War

Since he had discovered an acquaintance, Jiraiya had no intention of avoiding him; at this time, Orochimaru was still a decent person.

The five of them simply sat down together.

Jiraiya chatted with his old comrade-in-arms, Orochimaru, while pulling Namikaze Minato into the conversation to help him get to know his master's peer.

Senju Genma, meanwhile, looked toward Nawaki and asked sternly, "Nawaki, you rarely return to the clan grounds these days. Do you have any idea how much Sister Tsunade misses you?"

Nawaki felt a bit embarrassed, reaching up to scratch his hair as he said, "It can't be helped. The difficulty of this mission was truly high, and Teacher Orochimaru had to look after me, which is why we returned so late. Please, put in a good word for me with my sister!"

At the mere thought of Tsunade, Nawaki couldn't help but shiver.

Tsunade was very gentle toward Senju Genma, but she was only gentle with him; she was quite brutal toward everyone else.

Senju Genma retorted irritably, "Don't try that with me. How many times has this happened now? Go back and explain it to Sister Tsunade yourself."

He fell silent for a moment before continuing, "Was this mission really that dangerous?"

Nawaki nodded. "Yes, even Teacher Orochimaru was injured."

Senju Genma spoke up, "Give me your hand."

Nawaki obediently held out his hand, and Senju Genma reached out to grasp it.

Nawaki felt a warm current flow through his hand.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing much, just updated the version of your Wood Clone Seed."

"Genma!!"

"Shut up!"

"Oh!"

Nawaki lowered his head, not daring to speak.

Even though Nawaki was older and should have been the big brother, the dynamic between the two seemed to be the exact opposite.

The next day, at the Hokage Building in the Hidden Leaf Village, inside the Hokage Office, a white-haired ninja wearing a green flak jacket and carrying a short blade appeared before Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Lord Hokage, this is the intelligence report sent from the frontier outpost."

Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up the report from the desk and studied it carefully for over ten minutes before frowning and asking, "Is this intelligence accurate?"

Sakumo Hatake lowered his head and replied, "The Anbu have already verified it; it is absolutely accurate."

Hiruzen Sarutobi slammed his hand onto the desk and said furiously, "Convene a Jonin meeting."

Following Hiruzen Sarutobi's order, in less than two and a half hours, every Jonin in the village had gathered at the Hokage Building.

"You called us to a meeting in such a rush—what exactly is going on?" Danzo Shimura, who was in the midst of a cold war with Hiruzen Sarutobi, asked with displeasure.

"All of our ninjas in the Hidden Rain Village have lost contact. Not only that, but the Hidden Rain Village is also massing troops at the border of the Land of Fire," Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a pained expression and a heavy voice.

One had to realize that among those who had lost contact were many Jonin; he felt as though his heart were aching so much he couldn't breathe.

"It must be Hanzo's doing! He's purged the spies we planted in the Hidden Rain Village!" Homura Mitokado, acting as a Hokage advisor, immediately offered his analysis; one could hear the suppressed rage in his voice.

The Jonin below also immediately began a heated discussion.

"Hanzo? Is that the legendary ninja Hanzo?"

"What legendary ninja? Our Hidden Leaf doesn't recognize him! We have the strongest Hokage, who has surpassed the God of Shinobi!"

"Damn Hanzo! How dare he kill our Hidden Leaf ninjas?"

"We must make them pay in blood."

"A tiny Hidden Rain Village—we could wipe them out with a wave of our hands. Do they really think they can turn the world upside down?"

Koharu Utatane, also serving as a Hokage advisor, said coldly, "Our Hidden Leaf is the number one village in the shinobi world, and we won the First Shinobi World War. The Land of Rain isn't even considered a major power, yet the tiny Hidden Rain Village dares to provoke us. We must make them pay the price!"

They were the high-ranking officials of the Hidden Leaf Village, and in terms of the nation and the village, their interests were one and the same. The Hidden Rain Village had openly murdered Hidden Leaf ninjas and mobilized troops; it was clearly a slap in their faces, and it threatened their interests.

"The dignity and safety of the Hidden Leaf cannot be challenged. I shall lead the troops to attack the Hidden Rain Village," Danzo Shimura said, staring intensely at Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Danzo Shimura had decided to participate personally for two reasons.

First, he was the representative of the Hidden Leaf's war faction, advocating for the use of hardline measures to protect the village's interests. If he didn't step up now, it might diminish the war faction's support for him.

Second, it was to prepare for his bid to become the Fourth Hokage. To become Hokage, one needed the support of the ninjas; therefore, military merit and prestige were indispensable.

In Danzo's view, although Hanzo was powerful, the Hidden Rain Village was a weak village. Unless Hanzo possessed the strength of Senju Hashirama, the gap in power between the Hidden Rain Village and the Hidden Leaf Village could not be bridged by one man alone. To the Hidden Leaf, this was a guaranteed victory, and both merit and prestige were within his grasp.

"Ahem!" Hiruzen Sarutobi coughed, and everyone fell silent, looking toward him.

After all, he was the Hokage, and in the prime of his life, he held absolute authority in the Hidden Leaf!

"Let us go to war! Our Hidden Leaf fears no challenge, let alone the likes of the Hidden Rain Village." Hiruzen Sarutobi's gaze was sharp, revealing the true demeanor of the "Shinobi Hero."

Perhaps one day he would become weak, and one day he would become indecisive, but that day was certainly not today!

Hiruzen Sarutobi continued, "We will dispatch troops to the Hidden Rain Village. As for who will lead them, we shall discuss that later. That is all!"

The meeting concluded, and Hiruzen Sarutobi stood up and walked out of the conference room.

Before leaving, he cast a glance at Danzo Shimura without saying a word.

He certainly understood what Danzo Shimura meant.

However, there were so many people in the Hokage's own faction that there wasn't even enough of the pie to go around; how could he possibly share any with Danzo Shimura?

Danzo Shimura remained silent, but that one look from Hiruzen Sarutobi had already made it clear to him that he had no chance.

This made his expression turn so furious that it began to look twisted.

The surrounding Jonin saw this and hurriedly took a detour.

Root was the plague of Konoha, and they had no desire to provoke them.

Under the orders of the "Shinobi Hero" Hiruzen Sarutobi, a War Leadership Group with the Hokage at its core was established, and Konoha quickly transformed into a war machine.

Ninjas both inside and outside the village received their orders; some began to rush to the front lines, while others returned to the village to stand guard.

It is worth mentioning that the Uchiha clan was very proactive in this war mobilization, wishing to dispatch troops to the front.

Their goal was the same as Danzo's: military merit and prestige.

The upper echelons of the Uchiha clan were not a group of fools; they were well aware that ever since the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, had taken office, the clan had been under constant suppression.

Their lineage had chosen not to follow Madara Uchiha when he left precisely so they could live securely within the village, and being constantly ostracized by the village clearly went against their original intentions.

Therefore, they hoped to ease their relationship with the village by establishing merit in the war.

Unsurprisingly, Hiruzen Sarutobi rejected their request.

Regarding Hanzo, neither the original work nor the official databooks ever stated that Hanzo was a "demigod," but Hanzo was indeed a ninja who stood at the pinnacle of the ninja world at that time.