Sunagakure had found a secure position on the border of the Land of Fire, set up camp, and settled in to await the Fourth Kazekage Rasa's arrival.
Konoha had intercepted that news, which was why Hiruzen Sarutobi was so worried.
And now Uchiha Yin had arrived.
Hatake Sakumo had heard that Uchiha Yin was coming, but he would not have been Hatake Sakumo if he had pinned all his hopes on a single piece of intelligence.
Indeed, Hatake Sakumo was the one overseeing everything at Sunagakure's camp.
Konoha's forces were stretched thin, with its other shinobi assigned to battlefields elsewhere.
On this front against Sunagakure, Hatake Sakumo had only Kushina and Tsunade alongside him.
Hatake Sakumo had killed Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law during the Second Shinobi World War. He had also fought Sunagakure for years and knew them well, so he had become the commander of this front.
Tsunade had volunteered for the Sunagakure front to counter the Puppet Masters' poisons.
Chiyo's death did not mean Sunagakure had stopped using poison.
Poison was a Puppet Master's most important weapon. How could they possibly give it up?
Kushina had stayed on after completing her last mission.
The war had begun, and Kushina had no intention of leaving lightly.
In other words, Kushina, Tsunade, and Hatake Sakumo—three Kage Level fighters—had kept the Sunagakure front from falling through sheer hard work.
Those three had single-handedly made up for the gap in troop numbers.
Of course, it helped that Sunagakure was sorely lacking in its strongest fighters.
At present, Ebizo was the only Kage Level fighter Sunagakure had on the battlefield facing Konoha.
Then again, Sunagakure did not have many Kage Level fighters at all. Even counting Karura and Pakura, it had only four.
Oh, with Bunpuku still alive, that made five.
Karura and