Night lay like ink, shrouding the Shinobi World.
Konohagakure, Hokage Building.
Two urgent battle reports arrived in succession, each word laden with the anxiety of a frontline crisis—Iwagakure was pressing forward step by step in the northwest, while Kumogakure's offensive surged like a tide in the northeast.
At that critical moment, a third urgent report from the eastern coast made Sarutobi Hiruzen abruptly rise to his feet.
Kirigakure's warships from the Land of Water had already set sail, cutting through the dense fog and racing westward!
Attacked from three sides, they stood on the brink of collapse.
The Third Hokage, known as the Shinobi Hero, now felt as though invisible spikes had sprouted from his chair, leaving him unable to sit still.
Sarutobi Hiruzen took a deep draw from his pipe and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. The flickering ember light cast deep furrows across his brow.
They could not wait any longer.
"Send the order!"
"Press the Uchiha Clan again. Have them assemble their forces at once and head for the eastern front, to keep the enemy beyond our borders!"
This was already the third order issued that night.
Deep within the Hyuga compound, the main family hall remained brightly lit.
After a full day of clan meetings, the Hyuga Clan Head still sat upright and proper. Alone, his face was covered in exhaustion.
By now, most of the branch family's shinobi had been ordered to the front. The majority left in Konohagakure were genin and children.
If the war continued to deteriorate and casualties kept mounting, the Hyuga Clan, whose fate was nearly inseparable from Konohagakure's, might not even be able to preserve the main family. They would have no choice but to step onto that battlefield of flying flesh and blood.
"Where should the Hyuga Clan