Iwagakure: They Had to Be Here to Provoke Me!

Damn it, did Hanzō really think he was made of clay?

Black Iron Sand rose into the air, circling around the Third Kazekage.

Yet the Third Kazekage showed no intention of turning around. He would never place Hanzō on the same level as himself.

"Amegakure has no right to choose, and neither do you. How you choose is entirely up to you."

Cooperate?

Why should Sunagakure cooperate with you?

As for siding with Konoha, that was even more impossible. It would only make Iwagakure raise the stakes.

In the end, there was only one outcome. Amegakure and the Land of Rain had no choice at all, nor could they escape.

"Hmph! I hope you won't regret this."

After leaving behind that threat, Hanzō charged into the rain curtain and swiftly vanished into the mountains.

Faced with the Third Kazekage's threats and mockery, Hanzō had no intention of compromising.

He did not want his village and country to suffer an undeserved disaster, but he would never bow his head to the Five Kage.

After all... once he lowered his head, he would never be able to raise it again.

For someone like Hanzō, who wanted to stand on equal footing with the Five Kage, such an outcome was more unbearable than death.

"Utterly clueless."

What standing did he have to want to become the Rain Kage and stand shoulder to shoulder with the Five Kage?

Did Amegakure have a choice?

No!

Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure were playing a game against one another, while Amegakure was merely the sacrifice caught in the middle.

Hanzō had no room to choose either, unless he could turn from a demigod into a true god.

Without that kind of strength, even obtaining some of Konoha's intelligence would be pointless.

At most, it would only make the situation even more chaotic.

After staying at the camp for several days, Tsunade returned to the village. Just as she had said, the village dispatched a group of shinobi who entered the Land of Rain openly and without concealment.

Konoha's dispatch of personnel into the Land of Rain was a response to Sunagakure's provocation.

Sunagakure, having deliberately provoked them, naturally would not show weakness. They transferred the shinobi who had been running back and forth through the Land of Rivers into the Land of Rain.

For a time, the situation in the Land of Rain changed, and the atmosphere grew tense.

The Land of Rain bordered the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Earth. When Konoha and Sunagakure sent people into the Land of Rain, Iwagakure, which had originally just been watching from the sidelines, immediately grew restless.

What were Konoha and Sunagakure trying to do by sending people into the Land of Rain?

Even provocations had limits. If they really wanted to fight, they should go to the Land of Rivers. Why come hopping around in the Land of Rain?

That was right. In Iwagakure's eyes, Sunagakure and Konoha's actions were a provocation.

If Konoha merely wanted to oppose Sunagakure, it could have acted directly from the Land of Rivers. There was no need to go out of its way to stir things up in the Land of Rain.

Konoha's plan was aimed at Amegakure, but Iwagakure would not see it that way.

Was a tiny Amegakure really worth Konoha's concern?

They were clearly after something else.

An important meeting was held at the Tsuchikage Office Building. Before long, a force of Iwagakure shinobi also entered the Land of Rain.

For a time, the atmosphere in the Land of Rain became thick with the smell of gunpowder, something even the endless rain could not wash away.

The result of a chaotic situation filled with tension was friction, and friction inevitably led to battles.

The beds in the medical room, which had sat unused for more than half a year, finally came in handy.

If not for the injured being sent back from the Land of Rain, Jingyi would have nearly forgotten that he was the camp's medical shinobi.

The situation in the Land of Rain was chaotic, but it did not affect the Border Camp.

After all, the Border Camp's primary role was reconnaissance and buffering, not sending its people onto the battlefield to kill enemies. As long as it ensured that no enemies invaded the Land of Fire from the Land of Rain, the camp's mission was complete.

Once the conflict intensified or war broke out, the village would dispatch others.

It was just that, when that time came, the camp would become a Logistics Department for war resources.

However, Konoha had no intention of waging an aggressive war. If possible, the Third Hokage would have loved to hold several more Five Kage Summits and let the Shinobi World develop peacefully.

In any case, the other villages did not possess Konoha's innate advantages. When it came to development, only Kumogakure could compete with it.

Konoha possessed excellent innate advantages, a huge population, a large shinobi base, and more shinobi than any of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

Although Kumogakure was working hard to catch up, surpassing Konoha would take a very long time, and that was assuming Kumogakure had sufficient money.

Iwagakure was still the same as ever, always relying on mass troop production. Without innate advantages or economic advantages, it simply mass-produced troops and built up its Earth Release Corps.

Kirigakure... was still embroiled in internal conflict. At least before the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, took office, it would be difficult for Kirigakure to launch an external war. At most, it could only join in the excitement.

Sunagakure guarded the most barren land in the Shinobi World, yet possessed the greatest ambitions in the Shinobi World.

Perhaps because its land was too barren and its population too small, Sunagakure had always eyed the Land of Fire greedily, constantly wanting to pounce on it, take a bite, and eat its fill.

Its provocations in the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rain were the best proof.

Beyond being driven by ambition, the greatest reason was that Sunagakure's development potential had already been squeezed dry. Its development had stagnated, and if it wanted to continue climbing upward, it needed more resources, population, and money.

Without enough population, resources, and money to develop, it had fallen into stagnation and spent years going in circles. Meanwhile, its neighbor Konoha grew stronger year after year. How could Sunagakure possibly sit still?

Konoha did not mind the Five Great Shinobi Villages developing peacefully, but Sunagakure did. Sunagakure was utterly unwilling to accept such a situation.

Small conflicts continued, but there were no large-scale battles, and the situation settled into this balance.

Although the smell of gunpowder remained heavy, none of the three sides took the initiative to break the deadlock.

Because they feared being ganged up on.

The situation in the Land of Rain was relatively stable, and Jingyi was happy for it to remain that way.

At least until his rotation back to the village, the conflict should not intensify further.

Once the conflict escalated or a local war erupted, rotation would become nothing but wishful thinking. All the camp's shinobi would be kept behind to continue holding their posts.

By the end of the year, Jingyi and the other shinobi in his rotation group set out on the road back to the village.

Everyone wore joyous smiles, because once they returned to the village, they could celebrate a lively New Year with their families.

He was back.

Looking at Konoha's somewhat shabby gate, Jingyi inexplicably found it comforting.

Spending a year stationed at the Border Camp had truly been grueling.

First, he would go to an inn with hot springs, take a hot bath, eat something, and then go home to rest.

Jingyi did not go looking for Tsunade. With the year drawing to a close and the changes in the Shinobi World's situation, Tsunade had been very busy lately. She might even be in a meeting at the Hokage Office Building right now.

He found an inn with hot springs, chose a private bath, and took his ticket to the changing room to change clothes.

As he soaked his body in the slightly scalding water, Jingyi let out a long breath.

Sure enough, returning to the village was more comfortable. Even taking a hot bath at the Border Camp was troublesome, and food was even worse—there was hardly any room for choice.

Soaking in the hot spring, Jingyi comfortably closed his eyes and began to feel a little sleepy.

After a hot bath, his entire body felt much more relaxed.

Jingyi rubbed his stomach and decided to have some barbecue to comfort his internal organs. He had been busy traveling these past two days and had eaten nothing but dry rations the entire way.

He arrived at a barbecue restaurant run by the Akimichi, found an empty seat, and then ordered a large amount of meat in one go.

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