**Knock, knock, knock.**
Hearing the knocking, Seii instinctively reached out with his senses and imdiately recognized a familiar presence outside the door.
"Is it him?"
With that thought, Seii walked to the door and opened it.
**Creak.**
The wooden door scraped against the ground, making an unpleasant noise. But Seii had no ti 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 ssages for Sano Nobuhisa. Seii had encountered him nurous tis before.
"What's the matter?" Seii asked directly.
Nakagawa Ichiro didn't waste ti and quickly said, "Jonin Seii, Captain Sano requests your imdiate presence at the command center."
The urgency in his voice was unmistakable. Seii 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?"
Seii's frown deepened. If Sano Nobuhisa was summoning him so urgently, the situation was undoubtedly serious. It ant 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."
Seii 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 ant he'd have to alter his training plans once again, which made him quite annoyed.
"Jonin Seii?" Nakagawa Ichiro called out carefully, noticing Seii's silence.
"Oh," Seii 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, Seii 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 ti, 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 ti to prepare defenses.
Seii couldn't understand why Sano Nobuhisa had summoned them so urgently. "Could it be..."
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Seii, and he looked sharply at Sano Nobuhisa.
Sure enough, the next mont, 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.
Seii, 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?' Seii wondered.
There were both advantages and disadvantages to taking the initiative.
The downside was clear: leaving the Black Stone outpost ant losing their ho-field advantage. They'd be unable to wait for the enemy to co 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 argunt. As a result, the room quickly filled with chatter as people began voicing their opinions.
After a few minutes of noisy debate, Seii, who was starting to get a headache, knocked on the table.
**Knock, knock, knock.**
The heavy sound imdiately drew everyone's attention, and the room quieted down.
Despite his young age, Seii's calm and steady deanor, along with his formidable strength, had earned him great respect. No one dared to underestimate him.
As all eyes turned toward him, Seii 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 Seii's question, everyone looked at Sano Nobuhisa.
It wasn't that the others hadn't considered these factors, but Seii wanted to cut straight to the point rather than waste ti.
Sano Nobuhisa hesitated for a mont under everyone's gaze before saying, "The number of Mist ninja this ti is about the sa as last ti."
"What?"
The room erupted in shock.
Many had assud that Sano Nobuhisa's eagerness to attack ant that the Mist ninja's forces were smaller this ti. But it turned out to be almost the sa as before!
Just because they had fended off the Mist ninja's previous attack didn't an they could do it again, especially considering the losses they'd suffered in that battle. Many Konoha ninja had been killed or wounded.
anwhile, the Mist ninja? Even if so were injured, they wouldn't be too seriously hard 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 ti, 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 Seii, thinking to himself, 'Just Seii alone is worth several jonin.'
Hearing his explanation, the room began to calm down.
Maple, full na 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 movents 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.
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