Uchiha Yi had no idea that Hiruzen Sarutobi had already begun subtly holding him back.
After all, Hiruzen still treated him well on the surface. He had even given Yi some Training Notes to read.
Of course, Hiruzen was not utterly ruthless. If he had been, he could have sent Yi to the battlefield right away and assigned him dangerous missions. Yi could have died without anyone suspecting a thing.
But Hiruzen was not that coldhearted. Even if he had been, he would not have dared go that far while Mito Uzumaki was still around.
The Uchiha Clan was born for battle. Rather than let Yi take missions and grow stronger through combat, Hiruzen preferred to keep him in the village. If Yi could still grow rapidly under those conditions, Hiruzen would accept it.
Besides, Yi had every reason to remain in the village. He might have graduated, but he was still only a Genin—and only eight years old.
There was no way to justify sending an eight-year-old child to war.
Time flew by, and two years passed in the blink of an eye.
A great deal happened in those two years. Driven to desperation by harassment from the other Five Great Shinobi Villages, Hanzō defied all common sense and declared war on the Five Great Nations. He was promptly beaten soundly and fled back to the Land of Rain with his Rain Ninja.
Hanzō had barely returned when Sunagakure, for reasons no one knew, declared war on Konoha. The two sides somehow ended up fighting in the Land of Rain, turning it into their battlefield and devastating the lives of its people. Furious, Hanzō declared war on both Konoha and Sunagakure. Any Konoha Ninja or Sand Shinobi who entered the Land of Rain became his target.
Konoha and Sunagakure