The Gathering Storm

Central part of the Land of Grass.

The western front troops finally met up with the Border Troops reinforcements. When the rescue ninjas saw the miserable state of the western front troops, they were shocked.

Although they knew the western front troops had suffered a defeat, they hadn't expected it to be so bad. Not only were the soldiers wounded, but the entire unit was almost scattered.

"Jonin Tanaka, we've finally reunited." Mimura Hamaki grasped Tanaka's hands, his face filled with excitement.

"Commander Mimura, I have been ordered to come and provide support. From now on, I will serve under your command." Tanaka was an honest man, and after the rendezvous, he immediately handed over command of the troops.

"Tanaka Jonin, did you encounter Danzo on your way here?"

Mimura Hamaki pulled Tanaka aside and asked in a low voice, because they hadn't seen Danzo or any other members of Root along the way.

This is truly unacceptable. As the former Commander, Danzo should have returned to check on the Camp after learning Camp was unharmed, even if he had fled earlier. But so much time has passed without a single sign of activity, which makes him wonder if Danzo has been Danzo and killed by Iwagakure.

Tanaka glanced at Mimura Hamaki with a puzzled look, but still honestly said, "We did run into some Root ninjas, but they just brushed past us without greeting us. However, Danzo definitely didn't see us."

Mimura Hamaki was also surprised to hear this, but now was not the time to think about such things. He suppressed his doubts and led Tanaka to see Taiichi's Shadow Clone.

Taiichi's main body is still delaying Iwagakure's advance. No one knows what the situation is over there. If he is just barely holding on, then we must notify them as soon as we hear that they have encountered reinforcements.

When the two arrived in front of Taiichi's Shadow Clone, Taiichi understood everything without them having to say a word.

The Shadow Clone instantly turned into white smoke and dissipated. Less than two seconds later, the real Taiichi appeared out of thin air.

After four hours of continuous battles, Taiichi's main body was at the height of its power. The moment it appeared, its fierce aura stunned several low-level chunin Genin around it. Even Mimura Hamaki Wada felt a chill run down their spines.

Fortunately, Taiichi reacted quickly, hurriedly restraining his aura and even softening his tone of voice.

"Tanaka Jonin, if you don't come soon, I'm going to be unable to hold off Iwagakure."

Taiichi cracked a joke, which helped to ease the tension. Mimura Hamaki Wada also Jonin in response. They couldn't help it; they had genuinely been frightened.

"Taiichi, how long Iwagakure you estimate it will take for Iwagakure to catch up?" Mimura Hamaki asked, having composed herself.

"At their speed, it should take them about five hours to get to where we are now."

"Oh, it'll still take this long!" Mimura Hamaki raised an eyebrow, his voice rising several octaves. He truly hadn't expected Taiichi to be Taiichi effective, managing to delay Iwagakure to this point, practically bringing them to a standstill.

"That way we can find an open space, wait for them to tire themselves out, and give them a big surprise."

"Ideally, this place could also be used to set up Camp." Taiichi added, "I reckon this battle won't even start. I've done quite a bit of trouble to Iwagakure, so once they see us all together, they'll probably just retreat."

Mimura Hamaki Wada Jonin were genuinely surprised. How much trouble would they have to go through to give up such a good opportunity for Iwagakure to attack?

The facts quickly provided them with the answer.

When they found an open area near the river, the ninjas were on high alert, and the logistics team began setting up Camp, the vanguard of Iwagakure finally arrived late.

Calculating the time, it's about the same as Taiichi's estimate, around five hours.

There weren't many people who came; they were all Jonin and their direct subordinate squads, including Commander Higashishinin and the Five-Tails Jinchuriki Han.

Looking at the Konoha Ninja who were already waiting in ambush, Higashishinin's last glimmer of hope vanished.

At this point, it was naturally Taiichi stepped up. Mimura Hamaki had just suffered a defeat and lacked confidence in her words, while Tanaka was somewhat lacking in the status of a Jonin.

Only Taiichi, who recently gave the Five-Tails Jinchuriki a sound beating and toyed with the entire Iwagakure army, has that qualification.

"Hey, isn't this the Iwagakure Higashishinin from Iwagakure? Why did you only bring so few people? Where's your main force? Did they all turn into cowards?"

Taiichi's merciless sarcasm was like tearing away the last fig leaf from the face of the Higashishinin.

"Taichi Matsushita, don't be so arrogant. You're only slowing us down by relying on your speed and sneak attacks. If you're so tough, let's have a head-on battle and see who dies."

"You talk as if you didn't defeat us by sneak attack!" Taiichi's disdainful laughter echoed in the ears of everyone on both sides of the confrontation.

Taiichi stepped forward ten paces and shouted, "I'm right here. If you want a head-on confrontation, come on! I'll let you send out five people. I'll take on five of you by myself. That's going easy on you, isn't it? I'm just afraid you won't dare to come."

The Konoha Ninja behind them simultaneously burst into loud laughter, mocking these Iwagakure fellows as cowardly cowards.

In fact, Taiichi is clearly using a fallacy of semantics. Higashishinin wants is a battle between legions, but he wants Iwagakure to have a one-on-one duel with him.

This left Higashishinin like he was swallowing a bitter pill, unable to express his suffering!

Everyone here knows that among all the people present, Taichi Matsushita is the most capable fighter, the kind who can overpower the second-ranked Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han.

Seeing the Higashishinin in front of him rendered speechless by the rebuke, Taiichi felt a sense of relief. However, the farce still needed to end as soon as possible. There were still a large number of wounded soldiers in Konoha's ranks waiting for treatment. He had only stabilized their injuries last night, and follow-up treatment needed to be provided in a timely manner.

"Higashishinin, you dare not fight, and you won't leave either. What do you want to do here with your men!" Taiichi's righteous and stern rebuke completely extinguished the morale of the group of Rock Ninja. They had already been toyed with by Taiichi for a long time, and now they were even more emboldened.

"Fine, fine, fine. Since none of you want to leave, then you might as well stay. It'll be a good opportunity for us to avenge last night's sneak attack."

As he spoke, Taiichi raised his hand and waved it, and Mimura Hamaki, behind him, shouted loudly in perfect unison, "Revenge! Revenge!"

Then all the Konoha Ninja shouted, "Revenge! Revenge!"

The chaotic shouts gradually merged into a single rhythm, "Revenge! Revenge!"

As Taiichi took his first step forward, Mimura Hamaki followed closely behind, and then all the Konoha Ninja took a step forward.

Then comes the second and third steps.

Taiichi had already begun Hand Seals, and countless Phoenix Sage Fire appeared around him.

Those Bright Gold Fireball immediately reminded Higashishinin and the Iwagakure Ninja behind him of the more than two hundred people who had been instantly killed by the meteor shower that fell from the sky not long ago.

In an instant, Higashishinin made a decision: a wise man doesn't fight a losing battle. He would wait until he had rested and had enough men before coming back to get revenge.

"Let's retreat, let's go back."

The Iwagakure arrived quickly and left even faster, as if they were being chased by hunting dogs. In reality, all they had behind them was the endless mockery of the Konoha Ninja.

As the surrounding Phoenix Sage Fire dissipated, Taiichi breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't have much Chakra left, and he still had to treat the wounded later. He really didn't want to fight Iwagakure again.

At this moment, Mimura Hamaki also walked over, his face full of undisguised excitement, probably even happier than on his wedding night.

"That felt so good, so satisfying!" Mimura Hamaki waved her fist. "I really wanted to rush up and fight Iwagakure just now."

"No!" Taiichi quickly stopped him. "Commander Mimura, hurry up and arrange for camp to be set up and guarded. There are still many wounded who haven't been treated."

"Yes, yes, I almost forgot about something so important. Thank goodness you reminded me, Taiichi."

Having failed to pursue Iwagakure, they will likely find a place to set up camp soon, and the Western Front Battlefield will once again descend into a protracted war of attrition.

However, Konoha is clearly at a disadvantage overall. Both in terms of the number and quality of its troops, it is inferior to Iwagakure. Konoha's only advantage is that it is stronger than Iwagakure in terms of top-tier combat power.

That depends on the Commander's leadership skills.

While the western front forces temporarily forced back the Rock Ninja and were busy treating the wounded and rearranging their Camp, the Outpost No. 8 on the Konoha border was in chaos.

After yesterday's First Shinobi World War, the Root members retreated to Outpost No. 8 to regroup, as ordered by Danzo. However, the agreed regrouping time had passed, and Danzo was still nowhere to be seen.

This made all the Root ninja present very uneasy. As the most cruel and strict organization, punctuality was absolutely not allowed in Root. Even their leader, Danzo, had never made such a mistake.

"Akatora, an hour has passed, Danzo still hasn't arrived. What should we do?"

The middle-aged ninja named Akatora looked around at the group of Root elites. He was currently the highest-ranking among them, and everyone was waiting for him to make a decision.

"Soyo, take four squads back to the Land of Grass and search for Danzo's whereabouts on our return journey."

Tuju, take two small teams and infiltrate the Land of Earth to search for clues near our original Camp.

The others continued to wait, thinking that perhaps Lord Danzo had just run into some trouble and would return later.

The group exchanged glances and nodded in unison. Akatora's arrangement was sound and the most correct decision at present.

Soyo and Tuju quickly mustered their forces and set off for the Land of Grass and the Land of Earth, while the other Root ninja could only continue to wait anxiously at Outpost No. 8.

Time flies, and a day has passed in the blink of an eye. The Root members at Outpost No. 8 did not see Danzo return, and even the Soyo that went to the Land of Grass to Scout brought back news of a fruitless search.

This cast a shadow over everyone's hearts. Root was established by Danzo, and they were also cultivated and promoted by Danzo. Their loyalty to Danzo was self-evident.

Now that their leader has disappeared without a trace, how can they remain calm?

"Ginko, can you stop walking back and forth? You're driving me crazy!" the Soyo complained from the side.

"Do you think I wanted this? Danzo hasn't sent a single word yet, how can I sit still? As for you, why didn't you search the Land of Grass a little longer? Why did you come back so soon?" Ginko said irritably, and at the end, she even blamed Soyo.

"You—you are truly unreasonable." The Soyo was equally anxious, and its face grew even uglier upon hearing the Ginko's accusations.

He angrily got up and was about to lead his men out to continue the search when the Tuju who had gone out with him earlier quickly returned with his men.

From a distance, it appeared that one of them was carrying someone on his back.

When they arrived at the outpost, they realized that the person being carried back was their companion Terai, but he was already dead, his body stiff.

"Tuju, what happened? Where is Danzo?" Ginko asked immediately, sounding the most anxious.

Tuju's face still showed fear and unease, as did the other Root members who had gone with him.

Seeing this, Akatora stepped forward and slapped the Tuju twice across the face, shouting, "Tuju, tell me, where is Danzo? What did you find?"

Although they asked this question, everyone had a bad feeling.

"Danzo... he may have been intercepted and killed by Iwagakure." Tuju looked at everyone, still somewhat dazed.

"How is that possible? How could Danzo be dead? How did you confirm it?" Ginko's eyes widened as she grabbed Tuju's arms and angrily questioned him.

"The first thing we found was Terai's body, and then we found the site of Danzo's battle not far away, where we also found traces of the activation of the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing."

Upon hearing the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing was no ordinary technique; only a handful of people from Konoha knew about it from the Ninja World Association. And only these Danzo confidants of Danzo knew that Danzo had placed the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing on themselves.

The seal is triggered by Danzo's death; it's Danzo's last resort to drag his enemies down with him.

In other words, if those are indeed traces caused by the Reverse Four-Symbols Sealing, then Danzo is probably truly dead.

After a long silence, it was Akatora who first roused himself. He straightened up, looked at the other Root members, and said in a heavy tone, "Let's go back to the village first and report Danzo's matter to the Hokage-sama. We'll ask the Hokage-sama to send out more elite Scout ninjas; they're sure to find some clues."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Akatora, and in the end, they could only nod silently. This was the only thing they could do now.

"Tuju, take Terai's body with you. He was the last person with Danzo; perhaps we can find some clues in his body."

"Yes." With that, Tuju hoisted Terai's body onto his shoulder, and the group of Root ninja quickly left Outpost No. 8, rushing towards Konoha.

The next day, when the group arrived in Konoha, weary from their Hiruzen Sarutobi Danzo, a violent storm immediately erupted.

This time, without Hiruzen Sarutobi out, Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu arrived at the Hokage's Office.

The news of Danzo's death was undoubtedly more devastating to them than a magnitude 10 earthquake. A ninja of equal status to them had died so mysteriously, which immediately made these old men and women think of themselves.

Is it possible that one day I will also die inexplicably, without even being able to find the murderer?

The Root members believed that Iwagakure had ambushed them, but they didn't think so. If it were Iwagakure, the news would have reached their ears long ago, just like when Iwagakure ambushed and defeated Konoha. By now, the news would have spread throughout the entire Ninja World.