shiraishi was trying his best to save a Konoha ninja who was lying in a pool of blood. The injury was so severe that the entire chest was blown apart by the detonating talisman, and he was hovering on the edge of death.
Even though he was still alive, this Konoha ninja had a very strong desire to survive.
Because the buildings at the sentinel point were completely destroyed, Shiraishi could only start emergency surgery outside, but Shiraishi was not sure about the survival rate.
When they came here, this Konoha ninja had already missed the best time for surgery.
As for whether he can survive, he can only leave it to fate and see whether he can survive it.
Sakumo and others did not disturb Shiraishi's surgery and began to search for other traces in the ruins.
"It was a large-scale Earth Release Ninjutsu that directly knocked down the buildings at the sentry point. Then there was a sudden surprise attack, leaving the people here with no time to defend themselves. The first person to confront them was almost completely wiped out by the enemy."
The ANBU squad leader wore a mask and briefly explained some problems after a professional survey.
"One jounin, six chunin, and eleven genin, can't they even resist?"
Sakumo's eyes were serious.
"It's probably the special Sunagakure force your team encountered more than two months ago."
The ANBU squad leader said.
"Have their identities been verified?" Sakumo looked at the ANBU squad leader.
"The leading male and female Sunagakure Jonin are the son and daughter-in-law of Sunagakure's advisor Chiyo, and are also among the top masters in the Sunagakure puppet army. As for the earth-bending ninja in the team who can easily divide the battlefield, there is no news yet."
Sakumo nodded after hearing this.
At this moment, Ayane came over and reported to Sakumo: "Teacher Sakumo, some of the supplies in the sentry post were taken away, and the ones left behind were burned. What should we do next?"
"We'll go check out other outposts later. By the way, can you send another ANBU detachment over?"
Sakumo looked at the ANBU squad leader.
"Impossible. At any time, there will be two detachments of ANBU left in the village. The other detachment of ANBU assists in the darkness on the front line and collects intelligence. Now the only manpower the ANBU can send is our detachment. Light That’s right, even with the help of the security team, the village’s defense has become very weak.”
"Anyway, I hope to send some more manpower, preferably experts in tracking. I know the manpower in the village is also very tight, but now is not the time to worry about these things."
"Understood, I will report to the Hokage-sama. As for whether additional manpower can be sent, it depends on the Hokage-sama's decision."
"please."
The ANBU squad leader made a gesture, and the other three ANBU companions nodded in understanding and used the teleportation technique to leave.
"Is it possible, Sakumo-sensei?" Ayane asked.
Sakumo shook his head. He couldn't guarantee that the village would send more people to investigate.
Just relying on Ayane's white eyes, the scope of the investigation is still too small.
The enemy troops also have excellent sensory ninjas and are proficient in counter-reconnaissance capabilities. They deliberately look for weakly defended outposts to conduct raids, causing chaos within the Land of Fire. Over time, it can easily put huge pressure on the Konoha ninjas on the front line.
But the Fire Country is so big, and the whereabouts of the Sunagakure troops are often erratic, with absolutely no rules to follow, which makes the search difficult.
Back at Shiraishi, Shiraishi had finished the operation and was bandaging the injured man's external wounds.
"Shiraishi, how's it going? Can he wake up?"
"This kind of thing can only depend on how strong his will to survive is. This is all I can do."
Shiraishi packed up the medical bag and put it back in his backpack.
Sakumo patted Shiraishi on the shoulder.
"You have done well enough. Medical ninjas are not gods."
Shiraishi didn't intend to say anything about Sakumo's comfort.
