In September, with the support of Konoha, the rebellion within the Land of Hot Water was largely quelled.
Before Tobirama, who was stationed in Konoha, could even catch his breath, the Land of Frost, which borders the Tobirama of Land of Hot Water, launched a surprise attack on the Land of Hot Water without any warning.
The Frost Village ninjas who attacked the Land of Hot Water numbered in the hundreds, so much so that the Yugakure ninjas, who had just quelled their internal strife and hadn't even had a chance to catch their breath, had to rush back to the battlefield to defend against the Frost Village's invasion.
In the same month, the Land of Whirlpool, located southeast of the Land of Fire, was attacked by an unknown force. Although the enemy was repelled by the Uzumaki Clan, this event directly put the Land of Whirlpool into the highest level of combat readiness, and began to guard against foreign invasion.
Subsequently, many other small countries cried out for help and pleaded for assistance on the international stage.
The ninja world, which was vibrant and peaceful just last year, has suddenly become filled with chaos and disorder, as if it has returned to the Warring States period, with everyone hostile and suspicious of each other.
Of all these cases, Konoha received the most requests for help.
While Tobirama outwardly agreed to these Eight Gates requests, he did not immediately dispatch personnel to provide support. Instead, he mobilized the Anbu to conduct an investigation first, to understand the situation in detail and avoid being framed.
Konoha is not afraid of challenges now, but it cannot fall into every trap. Hashirama his deceased brother Hashirama, Second Hokage Tobirama Konoha, considers things more steadily and realistically.
He would immediately slip away without hesitation if anything seemed amiss.
He was well aware of one thing: after Hashirama's death, Konoha no longer possessed the ability to maintain order in the Ninja World.
All he can do now is maintain the stability of the surrounding small countries and form an alliance led by Konoha and the Land of Fire.
As for areas further away, Konoha was simply too far away to reach or control them.
" Hidden Cloud Village... Hidden Mist Village... these guys really don't know how to keep things quiet. Even the mustachioed Mizukage of Kirigakure can't control the radical forces within his own ranks?"
In the Hokage's office, Tobirama once again exchanged intelligence with Yayoi, who was far away in the Land of Night. Among the intelligence from the Land of Night, the most important piece of information was the discovery that, in addition to the Hidden Cloud Village, the Kirigakure Ninja Village had also joined the chaos in the Land of Land of Hot Water.
However, compared to the Hidden Cloud Village, the Kirigakure Ninja are even more deeply hidden.
Not only the Land of Hot Water, but according to intelligence gathered by the Land of Night in the Land of Frost, the Land of Frost's attack on the Land of Hot Water was also orchestrated by the Kirigakure Ninja.
This gave Tobirama a major headache.
He had previously held a secret meeting with the Second A, during which they discussed the sensitive issue of the excessively powerful martial arts forces within the Hidden Cloud Village.
However, the problems in the Land of Hot Water have not yet been resolved, and now the Kirigakure has resurfaced, somehow getting entangled with the martial forces of the Hidden Cloud Village.
Was it a pre-planned scheme, or did the restless forces from both villages conspire together? Did they discover each other's existence during the process of sowing discord, and then, under various coincidental circumstances, begin to cooperate?
The Land of Night has not yet discovered these things, but that doesn't stop Tobirama from using them to make connections.
Unfortunately, after the death of the First Mizukage Byakuren, Kirigakure gradually adopted a mystical style, becoming somewhat closed off, and its communication slowly became more conservative.
Just like its name suggests, it is hidden in a white fog, making it impossible to see the true situation of Kirigakure ).
In Tobirama's view, the best outcome would be for Kirigakure to become like Kumogakure, with an independent force that doesn't obey the Kage's orders and stirs up trouble in the outside world. The worst outcome, however, would undoubtedly be that the Mizukage himself is the biggest supporter behind the scenes.
However, due to a lack of sufficient information, Tobirama was also unaware of the situation regarding the Mizukage of Kirigakure.
He was inclined to trust the former, but he had to be wary of the latter.
After all, the Land of Whirlpool, located in the southeast of the Land of Fire, was recently affected by an attack from an unknown ninja force, and the village most likely to attack the Land of Whirlpool was undoubtedly the Kirigakure.
In response, Konoha and the Land of Night each dispatched three squadrons of 100 men, totaling 600 people, to the Land of Land of Whirlpool to support the Uzumaki Clan.
The Land of Land of Whirlpool has a small territory and limited strategic depth, but the advantage is that the Uzumaki Clan's Barrier Jutsu and Sensory Ninjutsu can be deployed quickly. With the support of Konoha and the Land of Night, self-defense is not difficult.
" Lord Hokage "
Shortly after, several ninjas entered the office.
Three of them were Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shimura Danzō, and Kagami Uchiha. Besides them, there were three others—
A valiant female ninja.
A young man wearing glasses.
And finally, there were the young men with chubby faces and robust bodies.
They are Utatane Koharu from the Utatane Clan, Mitokado Homura from the Mitokado Clan, and Torifu Akimichi from the Akimichi Clan.
"Your mission this time is to infiltrate the Land of Frost. I need to know everything about the place."
Without any pleasantries, the situation allowed no time to be wasted; we needed to get things sorted out as quickly as possible.
The information exchanged between the Land of Night and the Tobirama made Tobirama uneasy, so he decided to personally send a trusted confidant to investigate within the Land of Frost in an attempt to mediate the conflict between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost.
If all else fails, Tobirama will have no choice but to support the Land of Hot Water and wage a proxy war.
Regardless, more intelligence must be gathered so that he can better assess the situation and avoid falling into a trap.
" Lord Hokage, who is the captain this time...?"
Danzo forward, feeling that his chance to show off his skills had finally arrived.
" Hiruzen is the captain, Danzo, you will serve as the vice-captain and assist Hiruzen."
"... Yes, Lord Hokage."
Danzo's expression stiffened for a moment, but he still obeyed the order.
Hiruzen patted Danzo on the shoulder and smiled helplessly, as if to say, 'This is the Lord Hokage's order, it has nothing to do with me.'
Danzo a soft snort, saying nothing, only harboring resentment.
The other four shrugged, unfazed by the situation; Danzo had been Hiruzen with Hiruzen since their days at the Ninja Academy.
This Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and even now, as members of the Hokage's Personal Guard.
◎
Border towns were destroyed, and charred, twisted corpses were everywhere, with people occasionally wailing in the ruins.
There were over a thousand corpses, mostly unarmed civilians, with a small number being ninjas.
The town was destroyed, clearly because of a battle between ninjas.
Many buildings were damaged, bearing the marks of flooding, fire, lightning strikes, and hurricane tearing.
In some places, the terrain has been altered by Earth Release, creating many pits and hollows, and corpses are buried in these pits.
Many corpses stretched out their hands in a final plea for help before being burned to charcoal by Fire Release, leaving a lingering burnt smell in the air.
The corpses of the dead ninjas, judging from the ninja Forehead Protector they wore, included those of ninjas from Yugakure who defended the country, as well as those of ninjas from Frost Village who invaded Land of Hot Water.
As Hiruzen and the other five approached the border between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost, the signs of battle became increasingly dense, and the number of ninjas and civilians killed in the fighting grew larger.
The twisted state and remaining wounds of some of the corpses suggested a collective act of venting anger and revenge, no longer a simple fight or slaughter.
"That's really tragic..."
As the only woman among the six, Utatane Koharu sighed with emotion, her mind resolute.
The fighting between Yugakure and Frost Village was larger than they had initially anticipated; it was a full-blown battle.
It's hard to imagine that just last year, the entire Ninja World was a scene of harmonious coexistence and peaceful prosperity.
"There's no time for sentimentality here. We need to find out the situation in the Land of Frost as soon as possible. In any case, the Land of Hot Water cannot be defeated. Let's secretly capture some ninjas from Frost Village for interrogation."
Danzo immediately spoke, his eyes filled with indifference and determination.
" Danzo is right, we don't have time for sentimentality here. Kagami, we'll rely on your Sharingan for the interrogation."
Hiruzen nodded solemnly. He was not a pedantic person; extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
The Land of Hot Water serves as a barrier and strategic buffer zone for the Land of Fire in the northeast, and no accidents can be tolerated.
"Don't worry, leave it to me."
Kagami nodded seriously. With his Sharingan, even if he wasn't particularly skilled at interrogation, he would still be a top-tier interrogation expert.
The six then quickly set off, officially entering the territory of the Land of Frost.
Let's use this as a reference for maps from now on.
Once they reached the territory of the Land of Frost, they became more cautious, trying to find lone Frost Village ninjas, capture them, and interrogate them to obtain a lot of information about the Frost Village.
However, this intelligence is rather scattered, with very little important information. To obtain more important information, we can only try to delve deeper.
As they continued deeper into the area, Hiruzen and the other five noticed that something was amiss.
Along the way, they encountered several groups of enemies. Although they were dressed as ninjas from Frost Village, their strength and fighting style made them seem completely unlike ninjas from Frost Village.
Hiruzen and his men also expended a great deal of effort to shake off their pursuers. It wasn't that they couldn't defeat them, but rather that their mission was to gather intelligence, and a battle that took too long could easily attract a large-scale enemy annihilation effort.
Judging from the strength of the several waves of enemies encountered, each one was extremely powerful, making it impossible to wipe them all out silently.
"That's truly impressive. The Land of Night managed to penetrate so deeply into the heart of the Land of Frost under such harsh conditions and gather so much important intelligence."
Resting in an open space, Hiruzen sighed.
The other five also looked thoughtful. Indeed, more than half a month had passed since the six of them entered the Land of Frost to carry out their investigation, but the intelligence they had collected was less than half of what they had expected.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Night, almost as soon as the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost began their battle, they quickly detected the anomaly and confirmed that in addition to the Hidden Cloud Village, the Kirigakure Ninja Village had also become involved.
This was something they couldn't understand; they had never heard of the Land of Night having such specialized intelligence ninjas.
"However, it wasn't entirely fruitless. At least we learned that there are many ninjas stationed in the Land of Frost who are not native to the Land of Frost, and their numbers are unusually high."
"That's right. So many highly skilled ninjas entering the Land of Frost can't possibly be here just for sightseeing."
Danzo and the others began to discuss in hushed tones.
As the Hokage's personal Personal Guard, they were perceptive enough to understand that the situation in the Land of Frost was far too abnormal and needed to be brought under control.
" Hiruzen, what's next? Should we continue investigating?"
"Mirror asked."
The others also looked at Hiruzen, awaiting his decision.
Hiruzen shook his head and sighed, "No need, this is enough. We've encountered more and more enemies these past two days, and their strength is increasing. Staying here any longer is too risky. The information we have now should be enough for the Lord Hokage to make a decision."
The mere fact that there are a large number of unidentified, highly skilled ninjas within the Land of Frost reveals the complexity and danger of the situation behind the scenes.
War between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost is now inevitable.
Although Konoha and the Land of Hot Water have not formally signed an alliance, the enemy has provoked them to their doorstep; how can they not fight back?
"Alright, let's head back to the village now. Oh, and if we encounter any more enemies on the way back, don't hide anymore, just kill them all without exception."
Hiruzen's voice was icy cold, as sharp as a chilling wind, and filled with murderous intent.
Now that they've been identified as enemies, there's no need to hold back. Killing one more enemy now is just easing the burden for the future.
( The First Shinobi World War will officially begin around the day after tomorrow. The prelude has been laid out enough; continuing any further would be a bit tedious.)