Only Onoki felt bitter, still determined to fight back. As a result, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade had no choice but to push the battlefield deeper into the Land of Earth. This time, learning from the consequences of Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane's actions, they strictly prohibited their troops from harming civilians to avoid antagonizing Sanshouo Hanzo again. They even dispatched ninja to formally deliver an official document, negotiating the matter with Sanshouo Hanzo.
Originally, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade were all concerned about possible interference from Sanshouo Hanzo. However, much to their surprise, this time Hanzo truly did not intervene. Circumstances had changed—the Land of Earth now posed the greater threat to Ame.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Birds, after peace agreements were signed, Konoha ended its standoff with the Sand-nin. Their forces began withdrawing in batches, some reassigned to Ame. As for Hatake Sumao, he would remain until the final withdrawal batch.
With Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru organizing the forces together, after more than half a year of effort, they successfully crushed Iwa's military forces and stormed their camps, eventually driving them all the way to the border between Ame and the Land of Earth.
At last, Konoha finally succeeded in repelling Iwa's ninja forces, forcing them back home and securing another major victory. Yet due to their forces' exhaustion, insufficient logistics, political constraints, and most importantly, lack of strength, after much deliberation, all three agreed that advancing further or expanding their gains was impossible.
Ultimately, on Ame's battlefield, despite achieving victory in the trilateral war, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru had no choice but to withdraw their forces as Iwa retreated into their own territory.
However, even this outcome shattered Onoki's hopeful illusions of a comeback, prompting him to seriously consider signing a peace agreement.
Meanwhile, Danzo Shimura, ever since Orochimaru had been sent by Hiruzen Sarutobi to Ame, kept receiving reports of victories. The conflict in the Land of Rivers had also concluded, bringing news that Hatake Sumao had ended the war against the Land of Wind.
Repeatedly overtaken by younger generations, consumed by his thirst for victory, Danzo Shimura began losing his grip on reason. He grew increasingly ruthless. Eventually, he even used his own subordinates as bait to lure out Iwa's elite forces, then set traps to destroy both his men and the enemy at the same time.
At the same time, he resorted to extremely inhumane tactics leading to mutual destruction—such as human bombs, planting Explosive Tags inside his own soldiers to detonate alongside enemy elites, killing many Iwa-nin on the battlefield.
Such methods themselves weren't entirely unjustifiable—after all, war is a place where sacrifices are made, and Suicide Squads are inevitable. But Danzo controlled everything according to his own will. When faced with resistance, he directly coerced his men, even threatening their families to force compliance.
Many among those sacrificed were heavily wounded heroes who had fought bravely on the battlefield, true war heroes. For Danzo Shimura to act this way was deeply disheartening.
Danzo played favorites. At least members of the Shimura clan never carried out suicide attacks. But with time, the smart ones caught on, and whispers started spreading in the shadows. Soon enough, everyone started watching their backs during missions to avoid being used as cannon fodder. Ironically, this slowed things down and even led to mission failures.
This enraged Danzo Shimura. Instead of reflecting on his mistakes, he convinced himself he had uncovered a truth: ninja needed no emotions. What he ignored, however, was that without emotional investment, a ninja's strength quickly hits a bottleneck—breakthroughs becoming nearly impossible.
Even during the final battle, when Danzo personally stepped onto the battlefield, he faced direct consequences. Targeted by vengeful Iwa-nin, none of his subordinates rushed to save him immediately. Instead, they distanced themselves under the guise of completing assigned battlefield tasks.
Only the ninja from the Shimura clan and his personal loyalists desperately tried to rescue him. Danzo paid a heavy price—his right eye pierced by a kunai and left permanently blind. Had his skull not partially blocked the strike, it would have killed him outright.
As a result, Danzo emerged from the war as a proud one-eyed man, while both the Shimura clan and his core followers suffered severe losses.
At the same time, Iwa's two major offensives against Konoha ended in failure. But when one door closed, another opened. In the end, they not only repelled the Cloud-nin's surprise attack but also launched a devastating counterstrike on the Land of Lightning, seizing immense riches for the village. Most importantly, many of the captured items were exclusive specialties of the Land of Lightning—luxurious goods money couldn't buy—which pleased Onoki immensely.
However, this infuriated the Third Raikage, who had long coveted the Land of Earth. With his fiery temper, he immediately declared war on the Iwa-nin.
Of course, the main reason was that the Third Raikage realized fighting against the Land of Fire would gain them nothing. After all, Konoha remained powerful—the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, hadn't even stepped onto the battlefield yet.
So beneath his rough exterior, showing surprising wisdom, he used retaliation against Iwa's sneak attack as an excuse to sign another peace treaty with Konoha, avoiding the losses of a direct clash with the Hidden Leaf. Secretly, he even considered allying with Konoha to strike back at Iwa, recover his losses, and get revenge in one move.
Konoha agreed to the Cloud's peace proposal but rejected the idea of jointly attacking Iwa. Officially, the reason was distrust toward the Iwa-nin. In reality, Konoha had squandered a rare chance to cripple both Iwa and Cloud at once—an oversight that might have prolonged the Third Great Ninja War by three to five years.
After the victory, Danzo failed to earn respect from his subordinates due to his reckless moves. On the contrary, his methods bred collective resentment among them. Many jonin submitted formal complaints to the Hokage over Danzo's misconduct. This incident further crushed Danzo's already fragile heart, pushing his unstable psyche further into extremism—clearly slipping into madness.
No one ever admits to being crazy—Danzo Shimura was no different. In fact, he took pride in understanding the Will of Root, an ideal he believed transcended even the Will of Fire. Yet he was met with widespread contempt and resistance—even from many among his own ranks.
As a result, after returning to the village, Danzo was eventually forced into hiding due to united opposition from all sides. Later, he went underground and built up the Root division. To control his subordinates and prevent any rebellion from occurring again, he began by brainwashing them, then marked them with Cursed Seals to ensure absolute obedience. He never stopped to wonder what had brought about this downfall.
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