News that the Sky Village had attacked Kumogakure and burned it to the ground spread through the ninja world like a virus.
Within only two or three days—
Everyone had heard.
The entire ninja world was stunned!
That was Kumogakure!
A powerful shinobi village that could compete for second place in the world and comfortably remain within the top three!
Yet its home had been silently destroyed by the Sky Village!
When the various forces of the ninja world first heard the news, they instinctively assumed it had been fabricated by some obscure tabloid.
The publisher probably wanted to become famous, earn attention, and make some money along the way.
There was nothing shameful about making money.
Stories were already circulating about a forbidden romance between the Third Raikage and Ōnoki—
Ōnoki had supposedly turned from love to hatred and conspired with Konoha and Sunagakure to destroy Kumogakure.
There were also stories involving Konoha's Second Hokage and all his students.
The writers made everything sound remarkably convincing.
The plots were unbelievably deranged.
Yet the sales were shockingly good and deeply popular among certain BL enthusiasts and other peculiar readers throughout the ninja world.
Still—
Most people treated such stories as amusing entertainment to discuss over tea.
But more and more information continued reaching the public.
Photographs of Kumogakure after the disaster appeared.
Then actual recordings of the Sky shinobi attacking the village began circulating.
As everyone knew—
Video recordings could not be faked.
Now, the ninja world had no choice but to believe it!
For the first time, everyone reassessed the Sky Village.
In the past, the Sky Village had followed a technological path outsiders could not understand.
Moreover, the overall quality of its shinobi had been poor.
Most of them were genin.
For a long time, the village had been regarded as nothing more than a stray dog beside the road.
Over the past few years, it had begun launching attacks alongside the Land of Sky and capturing territory.
That earned it some fame.
Its status had risen from a roadside stray dog—
To the leader of a pack of roadside stray dogs.
But today—
Everything had reversed!
That roadside stray dog had overturned Kumogakure's dark-skinned brutes!
As one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Kumogakure's strength was beyond question.
Even though the Third Raikage had taken the village's elite forces out to seek revenge, Kumogakure still had enough shinobi remaining to defend itself.
Even Konoha would not have been able to use this opportunity to attack and reduce Kumogakure to such a state within a single day.
Yet the Sky Village had done exactly that.
The achievement blinded the gossip-loving masses of the ninja world.
Different forces reacted in entirely different ways.
—
Land of Grass.
Odebiao watched the recordings while eating a banana.
The flames and explosions flashing across the screen made his heart tremble.
"Terrifying."
"So terrifying…"
"The Sky Village is far too frightening!"
"Far too dangerous!"
"We only want to grow bananas!"
"Father Konoha, hurry and destroy them!"
"How are we supposed to grow bananas in peace while they still exist?"
—
Land of Rain.
"Hahahaha!"
"Kumogakure's home was destroyed!"
"The Four-Village Allied Shinobi Force is finished again!"
"Lord Hanzō, what should we do about the new aid agreements we signed with Konoha over the past few days?"
"We mortgaged even more—"
"Should we break the contracts?"
"Idiot!"
"Konoha is the only powerful backer we have!"
"Can we afford to offend them?"
"Besides…"
"Have we already mortgaged every mineral deposit in the Land of Rain?"
"I remember there being quite a few left!"
"And those troublesome commoners—"
"Send all of them to Konoha's factories to tighten screws."
"Confiscate all the land belonging to their families as well."
"Damn peasants!"
"I gave them food, yet they still rebel against me!"
—
The daimyō were equally furious.
"Where did the Sky Village even come from?!"
"We finally persuaded Kumogakure to stop fighting!"
"Now those dark-skinned brutes have completely lost their minds and are rushing back to inspect the village overnight!"
"They will absolutely fight the Sky shinobi until one side is destroyed!"
"I want the Sky Village dead too!"
The Lightning Daimyo was also approaching madness.
He had spent so much time resolving matters and poured out an enormous amount of money—
Yet all of it had been wasted!
He would undoubtedly have to pay for Kumogakure's reconstruction as well.
Damn it!
He had to bleed again!
Unforgivable!
Completely unreasonable!
"Agreed!"
"I spent plenty of money too!"
"The Sky Village deserves death!"
The Earth Daimyo deeply sympathized with the Lightning Daimyo.
"Forget the Sky Village!"
"Our objective is Amegakure!"
"Advance!"
"Destroy those traitors!"
The Wind Daimyo and Water Daimyo remained focused solely on eliminating Amegakure.
"What does the Hokage think?"
"I want to hear his opinion first."
The Fire Daimyo believed they should wait.
He wanted to hear Uchiha Ren's position before expressing his own.
—
Konoha.
"The Sky Village is the enemy of the entire ninja world!"
"They openly destroyed peace and caused an appalling massacre!"
"They are a terrorist organization!"
"And they attacked Kumogakure, one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages."
"Today, it was Kumogakure."
"Which village will it be tomorrow?"
"Sunagakure?"
"Iwagakure?"
"Or perhaps Konoha itself?"
"This is no ordinary terrorist organization!"
"I warned everyone long ago that the Sky Village was far too dangerous!"
"They must be destroyed!"
Uchiha Ren immediately convened a high-level meeting.
During the meeting, he showed Konoha's leadership the recordings of Kumogakure being attacked.
As the officials watched wave after wave of aerial bombardment and listened to explosions continue without pause, their brows tightened.
What if the Sky Village attacked Konoha?
Could Konoha completely defend itself?
It seemed—
They could not!
"I intend to convene a Five Kage Summit."
"We will assemble a Five-Village Allied Shinobi Force and eliminate the Sky Village."
"What are your opinions?"
Uchiha Ren's expression was unbelievably dark.
He sat at the center of the conference room with his fingers interlocked, sweeping his gaze over Konoha's senior officials.
He had already raised the matter of the Sky Village during previous meetings.
However, Konoha's leadership had never taken the threat seriously.
Presumably—
Their attitudes had changed now.
"The Sky Village is far too dangerous."
"For Konoha's safety, it must be destroyed."
Kakuzu immediately expressed his position.
He had been waiting for Konoha to intervene so that he could use the opportunity to harvest the futures market.
"I agree!"
Nara Shikato raised his hand.
Uchiha Ren had already discussed the matter with him.
"I agree!"
Uchiha Tomita had always been loyal.
"I agree!"
"I agree!"
"…"
Voices of agreement echoed throughout the conference room.
Konoha could not remain beneath the threat of the Sky Village's weapons!
"Shikato, follow the contingency plan."
"Summon the Kage of the other four great villages."
"Konoha will urgently convene the Five Kage Summit to discuss the campaign against the Sky Village."
"Deploy the First Anti-Air Division!"
"Yes, Hokage-sama!"
No force in the ninja world had expected—
That Konoha would choose this moment to intervene directly!
Over the past year, the situation in the ninja world had changed constantly.
Major events had emerged one after another.
First came the Amegakure Incident.
Then the collapse of the Ponzi scheme.
Afterward, Kumogakure launched a campaign against Iwagakure.
The daimyō intervened to mediate.
The two villages formed an alliance again.
Konoha's shadow had appeared throughout every major event.
Yet Konoha had remained seated comfortably within the Land of Fire, unmoving.
It merely sold resources abroad and showed no intention of entering the battlefield.
But now—
Kumogakure had been attacked by the Sky Village.
And that was enough to make Konoha act?
Everyone knew that the feud between Kumogakure and Konoha stretched back many years.
During the First Shinobi World War, Kumogakure had chased and bitten Konoha like a wild dog.
Even during peace negotiations between the two villages, Kumogakure had taken the life of one of Konoha's Kage.
Later, Konoha had carefully joined forces with Sunagakure and Iwagakure to create a shocking scheme that pushed Kumogakure to the brink of bankruptcy.
Therefore—
The various forces of the ninja world instinctively doubted the news.
Could this be another false report?
But confirmation came from every direction.
Konoha truly was mobilizing.
There was video evidence.
Video recordings could not be faked.
And the recording came directly from a live broadcast by Konoha Television.
Below the Hokage Building stood an enormous plaza.
Uchiha Ren stood atop the building.
Konoha's senior officials surrounded him.
Several thousand fully equipped Konoha shinobi stood in eight formations, awaiting his inspection.
An army was raised for a thousand days to be used in a single moment.
It was time for the new generation of shinobi to build achievements!
"The Sky Village is a terrorist organization of the ninja world!"
"They launched an appalling attack upon Kumogakure and used weapons of mass destruction."
"For the peace of the ninja world and in response to the Will of Fire passed down by the First Hokage—"
"Konoha will deliver the strongest possible response!"
"…"
"Loyalty!"
"Loyalty!"
"Loyalty!"
A thunderous response erupted the moment Uchiha Ren finished speaking.
The Konoha shinobi could not wait to demonstrate their loyalty.
The recording spread rapidly throughout the ninja world.
Anyone could see that Konoha was serious!
Was the Second Shinobi World War about to begin officially?
Konoha had mobilized on such a scale merely for Kumogakure?
Merely to deal with the Sky Village?
Who the hell would believe that?
Before long—
Konoha's proposal to convene another Five Kage Summit and establish a Five-Village Allied Shinobi Force received responses.
Naturally, Kumogakure was the first to answer.
Kumogakure and Konoha shared a deep blood feud.
The grudges from the First Shinobi World War alone could be set aside temporarily.
Even the Ponzi scheme was enough to make everyone in Kumogakure hate Konoha.
However—
Everything depended on comparison.
Konoha had merely stolen Kumogakure's money.
The Sky Village had directly destroyed Kumogakure's home.
The village Kumogakure had painstakingly built had become a sea of flames and ruins.
The scene was even more tragic than Konoha after the Nine-Tails' attack.
At least the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball had not exploded in the center of Konoha.
Did Kumogakure still have a future?
Perhaps the village should simply disband.
The conditions offered by Konoha were quite attractive.
But that was a matter for later.
When the Cloud shinobi returned from the Land of Earth and saw their ruined homeland—
They froze.
The survivors wore torn clothing.
Their faces were covered in ash and blood.
Fear and confusion filled their eyes.
At the end of the street, stubborn villagers still dug through the rubble, trying to rescue relatives and companions.
The scene resembled hell.
More survivors sat blankly among the broken walls and ruins.
They looked like walking corpses.
"The situation had clearly begun improving…"
"Kumogakure only needed to tighten its belt and endure a few more years."
"We definitely could have recovered…"
"How did everything become like this?"
The Third Raikage stared at the scene in disbelief.
Countless cries filled his ears.
The returning shinobi rushed toward the ruins of their homes like madmen.
At that moment—
Only one word remained inside the Third Raikage's mind.
Revenge.
Kumogakure's entire legacy had truly been destroyed in his hands.
A tragedy beyond imagination!
Soon afterward—
The Third Raikage fainted from rage.
His trusted subordinates hurriedly slapped his face and pinched beneath his nose until he finally regained consciousness.
If their Raikage collapsed now, Kumogakure would truly be finished.
"Revenge!"
"Blood must be repaid with blood!"
The dark-skinned brutes swore to erase the Sky Village completely from the ninja world.
Naturally, the second village to answer Konoha's summons was Sunagakure.
The Third Kazekage did not know Konoha's true intentions.
But following his elder brother's footsteps could not be wrong.
Before this—
Konoha had only sold supplies.
Kumogakure and Iwagakure had been tearing into one another.
Kirigakure had first developed quietly, then spent its time traveling and had only just approached the Land of Rain.
Only Sunagakure, the honest fool, had been fighting Amegakure at the front.
Amegakure was not weak.
During the Second Shinobi World War, it had once resisted three great shinobi villages by itself.
Now, against Sunagakure alone—
The two sides were evenly matched.
Both sides consciously controlled the intensity of the war.
Although several large-scale clashes had occurred, casualties had remained within acceptable limits.
Still—
A prolonged war of attrition burned far too much money.
Sunagakure possessed only limited reserves.
It could not afford to lose everything because of Amegakure.
Now, Konoha—the elder brother—wanted to convene a Five Kage Summit and establish a Five-Village Allied Shinobi Force to attack the Sky Village.
Five villages against one would certainly cost far less than Sunagakure fighting Amegakure alone.
On the same day he received the summons, the Third Kazekage immediately halted operations.
He brought his Kage Guard Unit to attend Konoha's emergency Five Kage Summit.
As for Iwagakure—
It had just formed an alliance with Kumogakure in front of the entire ninja world.
How could it stand aside while its ally suffered such a brutal attack?
"Resist the Sky Village and support Kumogakure!"
"Protect our ally!"
Using that slogan, Ōnoki answered Konoha's call.
As for Kirigakure—
The Third Mizukage, Suitō, had spent his time developing quietly and avoiding attention.
His thoughts remained focused on eliminating the bloodline clans within his village—
Those dangerous ticking time bombs.
If everyone else turned toward the Sky Village, would Kirigakure be left alone to fight Amegakure?
Turn around!
Turn around immediately!
They would attend the Five Kage Summit and watch the excitement instead!
Konoha announced the Five Kage Summit and the formation of a Five-Village Allied Shinobi Force that morning.
Almost immediately, the other four great villages responded.
The efficiency was absurdly high.
The daimyō throughout the ninja world felt their faces burning with humiliation.
They had spent an entire year making grand declarations.
First—
The Five-Village Allied Shinobi Force would be established within three days.
Amegakure would be eliminated within seven.
Then it became a Four-Village Allied Shinobi Force.
The promised seven days became one month.
Then two months.
Three months.
Half a year.
Now an entire year had passed—
And Amegakure was still alive and well.
Konoha had only made the slightest move.
Yet that already exceeded the limits of everything the daimyō had achieved.
The daimyō could only comfort themselves.
At least the Five-Village Allied Shinobi Force would finally be established.
It was not being formed to destroy Amegakure.
Instead, it would eliminate the Sky Village on Kumogakure's behalf.
That made absolutely no sense!
Still—
The Sky Village was extremely irritating.
It had silently created such a massive disaster and delayed the daimyō's plans to destroy Amegakure yet again.
If Konoha wanted to kill this village—
Then at least it would remove a major threat from the ninja world.