Inside the command tent, the Raikage reflected on the problems the war against Konoha was beginning to create.
At a glance, he could tell that the enemy village was not in a good position. Neither of the two Sannin had come to Konoha's aid during the attack, and the Uchiha Clan had not appeared on the battlefield either.
According to reports from his spies inside the village, the Uchiha Clan had been relocated from central Konoha to the outskirts.
That was not only a tremendous insult to one of the village's most important clans, but also clear proof of how little trust Konoha's leadership placed in them.
Among the other Kage, Konoha's darkness and the constant internal conflicts the village tried to conceal were already well known.
"How can I worsen that internal conflict even further?"
As he continued thinking, a brilliant idea suddenly came to him.
Kidnap a Hyūga.
The Raikage knew that the war would not last much longer. After all, if Kumo and Konoha weakened each other too much, Iwa would seize the opportunity to attack, which would not benefit him in the slightest.
"When I find the right moment to end the war, I will send an envoy to negotiate peace. However, I will order one member of the delegation to kidnap a boy or girl from the Hyūga Clan and bring them back to Kumo."
A smile slowly began to form on his face.
"That way, we will obtain the Byakugan and eventually create our own Hyūga Clan."
The Raikage continued considering every possibility.
"And if the kidnapping fails, we can still pressure Konoha into handing over a member of the Hyūga Clan as compensation."
He knew exactly what kind of people made up Konoha's leadership: cruel old men who would not hesitate to sacrifice their own people if it allowed them to avoid a larger conflict.
"If Konoha agrees to hand over a Hyūga, the relationship between the clan and the village leadership will begin to break apart."
It would be perfect.
—This will be perfect —the Raikage murmured with a sinister smile.
If he managed to turn Konoha's two main clans against the village leadership, Konoha would begin collapsing from within.
Once that happened, Kumo could become the new leading village of the shinobi world.
That would greatly increase the number of missions they received and attract more merchants to the Land of Lightning.
Although Kumogakure had also suffered heavy losses during the war, the Raikage wanted its recovery to be as swift as Konoha's.
The Leaf had always managed to recover thanks to its enormous prestige, though much of that reputation was also due to the countless geniuses born within the village.
However, even those geniuses were useless without money and resources.
If Kumo could prove during this war that it was the new leading village and the strongest of them all, then at least thirty percent of the missions and merchants that normally went to Konoha would begin heading toward Kumogakure instead.
That would provide the resources necessary to greatly accelerate the village's development.
Afterward, A summoned several ANBU and ordered them to travel to the villages near Kumo that had been attacked. Their mission was to search for any traces left behind by Konoha's shinobi and, if any of them were still in the area, kill them.
At the same time, he sent a letter back to Kumogakure. In his absence, his assistant Mabui was responsible for handling the village's documents and administrative affairs.
In the letter, A ordered her to strengthen Kumogakure's defenses and deploy shinobi to the nearby villages so that such a situation would not happen again.
A day later, the forces of Kumo and Konoha clashed once more.
Both armies fought fiercely across the battlefield.
A and Killer B were being held back with enormous difficulty by Danzō and the three leaders of the Ino–Shika–Chō formation.
Elsewhere, Kakashi and Guy fought desperately against the Two-Tails jinchūriki, who had already fully transformed into the tailed beast.
The two of them kept it under constant pressure, preventing it from gathering enough chakra to form and launch a Tailed Beast Bomb.
However, holding it back came at a terrible cost.
A large number of Konoha shinobi who were assisting Kakashi and Guy had already lost their lives while trying to stop the beast from completing that devastating attack.
Meanwhile, in another part of the battlefield, Darui moved like a bolt of black lightning.
The second-in-command of Kumo's army had remained hidden at the beginning of the battle, suppressing his presence as much as possible.
His plan was to wait until all of Konoha's most notable shinobi were occupied fighting Kumo's strongest warriors or barely managing to hold them back.
Once that happened, Darui would quickly attack Konoha's chūnin and genin, inflicting massive losses among the weaker troops.
Shikaku had discovered this strategy some time ago and had already informed Konoha's leadership and the officers at headquarters.
However, Konoha simply did not have enough shinobi to respond properly to the situation.
The village leadership was still trying to contact Jiraiya.
Since the death of his disciple, whom he had regarded as a son, Jiraiya had avoided the entire situation. Buried in grief, he had hidden somewhere within the Land of Fire to escape his responsibilities to Konoha.
Many had begun to believe that Jiraiya would not come to help them.
After all, they had been trying to contact him for an entire week without receiving any response.
As Darui continued taking one life after another, he suddenly felt an intense sense of danger.
Without thinking twice, he used Lightning Flash to escape at high speed and avoid the attack heading directly toward him.
Before he could clearly see who had attacked him, everyone on the battlefield felt an enormous amount of chakra erupt.
Three giant toads fell from the sky and landed in the middle of the battlefield, causing the earth to tremble beneath them.
They were Gamahiro, Gamabunta, and Gamaken.
Standing atop Gamabunta's head was a man with long, spiky white hair and two red markings running down his face.
He was none other than the legendary Sannin.
The Sage of Mount Myōboku.
Jiraiya had arrived on the battlefield.