The Second Five-Year Mecha Brawl Erupts

At this time, neither Konoha nor Sunagakure knew of the devastating news, as none of the border garrison forces in the Land of Rain had survived. Both Konoha and Sunagakure remained peaceful and tranquil.

Seeing how tremendously successful the surprise attack had been, Hanzō wanted to press his advantage, expand the gains, seize more land, and plunder more resources.

Since most of the Land of Wind was desert, with few places suitable for survival, it was vastly inferior to the fertile lands of the Land of Fire. Thus, after leading his forces on a round of plundering, Hanzō set the Land of Fire as the direction of his next main offensive.

On Sunagakure's side, although the border garrison had been wiped out and Amegakure had pushed into the Land of Wind, Third Kazekage Iron Sand had previously ordered the border alert level raised. Therefore, on the 19th, Sunagakure noticed that something might have happened when contact with the border forces was lost.

Sunagakure quickly figured out what had happened.

Though Iron Sand was enraged by Amegakure's unannounced war and sneak attack, he immediately began mobilizing troops. He promptly halted the Rain Shinobi forces' advance, preventing them from pushing the front into the heart of the Land of Wind.

Meanwhile, with Hanzō having gone to oversee the Land of Fire front, Amegakure gradually slowed its offensive. Relying on several occupied border towns in the Land of Wind, they constructed defensive lines and remained locked in a standoff with Sunagakure.

As for Konoha, two days had already passed, yet it had not detected anything amiss.

Soon, the night of September 21 arrived. A full three days had passed since Amegakure's surprise attack on the Land of Fire, and Hanzō's spearhead was pointed directly at the Land of Fire's interior. After arriving at the Land of Fire battlefield, every Konoha Ninja he encountered along the way had been killed without exception, keeping the news tightly sealed.

Only when the Rain Shinobi had rapidly pushed the front to within a day's journey of Tanzaku City did the Konoha Anbu realize something was wrong, having gone well beyond the normal contact interval without hearing from the border forces.

In the end, it was a small squad of Root Ninja under Pot Kage Shimura Danzō that finally obtained definitive intelligence that the Rain Shinobi had entered the Land of Fire. While out on a mission, they had passed the Rain Shinobi forces from afar, and one member of the squad happened to be a Sensor Ninja. They withdrew before the Rain Shinobi noticed them.

Bang!

The doors to the Hokage's Office were violently kicked open, and Shimura Danzō stormed in with rage written across his face.

"Hiruzen Sarutobi! Look at the mess you've made! Those Amegakure bastards are practically at Konoha already, and you still have the nerve to sit here in peace!" Shimura Danzō roared at Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, furiously hurling the Intelligence Scroll clenched in his hand at him.

"I told you long ago! Hanzō of the Salamander was up to no good! We should have wiped out Amegakure outright! If you had listened to me sooner, would this have happened?!" Danzō continued unloading on Hiruzen Sarutobi, pointing at his nose as he ranted. Though he had done plenty of things in private under the banner of doing them for Konoha, and had always coveted the position of Hokage, that did not mean he could stand by and watch Konoha get trampled right on its doorstep. After all, he regarded Konoha as his Konoha.

For a moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi was stunned. He did not yet know what had happened, and Danzō's barrage of curses initially made him somewhat displeased. But then, a sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

Ignoring both the urge to retort and the fact that Danzō had actually dared point at his nose and curse him out, Hiruzen Sarutobi hurriedly opened the scroll and skimmed through it.

After reading the intelligence, Hiruzen Sarutobi's vision went dark. A mouthful of blood surged up his throat as he muttered, "Homura and Koharu have led me astray!"

Danzō was still going at it. "I reminded you time and again to be wary of Hanzō and Amegakure's wolfish ambitions, but you refused to believe me! If only you had taken some of the shinobi dispatched to the borders to guard against Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Mist Hidden and assigned them to watch Amegakure, this would never have happened! Wasn't I doing it for Konoha? Huh?!"

Spittle flew continuously from Shimura Danzō's mouth, nearly drowning Hiruzen Sarutobi. At that moment, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, having received the news, arrived at the Hokage's Office.

Wolong and Fengchu showed not the slightest awareness that they had caused a disaster. In their view, they were merely Hokage advisers responsible for analysis and recommendations; the one who had truly made the decision was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage himself.

"Danzō, enough! The most urgent matter is to quickly organize shinobi forces, drive Hanzō and the Rain Shinobi out of the Land of Fire, and push the front back into the Land of Rain!" Mitokado Homura spoke up to mediate.

But it would have been better if Mitokado Homura had kept quiet. The instant he spoke, Danzō became even angrier. If not for that pair of incompetent fools, him and Utatane Koharu, taking turns confusing Hiruzen Sarutobi, how could Hiruzen—his good friend—have failed to consider the advice of his Hokage Assistant?

So furious that he was beside himself, Danzō raised his fist, ready to give Mitokado Homura a solid punch.

At that moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally came back to his senses and stopped him. Looking at the three of them, Hiruzen steadied himself and said, "Stop arguing. Danzō, take Root and intercept Amegakure's forces first. I'll send Anbu with you! Homura, Koharu, immediately notify the major clans and convene a Jonin meeting. We must form an elite force made entirely of Jonin as quickly as possible, then send them to reinforce Danzō. I will also take the field personally and face Hanzō once more. We must drive them out of the Land of Fire!"

Danzō said nothing further. With a cold snort, he turned and left the Hokage's Office. He would lead Root and the Anbu out first.

At this point, although Danzō had some private schemes of his own, he had not yet reached the absurdly twisted extremes of his later years.

At the time, he was still contributing to Konoha. Thus, he was perfectly willing to empty out everything he had in order to defend it.

On September 22, Mist Hidden Year 34, after repeated confirmation by spies from various sides, news that Amegakure of the Land of Rain had brazenly launched war against Sunagakure of the Land of Wind and Konoha of the Land of Fire finally spread throughout the shinobi world. Thus, a new round of the Great Shinobi War began.