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Kitsuchi reported, "There is very little information on Fujin. None of our spies in Konoha have seen him in action or heard about his abilities. The only information they have is his fights during the Chunin exam three years ago. And that information is very outdated.
And since he is in the Anbu, it is very difficult to track when he leaves on missions and to where. So trying to ambush him during a mission is almost impossible. We will have to lay a bait and hope Konoha sends him over."
A frown formed on Onoki's face. He said, "Though it is normal for ninjas to hide their skills, some information eventually leaks out. To be so secretive… Hiruzen must be scheming something. If it wasn't for sending Roshi on that mission, we would have been completely in the dark. It's an even greater reason to eliminate him now. Any news from Suna?"
Kitsuchi shook his head and replied, "No. I wanted to get information about the ninjas who wreaked havoc there and see if that was this kid as well. However, none of our spies saw the culprits and Suna has refused to give any information regarding the culprits."
Onoki chuckled and commented, "It looks like they have been badly humiliated to hide it so deeply."
Kitsuchi said, "So our only source of information is Roshi."
Onoki replied, "It's fine. He should have used most of his tricks against Roshi. Just make a plan based on it. Did you decide on the location?"
Roshi nodded and replied, "The Land of Waterfall."
He opened a map and laid pointed at a location and said, "Around a year ago, our scheme against the Ito family was suspected to be destroyed by the Spectral Swordsman. 2 of our Anbu died while the Kawaguchi family forces were decimated. So there is a chance that he will be sent here once again.
If he does, we will eliminate him and withdraw in order to avoid any retaliatory actions by Konoha and prevent escalating the conflict. If he doesn't and Konoha doesn't send anyone equally powerful, then I will destroy the Ito family.
We use their territory as a base and change the power structure in nearby territories. So at least a third of the influential families in the Land of Waterfall will be on our side. By the time Takigakure and Konoha react, it will be too late for them to do anything."
Kitsuchi further explained the details of his plan to target the civilians to create panic in the Land of Waterfall.
Onoki thought for a bit and nodded. He replied, "It's a good plan. Both situations would be advantageous for us. The second situation will be a great diplomatic victory for us. It will offset the losses we had in the Land of Grass and make the situation more advantageous for us.
However, if we manage to kill him, it will be another diplomatic disaster for us as the Land of Waterfall will be completely pushed into Konoha's camp just like the Land of Grass. But, considering his potential, it's a trade-off I'm willing to make."
Kitsuchi nodded. He agreed with Onoki's decision. Someone forcing Roshi to resort to the Tailed Beast mode and still managing to escape at the age of 14 was a huge future threat to Iwagakure.
Onoki asked, "Have you begun the training?"
Kituschi nodded. He, along with Onoki, had discussed Fujin's fighting style, jutsus, their mastery and specialities extensively with Roshi and Gin. After analyzing Fujin's skills, they came up with a proper training plan to counter Fujin.
Kitsuchi replied, "I have selected 43 Jounins and 52 Elite Chunins so far. I am still looking for around 30 more. The ninjas I have selected all have good speed and reactions.
I have already begun training the ones who don't know, the Iron Skin jutsu. The ones who know it are working on reducing the hand seals needed for the jutsu. This jutsu will make most of his Wind and Fire Release jutsus pointless against them. The only threats it leaves are the Vacuum jutsus and getting hit by his sword directly."
Onoki nodded and thought, 'Good. I would have done the same. I could have created a plan myself, but I'm not sure how my back will be during the next war. Kitsuchi will have to be the one to lead our forces on the battlefield. This will be a good opportunity to test his tactical skills. As for leadership, he has already proven that in the previous war.'
As his back problems kept worsening, Onoki knew that he would need to find a successor quickly. Unfortunately, though Kitsuchi was strong and was considered a rank S ninja, he was no match for the other Kages.
The Fourth Raikage, the Sannins, and the Fourth Mizukage all outmatched him by a large margin. Rasa was the only one he could compete against. So Onoki was reluctant to pass the Tsuchikage position to him.
Kitsuchi continued, "The bigger problem will come next. Roshi said that Fujin could flicker continuously without making any seals. He seems to have trained his body a lot to increase his natural speed to a ridiculous level as well. And he has mastered Assassin's Rush jutsu on top of it.
In order to counter that, I want you to ask Han to aid in our training. It is impossible to increase their speed to such a level quickly. But we can raise their reaction speed and ability to defend, dodge and survive by letting Han make them experience what facing someone so fast will feel like.
In fact, we could do even better. Roshi said that though Fujin was faster than him, his speed is still lesser than Han's. So after facing Han for a few months, they might be able to see and react to Fujin very easily."
A smile formed on Onoki's face as he replied, "Alright, I will send Han over."
Kitsuchi understood why Onoki smiled. He thought, 'This will allow Han to interact closely with our ninjas who may fear him. More importantly, after this training is done, all the Elite Chunins will be as strong as Jounins.
We will have around 60 new Jounins who will have very high survival skills during the next war. If our luck is good, then a couple of Jounins could also reach the Elite Jounin level.'
Kitsuchi added, "I also need a Fuinjutsu Grandmaster to trap Fujin. I will send a few squads over to scout the Land of Waterfall and create a proper plan of action."
Onoki nodded and assigned one of their 3 Fuinjutsu Grandmasters to aid Kitsuchi. The two discussed a few more details before Onoki said, "Good work. I will leave this matter to you."
Kitsuchi nodded and took his leave. Onoki looked at his back and thought, 'Since the time of peace started, the readiness of our ninjas has dropped several levels. Especially after Minato died and Konoha became weaker.
This is a good opportunity to start rebuilding our famed Elite armies. Once this mission is completed and the ninjas have high motivation, I will push Kitsuchi to expand the numbers of this force to 500 ninjas. At the same time, I will start rebuilding the Thousand Ninja Elite army units that we are famed for.
With the Third Raikage and the Fourth Hokage no longer alive, we won't suffer similar losses as in the last Great War. Once the armies are raised, the only thing missing will be commanders. I, Roshi, Han and Kitsuchi could handle the next war. But we will need the next generation to step up for the wars after that.
Thankfully, this generation does have some promising youngsters. Akatsuchi has shown a lot of promise. So has my granddaughter. There is also the Deidara kid who has the Explosion Release Kekkei Genkai. If these 3 reach the S rank, then Iwa will be safe for another 50 years.'
After Kitsuchi left, he selected more suitable ninjas and began the training with full intensity. For 3 months straight, the ninjas trained with a plan tailored to counter Fujin. Every single ninja became capable of using the Iron Skin jutsu rapidly and had sufficient defenses to defend against normal Wind jutsus.
At the same time, Han used his speed in order to give the ninjas a taste of what a fight against Fujin would be like. The initial phase of that training resulted in a lot of pain for the ninjas as they couldn't even see Han move. However, after 3 months of being beaten daily, the reactions of the ninjas improved several times!
They could finally protect themselves from Han's attacks. As an added bonus, the beatings also motivated them to learn the Iron Skin jutsu better. A few ninjas managed to learn how to use that jutsu without any hand seals.
Three months later, Kitsuchi left for the Land of Waterfall along with the ninjas who were adequately prepared in his opinion. The remaining ninjas continued their training and joined his campaign at a later stage.
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A/N: Volume 4 (The Menace) has been completed on P@treon. Fujin is currently having his first interaction with Naruto.