Ninja World Situation

Within Sunagakure, the panic and chaos caused by the Third Kazekage's disappearance had yet to subside, but a storm was already quietly taking shape in the outside world, sweeping across the entire Ninja World at an astonishing speed.

The Kazekage's disappearance was a fatal blow to Sunagakure, a sword hanging over its head. But to the other great nations eyeing it hungrily, it was undoubtedly a gift from heaven. A leaderless Sunagakure that had lost its strongest weapon was like a slab of meat exposed to the gaze of desert vultures—tempting and vulnerable.

Shaye's Squad, along with the many search teams dispatched by the village, rushed about the vast, desolate borderlands of the Land of Wind like headless flies. Every encounter with ninjas from other nations signaled that the situation was slipping toward an uncontrollable abyss. Hidden Rock Village's frequent appearances were no coincidence.

Sure enough, bad news came one after another.

The first to move was Iwagakure of the Land of Earth. The shrewd and calculating Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki, the "Two Scales," bared his fangs almost as soon as he confirmed that the Third Kazekage truly could not reappear anytime soon. Iwagakure's army marched south, swiftly seizing the Land of Bears, a small nation bordering both the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire, with overwhelming force and turning it into a forward base. Immediately afterward, its army pressed against the border and brazenly invaded the already devastated Land of Rain once more.

Although Salamander Hanzo, leader of Amegakure, was powerful, the Land of Rain had declined in national strength after the Second Shinobi World War. Facing Iwagakure's massive incursion, its resistance was especially difficult. Iwagakure's target clearly extended beyond the Land of Rain; its spearhead pointed directly at the borders of the Land of Fire. Their former