With both sides holding back, a tense standoff had taken shape, with neither daring to make a move.
Orochimaru had become someone both sides were eager to win over.
Orochimaru, whom the Third had kept on the sidelines for years, had become a hot commodity again. Even the doors of his eerie, sinister laboratory were being worn down by visitors.
Orochimaru's face always looked as though everyone owed him money, but that didn't stop people from flocking to him. The leaders of the various shinobi clans knew that Cold Lord was the only person who had ties to both sides of the current standoff.
The undercurrents running through this conflict were terrifying, and the strength both sides had revealed was even more alarming.
Everyone knew the Sarutobi Clan was flourishing, but no one had imagined they could casually muster three thousand shinobi.
And that wasn't all. Under pressure from the Uchiha Clan, the Sarutobi Clan had already revealed five thousand five hundred shinobi.
That might not even have been the Sarutobi Clan's full strength.
Many wondered whether, at a moment of life and death, the Sarutobi Clan alone could muster ten thousand shinobi.
It was terrifying.
After all, in the entire Second Shinobi World War, the Five Great Nations and all the smaller countries combined had fielded fewer than one hundred thousand shinobi. The Sarutobi Clan alone could already represent a major nation in the war.
And that didn't even count the civilian shinobi who naturally sided with the Hokage.
The clans had been bowing and scraping out of fear of the Sarutobi family's power, but another thought had begun to creep into their minds: just how much had the Third amassed during all these years ruling Konoha?
Had things reached the point where the Sarutobi family alone could support