The Sand Village still had no idea how Black Zetsu had infiltrated. Before they could even react, their Tailed Beast was gone.
As for the Hidden Waterfall Village… they might as well be ignored. Their entire village wasn't even as strong as their own Seven-Tails Jinchūriki.
Yet, even the Seven-Tails had been powerless against Black Zetsu.
As for Rōshi… his death was entirely his own doing.
Takuya couldn't understand why that stubborn fool had sneaked away instead of coming to the Hidden Cloud Village for protection.
Wouldn't that have been easier?
And now, look where it got him—his Tailed Beast was gone, and his life was lost as well.
By the time they found him, his body was already cold and stiff.
All they could do was dig a hole and bury him.
"So now, the only thing left is waiting for Uchiha Madara to show up in person."
"Raikage, are you sure about keeping the Jinchūriki inside the village? If a battle breaks out, the Hidden Cloud Village might not survive."
The Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, Killer Bee, was still nowhere to be seen.
Takuya suspected that the Cloud Village had hidden him away on Turtle Island to train, possibly sealing away the Rinnegan there as well.
The Third Raikage responded in a deep voice:
"I've already ordered all reconstruction efforts to stop. The villagers have been completely evacuated. Even if the village is destroyed, we can accept the losses."
For him, ensuring the safety of the Jinchūriki and Tailed Beasts meant keeping them under his watchful eye.
That was why he had moved all the villagers out and halted the rebuilding process.
In other words, he was prepared to go all out against Uchiha Madara.
Losses? The Hidden Cloud Village could handle them!
Well… this was probably what being wealthy looked like.
No other village would dare to take such drastic measures.
Then again, the Cloud Village had already suffered severe damage once—another round of destruction wouldn't make much difference.
Given the Third Raikage's bold personality, this decision wasn't entirely unexpected.
Since he wasn't afraid of his village being leveled, Takuya had no more objections.
Keeping everyone stationed within the Cloud Village had its advantages.
If the Allied Shinobi Forces were spread out, finding accommodations for all the ninja would be a nightmare. They couldn't exactly have thousands of ninja sleeping on the ground.
So now, all that was left was to wait.
Uchiha Madara, when are you coming?
One after another, the Five Great Shinobi Villages' forces arrived.
Konoha's forces were led by Tsunade herself, with the village left in the hands of the Third Hokage.
The elites of Konoha, the Mist, the Stone, and the Sand Villages all gathered in the Hidden Cloud Village.
Unlike the Fourth Shinobi World War in the original timeline, this Allied Shinobi Force wasn't as large.
In total, there were only around twenty thousand ninja.
But every single one of them was elite.
Though their numbers seemed small compared to the original war's army of one hundred thousand, sheer numbers didn't always determine the outcome of a battle.
Against an opponent like Madara, sending in more troops would just mean more casualties.
Now, the Hidden Cloud Village had transformed into a military fortress.
Ninja patrolled inside and out, and shinobi from different villages had removed their individual forehead protectors, replacing them with the Allied Shinobi Forces insignia.
Takuya took one look at the forehead protector and discarded it immediately.
The design was ugly.
Seeing this, Minato, Kushina, and the others quietly put theirs away as well.
At least they had some restraint—they didn't outright throw theirs away like Takuya did.
Apparently, some patrol leader had even launched an investigation to find out which reckless fool had discarded their forehead protector.
In the end, he traced it back to Takuya.
Takuya still remembered the guy's reaction—his face was priceless.
All this trouble over a forehead protector?
And now that he'd tracked it back to him, what was he going to do about it?
The most ridiculous part?
The person leading the investigation was a Konoha ninja!
Imagine that—one of his own people had been trying to track him down.
"What's so funny? It was just some stubborn guy," Takuya said, spreading his hands.
With a single glare, he silenced Minato and Nawaki before they could laugh any further.
If they kept laughing, he'd beat them up.
Of course, Minato and Nawaki wisely shut their mouths.
"Everyone else is busy working, and we're just sitting around. This feels a little inappropriate."
Uchiha Mikoto stood by the window, watching the bustling activity outside, looking a little uneasy.
She had joined the Allied Shinobi Forces with the Uchiha clan.
Yet, the moment they arrived in the Cloud Village, Takuya had dragged her away.
Why?
Because Takuya was worried about the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
If she was caught in it and had strange dreams while he wasn't around, that would be a disaster.
After all, in Infinite Tsukuyomi, dreams tended to be twisted versions of reality.
So, it was better to keep his own people close.
He wasn't going to rely on anyone else to protect them.
As for Hashirama and the other shinobi…
It wasn't that Takuya looked down on them.
But if Uchiha Madara really showed up, they'd be lucky just to hold him back.
Expecting them to protect others?
Not happening.
A Wood Release battle between Madara and Hashirama?
Now that would be a sight.
With both of them unleashing forests everywhere, no one would be able to tell who was controlling which trees.
Hopefully, they wouldn't get their own techniques mixed up.
Now that Konoha's leader had arrived, Hashirama and Tobirama no longer represented the village at the war meetings.
Instead, they took on a supporting role alongside Tsunade.
As for Takuya?
He had already "retired" from his role as the Hokage's advisor.
Inside the Raikage's office, the Five Kage, along with Hashirama and Tobirama, sat together—seven in total.
Not even a secretary was present to serve tea.
With no outsiders around, Onoki finally brought up the question that had been bothering him.
"Raikage, at this point, isn't it time you shared some information with us?
For example, where exactly is the Rinnegan hidden?
And what about the Eight-Tails Jinchūriki, Killer Bee?"
It wasn't just Onoki who wanted to know.
Everyone in the room—including Hashirama and Tobirama—was curious.
The problem was that the Third Raikage had been avoiding the question all this time.
___________________________
(P)(S): If you're interested, you can read the rest of the Chapter at Patreon com/ Emik01.
DO NOT FORGET POWER STONE AND CHATTING