After a long solo journey to the Land of Rivers—because recent events had made the bandits and rebels more active than usual, leading me to encounter more of them than normal—I reached the border.
They didn't have much, but when it all piled up, I think I had half the amount of money I give Junko a month for being my secretary in almost a single day. It's a bit strange, but I understand why someone would dedicate their life to this.
I finally reached the border just as dawn was breaking.
"Good morning, Senju-sama; we were expecting you," said a ninja who I think is a jōnin.
I approached him, grabbed his vest, and pulled him close to my face.
"Don't you ever add the 'sama' suffix to my surname again. I'm not a god, a deity, or the Hokage. If I hear anyone else say it like that, they'll end up castrated." Saying that, I blurted it out, seeing the panic on his face. There were other ninjas listening to everything, so there was no need to make them divulge it.
I may want to be the queen of the world, but such distinctions are for beings beyond mortals. The suffix "-sama," for me at least, is for divine beings, and I don't feel I deserve it at the moment. Currently, they only call me by my surname, but that will soon change.
At that moment, an older ninja arrived, running to my position.
"Long time no see, Miyu-dono," he greeted me.
"Tenya, it's been a while. I didn't know you were stationed here," I returned the greeting amicably.
Tenya is one of the few ninjas associated with the Senju clan; he's not technically a member, but he has a connection to it, as his wife is a member, and he's one of the few who didn't want to change his surname. In fact, he doesn't have a surname, but anyway, according to him, since he wasn't of Senju blood, he didn't deserve one.
"Hokage-sama sent me as acting commander a while ago until you, Tsunade-sama, or you could come," he explained, and it made sense since Tenya is one of the few who hold the rank of elite jōnin, specializing entirely in intelligence gathering and infiltration.
"Okay, I imagine my tent is ready."
"That's right, it's the one over there, next to the larger one; that larger one is where the unit meetings are held," he indicated, pointing to a large tent.
"So, I want you to call all the Unit Leaders and have them spend less than 10 minutes at my tent so we can get organized."
"Understood," Tenya said, leaving in a shunshin, leaving me to go to my tent at my leisure.
Once I arrived at the place where I was going to stay temporarily, I left my scrolls in a place that looked secure and went straight to the large tent to get a quick report on what was happening.
As soon as I entered, there were already two chunin-level ninjas guarding the area.
"Wait a minute; you can't be here." I didn't let him finish as I threw the Hokage's message in his face, appointing me as acting commander until Tsunade arrived.
"You'd better get out of the tent before I send you to clean the toilets using only your tongues, and while you're at it, leave that message on the table now."
They both stared at me for a moment, reading the message, and then, without wasting any time, disappeared without a word, leaving themselves out of the campaign and on guard outside.
I didn't want them watching what I was doing, even if it was just reading documents, since the old monkey or the mummy could extract information from anything, whether by manipulating or torturing it.
First, look at our forces.
The Konoha ninja army we have is composed of approximately 15,000; From these, we can subtract the child ninjas, leaving approximately 14,000 ninjas, including the genin, chunin, and jonin ranks, with the higher ranks continuing.
The Hokage will divide the ninjas into five army corps, with each corps going to the frontier, except for one that will remain in the village. This will result in a total of about 3,000 ninjas, with the last corps comprising around 2,000, at least in theory.
Currently, there are only 1200 ninjas in the unit fighting Sunagakure. The rest will arrive gradually, according to the old monkey, and it should be noted that not all of them are destined for the front lines.
Within the unit, there are different divisions. There's the intelligence division, the barrier division, the rear guard, the information-gathering division, the medical division, the interception division, and finally, the attack division, or, as they like to call it, "cannon fodder." These are the most replaceable types in the world since they're basically sent in to wear down the enemy's defenses.
Generally, the idea is to send in an attack platoon to tire the enemy out, and then send in another platoon or an interception platoon for support or to finish them off.
Each division has a division leader. I would normally have been in charge of the attack brigade, but I'm currently a commander, so I have to stay in the rear guard, or at least that's how it should be.
I put aside the documents detailing the local forces to look at the reports on enemy movements.
The map showed eight strategic points; these were key to facilitating mobilization, providing food, or supplying water. The points weren't far from cities or towns, which were likely being invaded by the very same Suna that suffers from shortages.
I could understand Suna's perspective in doing all this; in fact, I would have been smart and ordered green areas designated for agriculture. That way, I'd have Suna's money, I could spy on Suna's people, and if something happened, I could extort them to take the land or kidnap their own people.
People with limited intelligence drive me crazy. If Orochimaru could seize the Land of Rice Fields, I could do the same with the Land of Rivers; of course, all clandestinely, since I can't desert, at least not now, or it would be a tremendous loss of everything I've accomplished so far.
It's a shame, but I'll have to leave Suna in even more poverty and humiliation, since that's how war works.
Returning to the report, of those 8 strategic points, Suna has already invaded 5, almost simultaneously, and by order of the Hokage, only 2 were defended, leaving the one in the center without anyone having control over it for the moment.
It's only a matter of time before they attack that place; I imagine they haven't done so mainly because it was recovering from the previous 5 attacks.
Looking closely at the information, I can think of several ways to attack them, but I already have a better one in mind.
At that moment, someone entered carrying several scrolls; it was a woman, and she looked somewhat tired.
"The head of the barrier division, introducing the current commander," she said, placing the scrolls on the table.
"A pleasure, hmmm?" I looked at what she brought, noticing that most of them were just barriers. "Barriers?"
"That's right, I've come to show you the barriers we're using, which we've already installed at the camp. We're ready to deploy them at strategic points, along with the rearguard division, which is in charge of the traps."
I could see the woman's exhaustion. If I'm not mistaken, the barrier division arrived as soon as news of the Suna attack broke, and they had to get to work immediately. According to the reports I've seen, there are only six of them so far.
"Good work. I recommend you and your division rest after this meeting. I want you to be in good mental and physical shape when you install the barriers at the strategic points, so you don't make any mistakes."
She was about to speak but immediately closed her mouth, only to speak again.
"Understood, Commander, but we need at least three more people in the division."
There are six people in total, and for the barriers to be effective, at least one person is needed monitoring them, ensuring the division members are distributed among strategic points, including the barrier at this very base.
"I'll inform the Hokage so she can bring more people."
At my response, she simply nodded and sat down.
At that moment, more people began to appear on the campaign trail.
"This is the head of the medical division reporting in."
"The head of the intelligence division is present, Commander."
And so they all arrived. They were all of known rank, and apparently, they already knew what I was like or had heard my warnings, since they all called me Commander in one way or another—no stupid suffixes or anything like that.
Actually, the head of the assault division was missing; there was no one in that position. As I'd said, that post belongs to the deputy commander of the army corps.
"Alright, now that we're all here, we can begin the meeting, but first of all, no one takes direct orders from Danzo, right?"
The room fell silent; the division commanders stared at each other, some confused, others a little nervous.
"Commander, what do you want?" I couldn't finish speaking, as he jumped in fright the moment my kunai grazed his cheek.
"If you're going to speak, raise your hand; this is a respected area where I hold the highest authority. If you're going to speak, you'll have to raise your hand, and if someone else wants to say something, you'll have to wait until they finish speaking. This applies to everyone; do you understand?"
I saw them all nodding at what I said, some a little fearful, others resigned, because they might not like it, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm the one in charge here.
Some think I'm going too far, but I only have to look at the ninja academy to know that respect is nonexistent once you start discussing things, and now we're in a state of war; I wasn't going to tolerate any uproar or pointless arguments in these meetings, and if I had to treat them like little children, so be it.
At that moment, the head of the rear guard division raised his hand somewhat fearfully.
"Speak," I said simply.
"Miss Commander, what do you mean by following Danzo's orders? I don't think that would be normal for an advisor to the Hokage."
I think I know who I'm going to remove from their post soon.
"I think you're forgetting what the word 'advisors' means, which, coincidentally, means exactly what the name says: they give advice, and only to the Hokage; they don't give orders. We, active-duty military ninjas, follow the orders of the Hokage, our highest ninja authority, being followed only by the Anbu captain and the Jonin commander."
"But—" I didn't let him continue talking and saying his nonsense.
"No one here should obey the orders of the advisors, as they have no ninja authority under them unless the Hokage himself grants it. " For example, Koharu is in charge of the medical area, Homura of the administrative area, and Danzo has a small specialized Anbu division—these are the only positions where they command people. Aside from these individuals, you have no right to give orders to anyone else, and if you have done so, it's no different from overstepping the Hokage's authority."
The room fell silent, with no one saying a word, either because they didn't know this or because they had done something I had said.
"Now, I hope no one here is following Danzo's direct orders, because if I discover that's the case, the consequences for your life and your family will be incalculable, not to mention terrible. I think the safest course of action would be for you to be expelled from the ninja forces, leaving you without a job or money. "What I was saying was a lie; I don't have the power to do all that, only some things. "But I'm going to believe that no one has done it, with that said, with the plan to push back the Suna ninjas from the Land of Rivers."