In the small forest not far from the Konoha Garrison in the Land of Hot Springs.
"Oh my god!!"
"I hit him! I hit Shindai!"
Obito excitedly ran two and a half laps around the field.
Just now, Shindai and Obito were sparring, and Obito successfully hit Shindai.
The two had sparred many times before, but Obito was basically pinned to the ground and beaten by Shindai.
At first, Shindai wanted to put on an act in front of Minato Namikaze, but Shindai didn't expect that Obito, knowing his strength, would push his luck and directly stun Shindai with a forceful blow.
It took Shindai a long time to recover that time.
The first thing he did after recovering was to beat Obito, no longer caring if Minato Namikaze found out.
Anyway, if Minato Namikaze asked, he would just say that his strength had improved by leaps and bounds after a few days of Minato Namikaze's guidance, and beating Obito was more than enough.
After that, the sparring with Obito was Shindai unilaterally beating Obito.
Minato Namikaze, unable to watch any longer, even tried to persuade Obito to switch opponents, for example, Rin Nohara.
But the stubborn Obito was set on sparring with Shindai, just taking a pure beating.
However, Minato Namikaze found that Obito's strength improved very quickly while being beaten, so he stopped interfering.
If getting beaten could make Obito stronger, then he might as well take more beatings.
This time, Obito landed a punch on Shindai; not only were Kakashi and Rin Nohara surprised, but even Minato Namikaze was astonished.
After a moment of astonishment, Minato Namikaze's brows furrowed slightly.
Although Obito had improved, it was impossible for him to improve so quickly.
Because, frankly speaking, as a master of escape, Shindai's dodging ability must be very strong, and there was no reason for Shindai to be hit by Obito.
Moreover, Shindai had seemed a bit strange these past few days.
For example, now, Shindai took a punch from Obito, but he didn't rush to beat Obito, letting Obito provocatively run two and a half laps around the field cheering, which was clearly not right.
Minato Namikaze clapped his hands: "Alright, let's take a short break."
Minato Namikaze walked up to Shindai, who was sitting on the ground leaning against a tree, and asked, "Shindai, what's wrong? You seem very distracted these past few days."
Shindai lowered his head slightly, and said somewhat spiritlessly: "I don't know why, but I've had a very bad premonition since a few days ago. This premonition is an indescribable feeling, if I had to describe it, it's like that feeling when I was framed by Lord Jiraiya last time!"
Minato Namikaze said in surprise: "That feeling of being framed by Lord Jiraiya? Are you talking about the time Lady Tsunade found out about the puppet you made for Lord Jiraiya, and then Lady Tsunade beat both of you?"
Shindai said with a dark expression: "Lord Minato, you don't need to be so detailed, just know it in your heart!"
Minato Namikaze pondered for a moment and then said: "The training intensity might have been a bit high these past few days. How about this, I'll give you a day off. Shindai, go back to the Garrison and get some good rest, have a good sleep, maybe you'll feel better after resting."
Shindai nodded silently, then, somewhat dejectedly, returned to his tent at the Garrison by himself.
Lying on the bed, Shindai's brows remained tightly furrowed, always feeling as if a big black pot was about to fall on his head.
...
Two weeks passed in a blink of an eye.
During these two weeks, the strange occurrences in Hidden Sand Village had been discovered by Konoha and Iwagakure.
Konoha and Iwagakure had both dispatched their respective Ninja to the Land of Wind to investigate the situation.
However, any Ninja sent out, if discovered by Sunagakure Ninja, would be met with their frenzied attacks.
The information gathered was that Hidden Sand Village was currently in great chaos.
This made Hiruzen Sarutobi and Ōnoki vigilant, feeling that something major must have happened within Hidden Sand Village to cause such chaos.
And now, the high-ranking officials within Hidden Sand Village were also in a state of frantic anxiety.
The disappearance of the Third Kazekage left Hidden Sand Village leaderless. Although Ebizo strictly forbade anyone from speaking about the Third Kazekage's disappearance, everyone knew that this matter could not be concealed for long.
Because the Ninja sent to search for the Third Kazekage's disappearance would definitely know about it. Even if it was strictly forbidden for anyone to speak of it, someone would certainly blab, and it was only a matter of time before the entire Hidden Sand Village knew.
Currently, some villagers in Hidden Sand Village already knew that the Third Kazekage was missing, and this matter was spreading at a considerably fast rate.
Once all the villagers of Hidden Sand Village knew about the Third Kazekage's disappearance, it would not be long before other Ninja Villages found out as well.
In the meeting room of the Kazekage Building.
Chiyo, Ebizo, and a group of Hidden Sand Village high-ranking officials were holding a meeting.
"Our Ninja have already discovered Konoha Ninja and Iwagakure Ninja within the Land of Wind. The Third Kazekage's disappearance cannot be kept secret for much longer."
"Most of the villagers now know that the Third Kazekage has disappeared, and everyone is very uneasy."
"If this oppressive atmosphere isn't resolved, something bad is likely to happen."
"But only the Third Kazekage's appearance can resolve this situation now."
...
The high-ranking officials of Hidden Sand Village expressed their concerns about Hidden Sand Village one after another.
Ebizo tapped the table with his hand, signaling for everyone to be quiet.
After the meeting room quieted down, Ebizo spoke: "We have dispatched almost all the Ninja in the Village, exhausting the entire Village's strength to search for the Third Kazekage's whereabouts, but we still can't find him.
Now we cannot hope to find the Third Kazekage. If we continue searching like this, not to mention whether we can find the Third Kazekage, the human and material resources consumed alone are something we cannot bear.
So our primary goal now is not to search for the Third Kazekage, but how to solve the problems within the Village.
I propose that we first find someone to succeed the position of Kazekage, and first unite the scattered Village."
An Advisor said with a grave expression: "Now, because of the Third Kazekage's disappearance, the Village is in a state of panic. Many villagers highly respect the Third Kazekage and view him as an idol. When a new Kazekage takes office, they will certainly ask the new Kazekage to continue searching for the Third Kazekage.
If the new Kazekage disagrees, the villagers will certainly be dissatisfied, and there might be situations where they don't obey the new Kazekage's orders. If the new Kazekage agrees, then it's equivalent to not solving the problem, and we will have to continue expending a large amount of human and material resources to search for the Third Kazekage."
From the time the Third Kazekage took office until now, the Third Kazekage has diligently and continuously strived to govern Hidden Sand Village, which everyone has witnessed.
Therefore, the Third Kazekage's prestige within Hidden Sand Village was quite high.
Ebizo sighed, then said with sharp eyes: "That's why a new Kazekage needs to take office even more. We must shift our attention outwards, only then can we resolve the Village's crisis."
Chiyo's brows furrowed instantly upon hearing Ebizo's words: "Ebizo, what do you mean by shifting attention outwards...?"
Ebizo's expression was serious, and he said word by word:
"It means... War!"