The northern border of the Land of Fire felt wrong the moment Taiichi stepped into camp.
The atmosphere was heavy and quiet. There was no celebration after today's win. Everyone moved like they were still waiting for the next hammer to drop.
Orochimaru noticed Taiichi's confusion and spoke as they walked. "We've been pushed back from almost all of the Land of Hot Springs to the Fire Country border. Even if it was the smart play to preserve strength, it crushed morale. The last few big fights only made it worse."
Taiichi nodded. He understood. Jiraiya's camp had nearly broken when Shukaku showed up. Orochimaru had been dealing with a perfect jinchuriki for much longer. The fact that they were still standing was impressive.
Orochimaru led him to the main command tent.
A dozen jonin were already inside. They had gathered for the after-action meeting and to get a look at the new arrival who had turned today's fight around.
Orochimaru took the head seat and gestured at Taiichi. "This is Matsushita Taiichi, the jonin the village sent to reinforce us. Most of you probably already know who he is. After what you saw today, I doubt I need to explain his strength."
Taiichi bowed politely. "Hello, everyone. I'm Matsushita Taiichi. Please take care of me from now on."
Every jonin returned the greeting with real respect. It wasn't just manners. Strength earned that kind of response.
Orochimaru didn't waste time. He gave a quick summary of the battle, then got straight to the point.
"You all saw what Taiichi can do. Cloud's been using their jinchuriki to push us back for weeks. Now we finally have someone who can fight and even suppress that jinchuriki. Starting tomorrow, we stop defending. We're taking the fight to them and reclaiming what we lost."
Orochimaru's style was much more aggressive than Jiraiya's. In the south they had fought maybe two major battles since the war started. Here in the north they had already fought over ten large-scale clashes. Orochimaru liked to keep the pressure high.
The jonin reacted immediately.
"Finally. I've been dying to smash those Cloud bastards. They've been strutting around with that jinchuriki like they own the place."
"About damn time, Orochimaru-sama. We've been taking it too long."
Taiichi watched every single jonin nod in agreement. No one pushed back. Orochimaru clearly had their respect.
"Taiichi, any thoughts?" Orochimaru asked, turning to him. He wasn't treating Taiichi like a kid anymore. Power like that earned real consideration.
Taiichi shook his head. "I just got here today. I don't know the situation well enough yet. I'll follow your orders, Orochimaru-sama."
Orochimaru looked pleased. He started handing out assignments. One by one the jonin took their orders and left until only Taiichi and a few staff officers remained.
"Taiichi, I need you at the medical camp. We've taken heavy casualties these past few days. With the counterattack starting tomorrow, every healed shinobi is another fighter we can use. Can you handle it?"
Orochimaru's tone was almost respectful. Taiichi felt a little awkward hearing it.
"Orochimaru-sama, you're the commander. I'll do whatever you need. I'll head to the medical camp right now and treat as many people as I can."
Once Taiichi left, one of the staff officers handed Orochimaru a stack of reports. He looked like he wanted to say something.
Orochimaru didn't look up. "If you have something to say, say it. You've got enough work without standing there hesitating."
" Orochimaru-sama… you're being very polite to Matsushita Taiichi. He's still just a subordinate here."
Orochimaru's pen paused. He glanced at the man, then went back to the reports.
"If you had his strength, I'd treat you the same way. Respect isn't given. It's earned. He has that kind of power, so he gets that kind of treatment. Understand?"
The staff officer nodded, even if he didn't fully get it yet. He filed the lesson away and left to do his job.
Orochimaru shook his head slightly. The man was loyal and willing to listen. That counted for something. He wouldn't waste advice on someone with no future.
The next month changed everything.
Leaf stopped playing defense. Small teams pushed deep into the Land of Hot Springs, hitting every Cloud force they could find. Cloud hit back just as hard. Fights broke out every single day. Neither side was giving ground.
But Cloud started noticing something strange.
A month passed. Their own people were getting tired and worn down. Leaf forces weren't. They still had numbers, and their morale kept rising instead of falling.
Inside the Cloud command tent, A slammed his fist on the table.
"Someone tell me what the hell is going on. Why does it feel like we're the ones getting pushed back now?"
No one answered at first. The jonin glanced at each other.
Finally, one of the sharper ones spoke up. "About ten days ago I wounded a Leaf shinobi badly. He barely made it back. Even our best medical-nin would've needed at least a month to get him fighting again. Five days later I saw him back on the field. Completely healed. No sign he'd ever been hurt."
The room went quiet.
Another jonin nodded slowly. "Now that you mention it… I've seen the same thing."
More voices joined in. The pattern was clear.
Cloud had been bleeding Leaf forces, but those forces kept coming back too fast. The only explanation that made sense was that Leaf had an extremely skilled medical-nin patching people up and sending them right back out.
Killer B spoke up in his usual rhythm. "Big bro… isn't Matsushita Taiichi supposed to be some kind of medical genius?"
The tent went dead silent at the name.
Most of the jonin here had already been beaten by Taiichi at least once this month. The only reason more of them weren't dead was because they usually fought him in groups or with Killer B helping pin him down.
The ones who had refused to believe the rumors weren't sitting in this tent anymore.
A's expression darkened. "It could be him. Flying Thunder God plus shadow clones would let him be in multiple places at once."
That made the situation even worse. They had been fighting on roughly even terms until now. Taiichi's healing was giving Leaf a massive advantage in staying power.
One of the calmer jonin spoke. "A, we should ask the village for reinforcements. If this keeps up, the gap is only going to get bigger."
Everyone looked at A.
He stayed quiet for a long moment, jaw tight. Twice now he had been forced to run because of Taiichi. The humiliation burned.
"I'll request more support from the village," he said. Then his voice hardened. "But I'm not accepting this. Are all of you really okay getting pushed around by some brat?"
The anger in the room finally boiled over.
"No way!"
"We want payback!"
A raised a hand and the noise died down.
"I'm changing our approach. We're done fighting over positions. From now on we focus on killing Leaf shinobi. We hit their teams hard and fast."
Most of the jonin cheered. They were tired of getting beaten and wanted to make someone pay.
A few of the smarter ones looked uneasy. Once both sides stopped caring about rules, things could get ugly fast when you were already on the back foot. But their voices were drowned out by the shouting.
Cloud's strategy shifted overnight.
They stopped trying to hold ground. Any outpost they could destroy, they destroyed with overwhelming force. Any they couldn't take quickly, they called in elite teams to hit. Wild Leaf teams got swarmed—often one Leaf squad against two or three Cloud squads.
Leaf Outpost Nine.
"Did you send the distress signal?"
The teammate nodded, still watching the sensory barrier. "Captain, are we sure about this? We don't even know how many enemies are out there. If we're wrong, we're gonna get chewed out."
The captain's face was grim. He kept his eyes on the barrier. "This is the most important outpost in the area. If it falls, every position to the east could get cut off or surrounded. That's why we have three full squads here instead of one. I don't care if we get punished. When it's time to call for help, we call."
"Understood, Captain."
The captain was about to say more when his heart suddenly hammered in his chest. A wave of killing intent crashed over him. At the same time the sensory barrier lit up bright red.
"Shit. Everyone out of the outpost right now!"