"Ai-sama, unfortunately, the Konohagakure took advantage of the incident with the nukenin as a smokescreen to get rid of Danzo and restructure the Anbu," the shinobi bowed, not showing a hint of agitation at his boss's irritation — he knew the latter's character too well — only the highest echelons of Konoha's leadership were privy to what was happening, and information about the event had only recently leaked to the masses when it became impossible to hide the disappearance of one of the elders, which allowed our people to find out about it and immediately send a report.
"The death of one of Konoha's strongest shinobi is cause for celebration," Raikage slammed his palm on the table, causing the wood to bend, "as is the disbanding of Anbu Ne, but we missed an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the internal strife among the Leaf Village by attacking when they least expected it.
"With all due respect, we cannot gather enough forces for an attack so inconspicuously — Konoha's spies are not sleeping either," the jonin dared to object.
"You're right about that," Raikage straightened up and cracked his neck, "but we don't have to use all our forces. In the last war, Iwa managed to deal a heavy blow to Konohagakure thanks to stealth and the participation of only an elite unit.
"And all they achieved was the destruction of a significant part of their elite forces, heavy losses among the civilian population of the Hidden Leaf Village, and the enmity of the victorious side. That's not an advantage in war, quite the opposite," Dodai spread his arms. "It's better not to repeat their mistakes and stick to the plan."
"All right, let's drop this topic," Ai waved him off, leaning back in his chair and folding his powerful arms across his chest. "At least we weren't the only ones who screwed up — old Oonoki must be kicking himself for missing this opportunity."
"Your orders, Raikage-sama?" "Let our people focus on finding out who has replaced Danzo and what the political situation is in Leaf. After the betrayal of an old comrade and such a blow to his reputation, Sarutobi won't be sitting in the Hokage's chair for long, and we can take advantage of that.
"It will be done, Raikage-sama," nodded the shinobi.
With a wave of his hand, Ai dismissed his subordinate and thought for a few minutes about the coming war he was about to unleash and the inevitable casualties, but then he pushed the heavy thoughts aside — the armed forces of Kumogakure no Sato had already fully recovered, and many fighters wanted to take revenge for the shameful defeat in the last war, as well as punish Kirigakure, because of whom a huge number of fighters had fallen in Uzumaki's trap.
Fortunately, the Bloody Mist was recovering much more slowly, thanks to the completely fanatical policy of training new shinobi, disagreements with the Daimyo of the Land of Water, and the sluggish conflict with Suna played its part in weakening them.
A little over a month ago, they replaced their leader, forcing the previous Kage to step down due to the village's deteriorating financial situation and "insufficiently flexible" policies. He was replaced by Yondaime Kazekage of Suna, a certain Rasa, also a possessor of the kekkei genkai Jinton, but instead of iron sand, he used gold.
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