Fugaku, who always considered himself a prodigy, felt not only shocked but also a bit of discouragement in his heart.
He had constantly heard his father praise Shin, and he had always been unconvinced, harboring a desire to compete with him.
And now? Even Minato could completely outclass him by miles, what was even the point of competing anymore?
It seemed like it was finally time to seriously reflect on what his father had told him.
At 14 years old, Fugaku began, for the first time, to truly mature.
---
At the right flank camp, when the high-ranking officers at the camp saw the continuous intelligence reports from the Uchiha clan about Hanzō, they were utterly dumbfounded.
What the hell, this intel was way too detailed!
Not only did it include a thorough defensive layout of the Ame camp, but also: What time Hanzō woke up, what time he ate, what time he used the bathroom, and even whether he did number one or number two, everything was crystal clear.
Anyone who didn't know better would think someone from the Uchiha clan had defected and was conspiring with Hanzō to mess with them.
Surveillance? This wasn't just surveillance anymore, they might as well be living with Hanzō at this point.
And in fact, they weren't wrong. Shin really was living with Hanzō.
Though not in the usual sense, he was staying in the same camp, having infiltrated Hanzō's forces and become one of his ANBU.
When it came to infiltration and espionage, he had no equal in the shinobi world, not even White Zetsu could compete.
At this moment, he held the identity of a chunin from Ame, tasked with camp security. To be honest, for someone like him, killing Hanzō wouldn't even be difficult.
But the current Hokage was still Hiruzen. Any victories on the frontlines would only serve to boost his prestige and provide him with more opportunities to consolidate power.
And anything that benefited Hiruzen was something Shin would absolutely not do. Besides, war was the easiest way to openly and legitimately gather materials. It was better to just let it drag on.
All things considered, he intended to let this war continue, only, the one who would ultimately win would be Konoha. And not just win, win gloriously.
---
Three days passed in a flash.
In a ravine near the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain, Fukuyama and a group of clansmen were resting in a large cave. The cave was spacious enough to easily accommodate their group of over a hundred people.
Inside the cave, Shin had set up a barrier to block their chakra signatures, allowing them to avoid detection by sensory-type ninjas.
Fukuyama leisurely munched on roasted meat while imagining the future. He had more than once felt grateful for the choice he had made.
Good thing I was smart enough, and my Mangekyō Sharingan is powerful enough too.
If it had been Fugaku, who knows what kind of dead-end he'd have led the Uchiha clan into.
Even among his peers in the clan, many don't respect him. If I die in a couple of years, the Uchiha clan would tear itself apart from within before anyone else even tried to target us.
I need to find opportunities to have him interact more with Shin.
No, that won't work! Fukuyama immediately rejected his own idea. Shin probably wouldn't even bother to pay attention to him.
I should focus on Minato instead.
That kid is basically another Shin, and his strength is astounding. He still hasn't formed his own team yet.
I'll just push my son onto his team, so he can finally see for himself the gap between people.
Having made up his mind, he swallowed the last piece of meat, clapped his hands, and stood up.
It was already the third day. Orochimaru had said that the time he and Shin agreed on was probably not far off.
Just as he was about to issue some orders, Shin suddenly appeared before him.
Fukuyama was already used to this kind of scene, but the other Uchiha clan members were startled and nearly launched an attack.
"How are you still not used to this after several days?" he complained.
Then he turned and asked Shin, "Are the enemies almost here?"
"Yes," Shin replied. "The elite vanguard of the enemy will pass through here in about twenty minutes. Around a hundred of them. Among them, there are three with jonin-level strength, twelve with special jonin strength, and thirty-seven chunin."
"That's a real elite force," Fukuyama commented in awe.
This was already stated, but again, many people liked to joke about Kakashi, but they didn't realize that he was a peak that most ninjas could only dream of reaching. The reason he seemed "normal" was only because the ones he was compared to were monsters.
Like when he was instantly defeated by Itachi's Tsukuyomi.
Come on, Itachi's genjutsu was without question the top in the shinobi world at the time. And Tsukuyomi was a killing technique. Losing to it... what's so bad about that?
Even Orochimaru and Deidara were defeated in a single move.
In reality, genin made up the bulk of the shinobi world. Chunin were already considered elites, and jonin were extremely rare, maybe one in a hundred.
So this vanguard unit sent by Ame was truly elite among elites. Which also meant that they had significant goals. This wasn't just a small skirmish.
"Do you have a strategy for this?" Fukuyama asked with some concern.
"Of course," Shin replied. "This time, I'll be joining the battle disguised as a member of the Uchiha clan."
"For real?" As soon as Shin said that, everyone got excited.
While the Sharingan already gave the Uchiha clan members a natural advantage, making them top-tier among ninjas of the same rank, even so, the number of jonin within the clan wasn't that high. Most were still chunin or genin.
And many of the Uchiha who had arrived at the battlefield had only awakened the one-tomoe Sharingan.
It was all because of that damned Hiruzen's order, which forced the entire Uchiha clan to mobilize, anyone who was a ninja had to go to the battlefield.
In a fight involving 200 ninjas, even the Uchiha clan could suffer heavy casualties. That was something Fukuyama definitely didn't want to see. And neither did Shin, after all, Fukuyama was one of his staunchest allies.
"But let me say this ahead of time, I can't use Flying Thunder God or Susanoo. So we need to rely on strategy. Recklessly charging in will only lead to needless casualties."
"This time, I've brought a large amount of explosive tags. Listen up, once we've surrounded the enemy, everyone will throw them like crazy. I don't care how you do it, but within one minute, if anyone hasn't thrown all their tags, I'll make sure they regret it."
Everyone was instantly fired up.
This was insane, in a good way!
Even a wealthy clan like the Uchiha didn't normally allow such liberal use of explosive tags. But now the order was to go all out with them, how could they not be excited?
"Alright. Ten tags per person. Start handing them out now."