Kumogakure.
Grand Arena.
Amid earth-shaking cheers, the first match was a clash between two powerhouses: Kumogakure and Sunagakure.
The Magnet Style user Toroi versus the Wind Style user Baki.
Their fight was spectacular, but the thoughts of the four Kage seated at the highest point were nowhere near the arena.
Even the Raikage and Kazekage themselves did not pay much attention to the two genin from their respective villages.
After all, they had not gathered this time merely to select outstanding genin.
"Mizukage-sama, how has the war between Kirigakure and Konoha been going lately?"
In the end, the Third Raikage was the first to lose patience and raise the question.
This was what the three of them cared about most right now.
If the Land of Fire was a fragrant meat pie, then Konoha was the crust wrapped around it.
Everyone wanted a bite of this pie, but no one knew whether it had a thin crust and a generous, succulent filling—or whether its surface was covered in thorns and impossible to swallow.
No one wanted to slam headfirst into an iron wall, but planting spies on the battlefield between Kirigakure and Konoha was no easy task either. Therefore, they could only ask the Mizukage, the only one who had fought Konoha, hoping to glean the real answer from his response.
For White Zetsu, who had possessed and parasitized the Third Mizukage and gained his memories, this question posed no difficulty.
He briefly searched through those memories before replying blandly, "With the sea as our support, we can still hold them off."
That was a fairly objective assessment, neither exaggerating nor downplaying the situation.
After all, White Zetsu simply did not have the brains for anything too sophisticated.
He had chosen to parasitize the Third Mizukage only to muddy the