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Often, when people attempt to define a threat, they take multiple factors into account. The most direct metric is simply whether the opposing side actually possesses the capability to harm them. Clearly, given the current geopolitical landscape of the ninja world and the dangerously ambiguous proximity Shikaku had just pointed out, the Hidden Stone genuinely felt the looming threat of the Waterfall-Grass Alliance.
How do you deal with a threat?
There is only one answer: eliminate it as quickly as possible, and do so within an acceptable margin of cost.
"This is exactly the same motive behind the Third Tsuchikage mobilizing a massive army against the Hidden Cloud in the Land of Lightning," Shikaku paused for a moment before continuing. "I suspect the Stone's original plan was to take the opportunity to eradicate the Cloud's threat on their eastern border, then sit back and watch the tigers fight, reaping the maximum benefits. That first objective has already been completely achieved. Thanks to their back-to-back defeats against Menma Uzumaki and the Hidden Stone, the Cloud's military strength has been reduced to an all-time low. Furthermore, a significant portion of their crucial strategic territories has been occupied by Stone shinobi. Moving forward, the strategic standoff between the two Great Villages will be entirely one-sided. For at least the next ten years, the Hidden Stone won't have to worry about the Hidden Cloud at all."
"If my guess is correct, the Third Tsuchikage's original plan was that while they were crushing the Cloud, our war with Menma Uzumaki would either result in mutual destruction, or we would pay a heavy price to completely annihilate the Waterfall-Grass Alliance. As long as the board developed in either of those directions, I guarantee the Third Tsuchikage would have ordered his forces south, tearing up their treaty with Menma. If everything had gone perfectly according to his plan, they might have even launched a crippling strike against us and annexed Menma's territories. If they pulled all that off, the Hidden Stone would hold absolute dominion over the entire ninja world."
It was a flawless deduction.
This wasn't mere hindsight. Shikaku had formulated these suspicions from the very beginning. However, at the time, he lacked concrete evidence, the northern battlefield was still raging, and...
At the time, Shikaku genuinely believed the Leaf's odds of winning were exceptionally high.
Three Great Villages launching a joint assault with a combined force of ten thousand ninja, led by one of the legendary Sannin? By any metric, they held the absolute advantage!
But the way things actually unfolded entirely shattered Shikaku's predictions.
He was a brilliant strategist, but he wasn't omniscient. His most fatal error was vastly underestimating Menma's individual power. He had also miscalculated the Hidden Sand's commitment to the war.
Shikaku obviously hadn't been naive enough to believe the Sand would launch a suicidal, all-out offensive, but he assumed they would at least mount probing attacks. In their strategic planning, either Baki or the One-Tails was supposed to take the field.
As long as they showed their faces and applied a little pressure, it would have drawn away a portion of Menma's attention.
Unfortunately, the situation didn't play out the way Shikaku imagined. A slight deviation here, a minor delay there... individually, they seemed harmless.
But when all those tiny variables compounded together...
The result was catastrophic.
Shikaku himself had been critically wounded and plunged into a coma, requiring a massive amount of time recovering in the village just to regain his vitality.
And the arm that had been blown off was gone forever.
He was now the one-armed chief strategist of the Hidden Leaf.
Because of this, after comprehensively reviewing the entire scope of the recent events, Shikaku finally managed to untangle the web of motives. He could now easily dissect and understand the Hidden Stone's true intentions for initiating these negotiations.
"Hmph. That old bastard really mapped out a beautiful dream for himself," Tsunade scoffed coldly, crossing her arms with a look of deep displeasure.
"He certainly has a monstrous appetite... this Tsuchikage," Jiraiya murmured, a hint of complex emotion flashing across his face.
As a shinobi who technically belonged to the same generation as his former sensei, the Third Tsuchikage's personality was drastically different. On certain issues, he was the absolute polar opposite.
"However, the Tsuchikage miscalculated our judgment and, most fatally, underestimated Menma Uzumaki's power. Right now, he has simply recognized Menma as an existential threat. That's why he's so desperate to forge a pact with us," Shikaku added.
With Shikaku's breakdown, the fog completely cleared for both Tsunade and Jiraiya.
The previous sense of disjointedness vanished instantly. Tsunade nodded. "So, there really is room to negotiate."
"Mm. Judging by the current state of the ninja world and the looming threats of the future, I highly recommend reaching some level of agreement with the Hidden Stone. Of course, the specifics require much deeper negotiations—especially regarding the aftermath," Shikaku said, his final sentence heavily veiled.
But both Tsunade and Jiraiya understood exactly what he meant. To put it bluntly: how would they coordinate the attack, and more importantly, how would they divide the ultimate spoils? Menma currently held a staggering four Tailed Beast Jinchuriki! (It was actually five now, but if they knew that, they would have completely lost their minds).
In any other era, a single village acquiring four Tailed Beasts would have instantly triggered a united global crusade against them. It was only the unique fragility of the current geopolitical climate—and the terrifying strength and ruthlessness Menma had displayed—that maintained this precarious standoff. But it was entirely predictable. Even if the blood feud between Menma and the Leaf didn't exist...
The sheer, monumental prize of four Tailed Beasts—including the almighty Nine-Tails—was enough to make every major village salivate.
If they didn't make a play for it, they'd be doing themselves a massive disservice.
"Mm. Then it's decided. Shikaku, I'm leaving the specifics of the negotiation to you. Once you hammer out a comprehensive draft, bring it to me for final approval. Shizune, coordinate with Shikaku and assist him however he needs."
Tsunade nodded, looking at the two of them.
"Understood, Lord Fifth."
"Yes, Lady Tsunade. Please leave it to us," Shizune, who had been organizing documents off to the side, chimed in simultaneously.
A new storm was brewing.
Unlike any period in the past few decades, the overt and covert clashes currently unfolding were plunging the ninja world into unprecedented chaos. In the original timeline, there had only been continuous, minor skirmishes; large-scale warfare was virtually non-existent. The only genuinely brutal conflict was the Konoha Crush. Yet even then, neither the Sand nor the Sound had committed massive armies, and a peace treaty was swiftly signed afterward.
It hardly qualified as a true war. The relationships between the Five Great Villages merely grew a bit stiffer. Ultimately, they even formed a united front to combat Obito's "dark forces."
But in this timeline, the geopolitical landscape had been turned completely upside down. The Waterfall-Grass Alliance, forged with Menma at its absolute core, had rapidly ascended into a new global superpower—one capable of casually crushing many established hidden villages.
Consequently, even when Obito, Nagato, and the Akatsuki finally stepped out of the shadows in this timeline, forming a Unified Shinobi Army would be nearly impossible.
Vested interests and blood feuds would serve as insurmountable barriers.
And the biggest factor of all...
Menma would absolutely never cooperate with these villages—especially the Hidden Leaf.
Trust?
What a joke.
Because of this, the various nations of the ninja world were destined to engage in far more brutal, bloody conflicts across multiple fronts in the coming days. The leaders of the major villages were completely oblivious to the apocalyptic danger Obito and Nagato represented.
And Menma, the only person intimately familiar with the plot, had absolutely zero intention of playing the 'whistleblower.' He couldn't care less about the fate of the other hidden villages. He only cared about his own future, and the futures of his comrades.
That was what he was fighting for.
Whether he succeeded or not was one thing, and whether people believed in him was another. If he didn't care about staying true to his own convictions and carving out his own path, Menma wouldn't have needed to defect from the Leaf in the first place. He could have just sat back, waited for Hiruzen Sarutobi to die, and welcomed Tsunade back to the village.
At the end of the day, everyone had their own ambitions.
This was Menma's choice.
Even if others couldn't comprehend it, Menma embraced it gladly.
Every step he had taken so far had brought him closer to his ultimate goal. His internal confidence continued to surge. While he didn't yet know that the Third Tsuchikage was secretly plotting to ally with the Leaf against him, he wouldn't have feared it even if he did. It all played perfectly into his own grand design. Obito and Nagato wanted to wage war against the entire ninja world?
Sorry, but that was Menma's goal too.
The strong only grow stronger.
Menma fully intended to be the dealer who swept the entire board!
If he failed, it just meant death.
He had long since made peace with that reality. He made his choices, and he would bear the consequences.
Because of this, every move Menma made was meticulously calculated and laced with a subtle sense of urgency. Knowing the true nature of this world and the terrifying entities he would eventually have to face, he couldn't afford to relax for a single second.
This excursion was no different. Having accomplished his primary objectives, he was rushing back at top speed. The year was coming to an end; Konoha Year 62 was fast approaching. Time was running out. More importantly, he absolutely could not use the original timeline as a rigid metric anymore. It was, at best, a loose reference. The plot of this world had fundamentally mutated. God only knew what Obito and Nagato were planning to do next!
For all he knew, the Akatsuki could launch their grand offensive tomorrow!
He had to maintain a state of hyper-vigilance.
He was still missing four Tailed Beasts, but he wasn't in a rush on that front. Physically, however, with Naruto's cells, the Chimera Technique stolen from Hiruko, and the unexpected prize of White Zetsu's biological material... combining all these elements with his and Karin's previous experimental data meant they were fully prepared to initiate the final phase.
Once it succeeded...
Menma's physical durability would skyrocket, allowing him to perfectly unlock the absolute maximum potential of the Uzumaki clan's Sage Body.
When that happened, through sheer physical stats alone, Menma would touch the threshold of the Six Paths tier.
Only then could he proceed with the more advanced enhancement experiments.
After all, if he wanted to truly transcend mortality and step into the realm of the 'gods'...
Physical durability and the Sage Body...
Were only half the equation.
Spiritual evolution was equally critical. The perfect fusion of both was what defined the Six Paths tier. It was the only way to reach the heights of the Bloodline Snare.
To become a truly transcendent entity capable of crossing the stars.
That was Menma's true objective.
Therefore, he traveled at absolute maximum speed on the journey back, hoping to return to the Hidden Waterfall as soon as physically possible.
He didn't want any unexpected variables cropping up.
However, the more you tried to avoid variables, the more likely they were to appear.
Menma had just taken a ship—arranged by Orochimaru—from the Land of Water back to the Land of Rivers. He had sealed the divided Three-Tails chakra into a specialized scroll for Kabuto to transport back.
He had planned to head straight north, cutting through the Land of Rivers and the Land of Grass to return to the Hidden Waterfall. But just as he passed a small town in the Land of Rivers, nearing the border of the Land of Wind...
Rumble!
Suddenly...
Menma felt the violently intense shockwaves of a massive battle sweeping over him.
The very ground beneath his feet trembled slightly.
Judging by the estimated distance and the sheer magnitude of the residual shockwaves...
Menma was almost certain the combatants were firmly at the Kage level. An ordinary battle between Jonin couldn't possibly produce this level of destruction.
"Here? Someone's fighting out here? And on this scale?! Could it be...?"
Menma's brow furrowed, a specific thought instantly flashing through his mind.
Immediately after, he cast his sensory net as wide as possible.
Easily locking onto the turbulent chakra fluctuations and pinpointing their exact coordinates, Menma channeled chakra to his feet and exploded forward, hurtling directly toward the battlefield.
As he closed in on the combat zone...
He deliberately suppressed his chakra signature and slowed his rapid pace. Generally speaking, shinobi engaged in a high-stakes battle couldn't afford to project their sensory nets too far; they usually kept them tight around their immediate vicinity to guard against sneak attacks.
But Menma still felt it was best to be as cautious as possible.
Who knew if he was about to run into some absolute monster?!