Hidden Leaf Village.
After branding Tetsu Harada and the others as spies and executing them publicly, the villagers' emotions settled—for the moment.
But Hiruzen Sarutobi knew that beneath the calm, dangerous currents still churned.
Friends and family dead, homes destroyed, the bitter winter forcing people to labor nonstop just to secure a roof…
Anyone would be filled with malice in such a state.
And once that anger ignited, even the Third Hokage might not be able to withstand it.
As Hiruzen racked his brains for a way to protect his reputation under these circumstances, Danzo Shimura pushed open the door and entered the Hokage's office.
He held a scroll and tossed it onto Hiruzen's desk. "Hiruzen, a letter from the Third Raikage."
Hiruzen's brow creased ever so slightly.
Relations between the Leaf and the Hidden Cloud had never been good.
After the Second Hokage died at the hands of Cloud rogue-nin, the two sides had barely spoken.
Now the Cloud had even taken in the Uchiha, souring things further.
Why reach out now?
Turning this over in his mind, Hiruzen unrolled the scroll.
A cursory read made his chest heave with fury.
Bang!
His palm slammed the desk. "Those bastards—how dare they!"
Danzo blinked at his anger. "What is it?"
"Those Cloud scum are demanding we return all Uchiha assets within the Land of Fire—or they'll wage war on the Leaf!"
Accepting Leaf defectors was bad enough. They hadn't even gone to settle accounts, and now the other side had the gall to come collecting?
Preposterous.
Absolutely preposterous.
Even Danzo was stunned by the Cloud's audacity.
He'd always thought his own skin was thick—who knew there were people even more shameless?
His first instinct was to say, "Then we fight."
But remembering Hiruzen's usual style, he shifted tack. "How much do they want? Are we paying?"
"I'll pay them nothing!"
Hiruzen's voice went cold. "If it's a fight they want, it's a fight they'll get. Do they really take us for pushovers?"
Danzo stared, surprised. "You're sure?"
"I am," Hiruzen said, voice like iron. "I'm sending Sakumo Hatake and Orochimaru to the front lines. Let's see how long those guys can act so arrogantly!"
"Hiruzen, you've finally impressed me for once."
Danzo gave a thumbs-up.
Hiruzen seized the moment. "Danzo, send Root to support the front as well."
"But that said, we could still try to negotiate with the Cloud—"
"Enough. Get moving."
After shooing Danzo away, Hiruzen stared up at the ceiling, eyes hollow.
It wasn't that he was being tough; it was that he simply couldn't afford to pay.
Ten billion ryō!!!
They truly dared to open their lion's mouth.
Claiming they'd calculate at one hundred million per year of income—and would graciously stop at a hundred years.
Hiruzen almost laughed.
Even if he wanted to pay, he couldn't. Not now.
The village needed funds desperately after the Nine-Tails' rampage.
Clearing rubble, rebuilding homes, death benefits, labor, materials…
None of that money was secured, never mind reparations.
'Screw the Uchiha— The inherently evil clan!'
'You lived here for years. How can you be this heartless to us now?'
——
——
Land of Fire.
Border.
A dozen Leaf shinobi patrolled the frontier, relaxed and loose.
"Honestly, Lord Hokage's too cautious. No way those Cloud punks dare attack us."
"Yeah, we've won two Shinobi World Wars. If they come, we'll cut them down."
"So what if the Uchiha joined the Cloud? What's there to be so cocky about?"
"They can't seriously think we became the strongest village thanks to the Uchiha, right?"
"Hahahahaha…"
Their laughter died in a flash of blue lightning—one Leaf ninja was sent flying, chest caved in, dead on impact.
"Lariat!"
Another roar—an enormous man wreathed in crackling arcs drove an elbow forward, sending a Leaf shinobi's head spinning away.
"Damn it, enemy attack!"
The rest finally reacted, all composure gone.
One of them reached for a signal flare—only to find a hard-faced man already standing before him.
Crimson tomoe turned slowly in the man's eyes.
"The Uchiha will prove it—you became the strongest village because of us."
Steel flashed. The Leaf shinobi's chest was pierced through.
In the span of a heartbeat, the entire patrol was slaughtered.
Moments later, space rippled and Yuzuru Uchiha stepped out of thin air.
"The outposts are cleared. Fugaku, A—you'll each take a unit and strike the Leaf's main camp."
"Understood!"
The two moved at once.
Even A kept his mouth shut.
In large-scale operations like this, discipline had to be absolute.
If they disobeyed orders, Yuzuru had every right to execute them on the spot.
Watching the ambushers of the Hidden Cloud surge toward the Leaf's border headquarters, Yuzuru's face remained utterly calm.
War…
had begun.
——
——
Leaf border encampment.
Leaf shinobi patrolled in numbers; messengers hurried in and out with intelligence scrolls. Everything moved like clockwork.
In the central command tent, Shikakaze Nara frowned down at the reports, a bad feeling rising in his chest.
Beside him, Chōmasa Akimichi asked, "Why so serious, Shikakaze?"
"Something's off," Shikakaze said, voice low. "Our outermost outposts haven't reported in for over three hours. I suspect an incident."
Across the table, Inoke Yamanaka gaped. "No way. We've got plenty of outposts on the outer ring. If anything urgent happened, they'd have signaled by now."
"That's exactly what worries me." Shikakaze's face darkened. "For that many outposts to go silent at once—we may be in trouble."
No sooner had he spoken than the ground began to tremble, like ten thousand horses charging at once.
A heartbeat later, a chilling battle cry rolled in from the distance.
Cold sweat trickled down Shikakaze's temple. "Move! Alert everyone—prepare to engage, now!" (T/N: these three are the fathers of "Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, and Chōza Akimichi"