After dinner.
After Hoshino finished clearing away the dishes, he knelt down opposite Grandma Chiyo.
He recounted everything that had happened during that period in detail, without hiding anything.
From the Bingkui infiltrating Konoha to the breakout on the coast, and then to the secret talks with Rasa.
Grandma Chiyo remained silent throughout, except when she heard about the five people jointly governing the area, her fingertips trembled almost imperceptibly.
"... Therefore, Sunagakure needs a revolution." Hoshino looked directly into the old man's eyes. "Those corrupt ninja factions must be wiped out."
Grandma Chiyo put down her teacup and said, "Do you know what this means? A civil war. Are you sure Sunagakure can withstand it right now?"
"We have to bear it even if we can't, that's why we need your support."
Hoshino's voice was soft, yet it carried an undeniable power.
"We don't need you to take action personally, just stand by our side in crucial moments."
Upon hearing Hoshino's words, Grandma Chiyo unconsciously stroked the rim of her teacup with her fingers.
She finally understood why Ebizo had been sending people to urge her to return to the village so frequently.
That cunning old fellow must have sensed something; he's always been most sensitive to the undercurrents within the village.
She probably wanted to use her as an older sister to test Hoshino and Rasa's true intentions.
Grandma Chiyo's gaze fell on Hoshino's calm face.
The child she raised single-handedly has now grown up to the point where he is capable of planning such a significant undertaking.
Grandma Chiyo felt a complex mix of emotions, a mixture of relief and unspeakable worry.
"Change?"
Sunagakure definitely needs to change; those corrupt ninja clans are indeed dragging down the development of the entire village.
But she knew better than anyone the cost of a civil war.
The turmoil surrounding the disappearance of the Third Kazekage, the grief over the deaths of his son and daughter-in-law, Sasori's defection, and the death of Pakura.
The Sunagakure has already endured too much trauma; can it truly withstand another internal purge?
"I'll give you an answer in three days," Grandma Chiyo finally said.
She needs time to think, and she also needs to have a proper talk with Ebizo.
If change is inevitable, then she must at least ensure that casualties are minimized.
Hoshino nodded respectfully, saying nothing more; it was something he had expected.
Change was imperative; they were all prepared for a civil war and a major purge.
No one can change that.
Half a month has passed in the blink of an eye.
Grandma Chiyo eventually agreed to side with Hoshino.
Ebizo announced his resignation from the position of elder, entering retirement and no longer participating in village affairs.
Attacks on nobles in the Land of Wind are becoming more frequent. Kankuro and Rasa are selling resources at low prices, and the puppet and cybernetic body shops are once again offering significant discounts.
A large amount of wealth began to flow into the Reform Society.
The Uchiha Clan landed on land, officially joined the Reform Society, and became members of Sunagakure.
In the same month, Konoha successfully shifted the focus of its conflict, joining forces with Kumogakure and Iwagakure to force Sunagakure to hand over its prosthetic body technology and Chakra Crystal technology.
The joint declaration of the three countries emphasized this point.
This dangerous technology should not exist in the world and must be permanently sealed away.
The announcement specifically stated that all forbidden technologies, including the Human Puppet Technique, should be completely destroyed to avoid disrupting the balance of the Shinobi World.
Iwagakure, the Tsuchikage of Ōnoki, publicly declared this.
The technological advancements of Sunagakure have threatened the stability of the entire Shinobi World; we will never allow a village to possess such terrifying power.
The Raikage of Kumogakure poses an even greater direct threat.
If Sunagakure obstinate, we will have no choice but to take necessary measures.
Faced with combined pressure from the three countries.
Sunagakure adopted a strategy of befriending distant states while attacking nearby ones, and uniformly responded to Iwagakure and Konoha with the word "get lost."
After discussing the matter with the delegation sent by Kumogakure until midnight, Kumogakure chose to remain neutral and no longer participate in the affair.
At dawn the following day, all Sunagakure Anbu were mobilized to cooperate with the newly formed Uchiha unit in a cleanup operation.
Within three days, nine Konoha spies and 15 Iwagakure spies were eliminated within the territory, and 46 intelligence scrolls were seized.
Along the border, the number of Sunagakure troops stationed there began to surge.
The largest number of them, more than two thousand, are found at the borders of the Land of Rivers and the Land of Birds.
The number of ninjas stationed on the border of the Land of Rain has also increased to 1,500.
Nearly six thousand ninjas were deployed at the border, almost wiping out the existing fighting force of Sunagakure.
The two major ninja villages reacted swiftly to Sunagakure's tough stance.
Iwagakure immediately went into wartime mode, with 3,000 elite Rock Ninja rushing to the border overnight, and the Explosion Corps setting up a dense array of Explosive Clay at the border.
In addition to increasing troop deployments at the border, Konoha has also strengthened its surveillance of Sunagakure, while its Medical Department are urgently producing large quantities of antidotes.
The situation took a sharp turn for the worse in just a few days.
All factions in the Shinobi World are closely watching this tense standoff.
Caravans changed their trade routes, the prices of strategic materials on the black market skyrocketed, and intelligence brokers were extremely busy.
The daimyo prefectures of various countries held an emergency meeting.
The Three Great Shinobi Villages are urged to exercise restraint and immediately cease their current acts of warfare.
However, Sunagakure ignored the mediation of the Daimyo of the Land of Wind and continued to do as it pleased.
This has put Iwagakure and Konoha in a difficult position, with a large number of ninja stationed on the border, but neither dares to fire the first shot.
The situation began to reach a strange stalemate.
On the border.
The Sunagakure's ninja army and the combined forces of Iwagakure and Konoha faced off from a distance, both maintaining the highest level of alert while tacitly controlling the scale of the conflict.
Every morning, the patrol teams meet on both sides of the border, glaring at each other but never making the first move.
The supply lines thus became a new battleground for the three sides.
The Sunagakure's transport convoys were frequently attacked by sand bandits, the Iwagakure's supply depots were repeatedly destroyed by accidental fires, and Konoha's medical supplies often mysteriously disappeared.
These unspoken clashes have kept the border situation tense.
Even more subtle is the diplomatic maneuvering.
The Kumogakure's delegation frequently traveled between the three parties, the samurai of the Land of Iron began to act as mediators, and even the Kirigakure sent observers.
The mediation orders from various daimyo prefectures became more and more frequent and the tone became more and more severe, but no one was willing to take the first step back.
Under this high-pressure standoff, civilians in the border areas have long since evacuated, trade routes have been cut off, and oases have been abandoned.
As time went by.
The stalemate of the three-way standoff spread like a plague throughout the Shinobi World, its impact extending far beyond the military sphere, permeating every aspect of the entire ninja world.
The once-thriving cross-border trade has been nearly paralyzed.
The disruption of trade routes led to shortages of supplies in various countries, causing the prices of poisons from Sunagakure, rare minerals from Iwagakure, and medicinal herbs from Konoha to skyrocket.
The black market seized the opportunity to grow, forming an underground economic network centered around gold exchange offices.
However, the economies of the Three Great Shinobi Villages showed an abnormal upward trend.
Leveraging its monopoly on prosthetic technology and Chakra Crystal, Sunagakure secretly supplied technological byproducts to other ninja villages through the black market.
With its well-developed intelligence system and mature ninja hiring mechanism, Konoha outsources a large number of routine tasks such as border patrols and supply escorts to surrounding small and medium-sized ninja villages.
Iwagakure purchased a large number of low-end puppets through the black market to replace manual mining and fortification, which greatly alleviated Iwagakure's financial pressure.
This also resulted in the Three Great Shinobi Villages miraculously maintaining a balance between income and expenditure despite the enormous costs of the border ninja army's long-term stationing.
Yet, within this bizarre balance, only death remains fair.
The list of ninjas who died in the Three Kingdoms period was growing every day, but no one could explain why they died.
The number of names on the tombstones is increasing.
However, the prelude to war was never truly raised.