Winds Rise

September, Year 40 of the Land of Night (Year 31 of Konoha)

Nearly half a year has passed since the Uzumaki Clan incident occurred.

The remnants of the Uzumaki clan, who migrated to the Land of Night, began to rebuild their clan territory in a core urban area of Yomi Castle. The location of their clan territory was the same as that of the Uchiha clan, situated in the southern district of Yomi Castle.

However, the distance between the two tribes' territories is actually not close; there are many commercial streets in between.

After six months of recuperation, the Uzumaki Clan has basically integrated into the Land of Night's system and begun to live a stable life.

At first, the family atmosphere was rather somber, but as time went on, this atmosphere faded considerably.

After all, the deceased are gone, and those who survive must eventually face reality and pick themselves up again.

In order to restore their family's strength as soon as possible, the Uzumaki Clan, under the call of the Land of Night's higher-ups, actively cooperated and integrated.

The Personnel Education Department, the Special Support Department, and the Medical Rescue Department, in particular, showed the most enthusiasm for the Uzumaki Clan.

The Personnel Education Department hopes that the Uzumaki Clan will dedicate themselves to the education sector, cultivating more talents in the fields of sealing, Barrier, and Medical for the Land of Night.

Although the Land of Night has cultivated many non-combat special-type ninjas, no faction can ever have too many of these special-type ninjas, and the Land of Night is no exception.

Furthermore, as many departments continue to grow, the shortage of these specialized ninjas will become increasingly larger in the foreseeable future.

The same applies to the Special Support Department and the Medical Rescue Department; Uzumaki Clan ninjas are naturally suited to work in these two departments.

The final result was that most of the Uzumaki Clan's ninjas were basically incorporated into these three departments, followed by the Police and Public Security Department, and then the Special Assault Department, which also needed special elite ninjas.

While the Land of Night was gradually absorbing the Uzumaki Clan, the Land of Fire and Konoha acted swiftly, taking over the territory and population of the Land of Whirlpool in just one month and officially declaring it as the territory of the Land of Fire, further strengthening the Land of Fire's power.

To express their gratitude for the Uzumaki Clan's generosity, the Land of Fire and Konoha prepared many gifts to help the Uzumaki Clan recover.

It can be said that both the Land of Night and Konoha gained substantial benefits from this incident.

Only Hidden Cloud Village and Hidden Mist Village were still secretly licking their wounds, especially Hidden Mist Village, who no longer cared much about the whereabouts of the Third Mizukage.

At first, they were furious, feeling that the Land of Night had gone too far.

But after so much time, there was really no way to break through from the Land of Night. Then, after calming down, they realized that the absence of the Third Mizukage was actually a good thing.

If the Fourth Mizukage Genji any flaws, it would be that he was a bit old and his attitude towards various policies was very conservative. But it was precisely because of his conservatism that he wouldn't resort to any strange tricks or launch a major attack on Hidden Mist Village.

What Hidden Mist Village lacks now is a conservative and steady leader like Genji.

For Hidden Mist Village, restoring production and stabilizing order are the highest priorities at present.

However, since the Third Mizukage was ultimately the rightful leader, his disappearance inexplicably in the hands of the Land of Night couldn't be simply declared as unconcerned.

Therefore, while the Hidden Mist Village leadership made a lot of noise about finding the Third Mizukage, their actual efforts to implement it were...

Of course, it wasn't that they didn't want to search, but rather that they felt the search for the Third Mizukage was extremely complex and required a slow, methodical, and orderly search; they absolutely couldn't search blindly or haphazardly...

While the Land of Night also adopted a tough stance, Konoha merely waved its flags and cheered, essentially acting in the same way as the Land of Night, showing great restraint and not wanting to escalate the situation. The higher-ups of Hidden Cloud Village and Hidden Mist Village smiled knowingly and were completely relieved.

But this smile didn't last long, as the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Mist Village suddenly noticed that the surrounding small countries were becoming somewhat restless for some reason.

This incident infuriated Hidden Cloud Village and Hidden Mist Village. They felt that if they couldn't handle the Land of Night and Konoha, couldn't they at least deal with these clowns?

Such an arrogant little country deserves a heavy blow!

However, they keenly sensed something unusual and felt that the timing of these countries' attacks was too coincidental. Therefore, they did not directly intervene but instead sought out smaller countries with reliable relations to test the waters ahead.

While the Hidden Cloud Village and Hidden Mist Village were searching for a proxy, a major event also occurred in the Land of Rain, which was surrounded by the three great nations of Wind, Earth, and Fire.

For nearly two years, while the Hidden Rain Village intervened without warning, using its powerful armed forces to open up the trade route between the Land of Rain and the Land of Rivers, temporarily restoring the Land of Land of Rain's normal trade with foreign countries.

Furthermore, during the incident, Hidden Rain Village decisively defeated the ninja forces of an unknown country that had blocked a key trade route between the two nations.

It is worth noting that Hidden Rain Village, Hanzo leader of Amegakure and a hero of the Land of Rain, did not personally lead the team this time.

In other words, without Hanzo's intervention, Hidden Rain Village defeated the unknown ninja squad through its own strength.

The identity of that unknown ninja unit remains a mystery, but everyone tacitly agrees that it must be an important mole planted there by some major power.

This signal, occurring between major powers, is perfectly normal behavior.

With the exception of the Land of Night, no small country's ninjas have ever been able to defeat a large country's ninja forces on the front lines without their leader, a high-level combatant, taking action.

This means that the overall quality of Hidden Rain Village's ninjas has officially undergone a transformation, gradually breaking free from the inherent predicament of a small country and taking a crucial first step.

After this incident, the Land of Rain, which was originally in turmoil, fell into an unprecedented state of calm.

The infiltration forces of Hidden Sand Village, Iwagakure, and Konoha seemed to have ceased most of their activities at the same time.

However, this is just an illusion.

This calm means that the surveillance operations of Hidden Sand Village, Iwagakure, and Konoha will become increasingly covert, and may even cease to be simple surveillance, potentially veering towards extremes and spiraling out of control.

--Hidden Sand Village, Kazekage Building.

Inside the conference room, the Third Kazekage fiddled with some tattered Kunai, Shuriken, Ninja Blade, scrolls, and Explosive Tag tags placed in front of him.

However, as he played with them, a sharp light flashed in his eyes as he stared at the broken ninja tools in his hands.

These items were 'spoils of war' brought back from the battlefield by the defeated Hidden Sand Village forces at the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain.

That's right, the unknown ninja force that was recently defeated head-on by the Hidden Rain shinobi was actually Hidden Sand Village ninja force of one hundred people.

The number of Hidden Rain Village ninjas dispatched reached approximately three hundred.

With 100 against 300, it's not shameful to lose, considering the numbers.

However, Hidden Sand Village's opponent this time is not an equal force like Konoha or Iwagakure, but Hidden Rain Village, which has been suppressed by Hidden Sand Village for the past ten years.

Therefore, being outnumbered is not an excuse, especially since this is a rout, not simply a matter of being suppressed.

On one hand, the quality of the Hidden Rain shinobi has indeed improved significantly; on the other hand...

"These weapons, though unmarked, should be from the Land of Night. Chiyo, what do you think?"

Although he used uncertain words like "should," the Third Kazekage's tone was quite certain.

As he spoke, he glanced at the woman with light purple hair sitting next to him.

The other party also put down the broken Kunai they were playing with, Kunai was still stained with some dried blood.

It is Chiyo Puppeteer now serves as the advisor to the Kazekage.

Although she is nearly forty, her physical appearance is no different from that of a woman in her early thirties.

Among the high-ranking officials of Hidden Sand Village present, none were more knowledgeable about the ninja tools of the Land of Night than she and her younger brother Ebizo, who also served as an advisor to the Kazekage.

"The ninja tools used by these Hidden Rain shinobi are of comparable quality to those on the arms market; they are all meticulously crafted and practical ninja tools."

Chiyo gave this assessment.

As for which country it came from, there's no need to point it out directly; everyone present already knows.

"No wonder Hidden Rain Village allowed the Land of Night to station troops in the Land of Rain; that explains it now."

"Since last year, goods have frequently gone missing during arms transactions between the Land of Night and some smaller countries. It seems Hidden Rain Village is quite lucky; these lost weapons have all grown out of the rain-soaked Rain Fields of their Land of Rain."

One of the high-ranking members of the Hidden Sand Village even made a rather humorous remark, although he himself wasn't actually laughing.