In the winter of Konoha Year 50, Kumogakure's ninja forces invading the Land of Fire suddenly withdrew. Within a month, they had completely pulled out of the Land of Fire and retreated into the Land of Lightning.
Rumor had it that Kumogakure's rear had been attacked by a group of mysterious individuals, who destroyed nearly one-third of the village's buildings and left countless villagers homeless.
At the same time, the young Fourth Raikage had been seriously wounded while resisting the enemy invasion. He fell unconscious and had yet to awaken.
The Raikage's Anbu had also suffered devastating casualties in battle. Of those who had survived, fewer than one in ten could still fight.
Even Kumogakure's highest peak, where the Raikage's office building stood—the institution symbolizing Kumogakure's supreme authority—had been razed to the ground.
After gathering intelligence on this mysterious group that specifically targeted and captured Jinchuriki, the major ninja villages eventually discovered that they were the Akatsuki organization, which had risen to prominence in the shinobi world a few years earlier.
As a result, every nation designated the Land of Rain, where Akatsuki was based, as a region harboring a terrorist organization and placed it under strict watch.
And as Akatsuki's public leader, Deva Path Yahiko became a wanted target of the major ninja villages.
After the Fourth Raikage fell unconscious, Kumogakure's upper ranks were temporarily left with a power vacuum, and certain ambitious figures within the village began to stir.
However, the Jinchuriki of the Eight-Tails and Two-Tails, along with the surviving Anbu, all stood by the Fourth Raikage. Thus, no open unrest had broken out in Kumogakure for the time being.
Freed from the northeastern front, Konoha concentrated all its superior forces along the northwestern front against Iwagakure. It drove Iwagakure's forces back step by step, continuously pushing