Whoosh—
The sea breeze ruffled the loose strands of hair before Enkō's forehead, but it could not dispel the astonishment in his Sharingan.
Why?
Why was Senju Hashirama here?
It was not as though Enkō had never considered that Konoha might intervene to save the Uzumaki Clan. Otherwise, he would not have sent Izuna to guard the Land of Iron, intending to cut off Konoha's rescue route.
What shocked him was not that Hashirama had personally come to Whirlpool Country, but that Hashirama's arrival had escaped his notice entirely!
He knew that if Hashirama chose to act personally, Izuna alone could not stop him. Hashirama could even have powerful fighters such as Tobirama hold Izuna back, allowing him to break through the Land of Iron's blockade even faster.
But whether he broke through himself or had someone else hold Izuna back, neither method could possibly have been this silent!
Izuna had obtained the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan and had long surpassed his original counterpart. No matter how strong Hashirama was, he could not instantly kill Izuna, and their battle would inevitably produce aftershocks.
When powerful fighters clashed, the resulting chakra fluctuations were extremely intense. Likewise, for the strong, sensing such fluctuations from afar was no difficult task.
Just as in the original timeline, the four Hokage revived through Impure World Reincarnation had been able to sense the chakra fluctuations from a battlefield hundreds of miles away while standing in the Uzumaki Clan shrine.
Therefore, once Izuna clashed with Konoha's forces, not only would Enkō's side be alerted immediately, but Madara in Flame Hidden Village would also sense it and take action to pressure Konoha, preventing Hashirama from acting rashly.
That was why Enkō had dared to openly attack Whirlpool Country!
But the problem was that, in Enkō's perception, everything in the