In a sheltered sand valley far from the Sunagakure stronghold, Konoha's elite crouched like leopards lying in wait, making their final preparations for battle. The Sand Shinobi had begun adjusting their strategy, exploiting their knowledge of the terrain—and, above all, their control over Konoha's most vital lifeline: water!
The Konoha ninja all came from the warm, humid Land of Fire. They were ill-suited to the wind and sand to begin with, and even less able to endure a lack of water, making water sources essential to them.
Yet water was scarce in the desert, and most of it flowed through underground rivers. This left Konoha unable to determine the exact courses of the rivers supplying its drinking water.
The Sand Shinobi, on their home turf, had begun an utterly shameless poisoning campaign under Chiyo's leadership.
Shinji Uchiha leaned against a rock riddled with holes from wind erosion, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the blade of his long sword, Blazing Inferno.
The cool touch of metal seemed to calm his mind, which had grown slightly feverish from working at full speed.
He had just attended a tactical briefing jointly led by Hatake Sakumo and Tsunade.
Their target stronghold had been built around a natural stone forest and further reinforced by the Sand Shinobi, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.
According to the crucial intelligence gathered during the reconnaissance and sabotage mission he had previously taken part in, this was precisely where Sunagakure was injecting deadly poison into an underground river, contaminating several rivers that served as lifelines within Konoha-controlled territory.
Pulling out this poisonous fang was a crucial step toward reversing Konoha's current disadvantage on the battlefield in the Land of Wind.
Konoha had committed a substantial force to this operation.
Besides the core Hatake Squad-Hatake Sakumo, Shinji Uchiha,