The focus of this mission had not been Hiruko himself, nor had it even been the forbidden jutsu Hiruko possessed.
The war Hiruko stirred up had instead served as an early gathering for the villages.
Previously, the entire Ninja World had been at peace.
The experts of each village knew little about those from other villages.
Hiruko's incident had given the upper echelons of the Five Great Ninja Villages a clear picture of the condition of every village's top experts.
After the Third Ninja World War—or rather, after the Nine-Tails Calamity—Konoha had always been considered weakened, falling to third place in the Ninja World.
It was stronger than Sunagakure and Kirigakure, but already weaker than Iwagakure.
It was even weaker than Kumogakure.
Konoha had only one Kage-level powerhouse: the Third Hokage.
The Sannin all possessed Kage-level strength and were extremely powerful, but all three had left Konoha.
The only Kage-level powerhouse Konoha could mobilize was the Third Hokage himself.
In the original story, after the Third Hokage died in battle, Konoha truly could not find a single Kage-level powerhouse.
But now, never mind Kage-level fighters—two Super Kage-level fighters had already appeared in Konoha.
Neji and Sasuke were unquestionably Super Kage-level powerhouses.
There was also the Fifth Hokage, who was very likely stronger than them. Konoha had at least two Super Kage-level powerhouses, and at most three.
In reality, it had four Super Kage-level powerhouses.
Because Sakura was also a Super Kage-level powerhouse, though her reputation throughout the Ninja World was only slightly greater than Yeyu's.
That was mainly not because of her combat strength, but because of her Medical Ninjutsu.
She oversaw Konoha's medical division and held a high position as Tsunade's deputy, giving her considerable renown among the medical ninja of every village.
But it was not because of