By the end of Konoha's fifty-first year, the shinobi world still maintained that fragile balance.
It was only that the major nations dispatched intelligence ninja more frequently. Among Konoha's younger generation, Hiruzen Sarutobi had masters such as Minato Namikaze and the new generation of Ino-Shika-Cho join the Anbu to temper them.
At the borders between nations, clashes involving the Anbu occurred every day. At first, both sides exercised a degree of restraint, but later they began striking to kill. Each village suffered different losses, yet all tacitly kept silent.
Matters conducted in secret naturally had to be settled by secret rules; they could not serve as an excuse to launch a war.
Under this atmosphere of crisis, Konoha's fifty-first year passed, and the fifty-second year quietly arrived.
Kirigakure, atop a tower!
Shin looked down over all of Kirigakure. A dreamlike pearl flickered in and out of view in his hand. It was the Wind artifact he had obtained from within Shukaku in Sunagakure all those years ago. It had remained in his possession for several years, and he had never delivered it to Madara.
Come to think of it, he had not seen Madara for many years either. He had no idea how Madara was doing now.
"The shinobi world can never stay peaceful for long." Looking over the entirety of Kirigakure, Shin suddenly let out a soft sigh.
He understood the current state of the shinobi world perfectly. Judging by his already somewhat hazy memories of his previous life, the Third Shinobi World War would break out within the next two years—or rather, in this world, the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Shin's arrival in this world had changed many things. Yet when he looked back, history's power to correct itself was astonishing. Everything seemed to have returned to its