While Obito was sparring with the Superman Squad.
The allied forces of the entire Shinobi World had quietly finished assembling.
On the border of the Land of Fire, tents stretched endlessly across a vast plain that Konoha had specifically set aside.
An unprecedented Allied Shinobi Forces had gathered here.
Even during the First War, when the nations fought Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, there had never been such a massive gathering.
As far as the eye could see, there was a sea of people.
The ninja of each village had their own distinctive traits. For the first time since their founding, the Five Great Shinobi Villages truly displayed their most elite forces.
Before one another, holding nothing back.
On a rise at the edge of the plain, the Five Kage stood shoulder to shoulder. Behind them stood several special figures. They were the trump cards of this war, and the final reserves of their respective villages-the jinchūriki.
Hán, Iwagakure's Five-Tails Jinchuriki, wore crimson Steam Armor that covered his entire body. Meanwhile, Killer B, Kumogakure's Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, wore sunglasses, humming under his breath as he made strange hand gestures.
They had all changed into their respective battle armor.
Only Minato had forgone this defensive armor for the sake of mobility. His Hokage Robe snapped and danced wildly in the wind.
"The wind is certainly boisterous today." Minato shaded his eyes from the sun, gazing at the allied forces stretching beyond sight.
"Hmph. I never imagined you old geezers still had so much tucked away. Looks like the previous war didn't cost you all that much."
Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage, floated in the air, rubbing his overburdened old back as he spoke sourly.
"Look at Konoha. The fighting at Kikyo Mountain was so brutal that they even sent children to the battlefield, yet now they've brought out more jōnin than Iwagakure and Kirigakure combined. That old fox Sarutobi really kept his cards close."
A sharp gleam flashed through Ōnoki's eyes as he spoke.
If not for this alliance, who would have known Konoha still had so much in reserve? Fortunately, they hadn't fought them to the bitter end back then.
"Likewise," the Acting Kazekage replied hoarsely. "Iwagakure isn't doing badly either. From what I can see, they have quite a lot of chakra. You call these reserves?"
"Their chakra levels rival our village's jōnin. If Akatsuki hadn't backed us all into a corner this time, how long would you have kept them hidden?"
"Kirigakure hasn't held anything back." The Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, wore a cold expression as he looked at his own contingent, the smallest of them all.
Kirigakure's hospitals are still full of wounded and disabled ninja. Deliberately wounding them instead of killing them-are they using the wounded to drain our village's finances?
How calculating of Akatsuki!
"Enough!" A, the Fourth Raikage, impatiently interrupted their mutual sniping.
He flexed his arms, which were thicker than an ordinary person's thighs.
"What the hell is the point of talking about this now? I want to know when we can set out! I can't wait to twist every last one of those bastards' heads off!"
"Lord Raikage, there's no need to rush." Minato Namikaze smiled, gently soothing the Raikage as always.
"The army has assembled, and our tactics are settled. Isn't this precisely the time to raise morale?"
The Raikage nodded.
Minato turned around.
Facing the sea of ninja below, he took a deep breath, gathering chakra in his throat.
"Silence!!"
His booming voice carried across the entire gathering, and the plain instantly fell silent.
Minato's gentle voice reached every ninja's ears clearly.
"Everyone! We come from different villages and have different pasts."
"In fact... not long ago, we were still at war!"
"But today! As we stand here, we share only one identity! The Five Shinobi Alliance!"
"The enemy we are about to face is Akatsuki, which seeks to rule the entire Shinobi World through violence and fear, and even destroy it!"
"This battle is for peace! For the future! We must fight, and we must not fail!"
"Ohhh!"
Tens of thousands of ninja roared at once, their voices merging into a wave of sound that shook heaven and earth, even scattering some of the clouds above.
At the Five Kage's command, the largest army in the history of the Shinobi World began marching toward the Land of Rain.
Within the army, Kakashi followed close behind Minato.
He wore a Konoha jōnin vest and his signature mask, revealing only one lifeless, dead-fish eye, devoid of any emotion.
But inwardly, he was far from as calm as he appeared.
Ever since returning from that mission, the visual power of Obito's Sharingan in his left eye seemed to have been growing stronger without his noticing.
Along with it came fragments of dreams.
He always dreamed of the same scene.
His Lightning Blade, crackling with countless bolts of lightning, was caught firmly in a hand.
No matter what he did, that hand did not budge.
He wanted to look up and see its owner's face, but no matter how hard he tried, the face remained indistinct, as though it had been pixelated.
It wasn't just that person. Everyone around him had faces that were blurred mosaics in the dream.
That feeling.
Kakashi abruptly clutched the vest over his chest.
"Kakashi, are you all right?" Minato's voice interrupted his tangled thoughts, pulling him out of his turmoil.
Kakashi came back to his senses. Looking into Minato's concerned eyes, he merely nodded lightly without speaking.
As the troops advanced deeper, the once-clear sky gradually disappeared, replaced by an oppressive blanket of gray clouds stretching beyond sight.
The air grew damp and cold. A fine drizzle began to fall, pattering faintly against their armor.
"It seems we've entered the Land of Rain." Floating ahead of the column, Ōnoki frowned at the dim sky.
"Amegakure shouldn't be far now."
"Vanguard!" The Raikage's voice rang out from the front of the column.
"From now on, don't let a single Rain Ninja patrol you encounter escape! They must not get a chance to send a warning!"
The order was swiftly passed down.
Along the way, the allied forces rolled forward like a bulldozer, crushing every hidden sentry post and trap around Amegakure beneath the torrent of the ninja army.
The only thing they failed to find was any Rain Ninja...
"What's going on? Not a single person on patrol?!" Karatachi Yagura, who had suffered at their hands before, felt something was wrong.
"Don't overthink it. No matter how they resist, they're no match for our allied forces." The Raikage stared coldly ahead.
Finally, at dusk, the army arrived at the foot of a massive hill.
The Five Kage were the first to climb to its summit.
Standing atop the hill, they suddenly had an unobstructed view.
The Raikage glanced at a nearby hill that had been shaved into a bald crown and thought, Fortunately, that monster isn't here.
Before them, at the far end of the drizzle-shrouded plain, across the lake, a metal city of steel pipes and towers stood quietly.
Amegakure...
Silent and cold, they gazed at the distant city.
War was on the verge of breaking out.
Beneath the Pure Land.
The White Old Man floated in the air, holding a black monk's staff.
He frowned and opened his eyes.
Revealing a pair of Rinnegan.
"Strange... why does it feel as though... history has gone off course?"