In the original timeline, nothing big seemed to happen around this period. It was still some time before Sakumo Hatake's tragedy, and Kakashi hadn't even started school yet-Sakumo's incident happened after Kakashi enrolled.
"What do you mean by backbone?" Xin asked, curious about how far the Third Hokage went.
"The Mist Village tried to threaten Konoha with war, and the Council of Elders wanted to muddy the waters, but they didn't even get a chance to speak. Danzo even acted like a decent person for once today."
Xin's hand slipped while chopping vegetables.
He thought he must have misheard-Mist Village threatening Konoha with war?
"What's the reason? They can't just declare a fight without some excuse," Xin asked, continuing to chop.
Was Mist trying to rise up suddenly? To threaten Konoha with war-what a bizarre move. The bigger question was, what kind of conflict led Mist to make such a declaration? Xin figured the situation must be complicated.
"What else could it be?" Tsunade replied casually while she settled in, making no effort to hide the truth. "Sakumo Hatake took on a mission to infiltrate the Mist Village to gather intel, but Mist suddenly sent a formal letter accusing Konoha of sending him to assassinate the Third Mizukage. They want an explanation, or else they'll declare war."
"Sakumo Hatake? Assassinate the Third Mizukage?"
Goodness...
Xin remembered running into Sakumo Hatake on their way back to Konoha a few days ago. It seemed Sakumo was on his way to the Mist Village at that time.
Assassinate the Mizukage? Unless the Third Hokage had gone insane, there was no way he'd give such an order.
It wasn't that Konoha couldn't assassinate another village's Kage, but the Third Hokage's personality simply wasn't that reckless. Targeting other villages' tailed beasts or jinchuriki was already a bold enough decision.
Attempting to assassinate a Kage was entirely different.
That sort of action could either be a small diplomatic hiccup or the spark of a full-blown war -it all depended on the other side's response.
If the Mist were upset enough, it could become the cause of a major conflict. Otherwise, it could be just another diplomatic squabble.
The Third Hokage wasn't someone who'd give such a reckless command.
And besides him... there was no one else in the current leadership of the village who could directly issue orders to Sakumo Hatake.
After some thought, Xin said, "Maybe it was an unfortunate coincidence. For example, Sakumo might've bumped into the Third Mizukage while gathering information, his identity was compromised, and he had no choice but to engage-leading Mist to accuse Konoha of attempting an assassination."
Xin would rather believe in a coincidence like that than think Sakumo Hatake had somehow gone rogue and taken it upon himself to assassinate the Third Mizukage.