In the autumn of Konoha's 50th year, Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure had been fighting Konoha continuously for half a year. The situation across the various battlefields had basically become clear.
In the southwest, under the leadership of the powerful and experienced Jiraiya, Konoha's elite forces took only a little over three months to crush Sunagakure's army, the weakest among the Five Great Villages. The front had at one point advanced more than a hundred kilometers into the Land of Wind, nearly reaching Sunagakure itself.
However, at the critical moment, Jiraiya received a plea for aid from Fugaku Uchiha, and Konoha's initial strategy had been centered on defense.
Thus, Jiraiya had no choice but to abandon the favorable situation. After leaving a small contingent behind to guard the southwestern border against a possible Sunagakure counterattack, he led the bulk of his forces northwest to reinforce Fugaku Uchiha.
Although Konoha had likewise stationed elite troops in the northwest, including forty Three-Tomoe Sharingan wielders from the Uchiha Clan, they were still beaten back again and again by Iwagakure's forces. Even their main force had nearly been swallowed up by the enemy.
Ultimately, it was because Fugaku Uchiha, the commander of the northwestern front, lacked experience in large-scale military operations. Relying on the formidable strength of his men, he had constructed all manner of frontal defensive fortifications along the northwestern line, intending to clash head-on with Iwagakure's troops.
Yet Iwagakure, relying on its mastery of Earth Release ninjutsu, had dispatched an elite unit to use the "Earth Concealment Technique" to quietly infiltrate behind Konoha's defensive line. They cut off the frontline troops' supply route, then coordinated with Iwagakure's frontal forces to encircle Konoha's army, smashing the defensive line that Fugaku Uchiha had built at enormous cost in manpower and resources.
From then on, Iwagakure's