A New Stage of the Third Shinobi War

Sunagakure was the first to start a war against Konoha, and also the first to surrender.

They were the type who were weak yet loved to show off—let go for a second and they started making a fuss, grab them by the throat and they immediately begged for mercy.

When news of their peace talks with Konoha spread through various channels, many naive people in ninja villages large and small believed the war was about to end.

But they were wrong. Anyone who understood the situation knew that the war would not end. On the contrary, it had only just begun.

The Third Shinobi World War would gradually enter its Second Stage—the most chaotic and brutal stage.

The shrewd old Tsuchikage Ōnoki would not be ruled by hatred. Everything he did was for the greatest possible gain at the smallest possible cost.

Hatred was merely a tool for inciting those beneath him. Profit was what truly allowed a village to grow stronger.

There had only been a minor mishap in the plan. Konoha had produced a ruthless man like Orochimaru, who took down Sunagakure at minimal cost. Unlike Hiruzen Sarutobi, Ōnoki greatly admired that snake's command ability and considered it the correct course of action.

Konoha had failed to suffer a massive loss, but Sunagakure had been crippled. Wasn't this the perfect opportunity?

After the Kikyo Mountain Battle, while Sunagakure was still in disarray and reorganizing its forces, Ōnoki ordered Iwagakure Ninja to continue plundering the prosperous regions along the Land of Wind's borders on a massive scale.

Since the establishment of the Five Great Nations and the Five Great Shinobi Villages, the world's general structure had essentially been set. The Warring States Period, when nations of every size annexed one another and daimyo and generals fought chaotically among themselves, had become a thing of the past.

The Five Great Nations had each established their own territorial boundaries, while the smaller countries caught between them became buffers in peacetime and arenas in wartime.

Small nations could fight one another, but they were not allowed to annex each other and grow stronger, because the Five Great Nations would not tolerate the emergence of another country capable of threatening their status.

The last person who tried to do that was Hanzō of the Salamander from Amegakure. The Land of Fire, Land of Earth, and Land of Wind ground him into the dirt, after which the three nations' ninja fought chaotically on his home turf, leaving the Land of Rain riddled with devastation and causing countless tragedies of life and death among commoners. This directly led to the birth of Akatsuki.

The Five Great Nations could not annex neighboring small countries either, because the other great nations would intervene to stop them. No one was foolish enough to sit back and watch an opponent grow stronger. Besides, without buffer zones, they would be directly facing one another. That was far too insecure.

Unless one first wiped out the other great nations' ninja villages and unified the shinobi world, this balance would be difficult to break. In any case, it was the people of the small countries caught in the middle who suffered. Who cared about them?

Since expanding territory was so difficult, how could a village profit from a great war?

Very simply: money, precious metals, valuable jewels, infants and young children with special talents, all kinds of ninjutsu and secret jutsu—anything that could strengthen a village was a target.

Iwagakure was doing exactly that now.

By the time Sunagakure had organized its forces and moved north, the prosperous border regions adjoining the Land of Birds and the Land of Rain had already been ravaged mercilessly.

Sunagakure's ninja had only just finished their war with Konoha, yet they had to charge into battle again with bloodshot eyes, clashing with Iwagakure Ninja.

At the same time, in the direction of the Land of Grass, Iwagakure was preparing to attack the Land of Fire while reaping benefits. But they were waiting—for a hired hand to enter the fray.

Sure enough, when Kumogakure saw Iwagakure gaining advantages, how could its Black-skinned Barbarians possibly remain seated? They quickly chose to join the war.

They had always been the ones robbing others. How could they possibly stand aside and watch someone else rob people happily?

Contrary to Ōnoki's expectations, once Kumogakure entered the conflict, the situation was no longer something he could control.

Kumogakure Ninja invaded the Land of Fire through the Land of Hot Water on one front, while also entering the Land of Rice, intending to drive out the Iwagakure forces stationed there to guard against them.

Konoha had only just concluded the war on the Western Front, yet it had no choice but to redeploy personnel to deal with threats from the northwest and north.

The situation descended into chaos once more.

The current situation was this: Iwagakure had moved south and become entangled with Sunagakure, its friction with Konoha in the Land of Grass was growing increasingly severe, and it was also guarding against Kumogakure in the Land of Rice.

Sunagakure had moved north to resist Iwagakure, but it still had to leave behind some troops on the Eastern Front to prevent Konoha from stabbing it in the back.

Although the two sides had signed an alliance agreement, and Konoha was unlikely to do such a thing, trust was the cheapest thing in the shinobi world. An agreement was nothing more than a scrap of paper.

The moment Kumogakure joined, it found itself facing both Iwagakure and Konoha.

Everyone had an opponent. The entire shinobi world had become a complete mess, sliding right to the brink of losing control.

All that was missing now was Kirigakure joining in.

In truth, if the Four Great Nations united to attack Konoha, Konoha would not be able to withstand it. But such a thing could never happen.

That was simply how the shinobi world worked. Without a common enemy, the Five Great Shinobi Villages feared and guarded against one another while wanting to kill each other. Things like trust and cooperation simply did not exist.

Before the Kikyo Mountain Battle, the situation in the Land of Grass had actually been fairly stable. Iwagakure and Konoha had only engaged in small-team skirmishes, with no large-scale battles.

As a result, Higashino Jiro, Uzuki Yuwa, and quite a few Konoha Ninja had the chance to rotate out, returning to the village to celebrate the New Year and rest for a while.

But following Sunagakure's defeat, the situation in the shinobi world changed abruptly. The moves by Iwagakure and Kumogakure were like a match tossed into a quiet powder keg, and the situation instantly grew tense.

The Land of Grass, the Land of Rice, and the Land of Hot Water lacked the power to resist invasions by great nations, so they could only seek aid from Konoha.

After all, compared to those bandits, Konoha—founded by the God of Shinobi—had a far better reputation, and Konoha Ninja had a slightly more positive image than the other Four Great Nations.

This was a world where everything was judged by who was less terrible. Compared with the other Four Great Nations' everyday inhuman behavior, Konoha immediately seemed downright respectable—as long as you looked worse than I did, then I was justice.

Under these circumstances, Higashino Jiro missed his son's birthday for the first time, following the Main Force toward the Land of Grass.

The birthday celebration that had originally included the entire family of three every year had only... five people at home this year because of the war.

Uchiha Shisui, Uzuki Yugao, and Hayate Gekko had come over to celebrate his birthday with him.

Among the four of them, Higashino Makoto's birthday came first, at the end of March. The other three all had birthdays after October. Yugao and Hayate's birthdays were even only a day apart, so they could basically celebrate together.

Under his companions' gazes, Higashino Makoto solemnly made another wish.

He hoped Higashino Jiro and Uzuki Yuwa would both return alive.

In his Previous Life, he had merely been an ordinary person. Even after arriving in the shinobi world, he had been born into a commoner family. He had not received a system that handed him an Otsutsuki Physique from the start, nor did he have an innate spiritual treasure living in his mind, much less a Deep Blue Panel that added dozens of points a day.

He had only one Golden Finger: a somewhat unusual soul he discovered at the age of four, whose function was to filter White Natural Energy for him. Since white energy made up the smallest proportion of all types of natural energy, his absorption speed was painfully slow.

Aside from that, he was also extremely disciplined. He had studied and trained diligently since the age of three, which was how he had developed respectable strength by the age of seven.

But that strength was barely enough for self-preservation. Intervene in the Shinobi World War?

He did not have that kind of ability.

Just look at the figures who had emerged once the Third Shinobi War entered its chaotic free-for-all phase.

After being set up by Orochimaru, the Sunagakure Ninja turned around and vented their fury on Iwagakure. A young ninja named Rasa rose to prominence, and his Magnet Release Gold Dust had buried countless Iwagakure lives.

At present, he held considerable prestige within Sunagakure and showed faint signs of becoming the Fourth Kazekage. But his opponent, the great beauty Pakura, who provided Mummy Service to Iwagakure with her Bloodline Limit, Scorch Release, also had no shortage of supporters.

One mountain could not accommodate two tigers—unless one was male and the other female.

But the problem was that Rasa was married. His wife, Karura, was heavily pregnant, and the child was about to be born.

On the Land of Hot Water battlefield, the Third Raikage's son led his brother-in-arms. The future AB Combo was temporarily unstoppable, beating the Konoha Ninja until they suffered bitterly—until they encountered Konoha's Blondie in the middle of the year.

Minato Namikaze held his own in a one-against-two battle, one of them even being the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. With the Flying Thunder God Technique, he forcibly repelled Kumogakure's advance.

Konoha's Yellow Flash truly lived up to his name. When a Regular Ninja encountered him, they might as well wait to die; running was meaningless.

Now that Orochimaru had lost heart, Tsunade had left, and Jiraiya was focused entirely on paving the way for his disciple, Minato Namikaze was the brightest star on Konoha's battlefields. Using the Flying Thunder God Technique to dart between Konoha's fronts against Iwagakure and Kumogakure, he slaughtered enemies until they trembled at the mere mention of his name.

No matter how desperately the Konoha Ninja struggled to hold the line, the moment they saw a streak of yellow light appear, they knew victory was theirs.

By October, a major event occurred on the battlefield, shaking the entire shinobi world.

After an Intelligence Battle between Iwagakure and Kumogakure, Kumogakure fell into Ōnoki's trap. The Third Raikage A led an elite force straight for the border region between the Land of Rice, the Land of Fire, and the Land of Waterfalls, intending to intercept the vast quantity of valuable supplies Iwagakure had plundered.

Then he found himself surrounded layer upon layer by ten thousand Iwagakure Ninja.

Those who had accompanied him were all powerful, battle-hardened Kumogakure elites. To preserve this core force for the village, the Third Raikage led them through a breach, then remained behind alone to cover their retreat. He fought for three days and three nights before dying of exhaustion.

The Raikage's death not only showed the entire shinobi world the might of Lightning Release Chakra Mode, but also pushed the Third Shinobi War completely into an uncontrollable stage of chaos.

Driven by hatred over the Third Raikage's death, the Kumogakure Ninja completely turned against Iwagakure. Taking advantage of Iwagakure withdrawing large numbers of troops to encircle the Raikage, Konoha also pushed the front line back from the border into the Land of Grass.

Had the two sides formed an alliance? No. Kumogakure and Konoha were still fighting each other to the death in the Land of Hot Water; cooperation was impossible.

Sunagakure also accelerated its efforts to drive Iwagakure out of its territory.

For a time, Iwagakure seemed to have become the shinobi world's final boss. Of the Four Great Nations participating in the war, three were fighting them.

Ōnoki: "..."

"This... this isn't right, is it? Why did the plan turn out like this?"

"Why did I somehow become everyone's target as we fought?"

But now that things had come to this, he could only grit his teeth and hold out to the bitter end.