No matter how many doubts Hozuki Mangetsu had, he still boarded the small boat under Araki's tugging and set off on this undersea mineral-hunting journey.
Meanwhile, Hozuki Sengetsu was not moving slowly either.
Unlike Araki's voyage of uncertain results, the gains from both the Land of Tea and the Land of Rivers were plainly visible.
The Land of Tea had already fallen under Kirigakure's control. This time, in order to "steal" resources from the Land of Rivers amid the chaos, Hozuki Sengetsu, one of the village's three most influential figures, personally went there to oversee things.
He intended to leave nothing to chance.
Aside from the two of them, Kirigakure's Anbu, acting under Mizukage Yagura's orders, were also mobilizing in force and beginning to infiltrate those overseas small nations known to possess ninja villages of their own.
The Land of Hot Water, the Land of Artisans, Red Province Island, and others were all included.
While Kirigakure made frequent moves, the other major powers were not sitting quietly either.
After Obito controlled the Third Raikage back to Kumogakure, he immediately dispatched another three thousand ninja troops to support the AB Brothers at the front.
Together with the Kumogakure Ninja sent out in waves earlier, Kumogakure had deployed an astonishing eight thousand people in this war.
That was nearly seventy or eighty percent of Kumogakure's entire registered ninja force.
Furthermore, Obito had Kumogakure's Ninja Academy expand its enrollment, seemingly intending to continue increasing its pool of troops.
Even in Kumogakure, which had always revered combat and enjoyed military arms races, such actions could be called reckless militarism.
The Land of Lightning's population could not compare to that of the Land of Earth or the Land of Fire. Those two nations could casually churn out over ten thousand troops, but for Kumogakure, this