The next day.
Zhengyi urged Danzo to evacuate the towns near Kikyo Pass, moving their residents and supplies to the rear.
If possible, they should destroy the towns and rebuild them after the war. They absolutely could not leave the enemy a comfortable place to rest.
Danzo refused.
He was too worried about the cost.
"Do you think I'm no match for Rasa?"
"No, Uncle Danzo, I just..."
"That's enough. I don't need you telling me how to do my job. Just watch. I'll drive Sunagakure back in three days."
Three days later.
Zhengyi urged Danzo to select several jōnin squads, assigning one member of the Inuzuka Clan to each. They could use their dogs' keen sense of smell to locate Sunagakure's granaries and burn them down.
This time, Danzo listened. He even assigned a member of the Shimura Clan to each squad to act as its commander.
It was understandable that he wanted to earn credit for his own clan.
But the Shimura Clan members grew greedy for credit that night and recklessly pushed ahead, insisting on destroying a few more granaries.
Sunagakure's reinforcements caught them all.
Some were killed, and the rest were captured.
Now Danzo had to figure out how to ransom his clan members, all jōnin.
They were hopeless. From that day on, whenever Zhengyi entered the camp tent, he kept his mouth shut.
Danzo was also somewhat resentful of Zhengyi.
Every now and then, Zhengyi still spoke up for Konoha's sake.
But Danzo was like a man with a rebellious streak in his bones. He always felt that Zhengyi was telling him how to do his job. Hadn't he been a force to be reckoned with in the Shinobi World for decades? Did he not know how to wage war?!
"Lord Danzo, we should hold our position and wait for reinforcements. Once they arrive, the Konoha Ninja on Kikyo Pass can charge down the mountain and attack from the inside, while we surround the enemy together with the reinforcements."
Danzo merely shot him a sidelong glance. "It's only little Sunagakure. If I have enough intelligence, I won't need Konoha's reinforcements."
May, Year 46 of Konoha.
Kikyo Pass changed hands several times.
Right on Konoha's doorstep, Sunagakure seized Kikyo Pass, and Danzo took it back.
Sunagakure seized it again, and Danzo took it back again.
Sunagakure seized it yet again, and Danzo took it back once more.
The two sides were locked in a bitter struggle there.
With such a glorious record before him, Rasa could no longer hold back. He committed the entire village's elite forces to the battle.
If Kikyo Pass fell, Sunagakure would advance on Konoha. Danzo wouldn't just lose his chance to become Hokage—he might have to pay for it with his life. He couldn't afford to worry about the losses.
He even sent in the Root operatives he had kept hidden for so long.
One of them was a spy nicknamed the Walking Witch, Yakushi Nonō. She gathered one useful piece of intelligence after another, allowing Danzo to retake lost ground several times.
"Rasa! Do you have it in for me or something?"
Danzo even went to the front lines himself and fought Rasa several times. Neither side could claim a clear victory.
"Danzo, if you retreat, I won't have to fight you anymore, will I?" Rasa floated in the air on Gold Dust and laughed down at Danzo.
"Ridiculous!"
June.
Kikyo Pass fell again.
Over the past few months, Zhengyi had gone through one teammate after another. Every one of them had died on a mission.
Danzo was stubborn. He refused to hand over command, no matter what. Thanks to his poor decisions, the Konoha Ninja were having a miserable time.
In truth, with Konoha's strength, defeating Sunagakure wouldn't have been difficult. The problem was Danzo's obsession with micromanaging.
For instance, during one mission, Zhengyi watched helplessly as a squad working alongside his own disappeared. How could they finish the mission with men missing? In a panic, Zhengyi took his two Genin subordinates and searched everywhere for them.
Only after his teammates had all been killed and he'd managed to complete the mission did he learn that Danzo had urgently reassigned the missing squad.
Sigh...
Zhengyi was so angry he laughed.
No wonder not a single prominent figure in Konoha supported Danzo becoming Hokage later on.
July.
Danzo retook Kikyo Pass for who knew how many times.
This time, he and his men struggled to hold off the enemy's fierce advance. Relying on the defenders' advantage, they stubbornly repelled one wave of attacks after another.
The pressure was immense.
With no other choice, Danzo could only ask Konoha for reinforcements.
By the time Zhengyi heard the news, most of Danzo's men had already fought their way through the encirclement and made it back to Konoha to report.
There was no one left to spare in Konoha.
Konoha was fighting on three fronts: against Iwagakure, Sunagakure, and Kirigakure. It also had to remain on guard against a possible attack from Kumogakure, as well as smaller villages like Amegakure.
Under the circumstances, Orochimaru should have been sent out.
If Orochimaru and his subordinates joined forces with Danzo, there was no way Sunagakure wouldn't flee in disarray.
But Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't do that.
He sent Danzo a mission order: hold out for another half month, and he would make sure the ninja came to his aid by then.
Danzo had no idea how many times Hiruzen had cursed him behind his back.
The Konoha Ninja forces had been surrounded on Kikyo Pass for seven days and seven nights. The weather was scorching, and the enemy had cut off their water supply. In weather that hot, they couldn't even mix up their Protein Powder.
Those damn Sunagakure ninja. They'd heard of people robbing others for money, and they'd heard of people stealing antiques, but they'd never heard of anyone stealing water. The enemy had drained the rivers around Kikyo Pass and sent the water back to Sunagakure.
The Konoha Ninja's morale wavered.
If anyone had swooped in to save them now, they would have held that person in their hearts no less dearly than a parent.
"Does that mean Minato really is going to become Hokage?" Zhengyi's helpless tears fell.
He...
Sniff...
He was only twelve years old, after all.
Why did he have to go through so much?
He was surrounded right on Konoha's doorstep, and Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't coming. He insisted on waiting until Minato was free to send him instead.
His life had been so unfair.
This time, Minato would rise to prominence in a single bound. No one could stop his ascent.
The matchmaking was rigged!
What kind of useless teammates had he been stuck with?
At the end of July, Kumogakure and Iwagakure were locked in their fiercest battle yet.
As the pressure on Konoha's front against Iwagakure eased, Hiruzen Sarutobi assigned Minato the mission of reinforcing Kikyo Pass.
The moment Minato and the reinforcements appeared behind the enemy lines,
Rasa knew the battle was lost.
Was this the strength of Konoha?!
Even while embroiled in internal strife and fighting on several fronts, it could still demonstrate such power.
They'd have to cough up everything they'd taken from Konoha.
Sunagakure suffered devastating losses. Not only was it forced to retreat from the Land of Fire, but the situation at home grew even worse.
They had been poor to begin with.
This Shinobi World War had brought the Land of Wind no valuable resources or international influence.
The nobles were cruel. When the Sunagakure ninja had reached Kikyo Pass, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind had promised them rewards. Now, forget rewards—even their military funding had been cut by a quarter.
"Oh, vast heavens, why have you treated me so unfairly?"
All Rasa could do was shed tears of regret. If only he'd quit while he was ahead.
Minato!
It was all because of this Minato Namikaze!!
He hated him!
Rasa returned to the village to sift for gold, and he was forced to sign an alliance treaty with Konoha as well.
At some point, Sunagakure issued a new order: anyone who killed a person connected to Minato could return to claim a reward in gold.
One night in early August.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stripped Danzo of his command for failing to lead the battle effectively.
No matter how unwilling Danzo was, he had to take responsibility for the heavy losses in the Battle of Kikyo Pass.
However, he wasn't removed as leader of Root.
"Zhengyi! Maybe... you were right after all." Before leaving, Danzo summoned Zhengyi alone. He regretted not listening to him sooner.
Zhengyi grumbled from time to time, but he was good-natured and liked encouraging people.
He could even bring himself to offer Danzo a few words of encouragement.
"Sigh, Uncle Danzo, the green hills remain, though the sun has set countless times. In the long river of history, an individual's successes, failures, honors, and humiliations are insignificant. The green hills endure. Don't dwell on a momentary setback."
"The green hills remain, though the sun has set countless times. Is that for me?" Danzo was startled. It was the first time anyone had ever comforted him like this.
"Yes. I believe you can achieve your dream and become Hokage, Uncle Danzo."
"You... you don't blame me for mishandling the battle? I didn't listen to you."
Danzo had already heard the rumors criticizing him.
"Who would mock someone for having a dream? Uncle Danzo, who has the right to laugh at someone who sticks with his dream to the very end?"
After all, Konoha wasn't his, nor was it his teacher's. What did it matter to him what happened? It was fine if they all died, as long as Danzo was happy.
Zhengyi gave him a warm smile, and Danzo felt something inside him loosen.
"I don't need your comfort."
"I'm leaving."
Before you continue