When news arrived that the Hidden Leaf Village had been attacked by remnants of the Sky Ninja Village and Orochimaru, and the Third Hokage, who stayed behind, had died in battle, the Kage of the other villages did not feel any secret delight at Konoha's misfortune.
On the contrary, these villages, which had suffered much at the hands of Konoha in the past, all empathized.
Because it wasn't just Konoha that was weak right now; Cloud, Mist, Sand, and Stone were not much better off than Konoha.
Other smaller ninja villages like Waterfall, Grass, and Snow were even more like undefended targets in front of the powerful Akatsuki organization.
Sure enough, what everyone worried about happened very quickly.
Not only did the Hidden Mist Village suffer heavy losses from the attack, but even the Fourth Mizukage, who was hiding outside the village to recuperate, was defeated and captured by the Akatsuki organization.
Following Konoha, the Mist also suffered a crushing defeat.
Terumi Mei roared: "Damn it, we absolutely cannot let these bastards of the Akatsuki organization go!"
The Third Tsuchikage Onoki shook his head gently: "Mizukage, don't let emotions interfere with judgment! From the intelligence, the purpose of Akatsuki attacking your Hidden Mist Village should be to force out the Fourth Mizukage, so their goal hasn't changed, it's still the Tailed Beasts!"
Bang...
The Fourth Raikage slammed his fist on the conference table: "But just passively taking a beating like this is not a solution either!"
In the early stages of the great war, because the Ninja Village Alliance took the initiative and had intelligence support secretly provided by Itachi, they caught the Akatsuki organization off guard.
Dozens of strongholds painstakingly built by the Akatsuki organization were eliminated one by one by the precise strikes of the Ninja Village Alliance in just a few days.
Unfortunately, the official members of the Akatsuki organization were not only powerful but also all experienced, cunning, and difficult to deal with.
After all, before joining the Akatsuki organization, many of them were 'S-rank' wanted criminals running rampant in the Ninja World. So apart from the group of the demon Moryo and Shinno, who relied on their powerful strength to use themselves as bait, attempting to kill the ninja army sent by the Ninja Village Alliance, other Akatsuki members all quickly disengaged from battle and chose to temporarily retreat after noticing something was wrong.
This led to the first phase of the Ninja Village Alliance's raid not achieving the expected results.
Now the Akatsuki organization began to attack. Not only did they send out an army of tens of thousands of White Zetsu to pin down a large amount of the Ninja Village Alliance's forces on the frontal battlefield, but they also united with Sky Ninja remnants and Orochimaru to launch strikes on the weak Hidden Leaf Village and Hidden Mist Village, making the Ninja Village Alliance start to worry instead.
The Fifth Kazekage Pakura shook her head helplessly: "As long as we can't find the precise locations of Nagato and those Jinchuriki, we can only choose to wait!"
The Fourth Raikage asked: "How much longer do we have to wait?"
For a moment, the conference room fell silent.
The Ninja Village Alliance had already launched a nearly carpet-style search on dozens of countries of various sizes throughout the Ninja World, but no one could say when Nagato could be found.
Tsunade said at this time: "Perhaps we can find a way to contact Itachi Uchiha!"
"Mhm, that's also a way!"
The Third Tsuchikage expressed agreement.
Through previous operations, the accuracy of the intelligence transmitted by Itachi had been verified. So at this time of dilemma, contacting Itachi Uchiha might be a solution to the problem.
After reaching a consensus, the Kage began discussing plans to contact Itachi and plans to defend against village attacks.
Due to insufficient military strength, the Kage even came up with a 'Spark Plan', letting each village secretly transfer important classics, supplies, and children to safe locations to reduce losses from village attacks.
Undoubtedly, the Akatsuki organization's attacks on ninja villages did not make the Five Kage present fear or retreat.
The Five Kage knew very well that the current situation was a life-and-death struggle. As long as the spark was preserved, even if the village was gone, it could be rebuilt. But if they were penny-wise and pound-foolish at this time, drawing troops from the headquarters to defend each village separately, they would instead be defeated by the Akatsuki organization one by one, finally losing the entire war.
In the Great Ninja War, there was no room for womanly benevolence!
Just at the most intense moment of the Five Kage's discussion, an Intelligence Division ninja hurriedly came to the conference room and reported: "The reconnaissance unit heading to Target No. 7 has just sent back a message."
Tsunade asked: "How are Mifune and the others?"
The Intelligence Division ninja swallowed and replied: "The reconnaissance unit has found Mifune-sama, but due to heavy injuries, Mifune-sama soon fell into a deep coma. However, before falling into coma, Mifune-sama said their encirclement and suppression of Moryo and Shinno failed completely. The opponent's strength far exceeded the simulation of 'Takamagahara'."
Tsunade sighed: "Is it really so..."
Several encirclement and suppression units lost contact one after another, and finally even Mifune, the commander of the Land of Iron camp, was lost. The headquarters had long suspected this.
The Third Tsuchikage asked: "If so, how did Mifune survive? Moryo is a real demon!"
The Intelligence Division ninja shook his head: "Mifune-sama fainted before he could explain in detail."
Terumi Mei immediately asked: "What about the scene?"
"The scene..." Pausing, the Intelligence Division ninja seemed to be deliberating on descriptive words, and said after brewing for a while: "That snow peak marked as Target No. 7 collapsed. No, it should be said it was completely erased by some power!"
Hearing this, the Kage frowned in unison.
Such a vague conclusion even made them suspect whether the professional level of the reconnaissance squad sent to 'Target No. 7' was up to standard.
Just as Tsunade was preparing to inquire in detail, another Intelligence Division ninja hurriedly came to the conference room and reported: "News came from the Land of Grass camp. They were attacked by that monster inside the Grass Ninja Village's 'Box of Ultimate Bliss'! Suffering heavy losses, urgently need support!"
"What!?"
The Five Kage were all stunned, quickly recalling information about the Grass Ninja Village's 'Box of Ultimate Bliss'.
The Third Tsuchikage's face darkened slightly: "Searched for so long without news before, but it actively jumped out at this time. Could it be that the Grass Ninja Village's 'Box of Ultimate Bliss' has been controlled by the Akatsuki organization all along?"
Tsunade said: "That monster is very troublesome. Back in the Land of Grass battle, that monster single-handedly stalled our Konoha ninja army! So if we don't send people to support the Land of Grass camp immediately, they definitely won't hold!"
The Fourth Raikage said angrily: "This must be a vicious plan of the Akatsuki organization to weaken the military strength of our headquarters!"
Angry as he was, the Fourth Raikage did not oppose sending troops for support.
Firstly, the Land of Grass was adjacent to the Land of Rain, so support was not difficult. Secondly, if the headquarters abandoned the Land of Grass camp, the opponent could attack one camp after another, endlessly weakening the Ninja Village Alliance's control over the Ninja World. In the end, it would definitely be the Ninja Village Alliance that couldn't hold on...