Hanzo's Crazy Probing

Genji broadly agreed with Seiji's plan, but he wanted to refine it further based on Seiji's proposal, considering every possible contingency and preparing response plans for each one.

"All right, organize your ideas and write up a formal report for me. Once I've revised it, I'll go discuss it with the Mizukage," Genji told Seiji.

"Yes!" Seiji replied respectfully, with a hint of excitement in his voice at having his plan acknowledged by his grandfather.

But Seiji could not have imagined at the time that two people would disrupt the operation in the Land of Whirlpools. One was Shimura Danzō, Konoha's Pot Kage, who would provide him with the best possible assist; the other was Madara Uchiha, who would secretly fan the flames from the shadows.

Genji was also a man of action. After Seiji handed him the proposal scroll, he spent another day refining it in greater detail, then went to meet Third Mizukage Hyou and ultimately succeeded in persuading him.

Time flew by, and soon it was June of Mist Hidden Year 34. Seiji was now fifteen years old.

Having crossed the threshold into Elite Jonin at thirteen, Seiji had now taken a major step forward on the path from Elite Jonin to Kage-level.

Yet although Seiji could clearly feel the power in his eyes constantly growing, and his connection to the Daikokuten Space left behind by Isshiki becoming clearer and clearer, he still had not awakened his own "eyes."

Perhaps what he needed was some kind of opportunity.

In July of Mist Hidden Year 34, under Hanzō of the Salamander's leadership, Amegakure launched attacks in every direction. On July 1, he led his shinobi to seize two towns on the border of the Land of Grass. Then, seeing that the surrounding Land of Earth and Land of Fire merely verbally condemned his actions without taking any real measures, he struck again on July 10, continuing to occupy every town along the Rain-Grass border. The pitiful fence-sitting Land of Grass had been abandoned by the two great nations of Earth and Fire.

Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage, simply had not finished preparing and did not want to confront Hanzō while he was at the height of his momentum. As for Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, after listening to an analysis from Wolong Mitokado Homura and Fengchu Utatane Koharu, he concluded that Hanzō would stop after taking the surrounding small nations. He did not believe in the slightest that Hanzō intended to wage war on the Land of Fire or Konoha. The poor Pot Kage, Shimura Danzō, was ignored once again.

On July 23 of Mist Hidden Year 34, Hanzō mobilized again. This time, he aimed at the Land of Birds, and before the other nations could react, he swiftly occupied the entire country.

The Land of Birds had no shinobi village. Relying on a group of wandering shinobi and samurai, it fell before it could mount any effective resistance. The Lord of Birds and his nobles fled in disgrace to the Land of Wind, seeking refuge with Lord Wind.

Once they came to their senses, the Land of Earth and Iwagakure, along with the Land of Wind and Sunagakure, hurriedly condemned Hanzō and demanded that he return the occupied Land of Birds. They each dispatched envoys to Amegakure, attempting to determine Hanzō's true intentions.

Having expanded the territory of the Land of Rain and Amegakure's sphere of influence by a full twofold so easily, Hanzō became increasingly inflated by the thrill of territorial expansion. Within both the Land of Rain and Amegakure, from the daimyo and nobles down to Amegakure's shinobi and ordinary citizens, everyone cheered for the hero who had led them in opening new lands: Hanzō of the Salamander, the demigod.

Seeing that the great nations still had taken no concrete action and remained at nothing more than verbal condemnation, Hanzō decided to carry out one final test.

On August 8 of Mist Hidden Year 34, Hanzō of the Salamander held a large-scale military exercise near the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire. After the exercise ended, he claimed that three shinobi had gone missing—two Chunin and one Jonin—and used that as an excuse to demand entry into the Land of Fire to conduct a search.

Naturally, the Konoha Ninja stationed at the border sternly refused. But relying on his immense strength, Hanzō forcibly entered the Land of Fire while surrounded by Konoha Ninja, swaggered about in a show of force, and then departed unharmed.

When the news reached Konoha, Shimura Danzō, the Pot Kage, clearly stated that Hanzō was very likely preparing to attack Konoha and strongly advocated taking the initiative to wage war against Hanzō and Amegakure.

But after another round of analysis from Wolong and Fengchu, Hiruzen Sarutobi still believed that Hanzō was merely making a show of force and would not truly act. Left with no choice, the Pot Kage once again threw out the words, "Hiruzen, you'll regret this!" before slamming the door and leaving.

Another ten days soon passed. Seeing that Konoha showed no reaction whatsoever, Hanzō obtained the answer he wanted and finally made up his mind.

(I also don't know how many shinobi each nation should have. The original setting is rather contradictory. Based on their registration numbers, Konoha had only a little over thirteen thousand shinobi, and that even included those who had died in battle. Yet during the Fourth Great Ninja War, excluding Genin, the five great nations and the samurai of the Land of Iron somehow assembled an Allied Shinobi Forces army of eighty thousand! During the Third Great Shinobi War, the Third Raikage died of exhaustion while surrounded by ten thousand Iwagakure shinobi. An old fox as shrewd as Ōnoki would not have brought too many ordinary Genin, so I think most of those ten thousand shinobi should have been Chunin.)

(So I made my own settings. In the early stages of the Second Shinobi World War, Hanzō led Amegakure in suppressing both Sunagakure and Konoha at once—and even won. The average quality of Rain Shinobi definitely could not match that of the major shinobi villages, so aside from Hanzō's own overwhelming strength and the Salamander Poison being suited to group combat, the only explanation is that Amegakure had overwhelming numbers at that time.)

(My setting is that during the Second Shinobi World War, Amegakure had one thousand Jonin, including Special Jonin, and five thousand Chunin and Genin. Rain Shinobi were generally rather weak. Though there were many Jonin, they were only ordinary Jonin, with very few Elite Jonin. Their strength lay in sheer numbers. Moreover, whether it was Sunagakure, Iwagakure, or Konoha, none of them could send all their shinobi to the battlefield at once. They had to leave people behind to defend their homes and guard against the other villages.)

(During the Second Shinobi World War, Konoha had one thousand Jonin and six thousand Chunin and Genin. Sunagakure and Mist Hidden both followed elite-focused policies, so they had more elites but fewer total shinobi than Konoha. Kumogakure was roughly comparable to Konoha, while Iwagakure was particularly good at mass-producing troops and fought in corps formations, so it had more Genin and Chunin.)

(During the Second Shinobi World War, the shinobi populations of the various villages probably had not yet reached their peak. But after recovering for nearly twenty years following the First Shinobi World War, their numbers definitely would not have been small.)

(Those of you reading can leave comments and discuss it. The original setting really leaves far too many holes.)