August 3, Konoha Year 38.
Konoha had officially been at war with Kusagakure for three months.
The Land of Grass had already abandoned Kusagakure and was preparing to surrender to the Land of Fire, accepting a series of conditions from the Land of Fire—
Not only had Kusagakure been beaten back to its doorstep by Konoha, it no longer had any civilian cooperation either. The only road left was "waiting to die."
Just as Orochimaru had expected, although Iwagakure had continuously pressured the Grass Ninja Countermeasure Headquarters at Kannabi Bridge over the past three months, it was only pressure. There was no sign of launching an all-out war, even as the Grass Fruit faction of Kusagakure, which had allied with them, was being mercilessly pummeled by Konoha—
The actions of the Grass Ninja Countermeasure Force once again reminded the other minor ninja villages not to think they could make a move just because Konoha was having a difficult fight in the Land of Rain!
Konoha had deployed only six Jonin, yet they could cut off Iwagakure's support while crushing Kusagakure—
While good news came from the Land of Grass, Shimura Danzō was also waiting for his own "good news."
Although the Wood Release experiments had been fraught with setbacks, progress had continued!
The Hashirama Cell concentration in two test subjects had been pushed to 0.9%—
According to Root's technicians, as long as a test subject with a 1% concentration appeared, they could proceed to the next step and attempt cellular activation.
And today—
Was the day to inject Hashirama Cells into those two test subjects once more!
"Do we really have to hold a meeting now? It's only Kusagakure. What's there to care about?" Danzō asked impatiently.
He had originally planned to personally visit Laboratory 001 outside the village, but