Naturally, after releasing the Cloud Village ninjas, the two-clan alliance army began their march back to the village.
They brought along the specific ninjas Ryōsuke wanted for the investigation—Mabui and the Two-Tails Jinchūriki. The stated reason, of course, was to assist them in investigating the matter.
Even if the Fourth Raikage was unwilling, he couldn't resist. Being able to take back the majority of the Cloud Village ninjas was already a fortunate outcome.
Of course, there was a more pressing matter waiting for him to handle later: paying the 300 million ryo ransom. Just thinking about it gave him a headache.
The opponent's move had effectively scraped away half of the village's annual expenditure in one go. This meant that future welfare support in the Cloud Village would effectively be cut in half.
This was indeed a major headache. Of course, the root cause of it all was his desire to make a move against the Leaf Village.
If he had initially only intended to threaten them, at most he would have suffered some disadvantages during the renegotiation of the peace treaty. Now that it had led to this situation, he blamed himself immensely; he shouldn't have been so greedy.
Later, Ryōsuke, Fugaku, and the Hyūga Head sought out Mabui to ask about that letter and whether its contents were authentic.
The answer was that it was indeed true.
The Hyūga Head felt furious inside.
According to the Fourth Raikage's earlier statement, Mabui had been unconscious the whole time and wasn't detained together with the Fourth Raikage, so there was naturally no way they could have colluded.
Most importantly, it was impossible for the other side to have colluded from the start.
Given the combat power deployed by the Cloud Village, they couldn't have possibly thought they would lose right at the beginning. If they thought they would lose, why start the war?
So, that letter was genuinely real.
He was now speculating about exactly which individual among the higher-ups wanted to make a move against their two clans.
Was it the Third Hokage or the other three consultants? It was truly chilling. Or perhaps it was that hidden hand of Konoha, Danzō.
He couldn't help but look at Ryōsuke beside him and ask, "Ryōsuke, what do you plan to do?"
Ryōsuke thought for a moment and could only say helplessly, "There is nothing we can do. After all, we don't have sufficient evidence. We only know there is a traitor. At this stage, we can only let it go."
However, according to his deduction, those people would definitely target the Uchiha Clan again.
When that time came, whoever targeted the Uchiha Clan would basically reveal themselves as the mastermind.
Hearing Ryōsuke say this, Hyūga Hiashi could only let it go, but he now kept his guard up.
In the future, he would have to be wary of the Konoha higher-ups; otherwise, he wouldn't even know how he died.
This had given him a profound lesson. Even during a Great Ninja War, which concerned the village's survival, some higher-ups would disregard the village's interests to strike from the shadows.
"Then I will go arrange for my clansmen to withdraw."
After saying this, he left the main camp.
After the Hyūga Head had left, Fugaku finally spoke up to ask, "Ryōsuke, this matter was done by either the Third Hokage or Danzō."
"Should we strike first to gain the upper hand?"
The Lord Hokage had enough reason to target the Uchiha Clan; after all, his son had been captured by them. As for Danzō, he had targeted the Uchiha Clan from beginning to end; the clan's relocation back then was also spearheaded by him.
Just now, with the Hyūga Head present, some things couldn't be said carelessly. But now that he had left, Fugaku could voice his true inner thoughts.
In the future, Ryōsuke would lead the family to a path of prosperity, so the position of Lord Hokage was bound to belong to the Uchiha Clan.
Ryōsuke was a bit surprised by Fugaku's behavior. Originally, this man hadn't even revealed his Mangekyō Sharingan during the Night of the Genocide, and even allowed his wife, Uchiha Mikoto, to willingly be slaughtered by their own son.
Now, however, he was thinking about striking first. This could be considered a positive change.
After all, Ryōsuke believed that rather than waiting to be killed, it was better to rise up and resist.
"There is no need. If we make a move now, we won't have the moral high ground. Currently, our Uchiha Clan is gradually growing stronger. Those in the shadows definitely won't be able to resist targeting us again. It won't be too late to strike then."
Seeing that Ryōsuke had said this, the desire to take action in Fugaku's heart faded.
As Ryōsuke said, acting now would feel like staging a rebellion; a matter where they were in the right would turn into one where they were in the wrong.
A few days later.
The Uchiha Clan and Hyūga Clan returned to the village and brought the news of victory to the villagers.
The entire village was shocked.
Whether it was ordinary villagers or ninja clans.
When they first learned that Konoha's two strongest clans had gone to the border to fight the Cloud Village, they felt there might be a chance of victory, but assumed it would be a difficult war.
However, they never imagined that such a major battle would be won so beautifully.
Not only did they capture all the opposing ninjas, but they also chose not to cause mass slaughter and released them.
This was enough to prove that these two clans were incomparably powerful. The Cloud Village would never dare to invade the Land of Fire's Leaf Village again. This undoubtedly brought peace to the village.
On a street in the Leaf Village, several people gathered, praising the victory of the two clans.
Their faces were filled with joy.
With such powerful clans protecting the village, the Leaf Village could rest easy. With the village at peace, commoners like them could live their lives with greater peace of mind.
Of course, while some were happy, others naturally opposed it. A passerby, seeing these people praising the two clans, couldn't help but frown. He had always found these two clans to be eyesores.
He couldn't help but speak up.
"This incident was caused by the two clans in the first place. This time, they merely cleaned up the mess they left behind. What is there to praise?"
Someone immediately retorted.
"Is it really a problem caused by these two clans? Was it not the despicable Cloud Village envoy leader who started trouble?"
"He wanted to kidnap the daughter of the Hyūga family to obtain the Leaf Village's top-tier Kekkei Genkai, the Byakugan. They were already being bullied right to their faces; if they hadn't risen up to fight back, they would truly have been spineless."
The person who raised the objection continued to argue sophistically.
"Although that's true, wasn't there a more reasonable solution? We should have just followed what the Third Hokage said: sacrifice one person from the Hyūga family to protect the entire village, which naturally protects these two clans as well."
"This war surely resulted in the death and injury of more than one person from the two clans, right?"
"So, wouldn't sacrificing one person to avoid the deaths of more innocent clansmen have been a better method?"
"Now, it has caused even more innocent clansmen to die, yet you actually think this is right."
Yet another person came out to refute him.
"By your logic, was that originally innocent Hyūga clansman not innocent? Otherwise, how about you go sacrifice yourself to appease the Cloud Village's anger?"
The face of the person who raised the objection changed.
"What does this have to do with me? Besides, I'm not a Hyūga clansman, so how could I possibly appease the Cloud Village's anger?"
Immediately, someone continued.
"Ninjas naturally have the ability to turn you into a member of the Hyūga Clan. I just wonder if you'd dare to be that sacrificed person. In this war, even more people from the Cloud Village died. So, are you willing to sacrifice your own life to appease their anger?"