Chapter 548 The Calm Before the Storm

Sunset and sunrise.

In the blink of an eye, a week has passed.

As Qingming predicted, the Kirigakure Village did not intend to sit and wait for things to develop in a direction that was unfavorable to them.

Since the news of the negotiations between Konoha and Iwagakure Village came out, the Kirigakure Village began to mobilize troops, constantly transferring troops from the mainland, through the forward base of the Wave Country, and entering the territory of the Fire Country.

Moreover, they did not gather completely at the four breakthrough points, but were widely distributed along the eastern line of the Fire Country.

This put great pressure on the Konoha strongholds along the line.

Especially two days ago, after the news that the second round of negotiations between Konoha and Iwagakure Village was relatively smooth came out, the Kirigakure Village seemed even more restless.

Sometimes, Qingming wondered if this news was deliberately leaked by the Iwagakure Village in order to stimulate the Kirigakure Village and let them create trouble for Konoha, thereby increasing the bargaining chips.

Or, it was the efforts made by the radicals of the Iwagakure Village and some people in Konoha who did not want the war to end to disrupt the situation.

However, no matter what the truth is, as one of the four breakthrough points adjacent to the Hidden Mist Village, the Black Stone Stronghold must be fully prepared for war.

This forced Qingming to compress his training time.

Only his "Shadow Clone Technique" has been promoted to level 6, and can split up to 30 shadow clones at a time.

Otherwise, there is not enough time.

However, multiple shadow clones are at the same starting line, practicing the same skill. Even if he increases the frequency of refreshing the shadow clone status, it will inevitably reduce efficiency.

There is no way.

Now that the war is coming, Qingming can't stand out.

Now, Qingming hopes that he can extract more chakra in the next battle to make up for his losses in the past period of time.

Yes, in Qingming's view, this battle is inevitable.

No matter who is the driving force behind this matter and what the truth is, since the Hidden Mist Village has made so many preparations, it is impossible to stop.

Now, it is just the calm before the storm.

Qingming could almost foresee that after three days, the results of the third round of negotiations between Konoha and Iwagakure would come out. If everything went smoothly, then this war would most likely break out directly.

By then, the entire front would inevitably be caught in the flames of war.

Shaking his head secretly, Qingming stopped thinking about it. He led a detachment of his men to continue patrolling the forest southwest of the Black Stone Stronghold.

······

In a flash, time came to three days later.

At noon that day.

Black Stone Stronghold.

Command post.

In the conference room.

Qingming and a group of senior ninjas sat here, quietly waiting for the latest news.

After a while.

Sano Nobuhisa walked in.

He sat down in the first seat, without any nonsense, and said directly: "The third round of negotiations has been going smoothly. Ten days later, the village will have the last round of negotiations with the Iwagakure Village. If everything goes well, the two sides will sign a peace agreement at the end of the month."

There is no doubt that this is good news.

However, in the conference room, no one smiled as they did ten days ago. Almost everyone's face was serious.

Obviously, the various actions of Kirigakure in the past ten days have put great pressure on them, making them unable to laugh at all.

In the meeting room, you can hear a pin drop.

After a long while, someone spoke up: "Captain, what does the headquarters mean?"

Hearing this, everyone turned their eyes to Sano Nobuhisa.

Sano Nobuhisa was silent for a few seconds, and then said: "The headquarters does not have any extra manpower support now. There are too many strongholds to defend. The headquarters requires us to hold on for ten days."

Obviously, these ten days are a critical period that they need to bear alone. Not only will the Rock Village battlefield not support them, but they will also draw some troops retreating from the Sand Village battlefield to rush over.

After all, a smooth negotiation does not mean that a ceasefire can be reached in the end.

What's more, this negotiation itself is meant to be a test by the Rock Village.

Otherwise, the other party would not set the last negotiation in ten days.

The reason why the other party did this was to see whether Kirigakure could make greater progress in these ten days.

It can be predicted that once the Hidden Mist Village completely tears open the eastern defense line of Konoha within ten days, the Hidden Rock Village will inevitably overturn the previous negotiation results and enter Konoha.

In this case, Konoha naturally cannot relax its vigilance.

In this way, the pressure on the Hidden Mist Village can only be borne by themselves.

Qingming almost knows that this battle will be very tragic, unless the Hidden Mist Village takes the initiative to retreat.

But this is almost impossible.

The opponent has almost put the intention of attacking in front of Konoha in the past ten days. How can it retreat easily?

This battle is impossible to avoid.

Just when Qingming was thinking about it, Sano Nobuhisa spoke again: "Everyone, the dawn of victory is just around the corner, let us all work hard for it!"

After that, he didn't care about how everyone reacted, and immediately arranged everyone's tasks.

Without any surprise, Qingming's flying ability was used again.

This time, his task was no longer to lead the patrol, but to monitor the Mist Ninja in Feiyu Town, and to patrol the area within a radius of 30 kilometers of the entire Black Stone Stronghold to provide intelligence support for the entire team.

After hearing his mission, Qing Ming thought about it for a moment and agreed.

Although this mission required a lot of his energy, it was safe and gave him a certain degree of freedom.

After that, he only needed to send out some shadow clones to perform tasks, and he could move freely.

Soon, the meeting ended.

Qingming handed over his troops, replenished various supplies, and then performed the "Wind Style: Wind Wings", flew high into the sky, and flew outside the base.

After leaving the sight of the crowd, he did not hesitate and immediately performed the "Shadow Clone Technique" to create five shadow clones.

Qingming directly let one of the shadow clones fly in the direction of Feiyu Town, specifically responsible for monitoring the Mist Ninja there.

Then, he let the other four shadow clones fly in the four directions of southeast, northwest, and ordered them to patrol the area within a radius of 30 kilometers.

As for himself.

The world is big, but it is not bigger than his practice.

With the existence of the "heart-to-heart technique", he does not have to worry about the problem of untimely information transmission. Naturally, he can continue his own practice, and then pass the information to Sano Nobuhisa when necessary.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that after ten days of practice, his proficiency in "Wind Style: Wind Wings" has approached the upper limit of level 6, and he is only one step away from reaching the perfect level 7.

Qingming estimated that after a day of high-intensity patrols like this, his proficiency should be full.

By then, he will have an extra 20,000 points of available chakra every day, which is great!

Retracting his thoughts, Qingming stopped thinking about it. After choosing a direction, he immediately flapped his wings and flew over.