In this timeline, Rasa made the same mistake in the Land of Rivers. If he had had the courage to "go all in" from the beginning, the Land of Rivers would have been taken back by the Sand Ninja long ago. A thousand Sand Ninja, plus Rasa, who was almost at the Kage Level.
It's impossible for the Kirigakure Mist Ninja led by Suikazan Fuguki and others to truly stop them.
In the ensuing offensive and defensive battles...
There were one or two opportunities to launch a strong attack and succeed.
But he missed out on all of Rasa opportunities because of his own hesitation.
Rasa was not a very decisive person. Among the Kage of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Rasa was definitely one of the lowest-ranking ones.
'Never mind, I should play it safe...'
After thinking about it for more than half an hour.
Rasa ultimately abandoned the plans that had just surfaced in his mind.
Just as Rasa got up, intending to go to a certain stronghold to investigate the situation.
" Rasa, an order has come from the village!"
Suddenly.
The middle-aged Sand Ninja who had left earlier reappeared, presenting a special scroll directly to him.
Rasa's expression turned serious at first.
Then he immediately took it.
Open the scroll filled with coded messages.
"Um!?"
As he translated the text one by one and fully understood the contents, Rasa's eyes unconsciously narrowed slightly.
"The North? A small country!?"
Those words were murmured involuntarily.
Just a few seconds later.
"Immediately send someone to investigate this location. Report back immediately once you have concrete information!"
Rasa looked solemnly at the middle-aged Sand Ninja and said in a deep voice.
"Yes, Rasa!"
After the middle-aged Sand Ninja suddenly lowered his head, answered, and left.
Rasa's lips curled up slightly, revealing a strange smile.
"If it's true, then isn't this a great opportunity!?"
An opportunity that arrived quietly.
Just as the Sand Ninja Village seemed to be making a move.
Relations between the nations of the Shinobi World had already become extremely tense at the beginning of Konoha's 42nd year.
Konohagakure, located on its northwestern and northeastern borders, frequently engaged in battles with Stone Ninja and Cloud Ninja.
In the southeast corner.
The Mist Ninja were also frequently testing the limits of Konohagakure.
It is located on the northern route.
There is also friction between the Stone Ninja and the Cloud Ninja!
It can be said that from the very beginning of Konoha Year 42, war was raging in every corner of the Shinobi World!
And it was under such circumstances that...
At the moment when the Sand Ninja quietly launched a certain operation.
As the year 42 of Konoha arrived in May.
A huge piece of news came from Konohagakure, news that was enough to shock the entire Shinobi World and all the major ninja villages.
That was the top ninja of Konoha, the one considered one of the most likely to succeed the Fourth Hokage, the White Fang who shook the entire Shinobi World and instilled fear in countless ninjas from other countries— Hatake Sakumo— who died!
And he died by suicide!
It can be said that when this news spread throughout the entire Shinobi World...
Countless people were in an uproar!
At first, few people were willing to believe the news.
Everyone thought this was nonsense. A pillar of a ninja village, someone who could potentially become Hokage, committing suicide?
This is just a laughable lie!
But as time went on...
This news has now been fully confirmed.
This forced everyone to believe the news: that the Konoha White Fang had indeed chosen to commit suicide!
He committed suicide at the young age of 30, while still at the peak of his ninja career!
It can be said that this happened the moment the news was truly confirmed.
The leaders of the other four major ninja villages were incredibly excited and cheered!
Konoha!
They were so strong that no ninja village was confident they could take on Konoha one-on-one. Let alone winning the war, even a draw was unlikely.
In a time when relations in the Shinobi World are becoming increasingly dangerous and tense, isn't receiving news of Konoha losing a pillar of its people incredibly good news?!
Visible to the naked eye!
The Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Kirigakure, Sunagakure are all becoming restless!
In particular, the Kumogakure directly deployed a large number of troops to the area of the Land of Hot Water near the Land of Fire. This blatant display of dangerous intent is obvious to anyone who isn't blind!
Yagura, who was stationed in Kirigakure, wouldn't miss this opportunity!
A large number of Mist Ninja were mobilized simultaneously.
They moved directly to the border area between the two countries.
However, compared to the Third Raikage of Kumogakure, Yagura was slightly more restrained, because at the same time as the news of Hatake Sakumo's death came, there were also reports of unusual activity in the Sand Ninja Village, even if the probability was not very high.
However, if the Sand Ninja were to launch a full-scale attack in the Land of Rivers, and even extend it to the Land of Tea, covering the entire southern sea frontier, Yagura, no matter how unwilling, would have no choice but to commit his forces to fight the Sand Ninja to the death!
Therefore, before actually taking action.
Yagura still needed to find out what was going on with the Sand Ninja ninja.
The corresponding orders were also quickly transmitted to Suikazan Fuguki in the first instance!
The Land of Rivers, east of the capital.
Inside the core stronghold of Kirigakure.
After several months of construction and reinforcement.
This stronghold is now completely different from what it used to be. Not only has the outer layer been raised and reinforced, and numerous traps have been set up, but it also has two layers of barriers. Unless a ninja is exceptionally strong or skilled in sealing and Barrier Ninjutsu, it is absolutely impossible for them to sneak into the vicinity of the stronghold without the sight of the Mist Ninja.
In addition, there were two hundred Mist Ninja on rotation for defense.
The defenses of this outpost have reached an unprecedented level.
In a strong attack in February.
Rasa steadily advanced along both flanks, forming a perfect pincer attack formation, he personally led over four hundred Sand Ninja in a surprise attack!
In that attack, if Suikazan Fuguki hadn't been well-prepared, the Sand Ninja would have retaken the city.
Of course, this was also thanks to the fact that Minazuki Fuuka, Kamijuya Nishizora quickly returned to defend after receiving the news.
In addition Rasa relapsed into his old habits, which led to the Sand Ninja's attack failing!
Even so, it's clear that the defenses of this stronghold are now far stronger than before!
If it were the same level of defense as before...
The Sand Ninja's strong attack is definitely going to succeed!
At this moment, Suikazan Fuguki, the commander of the Mist Ninja front, was sitting in his room, looking at the orders conveyed by his Mizukage on the scroll.
" Fuka -san, take a look. This is the Mizukage's order. The Fourth Hokage wants us to send some personnel to investigate. If it's a hoax, we don't need to worry about it. But if it's real, we need to intervene. We can't let the Sand Ninja Sand Ninja get there first, otherwise, it would be a real boost to their strength!"
Suikazan Fuguki handed the scroll in his hand to Minazuki Fuuka, who was standing beside him, and said with a solemn expression.