Even without being present on the battlefield, the danger of the situation could be clearly felt. Everyone there understood what it meant to be facing a unit of nearly thirty elite shinobi.
Especially Danzo.
The elite forces he had personally cultivated in Root numbered no more than sixty. The rest were still in training and couldn't be considered true elites. In other words, Danzo could only muster two such squads himself.
Among all the clans, only the Uchiha and Hyuga had comparable strength. The smaller clans couldn't hope to stand against such an elite force.
In fact—
Forget the clans. Even most of the smaller shinobi villages in the ninja world couldn't pull together such a squad with their entire fighting force.
"..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi furrowed his brows slightly.
Judging from the situation, they must have relied on Might Duy's power to turn the tide. Once the Eight Gates Formation was used, the user was doomed to die. Sacrificing such a rare shinobi, along with the deaths of over a dozen others, in exchange for heavy Iwa losses… While technically a victory, it could hardly be called a great one.
"The ambush by Iwa's elite forces put our side in a desperate situation. With casualties quickly mounting and the situation critical, Kakashi Hatake used a self-created Lightning Release forbidden technique to consecutively injure and kill over thirty Iwa Chūnin and Jōnin, completely destroying Iwa's ambush strategy…"
At this point—
The voice gradually faded.
The entire conference room fell silent.
Even the normally brash and restless Jiraiya looked visibly stunned.
Danzo, who had remained calm and composed throughout, now had a flicker of surprise and uncertainty in his eyes as he glanced toward Hiruzen Sarutobi, as if silently asking, "What are you talking about?"
"..."
Hiruzen was just as shocked.
Holding the intelligence scroll in his hand, he found himself momentarily unable to continue reading. He simply stared at it in stunned silence, his eyes scanning all the way to the end of the report and its final statistics.
Thirty-three!
That was the number of Iwa shinobi killed by Kaede.
Among them were nine Jōnin, including Sekkotsu and Donton, two elite Iwagakure Jōnin with notable reputations across the ninja world!
In the midst of the silence—
Hiruzen slowly lowered the scroll and looked toward the Anbu shinobi who had delivered it. "...This intelligence came from the front lines?"
"Yes."
The Anbu replied in a deep voice, "The scroll was delivered by Orochimaru's summoning beast."
Then it was likely genuine.
Hiruzen took a deep breath. Orochimaru's summoning beasts hailed from Ryūchi Cave, which made forgery and impersonation nearly impossible. Moreover, there was no reason to go through all this trouble just to deliver a false report.
It wasn't Might Duy who had used a forbidden technique to reverse the battle.
It was Kakashi Hatake, a ten-year-old boy, who had used some kind of self-made forbidden jutsu to decide the outcome of the battle!
Shocking.
Unbelievable.
"...That's the son of White Fang, isn't it?"
Uchiha Fugaku sat to the side, arms crossed before him. He took a deep breath and finally broke the silence.
He recognized Kaede's name. After all, the boy had recently been labeled a "genius" among young shinobi. But it had only left a mild impression on him.
The Uchiha Clan had never been short on geniuses.
A child who hadn't fully matured, even one with a genius title, wasn't worth his attention as clan head.
But now things are different.
If this report was accurate, then Kaede was no longer a developing genius, he was a shinobi already qualified to inherit the name of "Konoha's White Fang"!
A shinobi of that caliber couldn't be ignored, even by the Uchiha Clan.
"...unbelievable. Isn't he only around ten years old?"
Hyuga Hiashi, sitting beside Fugaku, couldn't help but gasp as he spoke, his voice tinged with shock.
A self-created forbidden jutsu.
Thirty-three Iwa shinobi were slain, nine of them Jōnin!
Even if this feat was somewhat exaggerated, even if other Konoha shinobi had helped with distractions or support and it wasn't a one-on-many battle, it was still astounding.
Because this kind of record would make any shinobi a legend. The original "Konoha's White Fang" had become famous across the ninja world with just such a feat.
And Kaede was only—
"How old is he again? Not even eleven?"
Danzo withdrew his gaze from Hiruzen, a glimmer of something dark flashing in his eyes.
Unexpected.
Far too unexpected!
Who could have imagined that Kaede would possess such power before even turning eleven? If Danzo had known this earlier, he would have used a far stronger approach to bring Kaede into Root.
A shinobi like that, carefully cultivated, would become a powerful and reliable weapon. A trump card capable of accomplishing many covert objectives!
What a shame…
Danzo felt a twinge of regret.
He hadn't valued Kaede highly enough. As a result, the boy had slipped through his fingers and even ended up as Orochimaru's student.
If only he'd been more aggressive, used a few more tactics, it wouldn't have been hard to take Kaede from Hiruzen.
But now it was too late.
"If I can leverage the current wartime situation, perhaps… Orochimaru might be troublesome, but I could use Hiruzen to handle that, after the war…"
Danzo closed his eyes, hiding his shifting thoughts from view as his mind rapidly calculated.
Hiruzen fell silent for a moment.
Then he raised his head and looked at the Anbu. "Relay my orders, promote Kaede to Special Jōnin, directly under Orochimaru's command. He may operate independently."
Kaede's strength and achievements already qualified him for full Jōnin rank, but Jōnin were usually required to demonstrate leadership, command abilities, and sound judgment in complex situations.
Those qualities were still unknown in Kaede.
So for now, promoting him to Special Jōnin, under Orochimaru and without a team, was the best option.
"Yes, sir."
The Anbu responded promptly and disappeared from the conference room.
Hiruzen glanced around at Jiraiya and the heads of the major clans. Seeing that they were all still reeling from the earlier report, he paused a moment before speaking again.
"All right, let's return to discussing troop assignments for the front lines."
At his words, the clan heads and elite Jōnin exchanged glances. They took deep breaths, suppressing their inner shock, and resumed their discussion about deployment in response to the Sand Village's full-scale offensive.
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