Releasing another sigh, Kazuo felt like it had already become a habit of his with how things seemed to be going in this world for him.

Walking to the commander's tent, Kazuo gave a nod to the guard who returned it before he entered inside.

Shikaru was already awake and looking at the map.

The plan was for everyone to be awake before the hour was up and to start marching toward the pass.

"Good morning commander," Kazuo said as he gave the man a light bow before coming to stand at his side.

Shikaru merely nodded, his full concentration on the map.

"Is there anything wrong sir?" Kazuo asked the man curiously.

"The main problem would be if the Cloud sends less than fifty percent of their forces to the pass which would allow them to isolate us who were lying in ambush from both sides, that could spell doom for us," Shikaru said as he pointed to the location where the battle was going to take place.

Kazuo nodded his head whilst making a humming voice.

"I don't think they will do that unless we have a spy amongst us," Kazuo said causing Shikaru to give him a glance.

'Im not a fucking spy you bastard' Kazuo thought however he didn't show a change in his outward expression.

"And why is that?" Shikaru asked as a small smile crept on his face.

"It's because it would be too risky if we went with a full frontal attack then the first group of cloud ninjas would be completely annihilated and thus they would subsequently lose the second battle as well, ending the entire conflict with a total annihilation of the Cloud forces," Kazuo said as he took what was a stick and pointed at locations on the map as he explained his reasoning.

"You're not dull, that's the case however you have to always plan for spies when in times of war, that is the main reason why we planted the explosives so that we could reduce that small force even further into a small enough force that they would be annihilated in short notice," Shikaru said before turning around and heading to another area of the tent and grabbing what looked like his combat gear.

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Kazuo looked at him surprised.

"You're going to participate in the battle as well? Isn't that illogical? If we lose our commander then the troops won't know who to follow and will thus suffer a massive morale drop." Kazuo asked Shikaru, he was genuinely curious about what the genius Nara clan member was thinking.

"That's true however we need to win this battle, the leaf is currently fighting on all sides and thus we have much fewer forces to work with, the only reason we are able to remain as the victors is because our high-end power is greater than the other villages," Shikaru said as he outfitted himself and fastened a ninja bag to his waist.

"If that's the case then I guess it makes sense, having you participate in the battle will give the troops a morale boost and allow them to follow your orders more closely in the case of an accident, as long as you don't fall in battle then its actually an advantage," Kazuo mumbled before nodding his head at Shikaru.

'I don't know if I would go to the battlefield if I was in your spot, at the end of the day the question turns into whether it would be more favorable for me to save my life or to win this battle at any cost' Kazuo thought as he stood to the side, patiently awaiting Shikaru's orders.

"Go outside and tell the guard to inform the captains of all squads to get ready, we will start the attack in half an hour."

'Half an hour? When he clearly told everyone yesterday that it would be an hour from now, he's trying to turn any information that could have possibly been leaked into something useless for the enemy?' Kazuo thought before nodding his head and going outside to inform the shinobi guard who quickly nodded and headed off.

Kazuo was already ready though he didn't really have much in terms of supplies that he could get ready and that would be useful when the battle began.

'I've already made three crumpled explosion tags, and fifteen paper shuriken, I don't have anything else to prepare, and gathering more supplies from the camp is hard considering the low supply they have, as a Gennin my rank in getting supplies is at the bottom of the barrel, at most I would be given normal kunai and shuriken.' Kazuo thought as he stood inside the commander's tent awaiting Shikaru.

Moments later the Nara commander gave him a nod and together they headed out, the whole shinobi squadrons were already waiting for them, armed to the teeth.

'It's time for another battle huh...' Kazuo thought as he stared at the hundreds of leaf shinobi standing before him, they all had steeled expressions, ready to go into what could be the final battle of their lives.

'War is unforgiving to the weak' Kazuo thought clenching his hand, his thoughts were more so meant for himself rather than the shinobi in front of him.

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