By morning the next day, the entire village knew war had come. I had given the order and the village respond quick to it, full-scale defensive efforts as Kirigakure was put on complete lockdown. No one in Sensor Division was given a break, no one was given a break period, if I wasn’t catching any Z’s neither would anyone else.

ANBU and Jounin teams with too much time on their hands submitted themselves to me for assignments. The entire organizations restructured itself around priority tasks, ANBU squads left the village in droves to conduct covert operations that will fund the continued war effort. I needed eyes on every one of the Daimyo’s armies alongside that of his…our enemies.

Some squads I’d tasked with eliminating pesky Lords that wouldn’t come out to battle themselves but whose existence would irritate the war effort. Folders, files, all documenting Baron and Samurai Lords in the war, Raiga by my side filtering through the fodder and chaff for the worthwhile targets.

It was my every intention to end this war before it bled Kirigakure on the field of battle, though I realize quickly that might not be possible. Reading up on the reports and standards Fuguki complied before he left to lead the mission I assigned him, I learned that the snakes head, a Baron Lord of Umehebi, was a front line fighter and would be surrounded by his men almost all the time.

A clean assassination wouldn’t be feasible unless I sent Raiga or Reina in themselves and as far as I was concerned, Lord Tetsuya of Umehebi wasn’t worth their full attention, not with how things were at the moment.

With Fuguki’s notes on the war though, I grasped a greater deal of what the poor Daimyo has been battling against all this time and shook my head. There were four islands warring against the Daimyo and two more that were seeking to discreetly become a part of the Tea Country while the others killed themselves.

The current state of the war had Kurokami-jima, Lord Yakubi’s island and its fiefs raided and attacked and possibly over run by the enemy at this point. Of course, I’d already sent Kisame’s team to liberate the island as it was one of the few isles left on the Daimyo’s side, with Lord Yakubi genuinely suffering for his loyalty.

Then there were the Bloodline Killer isles, this was where my war goals stood. Destroying the large factions of Bloodline Killers congregated on Yureisen and Midoriwara would accomplish Kirigakure’s truest goals in the war and if I saw fit to abandon the Daimyo to Baron Tetsuya of Umebi there was little else anyone could do.

But I’m attempting to be a man of my word and so once I saw the war being fought on two fronts. The Bloodline Killer isles were fortunately or unfortunately rather close to each other with Midoriwara at reinforce-able range from Umebi Island.

This meant the pre-emptive force I’d sent in the form of Fuguki and Juzo might not be able to decimate the islands resistant armies before reinforcement came from Umebi in the form of ships and a battering of coastal warfare. I didn’t want my shinobi in the crossfire of that, least of all Mangetsu and so it meant I’d simply have to confuse and overwhelm Lord Tetsuya with the liberation effort on Kurokami-jima and a clear as day invasive force flanking his left side and ally, Watanabe the Baron of Tsurugashima Island.

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Should our ships come breakthrough his offensive against the Daimyo’s loyal vassals on the left, we’d force Baron Tetsuya to choose between saving his Bloodline Killer allies to the right or his day one ally, Watanabe on the left.

Of course, very little of this could be accomplished overnight. The ANBU had their targets and would lurk for an opportunity to strike, whether it be in the dead of night or in a raging battlefield. Each island had its Lords and Barons with two or three subservient Lords of towns, cities or villages being vassals of Barons who governed the entire island in the Daimyo’s stead.

Barons such as Watanabe and Tetsuya were high profile targets that were difficult to reach even with the arm of the ANBU, especially when I didn’t want to sacrifice the lives of my elites to be rid of some jar-headed noble that would be replaced by a son or rival the moment he died. Assassination was off the table for them but kidnapping? Well, someone needed to sign a forfeit and a dead person couldn’t do it.

I’d rather preserve much of the Land of Water’s infrastructure and resources and so I’d only sent out two teams meant to infiltrate and destabilize the townships feeding the armies we’d be fighting on Yureisen and Midoriwara, they had orders to pay a visit to Umebi as well if they could but it wasn’t necessary. This strategy was especially needed on the left flank of the war where a large island, Koorijima, was under the thumb of Baron Tetsuya.

Koorijima was and has been his staging ground for a majority of his attacks, especially against Kurokami-jima. Large and fertile as it is, the island also served as Baron Tetsuya’s second bread basket, fattening his men and sharpening reforming their blades with the iron from the mines scattered in its mountains.

If we wanted to pose any threat to Baron Tetsuya Koorijima liberation would have to come immediately after Kurokami-jima’s. According to Fuguki’s notes Baron Watanabe’s ships and men protected the island from outsiders and were positioned facing mainland Kirigakure as they patrolled the sea.

The idea that these Barons had been preparing and anticipating Kirigakure’s eventual involvement to this extent brought a smile to my face, we weren’t being underestimated and perhaps this would pose a challenge for Kiri’s forces to breach, however doubtful that was.

Analysing the map and positioning of the enemy as well as my own men, I felt more than confident in our inevitable victory, it would be child’s play to breakthrough their naval barricade with the likes of pirate descendant Hoshigaki at my beck and call. What was left now was for the war to start in earnest.

I let out a sigh and picked myself up from behind the desk, hearing my knees and back crack with satisfaction I packed up the worthwhile documents I’d read myself to sleep with and began to leave the office. It was well past midnight already but Junichi held his post outside my office without losing a blink to sleep.

He saw me and smiled as he relieved me of the files in hand, “Ready to leave now?”

I hadn’t slept in a bed in over five days and though I had many thoughts to discuss with Jounin Captains and clan heads I intended to meet over the valuable resources they controlled, I was ready to get some shut eye. At least for tonight.