With Sunagakure yielding and the Wind Ninja Village established, the war across the Shinobi World seemed to have calmed. Yet beneath the surface, even fiercer undercurrents were surging.
With the end of the western conflict, Konoha had suddenly freed up an enormous force of six hundred thousand troops. The only nations still fighting Konoha were the Land of Earth and the Land of Water.
Wherever Skywalker deployed those six hundred thousand troops, it would be a tremendous disaster for the enemy. This was especially true for the Land of Water, isolated overseas and completely blockaded by Konoha's navy—it even faced the risk of national extinction!
As one of the Shinobi World's five great nations, the Land of Water might not have been well regarded by the continental nations, but it was undeniably a vital pillar maintaining the balance of the Shinobi World. Should the Land of Water fall, the already fragile and lopsided balance among the nations would immediately shatter! At that point, whether it was the still-resisting Land of Earth or the already-defeated Land of Wind and Land of Lightning, none of them would retain the qualifications to oppose Konoha.
After its expansion, Konoha's territory was now comparable in size to the combined land area of the other four great nations. If Konoha occupied the Land of Water as well, then even if the others united, they would never be a match for Konoha, which would control the equivalent of two great nations!
Once they recognized the severity of the situation, the higher-ups of every nation began urgently contacting one another in secret and joining forces to discuss countermeasures. At this critical moment of life and death, the major ninja villages, each previously harboring their own agendas, finally worked together sincerely for the first time, gathering every available resource