UK:GSW Chapter 459 – The Outbreak of the Third Great Ninja War
One after another, brand-new game developers began immersing themselves in their new work.
The Hidden Leaf Gaming Association also implemented incentive policies for these people. They directly provided a sum of funding so that the new developers wouldn't need to worry about their livelihood and could devote themselves entirely to the great undertaking of game development.
If these developers needed to recruit more assistants or start their own companies, they could submit a proposal to the Hidden Leaf Gaming Association to apply for a start-up loan. This was truly a low-interest loan, not intended to make a profit from them, but rather to genuinely create the first generation of game developers in the ninja world.
From here on, genjutsu-based games would truly enter a hundred-flowers-blossom stage—an era that marked the beginning of a new age for the genre.
People would be able to play more and more genjutsu games.
Of course, with more developers, all kinds of bad games were bound to appear—this was an inevitability in the development of the game industry, a stage that had to be experienced.
And this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because even among bad games there could be creative ideas. When the number of ideas increased, excellent works would inevitably be born.
At that time, it would be exactly when Uchiha Kei was looking forward to carefully evaluating them.
For now, what Uchiha Kei needed to do was like a farmer tending an orchard—simply cultivating those "fruit trees" well.
It was in such circumstances that, in February of Year 48 of the Hidden Leaf calendar—the springtime in the main world—the Third Great Ninja War broke out.
The Hidden Mist, Hidden Stone, and Hidden Cloud jointly launched a surprise attack codenamed "Springtime of the Ninja World," striking directly at…
…the Hidden Sand Village.
Yes, the target was not the Hidden Leaf, but the Hidden Sand. They carried out a lightning war to destroy a nation, akin to striking without the slightest hesitation, delivering the Hidden Sand a devastating blow in one battle—killing the Third Kazekage, hailed as the strongest Kazekage, along with a large number of the Hidden Sand's elite.
Indeed, the Hidden Sand suffered catastrophic misfortune, becoming a thorn in the side of other major villages.
As for why this happened, it was because after cooperating with the Hidden Leaf, the Hidden Sand had gained far too many benefits.
The promotion of the Hidden Leaf Arcade, the large number of ninja contracts, and the many job opportunities provided had caused the Hidden Sand's economy to become deeply bound to the Leaf.
Although the Third Kazekage still believed the Hidden Sand was an independent force—and their economic strength had greatly increased thanks to their cooperation with the Leaf, making life better by the day—he remained unaware of the potential dangers in such economic binding.
Even if he sensed that some Sand ninja had overly high favorability toward the Leaf, without any formal study of economics and with no historical precedent in the ninja world to refer to, he could not grasp the risks involved.
Perhaps he realized a little, but again—without systematic knowledge, and with no past example to draw on—he could not truly comprehend the perils of economic interdependence.
In fact, even in the real world before the 21st century, many national leaders either fell for it or failed to understand, thinking high economic binding had no real danger, at least not enough to threaten their own power and rule.
It was only after the 21st century, when the internet developed and the speed of information exchange grew exponentially, that the dangers of economic binding became widely recognized.
So it wasn't that the Third Kazekage was stupid—he truly didn't understand the risks.
Even within the Hidden Leaf, many people also didn't understand. They thought that sending large orders and money to the Hidden Sand and the Land of Wind was foolish—just giving away the Leaf's money to another country.
Without systematic study, without historical precedent, and without the Leaf using this economic binding to manipulate the Hidden Sand or the Land of Wind, people simply could not understand the stakes.
In fact, because this deep binding brought such close cooperation, other powers saw the Hidden Sand and the Land of Wind as entirely subordinate to the Leaf—as loyal allies that had received countless benefits and were willing to risk their lives for the Leaf.
For example, among the many ninja missions the Leaf outsourced, the Hidden Sand received the largest share, meaning many Sand ninja were essentially working for the Leaf and the Land of Fire.
While taking missions and completing them was standard for any ninja, and these missions were harmless to the Sand or the Land of Wind, from the outside it looked like the Hidden Sand was working for the Leaf non-stop—earning a fortune from them, developing their village based on the Leaf's model, and acting as the Leaf's vanguard.
In such a situation, why keep a village like this once the Third Great Ninja War began? Naturally, it had to be blitzed and destroyed!
This war wasn't just the will of the major villages—it was also driven by the daimyō of several great nations.
Among them was even the Land of Wind's daimyō, who already had poor relations with the Hidden Sand and now saw them and the Leaf as threats to be eliminated.
Why? Because the money the Leaf invested in the Land of Wind all went through the Hidden Sand's accounts—not to the daimyō himself. As a result, most Leaf investment in the Land of Wind was tied to the Sand.
In the past year and a half, the Leaf had invested at least over five billion ryō in the Land of Wind.
This was an astronomical sum that could enrich countless people in the Land of Wind—but the daimyō received none of the major benefits.
Could the daimyō tolerate this? Of course not. To him, the Leaf and the Sand were acting across the Land of Wind with impunity, as if planning to replace him.
Worse, intelligence that terrified the daimyō and nobles of all nations was confirmed—the daimyō of the Land of Fire had already been fully controlled by the Leaf. The Leaf had, over time, established full control over the entire Land of Fire, such that the country could function smoothly even without a daimyō.
For the daimyō and nobles—relics of the old era—this was a nightmare, utterly unacceptable.
Though the Leaf retained the Land of Fire's daimyō as a figurehead, no one could guess what they might do next.
The Leaf had already done the unthinkable—controlling the daimyō and thereby the entire Land of Fire—something far more terrifying than what Hanzō of the Salamander once did. Back then, Hanzō had only eliminated the daimyō of the small Land of Rain, and that alone had provoked suppression from all sides. Now, the Leaf's actions were far more dangerous.
Thus, an alliance led by daimyō and nobles formed, pressuring several major villages and their allied small nations to join forces and crush the Leaf.
With full noble backing, the alliance acted in secret and quickly reached consensus on a battle plan.
Originally, they had wanted to wait for the Leaf to decay, but the Leaf's rapid development and boldness in controlling the Land of Fire's daimyō shocked them into immediate action.
The Leaf had to die—that became the consensus.
To ensure success, they would first clip the Leaf's wings.
The first target was naturally the Hidden Sand, seen as the Leaf's subordinate.
Even the Land of Wind's daimyō wanted the Hidden Sand destroyed—this was the perfect opportunity.
Thus, the Third Kazekage was lured to the Land of Wind's capital under the pretense of a meeting, only to be ambushed by Kage-level fighters from other villages.
Though relations between the Sand and their daimyō had been tense, the Kazekage never imagined the daimyō would personally move against him—millennia of tradition suggested mutual respect.
As a result, he was completely unsuspecting, and in the sudden joint attack, he and all his elite guards were killed on the spot.
After that, the Hidden Sand Village—completely unprepared—was blitzed, suffering a crushing defeat.
In the end, it was Rasa who led a small number of survivors to escape, fleeing to the Leaf for aid.
The Leaf, feigning shock, quickly dispatched forces to help. Ultimately, they secured part of the Land of Wind near the border with the Land of Fire as the Sand's last remaining territory.
At that point, all forces launched full-scale war and surprise attacks against the Leaf—the Third Great Ninja War had officially begun.
The ninja alliance's strategy was to strike the Leaf and the Land of Fire before they could prepare, believing that with the Sand—its strongest ally—crippled, the Leaf would be unable to withstand a multi-front assault.
At least, that was the plan.
But the alliance was shocked to find that the Leaf had anticipated their every move. At each ambush point, defenders were already in place, delivering fierce counterattacks and inflicting heavy losses on the attackers.
Only then did the alliance realize that the Leaf had been fully aware of their plans all along—clearly, all their intelligence had been compromised.
This sparked a massive crisis of trust within the alliance, even among its highest ranks—someone at the top must be leaking information.
In the Fourth Great Ninja War of the original timeline, the alliance had a similar problem, but Gaara's leadership and speech had resolved the trust issue, and later the existence of White Zetsu—masters of infiltration and espionage—was revealed.
Now, however, this weaker alliance had no Gaara, no knowledge of White Zetsu, and thus no way to resolve the deepening mistrust.
The truth was, the Leaf had known everything not because of an internal traitor, but because White Zetsu's intelligence-gathering ability was unmatched—monitoring the alliance from its inception, ensuring that all plans were under the Leaf's watch.
Yes—the Leaf had deliberately let the Hidden Sand be destroyed. After all, watching the Sand be crushed by the alliance was the perfect chance to gain total control over them.
Like this story Leave a review ; it would really help me out a lot.
Want to Read Ahead in Advance?
Join my Patreon!
+75 Chapters
Support me in
Patreon.com/BestElysium