The Fuse

The alliance between the Land of Rain and Konoha had already been in place for a year. In the blink of an eye, it was now Konoha Year 45.

On the surface, the situation in the shinobi world remained stable that year, but beneath it, undercurrents surged.

After several years of border clashes, the various nations had achieved their goal of training their troops, weeding out a large number of elite shinobi suited to the slaughter of the battlefield.

Every nation had prepared for an all-out war. Yet, wary of Konoha's formidable strength, none was willing to be the first to stick its neck out and let the others reap the benefits.

Through its reforms of the past few years, Konoha's number of shinobi had risen sharply. Even after accounting for losses in the border battles, the number of combat-track shinobi had reached as high as six hundred thousand, while the number of academic-track shinobi who had learned chakra had surpassed several million. With such formidable strength, Konoha had the confidence to remain undefeated even if it went to war with all four great nations at once.

Though the current situation in the shinobi world was somewhat tense, border clashes had long since become routine for the great nations. Almost everyone believed this standoff would continue for quite some time, until the fighting gradually intensified into a fever pitch and one nation could no longer sustain the attrition. Only then would someone take the initiative and launch an all-out war.

The Land of Fire lay at the center of the shinobi world and was being jointly targeted by the four great nations. No matter how solid its foundations were, it could not possibly outlast all of them. Thus, every nation waited for Konoha to make the first move or suffer