Land of Rivers
"Hey, hey... old man, what are you doing?"
Shukaku spun a wisp of Chakra and used it to repeatedly pound Bunpuku 'Bunpuku head against his shoulder.
"I'm heading towards the next temple."
Bunpuku smiled kindly, then took the little Shukaku that had hit him on the head off and put it in his backpack.
"There's a big Sakyū up ahead, Shukaku, would you like to go play there?"
Suddenly, Bunpuku spotted a huge Sakyū in the distance and asked the little Shukaku in his backpack a question.
"Hmm? A big Sakyū? Let me see!"
Little Shukaku jumped out of the backpack and then looked at the Sakyū.
"This is really nice! Let me come out and have some fun!"
Shukaku cried out the moment it saw the Sakyū, then immediately urged Bunpuku to hurry up.
"Um..."
Bunpuku smiled kindly, then his body quickly transformed into the complete Tailed Beast Transformation of the One-Tail Shukaku.
All control was handed over to Shukaku.
Ah~
Shukaku rolled around on the Sakyū, occasionally letting out a sharp cry.
The One-Tail Chakra was leaking out without any attempt to conceal it.
"Such powerful Chakra..."
Sasori, who was working on transforming the Third Kazekage, was also drawn to this Chakra and couldn't help but walk towards its Chakra.
Scorpion happened to be not too far from One-Tail, and soon he spotted One-Tail rolling around in the Sakyū.
"This is... Tailed Beast?"
Scorpion's pupils contracted, but excitement quickly followed!
He already has a Kage Level puppet; if he were to have another Tailed Beast puppet...
Although he didn't know why the One-Tail had appeared, that didn't matter. What mattered was that Sasori saw hope for the Tailed Beast puppet.
Unfortunately, Sasori failed to complete the transformation of the Third Kazekage and is now completely incapable of dealing with the One-Tail.
After all, toxins are effective against humans, but against Chakra aggregate like the One-Tail, they're just a joke.
Scorpion slowly retreated, but his gaze toward One-Tail grew increasingly greedy.
Konoha
"Our men will not fight against Shimura Danzō!"
The hot-tempered Inuzuka Clan chief slammed his fist on the table and roared at Hiruzen Sarutobi!
"Right!"
Let him go by himself!
The other clan leaders also showed no respect for the Inuzuka Clan, and all voiced their support for Shimura Danzō Leader.
Meanwhile, Shimura Danzō, who was sitting to the side listening, had a gloomy expression.
"I understand what you all mean, but right now we need to prioritize the bigger picture..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke earnestly to the clan leaders.
"Don't give me that 'big picture' nonsense. How could Shimura Danzō not see the big picture? I think you just want to protect him to the death!"
The head of the Aburame Clan snorted coldly, ruthlessly exposing Hiruzen Sarutobi's hypocritical mask.
"How dare you speak to the Hokage like that!"
Utatane Koharu immediately stood up and reprimanded the Aburame clan chief.
"This is my stance. If you're not willing, you can leave now!"
The Aburame clan chief was not intimidated at all and directly met Utatane Koharu's eyes.
"Stop arguing, Koharu, sit down too."
Hiruzen Sarutobi gestured for Utatane Koharu to sit down.
"Since you're so opposed to following Shimura Danzō, then how about this: your clan members will come with me, Minato, Tsunade to the battlefield in Kumogakure."
Hiruzen Sarutobi had no choice but to back down.
"Um."
"Can."
Agreed.
Now the clan leaders no longer objected and all agreed.
As long as they don't follow Shimura Danzō, everything else is negotiable.
After making some personnel assignments, Hiruzen Sarutobi waved his hand to indicate that it was time to end the meeting.
Danzo behind.
Hiruzen Sarutobi said to Shimura Danzō.
" Monkey, what are you doing?"
Shimura Danzō looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi with some confusion.
"This time I'll give you four-fifths of the remaining ninja in the village. You must hold off Kirigakure, and ideally, drive them back!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Shimura Danzō and spoke.
"Four-fifths? Monkey, you're really bold."
Shimura Danzō sneered.
Hiruzen Sarutobi made a very bold decision. It can be said that the Kumogakure basically relies entirely on its clan ninjas. If any problem occurs with the clan ninjas, the entire village will collapse immediately.
" Konoha is now at a critical juncture of life and death. If I don't do this, there could be serious problems."
Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed.
He didn't want to do that either.
The problem is that there aren't enough ninjas; Didaze has almost wiped out Konoha.
Now, just thinking about Didaze Hiruzen Sarutobi makes me grit my teeth in hatred.
Hiruzen Sarutobi is now regretting his decision to accept those Sharingan. If he had known it would turn out this way, he would never have been so greedy as to give the Six-Tails to Didaze for a little immediate gain!
Thus, the war between the four great ninja villages officially began. Compared to the original story, Konoha fought one less Iwagakure, but paid a heavy price.
This also meant that Konoha couldn't even take on three opponents at once, leaving Uchiha Fugaku all alone in Sunagakure to hold them off.
It's fair to say that if Uchiha Fugaku's forces were to break through, Konoha would be instantly besieged and unable to Rotation.
In an effort to appease Uchiha Fugaku, Hiruzen Sarutobi wrote six or seven letters, each filled with promises of easy money.
Uchiha Fugaku scoffed at this, but he had no intention of betraying the village.
Because now is a good time to build up reputation, many people in the village are dissatisfied with Hiruzen Sarutobi. Uchiha Fugaku is not stupid either; he knows very well that Hiruzen Sarutobi will definitely step down after this war ends.
Whether he supports Tsunade or takes power himself, it will be a good choice.
Uchiha Fugaku discussed the matter with Hatake Sakumo overnight, and Hatake Sakumo had no objections.
Seeing the other two villages launch a war, Sunagakure began to attack more and more frequently, but fortunately, with Hatake Sakumo, they managed to hold them off.
The other two villages also had a slight advantage, but they couldn't be captured after a prolonged siege.
Thus, four of the Five Great Shinobi Villages were embroiled in war, while Iwagakure continued to develop on its own.
Furthermore, with other villages launching wars, Iwagakure has even more missions to undertake.
Didaze left Minato Namikaze and Dan Katō so that they could hold off the other two ninja villages. Otherwise, if they were all killed, Konoha wouldn't be able to stop them and would be doomed.
Didaze wanted the four villages to wear each other down, so that while they were all depleting their resources, Iwagakure would continue to develop, and the gap between them would widen.
What Iwagakure needs now is to bide its time and wait until it becomes stronger before annexing Konoha!
The entire Shinobi World was engulfed in chaos and conflict, but Iwagakure was the only peaceful place.