Where Leaves Dance, Fire Burns Eternal

Although Hinata is two years younger than she was when she graduated in the original story, she is already a Genin.

After checking Hanabi Hyuga's injuries, she immediately carried her to Konoha Hospital.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was already in the Hokage's Office handling official business.

Kakashi convened a meeting with the Konoha High-ranking officials.

Genma Shiranui, who was recently promoted by Kakashi to be one of Konoha's advisors, is reporting on the current situation in Konoha.

Kakashi enjoys considerable prestige among the Anbu and ordinary ninjas, but he lacks truly loyal subordinates.

After much deliberation, he decided to bring Minato Namikaze, Genma Shiranui's bodyguard, into the Advisor Group.

Besides Genma Shiranui, after Hiruzen Sarutobi's death, Kakashi appointed Mori Sarutobi of the Sarutobi Clan as an advisor.

Kakashi should respond to the Sarutobi clan's decision to disband and disperse among the common ninjas of Konoha.

This Mori Sarutobi was merely a distant relative of Hiruzen Sarutobi, and his prestige within the Sarutobi Clan was average, with no outstanding strength.

Appointing him would appease the Sarutobi Clan to reunite.

In addition, Kakashi appointed Mitarashi Anko as his third advisor.

Mitarashi Anko was Orochimaru's disciple, which is a stain on her reputation. A ninja with such an illegitimate background is not qualified to serve as an advisor.

However, Kakashi first knew Mitarashi Anko and knew she wouldn't Betrayal of the Village.

Secondly, since Orochimaru is now difficult to control, appointing his disciple Mitarashi Anko as an advisor would facilitate possible interactions between the two sides.

The last advisor received a transplant of the First Hokage's Cells and gained the Wood Release: Yamato.

In this life, Yamato's experiences were not as exciting as in the original story. He never joined Root, but just like in the original story, he still came to the attention of Konoha High-ranking officials because of his Wood Release.

Yamato's strength is not outstanding among Elite Jonin, but his Wood Release can suppress Tailed Beast to a certain extent, and Konoha just happened to have experienced a Seven-Tails Jinchuriki rampage.

Therefore, Yamato's abilities can play a huge role.

Most importantly, Yamato is an orphan, so if he becomes an advisor, there won't be any situation where the Hokage is replaced by someone else; he will only be loyal to Kakashi.

After Genma Shiranui finished recounting all the losses tallied over the past two days, the atmosphere in the office became tense.

Everyone knows about the casualties, but this is the first time they've heard about the property damage. Everyone was shocked by the data compiled by Genma Shiranui.

One phrase popped into everyone's mind: severely weakened.

Kakashi was prepared and wasn't surprised for long. He asked, "How are the Cloud ninja and Mist ninja doing?"

Mori Sarutobi said, "The Mizukage has returned to Kirigakure and brought back the latest information."

"Their large army, positioned near the Land of Lightning to support the Cloud ninja, was ambushed by the Iwa Ninja main force."

"The Mist ninja a major defeat, losing several thousand men."

"Afterwards, the two Jinchuriki of Mist ninja, along with Mei Terumi and Hozuki Mangetsu, joined up with the Cloud ninja."

"However, the Cloud Ninja Army suffered another crushing defeat."

At this point, Mori Sarutobi took a deep breath and said, "Afterwards, Mist ninja Yuki Koru and Raikage Darui of the Mist Village died in battle one after another!"

"Hiss!" This information was so shocking that everyone, including Kakashi who was unaware of it beforehand, gasped.

Kakashi immediately asked, "How is the Cloud ninja now? Eight-Tails Jinchuriki Killer B? Has the Kumogakure been attacked?"

Mori Sarutobi said with a wry smile, "There's no information whatsoever!"

Upon hearing this, everyone's hearts sank. They weren't stupid; two days had passed and there was still no news, so something must have happened to the Kumogakure.

Kakashi frowned, his mind in turmoil. The Cloud ninja had been wiped out?

Without the Cloud ninja, how can our already disadvantaged side face the Iwa ninja?

"Send people to the Land of Lightning to investigate thoroughly. We must find out the current situation of the Cloud ninja, especially Killer B's whereabouts."

After a pause, Kakashi added, "If something really happens to the Cloud ninja, bring all the Cloud ninja you can contact to the Land of Fire."

After hearing this, Genma Shiranui and the others glanced at Kakashi, and no one objected.

There was a moment of silence in the conference room, then Genma Shiranui asked, "Lord Hokage, how should we deal with the Sunagakure?"

The Sunagakure used Jinchuriki to attack ordinary Konoha ninjas this time, but thanks to Might Guy's timely burst of power, Gaara didn't kill many people.

However, the Sunagakure has indeed made its stance clear: they have chosen to stand against the Konoha Village.

Kakashi sighed and said, "We're powerless to control the Sunagakure anymore. Let's wait until the situation is completely stable before making any decisions."

Then Kakashi looked at Mori Sarutobi and asked, "What did the Daimyo say?"

Mori Sarutobi said, "The Daimyo said he was unaware of Kazuma and the others' actions beforehand."

"It was Kazuma and his gang who stole his seal and secretly mobilized those guards."

"The daimyo stated that, as an apology, he would disband the Guardian Twelve Shinobi and cover all costs required for the village's reconstruction."

Kakashi thought for a moment and said, "The Iwa ninja will definitely try to rip us off again this time."

"Tell the daimyo that he will also be responsible for the war reparations, and this matter will be over."

Mori Sarutobi nodded in agreement.

Kakashi suddenly seemed to remember something and asked, "Where's Asuma? The Guardian Twelve Shinobi have disbanded, has Asuma returned?"

Mori Sarutobi said, "Asuma is at the Temple of Fire now. I've already sent a letter asking him to return."

Kakashi nodded, then asked finally, "Did we gain any spoils in this First Shinobi War?"

Kakashi's question sounds strange, but it's actually quite normal.

Although the Iwa ninja destroyed the Cloud ninja, Konoha was actually the victor in this First Shinobi War within the Konoha.

The Sky Ninja, Danzo, the Guardian Ninja, Orochimaru, and the Sunagakure were all killed or driven away by Konoha. Even Yichen was essentially driven away by Konoha.

Logically speaking, Konoha should have had many spoils of war.

That was indeed the case originally. For example, after Danzo and Hiruzen Sarutobi together, the Mangekyou Sharingan in Danzo's right eye, which originally belonged to Shisui Uchiha, Mangekyō Sharingan.

For example, if Sora were captured, the pseudo- Nine-Tails within him...

For example, the Sky Fortress of the Sky Ninja, and the Zero Tail inside Shinno's body.

However, the pseudo- Nine-Tails inside Sora's body dissipated directly due to Sora's death, and everything else was also destroyed in Kanako's final explosion.

Therefore, Konoha's only gain was fragments of the Sky Ninja Sky Fortress.

Oh, and there's also a White Zetsu clone.

When the final explosion was mentioned, Kakashi said, "There were two explosions that day. Did you figure out why?"

Genma Shiranui said, "The Intelligence Department has a theory: these two explosions were likely caused by Exploding Tag."

"Exploding Tag?" Kakashi was somewhat skeptical. Could Exploding Tag produce such a large explosion?

Genma Shiranui said, "Yes, to be precise: a large number of Exploding Tag."

After a pause, Genma Shiranui added, "Shikaku Nara's analysis: It's highly likely that the Iwa ninja possess the ability to remotely control Exploding Tag."

"However, this ability should only be limited to the Exploding Tag produced by the Iwa ninja themselves; they may have tampered with the Exploding Tag they produced."

Anko found it unbelievable; she had never heard of such a thing before. So she asked, "Genma, is there any basis for this?"

Genma Shiranui replied, "From the captured Sky Ninja, we know that the Tsuchikage gave Shinno many Exploding Tag."

"Therefore, we speculate that Danzo's Exploding Tag were also given to him by the Tsuchikage."

"The Tsuchikage harbored ill intentions towards Danzo and the Sky Ninja. He had planned this all along, intending to use Danzo and the Sky Ninja as human bombs."

"Subsequent analysis revealed that the first wave of explosions were primarily caused by ninjas who may have had contact with Danzo."

"The Exploding Tag on their bodies were given to them by Danzo, and they were also produced by Iwa ninja."

Genma Shiranui was still explaining the basis for the analysis by the Intelligence Department and Shikaku Nara.

Kakashi waved his hand and said, "It must be the Tsuchikage. There's no need to say more. Only he could have come up with such strange techniques."

Genma Shiranui nodded and said, "Besides the explosion of the Exploding Tag, there's another matter I've been speculating about."

"The sudden loss of control of the Seven-Tails within Feng's body was probably not an accident. Based on various analyses, we speculate that someone bypassed Feng as the Jinchuriki and took control of the Seven-Tails."

"This person is most likely the Tsuchikage, because although the Tsuchikage is not Jinchuriki, he has used the power of Tailed Beast before."

"The Tsuchikage uses more than one type of Tailed Beast power, one of which is the Seven-Tails!"

Kakashi nodded, feeling a bit of a headache. He couldn't understand the underlying principles behind either of these things, which made him feel utterly powerless.

Finally, Kakashi said, "Prepare Negotiation Team; the Tsuchikage will definitely send someone to negotiate with us."

"Our bottom line is to relinquish the Land of Wind base and pay reparations."

"Yes," Genma Shiranui replied.

After the meeting, Kakashi sat alone in his office for a while before going to the hospital.

Kakashi arrived at Itachi Uchiha's hospital room, which was guarded by the Anbu and where ordinary ninjas were not allowed to approach.

After entering the hospital room, Kakashi asked Itachi Uchiha was lying on the bed, "Itachi, how are you feeling?"

Itachi Uchiha, who was sitting on the hospital bed, did not get up when Kakashi entered. He said to Kakashi, "My eye power has been greatly depleted. I should have gone blind by now."

"But I feel like I can still use the Mangekyō Sharingan."

Kakashi was somewhat puzzled upon hearing this, as he also possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan Mangekyō Sharingan was well aware of its drawbacks.

He didn't understand why Itachi Uchiha was in this situation.

However, this is not a bad thing. He had too many things he couldn't figure out today, so he didn't dwell on them.

He told Itachi Uchiha, "Sasuke is fine Neji Hyuga's attack."

"He'll be able to be discharged in half a day."

Itachi Uchiha nodded. He had already secretly gone to see Sasuke, and he knew everything Kakashi had said.

Itachi Uchiha was silent for a moment, then said to Kakashi, "Lord Hokage, do you know how to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan?"

Kakashi was taken aback, then shook his head. He had no idea how his Mangekyō Sharingan had awakened.

After Kakashi became Hokage, the Uchiha Clan was no more, and he deliberately avoided anything related to the Uchiha Clan.

Therefore, he did not seek the answer in the village's confidential files.

Itachi Uchiha said, "Awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan requires extreme emotional stimulation."

"For example, killing the person you value most with your own hands."

Kakashi's breath hitched upon hearing this.

But his shock quickly turned into confusion: why would Itachi Uchiha tell him this secret of the Uchiha Clan?

Itachi Uchiha knew what Kakashi was thinking, and he continued, "I hope the Lord Hokage can awaken Sasuke's Mangekyō Sharingan as soon as possible."

"The Mangekyō Sharingan still has room for further upgrades."

"The fusion of two pairs of Mangekyō Sharingan belonging to close relatives can create the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan."

Upon hearing this, Kakashi looked into Itachi Uchiha's eyes and understood what Itachi Uchiha meant.

Itachi Uchiha stated that he hoped Sasuke could awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan, then fuse the two eyes, and finally achieve the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

Konoha is in a very bad situation right now. If a ninja with the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan could be stationed there, their safety would be greatly improved.

Kakashi couldn't bear to Sasuke's emotions being too agitated.

But since this request came from Sasuke's older brother, Kakashi nodded in agreement.

Seeing this, Itachi Uchiha remained silent for a few seconds before saying, "I hope I can stay in the village for the foreseeable future."

Kakashi had no prejudice against the Uchiha Clan, a fact that Itachi Uchiha could sense, which is why he made this request.

Kakashi knew that Itachi Uchiha was worried about the safety of the village and Sasuke, so he did not object.

After leaving Itachi Uchiha's room, Kakashi went straight to Sasuke's hospital room.

However, when Kakashi entered Sasuke's hospital room, he found that Naruto was there in addition to Sasuke, and even Hinata, whom he had seen at the Memorial Stone, was there.

Besides his three disciples from Team Seven, there was a little girl lying on the hospital bed next to Sasuke; it was Hanabi Hyuga.

Seeing the worried expression on Hinata's face, Kakashi asked, "Hinata, what's wrong with Hanabi?"

Hinata looked up at Kakashi and said, "Kakashi-sensei, Hanabi is injured, but the Medical Ninja has already examined her and she's not in any life-threatening danger."

Hinata did not tell Kakashi why Hanabi was injured.

Upon hearing Hinata's words, Kakashi paused for a moment as he walked inside.

Hinata has changed!

Hinata's tone of voice just now was almost completely different from before.

The soft-spoken Hinata that Kakashi remembered was gone; the Hinata just now acted very maturely, like a qualified ninja.

The clueless Naruto didn't notice this. When he saw Kakashi come in, he immediately rushed up to him and demanded that Kakashi teach him Ninjutsu.

Sasuke, lacking emotional intelligence, didn't notice this either; he kept his head down, still feeling ashamed of his incompetence.

His hopes for the revival of the prestigious Uchiha Clan were dashed by someone his own age.

To say he was defeated is an understatement; he doesn't even qualify as Neji's opponent.

Especially after hearing that Neji had defeated the former head of the Hyuga Clan, Sasuke hated himself even more.

Hyuga Hiashi was a contemporary of his father, although Sasuke felt that Hyuga Hiashi was probably not as good as his father.

However, Hyuga Hiashi was definitely one of the village's top Elite Jonin, belonging to the strongest group of ninjas below the Kage Level.

Neji is a year older than him, has already reached that level.

But he was still excited about awakening the Two-Tomoe Sharingan.

Besides this incident, Neji's ambiguous words to him while he was under Neji's Genjutsu also bothered him.

Sasuke was familiar with the names Sokai Uchiha Izumi Uchiha.

In particular, Izumi Uchiha, before the massacre of his clan, frequently visited Izumi Uchiha 'Sasuke house and trained under the guidance of Fugaku Uchiha.

Judging from Neji Hyuga said, it seems that both of them are still alive, and they may have already joined Iwagakure.

This made Sasuke both happy and sad. He was happy that some of his clansmen were still alive, and he guessed that besides Sokai and Izumi Uchiha, there might be other clansmen still alive.

Sadly, everyone else went to Iwagakure, leaving him alone in Konoha.

What hurt Sasuke the most was that Sokai and Izumi Uchiha should have known the truth, so why didn't they tell him?

So Sasuke made a decision these past few days: he would investigate the truth!

Kakashi gave Naruto a few perfunctory words, then observed Hinata for a while before noticing that Hinata's aura seemed a bit off.

Kakashi looked around and, seeing no one else, closed the hospital room door and asked Hinata, "Hinata, are you alright?"

Hinata lowered her head and remained silent for a few seconds before looking up at Kakashi.

Kakashi's gaze sharpened as he noticed that Hinata, had now turned light blue.

Kakashi took a deep breath, remembering Neji's eyes that day.

The news of Neji's eyes advancing to the Tenseigan had spread throughout the Hyuga Branch Family. Kakashi, of course, knew about it; he had even heard that Neji's eyes were called the Tenseigan.

Kakashi compared Hinata's eyes with Neji's and found that although their colors were somewhat similar, their shapes were not the same.

This did not surprise Kakashi. The Mangekyō Sharingan of the Uchiha comes in all sorts of forms, and perhaps the Byakugan of the Hyuga Clan will also be diverse after it is upgraded.

At that moment, Naruto and Sasuke both noticed the change in Hinata's eyes.

Naruto, completely dumbfounded, asked, "Hinata, do you have eyeballs now?"

Kakashi slapped Naruto aside and said to Hinata, "Hinata, train hard. You and Hanabi can move into my house."

Hinata nodded without saying anything.

Seeing this, Naruto became unhappy and loudly declared that he also wanted to move to Kakashi's house. He felt that Kakashi was secretly teaching Hinata some special techniques.

Kakashi couldn't refuse him and finally had to agree.

If Hinata had heard that Naruto would be moving to Kakashi's house with her, she would have blushed to her neck.

But Hinata remained expressionless and completely unmoved today.

Kakashi glanced at the silent Hinata, then at the serious-looking Sasuke, and finally his gaze settled on the shouting Naruto.

Kakashi suddenly felt that there was still hope for Konoha!

Where leaves dance in the air, fire burns ever brighter!

Kakashi suddenly remembered a phrase that Hiruzen Sarutobi often used to brainwash people when he was still Hokage.

At that moment, Kakashi felt that those words were so true!

The Land of Water, nestled in a mountainous region.

Almost at the same time as the Konoha High-ranking Officials Meeting, the Mist ninja was also holding a High-Level Meeting.

The Mist ninja had previously dispatched all their Kage Level ninjas, not because Genji and Kisame were reckless, but because they were prepared.

After the army set off, they emptied the village and dispersed all the villagers.

The Mist ninja and civilians dispersed and entered the Land of Water.

If the Iwa ninja attack the Kirigakure, they will only find an empty village.

The Mist ninja had previously experienced destruction, and everything they had was rebuilt later, so Mist ninja were capable of undertaking the task of evacuating the entire village.

This is something other Great Ninja Village definitely couldn't do, like Iwagakure. Iwagakure so many laboratories and so many barriers; it's simply impossible for them to give it up.

Iwa ninja abandons these things and then rebuilds all over again, the cost would be far too high.

Looking at Kisame's white right arm and the nowhere-to-be-seen Samehada, Mei Terumi asked, "Mizukage, you fought the Tsuchikage?"

Kisame nodded and said, "Yes, if it weren't for the guards risking their lives to shield me, I would be dead."

"Even so, I've lost an arm, and Samehada has fallen into the hands of the Tsuchikage."

"This is the right arm of that white humanoid monster that was transplanted at Konoha Hospital."

Genji asked, "I've heard that transplanting this white monster's body allows one to master Wood Release. Is that true?"

Kisame said, "I can sense Wood Release. I don't know how to use it yet, but I'll be able to use it sooner or later. However, the power of my Wood Release is definitely not great."

"The Hokage also had a similar arm transplanted, and he also mastered Wood Release."

"I saw him use Wood Release this time; there's no way I could ever reach that level."

"Either Konoha is hiding something, or they need to do something else besides transplanting this arm."

Upon hearing that Kisame's Wood Release technique wasn't very powerful, the others immediately lost interest.

Hozuki Mangetsu said, "Yuki Koru- senpai died in battle. He died saving me."

Kisame sighed and said, "Mangetsu, live on in Ning-senpai's place and strive to become stronger."

"The reason Senior Ning was willing to die for you is because he knew his limits were limited, but you still have hope of advancing further."

Don't let him down!

Hozuki Mangetsu lowered his head and said, "My Water Release Technique was broken by a simple handheld ninja tool."

"All the Iwa ninja know this, and they'll definitely use this method against me in the next battle."

"Perhaps I can be of less use than Senior Yuki Koru."

Kisame shook his head and said, "It's just a secret technique. If it's broken, it's broken. We can just learn some other Ninjutsu."

"Don't always limit yourself to the secret techniques of your Hozuki Clan; the village has plenty of Water Release."

"This warning is good; it'll be a good opportunity to change your fighting style."

Hozuki Mangetsu looked up at Kisame and nodded.

It was at this moment that he realized Kisame was more suitable to be the Mizukage than he was.

Both of them clearly encountered setbacks this time, and Kisame's strength declined even more severely after losing Samehada.

Kisame was able to adjust his mindset immediately, but he fell into self-doubt and ultimately needed Kisame to comfort him.

This is actually related to their upbringing. Kisame was a wild man who encountered many setbacks, so he was used to it.

However, Hozuki Mangetsu is different. He was raised in a domesticated environment, so his talent is definitely sufficient, but in terms of tenacity, he is far inferior to Kisame.