Zhengyi: "Green hills remain, how many sunsets have turned red."

The next day.

Zhengyi advised Danzo to adopt a scorched-earth policy, transferring the population and resources of towns near Kikyo Pass to the rear.

If possible, he suggested destroying the towns entirely; they could be rebuilt after the war, but they must not leave the enemy a single comfortable place to rest.

Danzo did not adopt the plan.

He was stingy with the money.

"Do you think I am no match for Rasa?"

"No, Uncle Danzo, I only meant..."

"Enough. This old man does not need you to teach him how to do things. Just watch; I will beat back Sunagakure in three days."

Three days later.

Zhengyi advised Danzo to select several elite Jonin squads, each equipped with a member of the Inuzuka Clan to use their dogs' sense of smell to locate and burn Sunagakure's granaries.

This time, Danzo actually listened, even assigning a member of the Shimura Clan to each squad as a commander.

It was understandable to want to secure merit for his own clansmen.

However, these Shimura Clan members were greedy for glory and pushed too far into the night, insisting on destroying more granaries than planned.

They were rounded up by returning Suna ninja.

Those who didn't die in battle were captured.

Now, Danzo had to find a way to ransom these clansmen—these Jonin.

Useless trash that couldn't be propped up; from that day on, Zhengyi didn't say a word whenever he entered the command tent.

Danzo was also somewhat holding a grudge against Zhengyi.

On the rare occasion that Zhengyi spoke up for the sake of Konoha's interests, Danzo acted as if he had a rebellious bone growing out of his own body, always feeling that Zhengyi was trying to tell him how to do his job. Did he not know warfare after decades of traversing the ninja world?!

"Lord Danzo, we should hold our ground and wait for reinforcements. Once they arrive, the Konoha ninja on Kikyo Pass can charge out, pinning them between us and the reinforcements."

Danzo merely glanced at him sideways. "It is only a small Sunagakure. As long as I possess sufficient intelligence, I have no need for Konoha's reinforcements."

May, 46th year of the Konoha era.

Kikyo Pass had fallen and been retaken several times.

Right at Konoha's doorstep, Sunagakure would take Kikyo Pass, and Danzo would retake it.

Sunagakure would take it again, and Danzo would retake it again.

Sunagakure took it a third time, and Danzo retook it a third time.

The two sides were locked in a stalemate here.

With such a great achievement within reach, Rasa could not help himself and committed the village's entire elite force to this massive battle.

If Kikyo Pass were lost and Sunagakure advanced on Konoha, Danzo wouldn't just lose his chance at becoming Hokage; he might have to commit suicide to atone for his failure, so he dared not worry about the losses.

He even deployed the Root auxiliary personnel he had kept hidden for a long time.

Among them was a spy nicknamed the Walking Witch, Yakushi Nonō, whose collection of vital intelligence was the only reason Danzo had managed to retake the lost territory several times.

"Rasa! Are you trying to make things difficult for me?"

Danzo also personally took to the battlefield to clash with Rasa several times, with both sides trading victories and defeats.

"Danzo, if you withdraw your troops, won't I stop fighting you?" Rasa stood atop his floating gold dust, laughing down at Danzo.

"Ridiculous!"

June.

Kikyo Pass was lost again.

Over these past few months, Zhengyi had gone through one teammate after another, all of whom had sacrificed their lives during missions.

Danzo was a stubborn man who refused to relinquish command, and because of his clumsy maneuvering, the Konoha ninja suffered terribly.

In truth, given Konoha's strength, defeating Sunagakure would not have been difficult, but Danzo insisted on micromanaging everything.

For instance, during one mission, Zhengyi watched helplessly as the squad accompanying them was lost; how could they complete the mission with fewer people? Zhengyi was so anxious he took his two Genin subordinates to search everywhere for their tracks.

By the time his teammates were all sacrificed and Zhengyi had struggled to complete the mission and returned, he learned that the squad had been urgently reassigned by Danzo.

Sigh...

Zhengyi was so angry he laughed.

It was no wonder that later on, not a single person in Konoha openly supported Danzo to become Hokage.

July.

Danzo had lost count of how many times he had recaptured Kikyo Pass.

This time, he led his men in a grueling resistance against the enemy's fierce onslaught, relying on the defensive advantage to stubbornly hold off wave after wave of attacks.

The pressure was truly immense.

With no other options, he had no choice but to request reinforcements from Konoha.

By the time Zhengyi heard the news, most of Danzo's men had already fought their way out of the encirclement and fled back to Konoha to report.

At this moment, there was no one left idle in Konoha.

Konoha was fighting on three fronts: Iwagakure, Sunagakure, and Kirigakure. They also had to constantly guard against a potential attack from Kumogakure, as well as smaller villages like Amegakure.

Under these circumstances, it would have been logical to deploy Orochimaru.

As long as Orochimaru led his subordinates to join forces with Danzo, there was no reason for Sunagakure not to retreat in defeat.

Yet, Hiruzen Sarutobi did not do so.

He issued an order to Danzo: "Hold on for another half-month, and I will definitely send ninja reinforcements to you."

Danzo had lost count of how many times he had cursed Hiruzen in private.

On Kikyo Pass, the Konoha ninja army had been besieged for seven days and seven nights. The weather was scorching, and with the water supply cut off, they couldn't even mix their Protein Powder.

Those damned Sunagakure ninja—he had seen people loot money and antiques, but this was the first time he had seen people loot water. They had drained the rivers near Kikyo Pass and sent the water back to Sunagakure.

The morale of the Konoha ninja was plummeting.

At this point, whoever descended like a divine soldier to save them would hold a status in their hearts no less than that of their own parents.

"Could it be that Minato is really going to become the Hokage?" Zhengyi shed tears of helplessness.

He...

Sob, sob...

He was only a twelve-year-old child.

Why did he have to go through so much?

He was being besieged right at his own doorstep, yet Hiruzen Sarutobi wouldn't come; he insisted on waiting for Minato to be free to send him instead.

His life was just too rough.

Minato was truly about to soar with this mission; no one would be able to curb his momentum.

The matchmaking system was unfair!

What kind of trash teammates were they matching him with?

By the end of July, the conflict between Kumogakure and Iwagakure was at its most intense.

As soon as the pressure on the front line against Iwagakure eased, Hiruzen Sarutobi handed the mission of reinforcing Kikyo Pass to Minato.

The moment Minato appeared behind the enemy lines with his reinforcements, Rasa knew that his cause was lost.

Is this the power of Konoha?!

Even while in the midst of internal strife and fighting on multiple fronts, they could still display such strength.

Everything they had taken from Konoha would have to be spat back out.

The Sunagakure ninja suffered heavy losses; not only were they forced to withdraw from the Land of Fire, but the situation back home was also going from bad to worse.

They were already poor to begin with.

This Shinobi World War had failed to secure any effective resources or international influence for the Land of Wind.

The nobility were cruel; when the Sunagakure ninja had reached Kikyo Pass, the Feudal Lord of the Land of Wind had promised them rewards, but now, let alone rewards, he had even slashed their military budget by a quarter.

"Oh, vast heavens, why are you so thin-skinned toward me?"

Rasa could only shed tears of regret; if only he had known when to quit while he was ahead.

Minato!

It was all because of this Minato Namikaze!!

He was filled with hatred!

Rasa returned to his village to pan for sand, and he was even forced to sign an alliance treaty with Konoha.

From some unknown day, a new order appeared in Sunagakure: anyone who killed someone associated with Minato would be rewarded with gold upon their return.

On a night in early August.

Danzo was stripped of his military command by Hiruzen Sarutobi on the charge of incompetence in battle.

Even with all his unwillingness, Danzo had to shoulder the heavy responsibility for the massive troop losses during the Battle of Kikyo Pass.

However, his position as the leader of Root was not stripped away.

"Zhengyi! Perhaps... you were right all along." Before leaving, Danzo summoned Zhengyi alone, regretting that he had not listened to his advice from the start.

Zhengyi occasionally harbored complaints in his heart, but he possessed a good temper and loved to encourage others.

He was the type of person who could even offer words of encouragement to Danzo:

"Sigh, Uncle Danzo, the green mountains remain, though the sunset fades time and again. In the long river of history, individual successes and failures are but trifles. The mountains are eternal; there is no need to dwell on temporary gains or losses."

"The green mountains remain, though the sunset fades time and again. Is this for me?" Danzo was stunned; this was the first time anyone had ever comforted him in such a way.

"Indeed. I believe you can fulfill your dream and become the Hokage, Uncle Danzo."

"You... you don't blame me for the tactical errors? It was my fault for ignoring your advice." Danzo had already heard the rumors and whispers criticizing him.

"Who would mock a person with a dream? Uncle Danzo, who has the right to ridicule someone who persists to the end for their dream?"

In any case, Konoha at this moment belonged neither to him nor to his teacher, so he didn't care what happened; even if everyone died, it wouldn't matter, as long as Danzo was happy.

Zhengyi offered him a gentle smile, and Danzo felt something within him loosen.

"This old man doesn't need your comfort."

"I'm leaving."