After Sunagakure announced that "Konoha assassinated the Third Kazekage," Sarutobi Hiruzen felt like everything had gone to hell, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Sarutobi Hiruzen knew the other side had deliberately slandered Konoha to divert the blame. This was no longer something he could solve with an explanation.
He decisively put Konoha on a wartime footing and immediately began establishing defensive lines centered around the village.
Konoha's location had both advantages and disadvantages. It had abundant resources, fertile land, and a vast territory.
But it was surrounded by the Four Great Shinobi Villages, so Konoha had to establish more defensive lines.
For now, however, the main threats came from Kumogakure and Sunagakure, so the defenses against those two villages needed to be more thorough.
After setting up the defensive lines came the deployment of personnel.
"Jiraiya, go to the western front to hold off Sunagakure. Orochimaru, take the northeastern front and keep an eye on Kumogakure."
As soon as Sarutobi Hiruzen issued the orders, Jiraiya and Orochimaru received them and set out without hesitation.
Two of the Sannin had already been sent to the front lines. Only Tsunade remained. Sarutobi Hiruzen knew her situation well; there was no way she could go to the front.
So she would stay behind and handle medical work.
Once the Sannin's assignments were settled, they moved on to troop deployments.
That was relatively quick to arrange. Sarutobi Hiruzen had sensed the war coming long ago and had already drawn up most of the plans.
After spending a long time dealing with all of that, one more matter remained to trouble Sarutobi Hiruzen.
A request to join the war.
Such requests were common. For shinobi, the fastest way to rise through the ranks was to earn military merit.
Military merit outweighed