Sorrow by the Stream

War always needed a reason. No matter what one wanted to gain, there had to be a purpose. If that purpose could no longer be achieved, then war lost its meaning.

In the woods near Konoha's Third Training Ground ran a small stream that could hardly be called a river. The rain clouds had long since scattered in the night, and exceptionally bright starlight spilled over the gently murmuring water. Silver gleams and colorful stones reflected together amid the tinkling sounds.

Kushina Uzumaki liked sitting beside the stream. The quiet night always held an inexplicable sense of distance that slowly calmed her heart. But ever since she had gotten together with Minato Namikaze, she had rarely come here.

"Minato... why aren't you back yet?"

Resting her chin on her hand, she idly tossed little stones into the stream. Their tinkling echoes carried far through the silent night.

Though she was usually somewhat hot-tempered, when she was alone, she rarely showed much expression. Hidden beneath her heart was a mature woman who understood everything, as though she had seen through all worldly affairs, carrying a touch more sorrow.

In the distance, ANBU shinobi hidden among the trees silently watched Kushina sitting by the stream, their eyes holding a familiar yet distant complexity.

Protecting her with vigilance and surveillance was their duty. But after all these years, aside from Minato and a handful of others close to her, they had become the people who knew Kushina best—and among the few who knew her true identity.

"Lady Kushina..."

"Lord Minato should be back very soon..."

The voice drifting from the forest made Kushina freeze. With startled delight and a hint of confusion, she looked at the masked ANBU emerging from the trees.

For all these years, these people had followed her like shadows. Other than keeping a little farther away when Minato was present, they had almost never spoken to her. Sometimes, she even forgot that ANBU were still by her side.

"Is... is that true?"

Kushina's willow-leaf eyes, long and slender and bright as carved ice, stared straight at the ANBU before her. But that seemed to be their limit; the ANBU shinobi did not say another word before leaping back into the forest.

"Is Konoha going to win? How is Minato? He wasn't hurt, was he...?"

ANBU always learned certain news before ordinary shinobi. Knowing the ANBU's rules, Kushina did not chase after them to ask. Instead, she paced back and forth beside the stream, tense and excited, her once-calm heart instantly tangled into a mess.

"No! I have to ask that old Third!"

Night slowly enveloped Konoha completely. Kushina's figure hurried away from the stream, leaping toward the still brightly lit Hokage Building.

The next day, news of Minato and Jiraiya defeating the Eight-Tails and A spread throughout Konoha. Hiruzen Sarutobi even personally gave a speech at Konoha Academy, praising Minato's achievements...

"Hmph, that old Third... that rotten old man..."

Sometimes, Kushina did not know whether Hiruzen Sarutobi did such things deliberately or unintentionally. It seemed as if he were always waiting for her to make her position known.

It was as though he did not value Minato's talent, but merely valued Minato's relationship with her. Yet at other times, his actions seemed entirely reasonable. Concealing information about the war was simply to protect Minato, and he appeared to hold Minato in extremely high regard.

She had long awakened the Mind's Eye of the Kagura and could understand the good and evil within people's hearts. Yet Hiruzen Sarutobi seemed to constantly wander between good and evil, making it impossible to see what his true goal was.

"As long as Minato is all right..."

With a soft sigh, she did not want to think too much. Those who could see things others could not were always troubled by them. She had been like that in the past and had suffered deeply because of it, so now, unless it concerned someone close to her, she almost never actively used the Mind's Eye of the Kagura...

The good news from the battle against Kumogakure made the Stone Shinobi battlefield elsewhere seem to fall into an awkward position. If any bad news emerged, it would be magnified countless times over.

"Kato, it seems your mission went very smoothly..."

Far to the west of the Land of Fire, Orochimaru had also obtained detailed intelligence on the Kumogakure battlefield through his own channels, information even more thorough than the reports sent by Konoha.

Orochimaru paid particular attention to information about Kato Osamu, since Kato Osamu could be considered his disciple in name.

Several thousand Konoha shinobi had gathered on the western battlefield of the Land of Fire. Under the Hyuga Clan's ultra-long-range surveillance, they had not suffered many casualties, but neither had they achieved any major accomplishments.

Following Hiruzen Sarutobi's defensive counterattack policy in deploying troops, Orochimaru had confronted Ōnoki on the Stone Shinobi battlefield for a long time. Yet unexpectedly, no large-scale battle had erupted.

Ōnoki was as sly and sticky as chewing gum, moving freely through the mountains. When Konoha attacked, he retreated. When Konoha defended, he led squads over to harass them. Yet he always avoided any direct confrontation with Orochimaru.

Though this also suited Konoha's interests, Orochimaru had long since grown unbearably irritated. He handed command of the forces to Hyuga Hiashi and hid in his laboratory alone to research his Immortality Technique.

The closer one got to the Land of Earth, the more common became the sight of jagged rocks and towering mountains. Distant peaks veiled in thin mist loomed indistinctly, appearing and vanishing amid drifting clouds. Ōnoki's camp had been established within those steep ridges.

At that moment, however, Ōnoki floated in the air with a gloomy expression.

"The Third Raikage's son is truly an idiot!"

News from the Kumogakure battlefield had sent Ōnoki, who was temporarily considered an ally of Kumogakure, into a furious rage. The Stone Shinobi battlefield had been going splendidly, and this war had clearly only just begun. He had never expected Kumogakure to already seem as though it were in retreat.

"The commander on the Sand Shinobi Battlefield is an idiot too! Why... why does Kumogakure always produce idiots like these for its upper ranks?"

Kumogakure's defeat on the Konoha battlefield was not what angered him most. What angered him most was the Sand Shinobi battlefield. Since it was closer, gathering intelligence had been much easier. Ōnoki simply could not understand why Kumogakure, which had spoken so confidently, could not even defeat Sand Shinobi, who had long been weak and declining.

If Kumogakure could gain the upper hand against Sand Shinobi, tie down Konoha, and even win a few victories, then they could use the momentum of those victories to join Kumogakure in forcing Konoha to bow its head.

They could even join Kumogakure in launching a thunderous strike against the Konoha shinobi on the Stone Shinobi battlefield, instead of being stuck as they were now, unable to fight yet unable not to fight...

Stone Shinobi were like clowns hopping about on a stage, accompanying Konoha's shinobi in this back-and-forth game of war like children playing house.

"Idiotic Cloud Shinobi! Why didn't they send the Eight-Tails to the Sand Shinobi Battlefield? Instead, they let Sand Shinobi brats beat them until they couldn't fight back at all!"

Ōnoki understood that Kumogakure could not possibly send the Eight-Tails to a place so far from Kumogakure and so deep behind enemy lines. Yet he was still furious. If the commanders of the two battlefields had switched places, the situation would never have turned out like this.

His fist slammed into the rock wall of the camp. The earthen stone gradually cracked apart, and loose dirt and rocks kept sliding down from the fissures...

"Someone! Send a message to the Raikage!"