For some months now, it has not gone unnoticed by the Leaf Village that the other villages were preparing for war.
Storing large amounts of resources was not something that could be easily hidden.
Although the Leaf Village had recovered from the previous war, it does not mean that they will be able to face another war without significant losses.
Thinking of a solution to give the Leaf Village an advantage in the next war, the village's high command devised several plans to pit the other villages against each other.
But to achieve this plan, they knew they had to buy time to prepare better.
Right at that moment, the idea arose to direct the attention of the other villages towards the Uzumaki clan.
While the other villages deal with the Uzumaki clan, the Leaf Village will have enough time to send shinobi to other countries to cause trouble and leave trails pointing to other villages.
What about the idea of betraying their ally, the Uzumaki clan?
For the sake of the Leaf Village, the high command would do many things to protect the village.
Furthermore, the alliance with the Uzumaki clan was not as close compared to the times when Mito Uzumaki married Senju Hashirama.
Now, years after the death of the Senju brothers, Hiruzen Sarutobi's rule over the village had stabilized and the alliance with the Uzumaki clan was not as important.
Furthermore, the Hidden Leaf Village could benefit from acquiring knowledge of the Uzumaki clan's seals after their fall.
With Mito Uzumaki's old age, the Leaf Village needed a new Jinchuriki and could take advantage of this opportunity to absorb the Uzumaki clan into the village by 'rescuing' a survivor of the catastrophe.
With a clear idea, the plan fell into the hands of Danzo, who wanted to test his Root ninjas and gain Hiruzen's approval to increase the numbers of his organization.
After the Root ninjas spread the word of the Uzumaki clan's greatness and achievements in the first world war to the other villages, the high command of the other four great villages set their sights on the Uzumaki clan when they obtained the secret to passing through the whirlpools that protected the main island of this red-haired clan.
Thinking about what they could gain from the Uzumaki clan, especially the way to have a better Jinchuriki, these great villages ignored the ease and timely way in which they obtained the way to bypass the defense of Uzumaki Island and quickly prepared.
To avoid attack from other villages, especially the Leaf Village, they agreed beforehand and launched an attack together.
With the movement of a thousand shinobi from the 4 great villages, it was almost impossible for the Leaf Village not to notice.
Instead of moving to help their ally as the other villages thought, the Leaf Village remained still.
What they didn't know was that the high command of the Leaf Village was pleased with the movement of the other villages.
In addition to continuing the plan to pit the other villages against each other, Danzo obtained permission to increase recruitment for his Root ninjas, and Hiruzen prepared a team to rescue any surviving Uzumaki.
But subsequent events did not unfold as they expected.
The army sent by the 4 large villages was defeated, to everyone's dismay.
As the defeated villages prepared to send more shinobi to defeat the Uzumaki clan and avenge their past defeat, the four high-ranking officials of the Leaf Village thought things wouldn't end easily.
Reading the report that described how easily the Uzumaki clan defeated their enemies, they knew that this red-haired clan had hidden their strength very well.
"This technique to increase strength would be very useful for the village," Homura said, to which the others nodded in agreement.
It was unfortunate that the uniforms worn by the Uzumaki soldiers hid most of the chakra from a Hyuga's eyes, preventing him from identifying the technique used.
Although the scroll of forbidden seals contained a technique for opening a ninja's inner gates, it was rudimentary, and because of this, they had not seen this technique used.
It will be some years later when a ninja, called 'Eternal Genin', will practice this technique effectively and pass it on to his son.
For now, they could only wait for the Uzumaki clan to fall so they could obtain the technique from the survivors.
Hiruzen had already made sure of that by sending a large team of ninjas to rescue survivors.
Considering the strength shown by the Uzumaki clan, Hiruzen ordered Danzo to spread the information, an order that Danzo agreed to.
Hiruzen's three friends left the Hokage's office, and Hiruzen sighed because now he had to go and explain to Mito Uzumaki that they hadn't heard about the attack.
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.
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Outside the Senju clan compound, Hiruzen had a confused expression after saying goodbye to Mrs. Mito.
When he told her that the Uzumaki clan had been attacked but had managed to repel the attack, Mito Uzumaki was strangely calm.
It's as if his clan wasn't attacked.
After talking a little longer, Hiruzen said goodbye and promised that the Leaf Village would help the Uzumaki clan.
.
.
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Two weeks passed since the defeat of the army of the 4 villages and everything remained silent.
Until now.
The armies of the four large villages began to move and frightened everyone.
The reason for their great alarm was not only due to the beginning of a second world war, but also due to the number of armies.
At the beginning of a war, each side would start by gradually increasing the size of their bases and preparing for a first attack, which did not happen this time.
The four great villages suddenly dispatched 10,000 ninjas each, totaling 40,000 ninjas.
That number of ninjas in combat was only seen in the later parts of the first war, and now this number is shown at the beginning of another.
Upon learning of the number of ninjas who fought against them, the Hidden Leaf clans were alarmed and thought that this war would be bloodier than the previous one, but suddenly the things that happened afterward gave them a respite.
The army of each village was divided with 2 different objectives.
The Hidden Leaf Village and the Uzumaki Clan
This time there was no way the village's high command could hide this information from the civilians.
The clans had external sources of information and knew about the previous attack on the Uzumaki clan, but they remained silent upon seeing the silence of the village's high command and agreed to do nothing.
After all, someone would have to fight against the other villages, and they didn't want it to be them.
Knowing that he couldn't hide this kind of information, Hiruzen personally went to see Mito Uzumaki to 'explain' the lack of help to the Uzumaki clan this time.
But just like before, the elderly Mito Uzumaki remained calm and said she understood that the Leaf Village could not help the Uzumaki clan.
"But Grandma, we need to do something!"
Confused by Mrs. Mito's calmness, Hiruzen didn't have to ask why his disciple, who was also in the room, raised her voice in protest.
Tsunade Senju was the granddaughter of Mito Uzumaki and Hashirama Senju, so she is known as the princess of the leaf and many have their eyes on her watching her development.
Tsunade was strong, but it was a shame that she didn't awaken the Wood Release bloodline.
But in Hiruzen's mind, the one who had the most chance of awakening that bloodline was Tsunade's younger brother, Nawaki Senju.
"Don't worry, darling."
"There's nothing we can do but wait for good news," Mito said with a carefree smile.
But this time, Hiruzen noticed for the first time a hint of mockery in his smile.
'could be?'
"But how can you be so calm, Grandma?!"
"There are 20,000 ninjas who will attack the Uzumaki clan!"
At that moment, Mito remained silent for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and saying.
"Even if we multiply that number by 10, they still won't be able to fight against the Uzumaki clan."
The room fell silent as Mito raised a cup of tea and took a sip.
Drink*
The sound of Mito taking the drink woke the other two in the room, and this time it was Hiruzen who asked.
"What do you mean, Ms. Mito?"
"Are you telling me that the Uzumaki clan could fight against 200,000 ninjas?"
"As long as the Uzumaki patriarch is present, the Uzumaki clan will not fall," Mito said with a smile.