After entering the Land of Rivers, the group found themselves facing a chaotic battlefield. The Land of Rivers was now the main battleground between the Land of Fire Forces and the Land of Wind Forces, with both the Hokage and the Kazekage present. The fighting was fiercer than ever, even surpassing the early stages of the war between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning. After all, the Land of Lightning had only sent some of its elite Kumogakure Ninja back then, without committing its main force. Once that war reached a stalemate, neither side's main force launched any frenzied offensives, so the scale of the fighting naturally fell short of what they saw here.
Before them, Samurai from the two countries pressed against one another, drawing their swords to attack their enemies. Amid the masses, ninja from Konoha and Sunagakure darted back and forth. Clearly, the group had stumbled into a local battlefield.
"Honestly, I don't know whether to call this good luck or bad," Kazemori Masaki said with a wry chuckle.
They had just endured a pursuit by Sunagakure and had already consumed more than half their chakra. In their current condition, joining a battle was hardly ideal—not impossible, merely unwise. Fortunately, the chaos of the battlefield meant Sunagakure's pursuers could no longer surround and ambush them at will as they had on their home ground in the Land of Wind.
Hyuga Qi detected that the pursuers led by Chiyo were nearly upon them and warned Kazemori Masaki. After a brief discussion with Shimura Danzō, Masaki decided they would join the battle. It would be dangerous, but at least they would not have to face those increasingly frenzied Sunagakure Ninja alone.
"Go!" At the command, everyone immediately leaped out of the forest where they had hidden