**Knock, knock, knock.**
Hearing the knocking, Seimei instinctively reached out with his senses and immediately recognized a familiar presence outside the door.
"Is it him?"
With that thought, Seimei walked to the door and opened it.
**Creak.**
The wooden door scraped against the ground, making an unpleasant noise. But Seimei had no time to care about such things right now.
Standing outside was a figure he recognized. It was none other than Nakagawa Ichiro, a chunin who often delivered messages for Sano Nobuhisa. Seimei had encountered him numerous times before.
"What's the matter?" Seimei asked directly.
Nakagawa Ichiro didn't waste time and quickly said, "Jonin Seimei, Captain Sano requests your immediate presence at the command center."
The urgency in his voice was unmistakable. Seimei furrowed his brow and asked, "What happened?"
Nakagawa Ichiro glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby before speaking softly, "We just received a report from the scouting team. The Mist ninja at Flying Fish Town are on the move."
"Hmm?"
Seimei's frown deepened. If Sano Nobuhisa was summoning him so urgently, the situation was undoubtedly serious. It meant the Mist ninja were about to strike again.
It really was like the old saying—"The wind won't stop, though the trees wish to be still."
Seimei had hoped that after their failure two days ago, the Mist ninja would lie low for a while. But to his surprise, they were already preparing for another attack.
This meant he'd have to alter his training plans once again, which made him quite annoyed.
"Jonin Seimei?" Nakagawa Ichiro called out carefully, noticing Seimei's silence.
"Oh," Seimei snapped out of his thoughts and said, "I'll get ready and head over. You go inform the others."
Nakagawa Ichiro nodded, then hurried off.
Back in his room, Seimei quickly gathered his gear, grabbed the long sword on the table, fastened it to his waist, and headed toward the command center.
---
Ten minutes later.
At the command center.
Everyone had already arrived.
Sano Nobuhisa was the last to enter the room and took his seat at the head of the table. Without wasting time, he recapped the intel from the scouting team.
Just as Nakagawa Ichiro had said, about half an hour ago, the Mist ninja at Flying Fish Town split into two groups—one moving by land and the other by sea, both heading in their direction.
As for their objective, there was no need to spell it out; everyone could guess.
Sano Nobuhisa scanned the faces of those present and continued, "Based on their current speed, they'll reach us in about an hour and a half. Even with breaks to rest and recover, they won't take more than three hours."
Three hours.
For the highly mobile ninja, that wasn't long, but it was enough time to prepare defenses.
Seimei couldn't understand why Sano Nobuhisa had summoned them so urgently. "Could it be..."
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Seimei, and he looked sharply at Sano Nobuhisa.
Sure enough, the next moment, Sano Nobuhisa said, "We need to discuss whether we should take the initiative and strike first."
"Take the initiative?" Many in the room gasped in surprise.
Seimei, however, was not surprised. "Just as I thought."
If Sano Nobuhisa hadn't been considering this, there would've been no need to call everyone together in such a rush.
Clearly, Sano Nobuhisa wasn't satisfied with just defending the Black Stone outpost. He wanted to launch an attack on the Mist ninja.
'But what gives him the confidence to do so?' Seimei wondered.
There were both advantages and disadvantages to taking the initiative.
The downside was clear: leaving the Black Stone outpost meant losing their home-field advantage. They'd be unable to wait for the enemy to come to them and would instead be the ones expending energy to engage the Mist ninja on their terms.
However, there were also benefits. For one, they could control the timing of the battle and wouldn't have to wait for the enemy to strike first. They could also set up ambushes, allowing them to eliminate enemy forces more efficiently.
Everyone in the room was an elite ninja, and they could all see both sides of the argument. As a result, the room quickly filled with chatter as people began voicing their opinions.
After a few minutes of noisy debate, Seimei, who was starting to get a headache, knocked on the table.
**Knock, knock, knock.**
The heavy sound immediately drew everyone's attention, and the room quieted down.
Despite his young age, Seimei's calm and steady demeanor, along with his formidable strength, had earned him great respect. No one dared to underestimate him.
As all eyes turned toward him, Seimei asked Sano Nobuhisa directly, "What is the enemy's strength and how are their forces divided between the land and sea groups?"
This was the critical question. If the Mist ninja's numbers were small, it wouldn't matter much whether they attacked or defended. But if the enemy had a significantly larger force, then no strategy would be of much use.
After all, overwhelming strength could render any strategy pointless.
Hearing Seimei's question, everyone looked at Sano Nobuhisa.
It wasn't that the others hadn't considered these factors, but Seimei wanted to cut straight to the point rather than waste time.
Sano Nobuhisa hesitated for a moment under everyone's gaze before saying, "The number of Mist ninja this time is about the same as last time."
"What?"
The room erupted in shock.
Many had assumed that Sano Nobuhisa's eagerness to attack meant that the Mist ninja's forces were smaller this time. But it turned out to be almost the same as before!
Just because they had fended off the Mist ninja's previous attack didn't mean they could do it again, especially considering the losses they'd suffered in that battle. Many Konoha ninja had been killed or wounded.
Meanwhile, the Mist ninja? Even if some were injured, they wouldn't be too seriously harmed to fight.
In other words, the enemy's strength now far surpassed theirs.
And yet Sano Nobuhisa wanted to attack?
Everyone was baffled by his thinking.
Seeing their confusion, Sano Nobuhisa raised his hand to quiet the room.
Once it was silent, he explained, "According to the report from Jonin Maple, although the Mist ninja have sent a considerable number of troops, their overall strength is weaker than before."
The room fell quiet as everyone waited for him to continue.
Sano Nobuhisa went on, "Jonin Maple's observations indicate that this time, a larger proportion of the Mist ninja forces consists of genin, while there are fewer chunin and jonin. So we still have a fighting chance."
At this, he glanced subtly at Seimei, thinking to himself, 'Just Seimei alone is worth several jonin.'
Hearing his explanation, the room began to calm down.
Maple, full name Hyuga Maple, was a special jonin from the Hyuga clan. For the past few days, he had led a team skilled in reconnaissance, keeping close watch on the Mist ninja's movements in Flying Fish Town.
Everyone trusted the information he provided.
Now, people started reconsidering Sano Nobuhisa's proposal. If the enemy's strength wasn't too far off from their own, they could indeed launch a preemptive strike. If they were lucky, they might eliminate one of the enemy forces entirely.
This would make defending against the second group much easier.
However, this strategy required a quick and decisive battle. If they got bogged down, and the other group took the opportunity to attack their base, their retreat could be cut off.
If that happened, they'd be the ones surrounded and eliminated.
(End of chapter)