Before long, Danzo, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado arrived at the Hokage's office. They all took their seats in the meeting room.
The Third Hokage passed the scroll around. "Take a look at this. Hanzo's gone and done it. Just as the war ends, he crosses our borders to attack the Land of Iron."
"The Land of Iron doesn't want a full-scale war, and they're unwilling to sacrifice too many people, so they've asked us for help. I suspect the other villages will receive similar requests." Can the Land of Iron fend off the Hidden Rain Village?
Probably not. Hanzo alone would be a serious challenge for them. And as a neutral country, the Land of Iron was reluctant to get dragged into wars. Asking the five great ninja villages for help was their best option.
The Hidden Mist Village was too far away to be of any help.
The Hidden Sand Village was struggling with its own problems.
That left only Konoha, the Hidden Stone, and the Hidden Cloud with the ability to respond.
"This is madness! Hanzo must be out of his mind."
"Hiruzen, we can't let this happen! We have to stop Hanzo immediately," Koharu and Homura both said, outraged.
For the Hidden Rain Village, and by extension, the Land of Rain, the only way to recover was through war and the seizure of resources. With their country nearly bled dry, recovery without war would take at least twenty years.
That was why Hanzo was willing to take the risk of crossing through the Land of Fire to attack the Land of Iron.
Both Koharu and Homura were fuming, while Danzo remained silent. His clenched fists, however, made it clear that he wasn't calm either.
Orochimaru, noticing Danzo's bandaged right eye and arm, couldn't help but feel amused.
He must really hate that old hag Chiyo right about now.
"Stopping him is a must," Hiruzen said, lighting his pipe and taking a deep puff. "The question is, how do we stop him?"
They couldn't just declare war on the Hidden Rain Village. Hanzo hadn't attacked the Land of Fire directly, so Konoha had no grounds to retaliate.
Figuring out how to stop Hanzo was a real problem.
Threatening war wasn't an option.
But would simply sending someone to reason with Hanzo be enough to make him retreat?
It didn't seem likely.
Koharu and Homura, who had just been fuming, were starting to realize that this wasn't going to be an easy situation to handle.
"Danzo, what's your take on this?" Hiruzen asked, turning to his advisor.
Danzo, always cold and calculating, replied, "At this point, the only option is to send someone to persuade Hanzo to withdraw and lead the Rain Village's forces out of the Land of Iron."