Turning Point of the First War: Kumogakure Seeks Peace

In Konoha Year 21, two years passed in the blink of an eye.

The First Shinobi World War had also entered its third year.

Toji had remained in Konoha, diligently training and fully absorbing the two secret techniques he had seized from the Sky Ninja: Body Activation and Flesh Transformation. The Wood Release Heart and Lightning Release Heart had also been steadily strengthening his physique.

He had taken another great step toward becoming the ultimate life-form.

Besides that,

Toji had copied the Puppet Technique developed by Root and sent it to the aerial fortress. Over the past two years, the Sky Ninja researchers had tried combining Puppet Technique with flying ninja tools, planning to create puppets capable of flight.

Toji was steadily chipping away at control of the skies.

On the first day of June,

Toji was urgently summoned to the Hokage Building, where he received the Anbu's latest intelligence from Tobirama.

Tobirama told him with a relaxed expression, "The war will probably be over soon."

The scroll contained a piece of shocking news.

Second Mizukage Hozuki Gengetsu and Second Tsuchikage Mu had clashed within the Land of Earth, ultimately perishing together.

Hidden Mist had clearly not joined the war, yet its own Mizukage had died on another nation's territory. To understand what had happened, they had to start from the beginning—

Using Shukaku's power, Hidden Mist had successfully reclaimed land from the sea, gaining vast tracts of territory to develop. But a new problem soon followed: developing and building that land required enormous funding.

Among the Five Great Ninja Villages, Hidden Mist's poverty was universally known. It was already struggling to maintain its daily development; saying they had to tighten their belts was no exaggeration. Forget developing new land—even its military construction budget was severely lacking.

To reverse this