While Konoha feverishly prepared for war, Sunagakure was still bickering over the matter of the Second Kazekage. They could not confirm whether the Kazekage was dead, what exactly had happened that day, or whether they should choose a new Kazekage. The debate continued without end.
As a result, the entire village of Sunagakure became incredibly sluggish. With Konoha deliberately concealing its intentions, they failed to notice that Konoha was preparing to strike them. This was also thanks to the peaceful image Konoha had always projected. Since its founding, Konoha's foreign policy had always been mild. Senju Hashirama had been an absolute pacifist; despite possessing overwhelming strength, he had kept an extremely low profile abroad, hoping to obtain peace through it.
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Tobirama, who came later, had leaned toward the hawkish side, but it was still the early era of the Five Great Villages, and internal problems were more severe. During his tenure, there had been no foreign wars.
When Hiruzen Sarutobi took office, he became an even greater representative of the peace faction. Moreover, neither of the two Shinobi World Wars had been started by Konoha. Thus, the other villages viewed Konoha as rather harmless, believing that as long as you did not strike first, it would never attack you first.
This view was not entirely wrong. However, Sunagakure had miscalculated one thing: their attack on the Uzumaki Clan had, to a certain extent, already counted as striking at Konoha.
If events had continued along their current course, Konoha, after preparing in secret for so long, might really have been able to launch a sudden attack on Sunagakure and inflict immeasurable damage upon them. Destroying the village might have been impossible, but crippling it beyond recovery was by no means a fantasy.
Unfortunately, circumstances were often full of changes. Just