Iwagakure stood amid vast mountains and wilderness, its buildings all a sandy yellow. In this village, where collectivism prevailed, even the houses everyone lived in were largely identical in appearance.
Among them, the most imposing was undoubtedly the village's heart: the Tsuchikage Building.
Inside the building, which stood ten times taller than an ordinary villager's house, the current Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, was admonishing his eldest son, Kitsuchi, in exasperation.
"Tell me, what did you make of this letter?"
Under his old father's reproachful gaze, Kitsuchi thought for a moment, then smiled sheepishly. "Well, Hozuki Shingetsu... has nice handwriting?"
"You hopeless son! Did I ask you to judge his handwriting?"
Ōnoki nearly choked with anger.
"Come on, Father, please don't get angry. I'll do whatever you say."
Seeing this, Kitsuchi hurried over and gently patted his father's back, still wearing his honest, goofy smile.
"Cough, cough... Forget it. Maybe I should've given up on you a long time ago. I shouldn't have called you over. Honestly, why did I think you might be able to figure it out? With that brain of yours, you could think until the end of time and still never understand the mystery here. Forget it. Go stand over there."
Once he had caught his breath, Ōnoki looked at his good-natured son and reluctantly abandoned some of the hopes he'd been clinging to.
But when he lowered his eyes to the letter in his hand, he couldn't help echoing the same sentiment as the Third Hokage and the Third Raikage.
"The young really are something!"
As the Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure and the only person in the Shinobi World to master Dust Release, the unique Kekkei Tōta, Ōnoki was known as "Ryotenbin."
But in recent years, the Tsuchikage had realized that his scales seemed unable to keep Iwagakure balanced.
There was only one reason: no one was fit to succeed him!
Although Ōnoki was still under forty and in the prime of his life as a shinobi, there were hardly any capable people in all of Iwagakure besides him.
There was no need to mention his own generation. The few remaining geniuses had died while learning Dust Release, the Kekkei Tōta, under the Second Tsuchikage. All that remained were a few mediocre old-timers to help him keep up appearances.
And by the Shinobi World's rule of thumb that each generation came along once every ten years, this should have been the time for Iwagakure's younger generation to rise.
Unfortunately, aside from a handful, there was little to see. And even that handful, including his son Kitsuchi, lacked the talent to learn his Dust Release. At best, they might grow into Elite Jonin, nowhere near capable of leading Iwagakure through the treacherous Shinobi World.
Setting aside the few surviving old-timers from the Warring States Period, he couldn't help feeling that his great Iwagakure had no real depth to draw on!
At times like these, he couldn't help envying the other villages.
There was no need to mention Konoha. The older generation included Sarutobi Hiruzen, Danzo, Utatane Koharu, and the heads of great Kekkei Genkai clans like the Uchiha and Hyuga, as well as the older Ino-Shika-Cho generation. Among the younger generation, the heirs to the great Kekkei Genkai clans had innate Kekkei Genkai that ensured they would reach great heights. And beyond them, young shinobi like Hatake Sakumo, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru were also beginning to make their mark. Judging by their talent, Elite Jonin was the least they could hope to become.
Over in Kumogakure, the older generation's AB Combo was in its prime, while the Yotsuki Clan, which had unified the village, had abundant resources to nurture its own prodigies. He'd heard that the child from the Yotsuki family was exceptionally talented at training in Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Apparently, he'd already been chosen as the next Raikage, and would take over as soon as he was old enough.
Sunagakure had talented puppeteers like Monzaemon and Chiyo. And Shamon had found an heir for his Sand Secret Technique. What's more, he'd managed to innovate and create Magnet Release ninjutsu.
Even Kirigakure, holed up on its island and plagued by internal strife, had produced someone like Hozuki Shingetsu.
How could all of this not leave Ōnoki deeply moved?
After briefly reining in his wandering thoughts, Ōnoki turned his attention back to the letter, considering over and over what opportunities this situation might bring Iwagakure.
"Earth Emperor... Hmph. He thinks far too little of me!"
In the letter, Hozuki Shingetsu had once again mentioned establishing a Four-Nation Alliance. But unlike the proposal for Kumogakure, the alliance's leadership would naturally fall to the seasoned and prudent Ōnoki. Naturally, the title of leader would have to be changed to "Earth Emperor."
Of course, Hozuki Shingetsu had also slipped in a bit of mischief with that title.
When he wrote "Earth Emperor," he had somehow thought of "earth," and Ōnoki's stature wasn't merely similar to a plot of land—it was exactly the same.
But that bit of mischief wasn't something he could explain to anyone else. Ōnoki had no idea Hozuki Shingetsu was secretly making fun of him.
As a man who had lived through the Warring States Period and faced Uchiha Madara himself, he could see the dangers lurking behind Hozuki Shingetsu's suggestion. So, after a little thought, he made the same decision as the Third Raikage: keep fanning the flames by spreading rumors that the various countries were expanding their military forces and preparing to go to war, while also rallying neighboring minor countries under the banner of humanitarian aid to establish the Shinobi World Peace Alliance and appoint himself its leader.
But he wasn't in a hurry to carry out the latter part and establish the alliance.
He planned to wait until that brainless muscle-bound brute, the Raikage, made the first move. He was certain the fool wouldn't be able to suppress his ambitions and would act first. With Kumogakure's actions as a precedent, the road would be much smoother for Iwagakure's alliance.
Sunagakure was in much the same situation.
Although Shamon had no particular ambition for the title of "Wind Emperor," even he, despite preferring to farm in peace and build up his strength, had started the process of bringing the neighboring minor countries under Sunagakure's control, egged on by Chiyo, Monzaemon, and the others.
The small shinobi villages watching from the sidelines could never have imagined that the Konoha Threat Theory they'd been hyping would end with the great nations not only leaving Konoha alone, but also swallowing them up instead.
They'd secretly fanned the flames when the rumors first began to spread, eager to watch the drama unfold. But they never expected that, in the end, the fire would burn them.
In a sense, they'd become fish caught in the flames when the city gate caught fire.
Before long, with the Four Nations of Water, Lightning, Wind, and Earth—and a few ambitious schemers—stoking the rumors, they were spreading everywhere.
Today, the rumor was that Kumogakure would use a Genin going missing in Konoha as an excuse to send a hundred thousand troops and flatten the village. Tomorrow, it was that the Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, had mastered seven chakra natures and attained the unprecedented, peerless realm of Kekkei Mōra, able to kill the other four Kage with a single breath and hailed as a living Sage of Six Paths. The day after that, people claimed Kirigakure had shut itself off from the world because it had discovered a new kind of fruit. Anyone who ate it would gain abilities on par with a Kekkei Genkai shinobi, and Kirigakure now had a hundred thousand Kekkei Genkai shinobi sharpening their blades, waiting for the right moment to march westward into Kumogakure, and so on.
In short, the rumors were chaotic and utterly alarmist. The Kage of every village were even considering setting up a new "Strategic Deception Department" to deal with them.
Otherwise, it was getting unbearable. At this rate, the Shinobi World seemed to be facing every possible crisis, including the resurrection of the Sage of Six Paths, the reincarnation of the Rabbit Goddess, and the arrival of aliens.
If things kept going like this, the Shinobi World would probably be destroyed in no time.
The minor countries of the Shinobi World, meanwhile, didn't have that problem, because they discovered that amid all the wild rumors, war had actually arrived.
They'd been watching the drama and trying to guess which unlucky country—Fire, Lightning, Earth, Wind, or Water—would be attacked by the others, when they suddenly realized something was wrong.
Frost Village, in particular, fell into deep thought when it saw an envoy from Kumogakure at its doorstep.
The good news: war had begun!
The bad news: it was coming for us.
After Kumogakure successfully fired the first shot, the major shinobi villages also began establishing regional alliances of their own.
Even Konoha, despite its usual reluctance to get involved, began building an alliance of its own. It wanted to guard against the threat, and besides, it felt that passing up the chance to annex minor countries would be a waste.
And so the entire Shinobi World descended into chaos.
Before you continue