Time slipped through their fingers like sand—four months passed quietly.
Aside from the very first night the melee began—when the Lands of Wind and Earth tried to exploit the Land of Fire's "signal tower" being down to invade, only to be intercepted by Konoha ninja, and when all three nations lost many shinobi to "first-encounter kills" caused by a lack of intelligence advantage—
In these four months, none of the four countries engaged in a single large-scale war. It didn't look like a four-nation brawl at all.
And that proved one thing: the command teams of all four countries were exceptionally capable.
Shinobi warfare was actually easy to understand.
Just like the names of the combat divisions: reconnaissance, infiltration, raids, baiting, support, interception, and so on—
All of it could be summarized as: probing and assassination.
Even adding up all the ninja of the Five Great Nations plus all the small countries, there weren't even a hundred thousand.
If a Great Ninja War were fought like the pirate world's straightforward "main-character showdown," ninja would become a scarce resource in no time.
Until they found the right timing, confirmed there were no traps or ambushes, and had overwhelming certainty, none of the great nations would commit huge forces to wipe out the enemy in one blow.
If something went wrong, the loss would be so catastrophic it would practically mean elimination.
So in this period, each nation broke its forces into four-man squads and assigned them all kinds of missions.
The Land of Fire was better off—they had no intention of expanding territory and were largely on passive defense.
The other three nations, on the other hand, kept probing: scouting, laying traps, raids, bait operations—when one tactic was exposed, they immediately switched to another.
Some high-level ninja even specialized in infiltrating the Land of Fire or frontline camps—either searching for assassination opportunities or gathering intel on supply routes.
The reason these four nations could endure months without large-scale war was simple: supplies were still abundant, and the gap in national strength hadn't fully surfaced.
Once any nation could no longer supply its combat forces in time, this "balance" would break, and the war would be forced into the next stage.
During this probing phase, the reconnaissance teams and special-jōnin with unique talents were the busiest.
Everyone else—if you wanted to be polite, you'd call it "resting and conserving strength." In truth, they were so idle they had nothing to do.
Because they simply couldn't help with this kind of work.
With no major battle likely in the near term, rotating support teams and even some jōnin could return to Konoha for a while—or go back for meetings and then return.
…
In a forest road in the southwest of the Land of Fire, a twelve-person caravan moved slowly.
Three wagons traveled with them, each carrying goods under tarps. Who knew whether they were crossing borders for trade, or had failed to trade in the Land of Fire and were now hauling goods away—trying to avoid Land of Rain's four-nation melee by detouring into or through the Land of Rivers.
Whoo—
A gust of wind slammed in, kicking up thick dust and swallowing the caravan.
In the dust haze, chaos erupted—men and horses tumbling, the line collapsing.
Then came a rapid series of pop pop pop, like balloons bursting.
The "ordinary merchants" were each swallowed by white smoke—then transformed into youths and adults of visibly different ages and heights.
All shared one trait: Konoha forehead protectors… but no flak vests—looking like nothing more than common genin.
The tarps over the wagons were blown away, revealing box after box, and multiple massive storage scrolls sealed with sealing tags.
"Enemy attack!"
With their disguises exposed, the twelve ninja immediately drew kunai and formed a back-to-back defensive ring, scanning the surrounding forest.
A few young ones—probably only recently graduated and still unblooded—had trembling hands and sweating faces.
The older ones moved fast.
Two closed their eyes and formed seals, using sensory techniques.
Another performed Summoning Jutsu, calling forth a yellow-furred ninja dog to track the hidden enemy by scent.
But neither the sensing nor the dog's nose found anything.
Now even the adults broke into cold sweat.
"Request reinforcements—this enemy may be beyond what we can handle."
The ninja with the dog immediately pulled out a palm-sized scroll and instructed his partner:
"Pumpkin, when you get back, deliver this scroll to the intel relay—"
Whoosh—
He didn't even finish the sentence before a shrill tearing sound cut through the air.
A massive wind blade came howling in.
"This isn't an enemy we can fight! Split up and run—then notify the village!"
As the shout rang out, all twelve ninja turned into afterimages and vanished in different directions.
The wind blade's target didn't seem to be the runner or the dog—it aimed at the wagons carrying the big boxes.
Shhk! The blade sliced clean through the wagon and boxes.
Supplies and small scrolls spilled everywhere.
Then a puppet appeared from the forest—its back connected to blue chakra threads. A toy-like arm extended a blade and chopped at the storage scrolls and the kunai among the supplies.
The storage scrolls—tough enough to survive the wind blade—tanked the puppet blade too. The kunai clanged sharply.
That meant the supplies were real.
And the twelve "guards" didn't come back to protect them.
For a moment, the puppet just hovered there, as if its puppeteer had gone blank.
A second later, four shinobi in flak vests and Sand headbands flickered into view.
They moved with reckless confidence, quickly rummaging through the supplies, checking authenticity and traps.
Soon, one of them blurted in disbelief, "It's all real—no traps at all. Th-this… is it really this smooth?"
"The twelve all ran—were they really just genin?"
"Something feels off, but… aside from those twelve, there's no chakra around. Unless they already knew we were here and set up a sensory-blocking barrier like ours."
"But this operation was spontaneous. They weren't even our target. Is this… really just a lucky find?"
Staring at the scattered supplies and the huge storage scrolls, the squad leader gritted his teeth.
"Trap or not, we can't abandon this. Just be careful—move!"
"Yes!"
They grabbed four massive scrolls and vanished.
Then more figures rushed out from the forest—each identical to those four Sand shinobi—collecting other large scrolls and intact boxes.
Finally came the scattered supplies.
All those figures were clearly shadow clones.
They spread out in different directions.
After running who knew how far, a clone's chakra ran dry and it dispersed in smoke—dropping all the supplies.
After a long wait, another "Sand shinobi" identical to the clone popped in, picked up the supplies, and flickered away again.
After running another long distance, that one also dissolved into white smoke—yet another shadow clone.
This time the wait was even longer before the "Sand shinobi" appeared once more.
He picked up the supplies and flickered away—this time his face finally showed unhidden joy.
By nightfall, after burning nearly all their chakra, a series of "Sand shinobi"—no one could tell which were real bodies and which were clones—successfully escaped the Land of Fire and entered the Land of Rivers, the buffer zone between the two nations.
The Land of Rivers was special.
Most towns and villages were built on mountainsides or at the foot of mountains, and the majority of its territory was untouched wilderness.
Dense vegetation, complex terrain, and endless mountain ranges formed natural hiding places.
Even the manga explicitly stated this environment was ideal for secret bases.
And indeed, there were countless hidden bases here.
Not only from the Lands of Fire and Wind, but also Rain—and even other countries.
Even the Akatsuki in canon built a base here to extract Shukaku from Gaara.
The Sand shinobi, hauling supplies, turned into afterimages and scattered through mountains and forests.
From a "god's-eye view," you'd see they weren't moving in a straight line—they were circling within a region.
Eventually, from different entry points, they slipped into a fog-drenched mountain zone, where both their bodies and chakra disappeared completely.
…
Pop pop pop—
Inside a cave protected not only by sensory-blocking barriers but also defensive and confinement barrier formulas, the sound of balloons bursting rang out again and again.
White smoke flooded the cave.
After a long time, the smoke dispersed naturally—revealing piles of supplies across the ground.
Over an hour later, the giant boulder sealing the entrance lit up with tadpole-like sealing scripts, then slid open like an elevator door.
Four Sand shinobi in vests entered, then re-sealed the entrance.
Each carried a lamp and walked to the supplies.
Under the lamplight, they stared at each other.
Then one of them twitched his lips, breaking the tension—
"Hahahaha—!"
Laughter exploded through the cave, echoing off the walls.
They laughed wildly, arrogantly, until tears squeezed from their eyes.
"This is the 'strongest village's' swagger? I'm dying."
"Sending twelve genin to escort this much supply, with no strong backup—then just running when danger hits. Are they brave, or just dumb and rich?"
"Maybe they thought their disguise was perfect. Probably not their first time. It's been smooth these months, so they got careless."
"Thanks to their arrogance, we get a free feast."
After the mockery, the leader's face abruptly turned serious.
"Still—we need to stay cautious."
"Konoha has Black Flash, the Flying Thunder God user. Reports say as long as he can sense a Flying Thunder God formula, he can appear out of thin air even through barriers."
"If transferring objects didn't cost him massive chakra, this supply could've been teleported straight from Konoha to the border base or another frontline camp."
"We must inspect every single item. Even a kunai, a shuriken, an explosive tag, a soldier pill—make sure none carry a Flying Thunder God mark."
"Yes!"
The other three nodded grimly.
They swallowed soldier pills, laid traps around the supplies, then created shadow clones again to begin checking every piece.
After who knew how long, they finally finished.
As the shadow clones dispersed, the four felt exhausted—yet their faces bloomed with joy again.
"No problems at all!"
"Report to Chiyo-sama immediately—request reinforcements!"
This time they didn't hesitate. They summoned a messenger beast and sent the intel to the border command.
Soon, Chiyo received the report.
"Three wagons of supplies, ten massive scrolls, one hundred twenty small scrolls, fifteen crates of strategic goods—real?!" Chiyo's eyes widened in disbelief. "Konoha only sent twelve genin to escort this much supply. Are they insane?!"
She turned to her brother. "Could this be a trap?"
"If even you think they're insane, then it's definitely a trap. How could a pie this huge fall from the sky?" Ebizō analyzed calmly. "But there was no Hyūga Byakugan surveillance, no interception en route, and no Flying Thunder God marks on the goods—those are confirmed through repeated checks."
"That four-man squad is made of special-jōnin with unique talents. I trust their competence and thoroughness."
"But with their chakra, even if they know Konoha's Shadow Clone Technique, they still can't haul all this supply from the Land of Fire to our border base. Reaching the nearest secret base is already their limit."
"If we try moving it to the nearest frontline, we'll be spotted by reconnaissance. Once the White Fang gets the report, he'll intercept, and that line will erupt into a major battle. Our escorts would be at a disadvantage."
"And we can't send ordinary genin to transport it either. If something goes wrong, we lose a generation of the village."
"And we can't pull combat units off the line—this might be bait. Konoha could encircle them in the Land of Rivers, which is perfect for hiding, or launch a strike on our frontline camp while we move!"
Chiyo's face darkened. "So do we abandon the goods? Or can we send another squad that knows Shadow Clone to help them gradually transfer the supply to the border base?"
"We can," Ebizō said coldly, "if—and only if—this isn't Konoha's trap. If it is, both squads could die in the Land of Rivers. The moment that first squad started moving the supplies, we were already stepping into Konoha's snare."
"Then what do we do?" Chiyo asked urgently. "Is there a solution?"
"There is. More than one." Ebizō's eyes were deep. "First, we can't move frontline combat units, and we can't let them hear about this. Otherwise it may leak."
"To transport that supply, we need troops drawn from the border base or the village itself. Multiple squads with strong combat power and coordination. And a powerful commander who can handle enemy top-tier strength."
"The best method is for the Kazekage-sama himself to move—leading ANBU or multiple jōnin squads to retrieve the goods."
Chiyo rejected immediately. "No. We can't send the Kazekage into an enemy trap."
"Then it has to be me," Ebizō said, "or you, or Bunpuku personally leading."
"Bunpuku can't move either," Chiyo said firmly. "A jinchūriki is strategic deterrence. Deploying that early could affect other fronts—and make us the target of everyone."
"I'll go myself."
Then Ebizō struck the key point:
"And if Konoha leaks this and draws Hanzō here?"
"Besides you, we don't have anyone who can handle Hanzō."
Chiyo's face stiffened.
She realized Konoha's open scheme might be unsolvable.
Ebizō finally laughed.
"From the start, this job could only be done by me."
"Isn't that too risky?" Chiyo worried. "If it's truly dangerous, we could abandon the goods, or wait and observe whether it's a trap."
"We can't abandon it," Ebizō refused firmly. "If we do, that four-man squad dies. We lose four special-jōnin anyway. And Konoha will keep using the same open scheme, luring other infiltration squads into traps."
Then he smiled.
"Besides, all this is just our cautious suspicion after getting a bargain too big to believe. What if it really is that simple—what if Konoha truly sent only twelve genin to escort those supplies?"
Chiyo understood they couldn't abandon the four special-jōnin. She could only answer seriously:
"You can go—but you must bring multiple jōnin squads, plus Anbu escorts. I'll apply to the Kazekage."
"That's what I intended," Ebizō said. "The only perfect counter is to use overwhelming force—bring enough elite manpower to guarantee safety."
"But the premise is: we cannot mobilize our obvious high-level forces."
"So no one is more suitable than me—head of intelligence and espionage, with countless hidden lines."
~~~
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