Leaving the stunned Uchiha Fugaku behind, Takuya returned to the group. Getting all those words off his chest felt great. Takuya had wanted to give Fugaku a piece of his mind ever since watching *Naruto* in his previous life. Now, he finally had his wish fulfilled.
He wasn't joking about moving Mikoto out of the Uchiha compound either. Once the war ended, he'd get to work on that.
The Anbu secretly reported the conversation between Takuya and Fugaku back to the village, but Takuya didn't care about that at all.
Ever since getting scolded by Takuya, Fugaku had worn a sour face, which left the rest of the Uchiha members confused and clueless.
What exactly did Takuya say to their clan head?
It was enough to put Fugaku in such a bad mood.
Some even approached Mikoto privately, asking if she could find out from Takuya what the two had talked about.
Unfortunately for them, Mikoto refused.
She had no interest in what Takuya and Fugaku discussed. If Takuya didn't bring it up on his own, she wasn't going to ask.
The group marched on, neither too fast nor too slow, arriving at the coastline camp two days later, just as expected.
With the arrival of the third wave of reinforcements, Konoha's forces at the coastline now numbered over 2,500.
In the war with Kirigakure, Konoha adopted an elite strategy, rather than sending masses of expendable soldiers to the front.
Naval battles were extremely unfriendly to low-ranking ninjas. On land, even a Genin might have a chance of surviving a battle, but at sea, when fighting grew fierce, survival for weaker shinobi was a challenge at a high level of difficulty.
Since the battlefields could shift from land to sea or even to small islands, Konoha's camp was split into a main camp and a sub-camp.
The main camp, under Orochimaru's command, was on the coastline, while the sub-camp was stationed at the Land of Whirlpools, with Jiraiya in charge.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya used their summons to quickly pass messages back and forth, so even though the camps were far apart, communication wasn't an issue.
The reason for setting up two camps was that the initiative was in Kirigakure's hands. If Konoha had placed their main camp at the Land of Whirlpools outpost, it would have been easy for Kirigakure to intercept supplies and reinforcements, or even surround their forces.
But Orochimaru wasn't someone to mess with easily.
He set up the main and sub-camps so that the main camp could always issue commands from the rear, while the sub-camp responded to enemy attacks at the front.
With Jiraiya in charge of the sub-camp, Orochimaru had no worries about handing it over. Despite Jiraiya's unreliability in some areas, he was dependable in critical moments.
Thus, the main and sub-camp setup was finalized.
In practice, Orochimaru's decision proved correct. With the camps supporting each other, Kirigakure's attempts at harassment and ambush had all ended in failure.
"Is that Takuya?"
"Yeah, it's him. I heard that not too long ago, his squad completed a mission at sea, where they killed Hoshigaki Fuguki of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and forced Yagura to retreat."
"He's carrying the sword Samehada on his back. Kirigakure tried to negotiate to get it back, but the village refused."
In the camp, several shinobi who knew of Takuya whispered among themselves.
Nawaki leaned in close to Takuya and muttered, "I didn't expect you to be so well-known. Hardly anyone recognizes me or Minato."
"So, do you want to become famous?"
Takuya's eyes glinted mischievously as he asked.
"Of course! Who wouldn't want that?"
Besides basic needs, isn't what people live for power, ideals, and reputation?
Nawaki was no different.
"That's easy then. Just shout that Yagura is a shortie, and I guarantee you'll be famous immediately. Your intel will be on Yagura's desk in no time."
"..."
Screw you. What kind of lousy idea is that?
Do you think I'm that gullible?
Nawaki shot Takuya a look that said, "Are you kidding me?"
"Hahaha…" Minato couldn't help but laugh.
Previously, Takuya had indeed mocked Yagura for being short, but Yagura had wisely chosen not to engage and withdrew instead.
Despite his retreat, Minato was sure Yagura must have been furious with Takuya.
People like Yagura certainly hated it when others pointed out their flaws.
Height was always a sore spot for Yagura's clan—all the men were short and looked like children.
"Takuya, Orochimaru wants you all to head directly to the command post."
Nara Shikaku, who had been waiting, approached them.
"Looks like Orochimaru is eager," Takuya joked, patting Shikaku on the shoulder. "Working with Orochimaru, he hasn't tried saying or doing anything weird to you, has he?"
As he spoke, Takuya circled Shikaku, as if trying to confirm whether Shikaku was missing any parts.
"..."
Several black lines appeared on Shikaku's forehead.
Minato and Nawaki also pretended to check Shikaku over, making a show of scaring him.
"You should be careful. Orochimaru-sensei likes to conduct strange experiments, such as…"
"..."
"Am I really that scary?"
While Takuya and the others were busy teasing Shikaku, a familiar, somewhat amused voice spoke up.
Takuya and Minato remained calm, but Nawaki immediately let go of Shikaku and turned, grinning sheepishly at the sight of Orochimaru not far away.
"Sensei, when did you get here?"
You're the commander of the front lines—aren't you supposed to be at the command post? Why are you out here?
"I've been here since you all started joking about me."
Orochimaru wasn't upset, smiling as he said, "I didn't realize I was that terrifying—enough to make even my students worry about losing something."
Now it was Shikaku's turn to watch the show.
Nawaki: "....."
I didn't think Orochimaru-sensei would suddenly show up! This is so awkward—what should I do?!
I'm about to die of embarrassment.
"Hahaha…"
Takuya and Minato laughed so hard they could barely stand.
You two are still laughing?!
Nawaki's face flushed red with embarrassment, and he glared at them, but his attempt at being fierce didn't scare anyone.
"Alright, follow me," Orochimaru said after a moment, not wanting to embarrass his student too much. He turned and led the way to the command post, the group falling in behind him.
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Next Bonus: 500 Power Stones. When restarting I will give you two chapters╰ (´꒳`) ╯
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(P)(S): If you're interested, you can read up to chapter 340+ at patreon,com/ Emik01. ಥ‿ಥ
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