In wars between major powers, small countries often became battlegrounds. But the Mist Village wasn't playing by those rules.
Even if the Land of Bears avoided becoming the main battlefield, the Mist Village wouldn't make it easy.
The Mist controlled the mobility. They could attack wherever and however they wanted. Only a fool would move to the land and face Konoha in a protracted siege battle.
The Third Hokage looked troubled, and Danzo was frowning.
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, the other two advisors, kept their mouths shut.
They had no good solutions for this situation either.
If the Mist launched a direct attack, Konoha would be ready.
But they refused. They were content to cause chaos everywhere, harass at every turn, exploiting Konoha and the Land of Fire's lack of naval power.
Harassments and constant skirmishes were more than enough to make Konoha's forces anxious and exhausted.
Orochimaru, who had initially planned to accumulate military achievements and boost his reputation, realized he had underestimated the difficulty.
The Mist Village was far trickier than the Sand Village.
If the Mist dared to launch a proper attack, Orochimaru was confident he could teach them a painful lesson.
The problem was, that they wouldn't come at them directly. Instead, they kept harassing and striking at random points.
How annoying.
Konoha could try to station forces everywhere, but how effective could that be?
They could even try to sneak attack the Mist Village, but with the limited ships the Land of Fire possessed, any attempt would be met by a water-style jutsu combo that would leave them feeding the fish.
After half a day of discussion, no real solution was found. In the end, they decided to proceed with caution, taking a wait-and-see approach until the Mist made a definitive move.
No one had expected that the war against the Mist Village would see Konoha falling into such a passive position so quickly.
"As expected, wars have a huge impact on the lives of the villagers."
Xin walked through the streets, carrying groceries in his hand. Recently, the cost of goods in Konoha has increased significantly.
The number of visitors to the village had also decreased, with many merchants deciding to leave.
The invasion by the Sand Village a few years back had caused significant losses for many of them.
And now, only two or three years later, another war was starting. "Once bitten, twice shy" — the merchants' first reaction was to leave Konoha.
They would go somewhere without war and continue making money.