Hidden Rain Mobilizes

"How is it?"

"Report, Lord Hanzo! The Hidden Sand and Konoha commanders have already begun fighting!

Konoha's leader seems to be called Sakumo Hatake, while the Hidden Sand force is led by Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law!"

Hanzo stood bare-chested, bracing both hands against the table as he stared unblinkingly at the sand table.

"After waiting so long... they've finally started fighting!

Who is facing off against us on Konoha's side now?"

"My lord! They are the Third Hokage's three disciples! We have rarely seen them fight at full strength, so we do not know how capable they are!"

"Interesting! After waiting so long, it is time to stretch my limbs a little..."

His words carried the dominance and confidence of one in power, making his subordinates' blood boil as well.

"Good! Wonderful! We succeeded!"

Tsunade's excited shout nearly seemed to lift the roof off the tent!

Orochimaru emerged, dragging his somewhat weary body along as he rubbed his eyes.

"Did we succeed, Teacher Orochimaru?"

"We succeeded... It truly was not easy..."

His voice was hoarse again, just as before. It seemed that whenever he got absorbed in experiments, he was not fond of drinking water.

"Natural toxins truly are rare... Fortunately, Tsunade had read the medical chemistry book you gave her before, so she happened to be able to identify the toxin's composition and principles..."

Orochimaru sounded utterly drained now, coughing constantly after only a few sentences.

"Enough, go get some rest already!"

Xuanhui supported Orochimaru and escorted him back to his own tent.

Jiraiya stood at the entrance, still waiting to help Tsunade back to rest.

"Oh? Jiraiya, you're just the person I needed!"

Tsunade walked out of the tent, her face entirely free of Orochimaru's lifeless gloom.

"Go call the medical corps over. I need to clean up the laboratory."

"Huh?"

Jiraiya shifted awkwardly and asked somewhat sheepishly.

"Don't you need me to help you back to rest?"

"Rest for what? I'm full of energy right now! Go!"

Seeing Tsunade's foot about to kick his way, Jiraiya hurriedly turned and ran off to gather the medical corps.

Tsunade was so energized, so why was Orochimaru not nearly as excited?

Xuanhui could not figure it out either, so he looked at Orochimaru lying on the bed. His arm hung limply at his side, as though he had been put through a terrible ordeal.

"Teacher Orochimaru, you look quite exhausted!"

Rather than exhausted, though, he seemed more dejected.

He looked completely listless!

"Xuanhui..."

"What is it, Teacher?"

"The book Tsunade read... I want to read it too when we return..."

Orochimaru closed his eyes in pain.

Over the past half month, in front of Tsunade, he had been as ignorant as a child who had just begun learning!

He could not understand what she said, and he had never even heard of the technical terms she used!

She had ordered him around repeatedly, and by the time he figured out what was going on, she had already moved on to the next step!

"Learning... truly has no end..."

"I don't know what happened, but you've worked hard..."

Xuanhui did not quite understand, but Orochimaru clearly needed rest in his current state, so it was better to leave him alone for now.

"Oh, right, Teacher Orochimaru. I feel that my ninjutsu development has reached a bottleneck. I may need to seclude myself for a few days to study.

For the next couple of days, I'll entrust my intelligence work to someone else. Once I finish my research, I'll come find you again."

After giving this instruction, Xuanhui left the tent where Orochimaru was resting.

He found Jiraiya and explained that he planned to enter seclusion.

Jiraiya readily agreed and began looking for ninjas to take over his duties.

Afraid that his old father would worry, he also found Uchiha Uzumaki and gave him a brief explanation.

Uchiha Uzumaki was naturally delighted and raised both hands in support.

After all, conducting research was much safer than going to the battlefield.

Having settled everything, Xuanhui entered the library.

He had just awakened his two-tomoe Sharingan a couple of days ago, and he intended to use it to assist with the final stage of blending chakra proportions.

"Perhaps Yin Release chakra and Yang Release chakra need to be exactly half and half..."

He focused his mind. Books lay scattered across the floor, while his scarlet Sharingan stared at his own chakra pathways, observing the changes in his chakra.

Inside the library, Xuanhui alone enjoyed a peaceful passage of time.

In the real world, however, forces from every direction had already begun to stir!

Onoki of the Hidden Stone Village still chose to watch and wait, though the frequency of ninja deployments seemed to have decreased considerably. It appeared that they did not intend to become too involved.

Over in the Hidden Mist Village, the Third Mizukage was still occupied with his policies. He seemed inclined toward isolating the country, while also beginning to form the special Seven Ninja Swordsmen unit.

The Hidden Cloud Village's leaders were the most restless among the Five Great Nations. Now that Konoha, the Hidden Sand Village, and the Hidden Rain were at war, the Third Raikage made some simple arrangements for secret missions involving the collection of bloodline limits.

Konoha and the Hidden Sand Village had already clashed. As Konoha's leading figure, Sakumo Hatake relied on his first-rate swordsmanship to successfully lead Konoha into an advantageous position!

During an internal meeting of the Hidden Sand Village's upper ranks, the Third Kazekage began considering under what circumstances they should deploy the One-Tail jinchuriki.

In the Hidden Rain, which had drawn the most attention from the ninja world, Hanzo the Salamander finally stepped out of his tent, weapon in hand and subordinates at his side.

"Let's go. Let's meet Konoha's ninjas!"

The Konoha intelligence ninjas stationed outside the Hidden Rain camps seemed to have noticed that the Hidden Rain's ninjas had been unusually quiet lately, making no other moves.

They understood that this was the sign of something major about to happen.

At dawn the next day, before the sun had even awakened, the Hidden Rain's ninjas had already received orders to rise and assemble in an emergency!

Hearing the commotion, the Konoha ninjas immediately went on high alert.

Hanzo swiftly assembled his forces and sent messages to Hidden Rain ninjas at other nearby encampments. Once he launched his attack, the forces elsewhere were to follow immediately behind!

On Konoha's side, Tsunade still sat in the command room, staring thoughtfully at the sand table.

"Waiting for the right opportunity?"

A burst of hurried footsteps approached.

"Bad news, Lady Tsunade!"

"The Hidden Rain has made a move?"

"Hanzo the Salamander is personally leading his troops here! They're about to attack!"

"What!"

Tsunade slapped her thigh and rose directly to her feet.

"After waiting so long! He finally can't sit still anymore?"

With a broad wave of her hand, she summoned three ninjas.

"You! Sound the alarm! Assemble the troops! Immediately!"

"Yes!"

He immediately turned and rushed out of the tent.

"You! Tell Orochimaru and Jiraiya that the three of us must deploy together!"

"Yes!"

"You! Write a letter! Tell that old Hokage that Hanzo has begun fighting us!"

"Right away!"

Three military orders were issued at once. The entire position was instantly enveloped in tension as everyone hurried to their posts! Every order was carried out in an orderly fashion!