Roughly half a year after Mito Uzumaki's passing, Iwagakure and Sunagakure jointly issued an official declaration—or perhaps more accurately, a writ of denunciation—entitled:
"The Five Great Shinobi Villages Balanced Development Initiative"
At first glance, the document sounded noble and righteous, but it was filled with vague, convoluted language.
Ordinary people reading it might think,
"Wow… I don't know what this says, but it sure sounds important."
But if you translated it into plain language, it was actually quite simple.
In essence, the declaration said:
"Since we're known as the Five Great Shinobi Villages, no one should be starting wars lightly. We should all promote peace in the ninja world.
But if we want peace, we first have to ask: Why do wars happen?
The answer is simple: resource inequality.
When nations are balanced in strength, no one will dare to make the first move.
But if imbalance occurs, the stronger will inevitably consider swallowing the weaker. That's how wars start.
Therefore, to prevent future conflict, the Five Great Shinobi Villages must develop evenly."
Sounds reasonable, right?
But here comes the twist:
"Kirigakure is isolated overseas and enjoys abundant maritime resources.
Kumogakure is vast and fertile.
And Konoha? Well, your prosperity speaks for itself.
Meanwhile, we—the good folks of Iwagakure and Sunagakure—have nothing.
One of us lives in the mountains; the other survives in the desert."
In other words:
"You all have nice things. We don't.
So to maintain balance, and for the sake of world peace, you should hand over a large portion of your lands and resources to us."
"If you agree to sign this treaty, you'll be our good friends.
But if you refuse…
Well, for the sake of long-term peace, we'll be forced to use military means to maintain balance.
Don't worry though! We'll only take exactly what we asked for—no more, no less.
It's all for love and peace.
Love & Peace!"
If you gave this document to Hashirama Senju, he'd probably sign it tearfully on the spot.
But the current generation of Third Kage?
They all reacted the same way:
"Heh. …Pah!"
After spitting in contempt, however, the three remaining villages had very different responses.
Kumogakure and Kirigakure didn't outright refuse.
Instead, they issued their own public statement:
"We also support balanced development among the Five Great Shinobi Villages!
However, we firmly stand with our big brother Konoha. We're Konoha's loyal fans.
Since Konoha is the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful village, if they agree to give up territory and resources, we'll happily follow suit.
But if Konoha refuses? Well, then we won't either."
In other words:
Konoha, we're dragging you into this whether you like it or not.
Everyone knew Kumogakure and Kirigakure were spewing nonsense.
But even so, Konoha had no choice but to step onto the stage.
What were they supposed to do? Actually give away half their land?
That was never going to happen.
No matter how indecisive Hiruzen Sarutobi could be, even he would never agree to something that ridiculous.
And besides, Konoha had already spent the past six months secretly stockpiling supplies in preparation for war.
So Konoha responded bluntly:
"Keep dreaming."
And just like that—the Second Great Ninja War broke out.
...
The combined forces of Iwagakure and Sunagakure quickly swept through and occupied several small neighboring countries, then marched directly into Amegakure, the Village Hidden by Rain.
They were determined to make Rain Country the primary battlefield against Konoha.
Konoha didn't back down.
They immediately entered full wartime mobilization.
Routine missions were suspended, and the first wave of 6,000 ninja was dispatched to Land of Rain.
The Konoha forces split into two groups of 3,000, setting up camps along different fronts to counter Iwa and Suna's positions.
As the armies gathered, the civilians of Rain Country trembled in fear.
But one man wasn't trembling—he was furious.
That man was Hanzo of the Salamander, renowned as the "Demi-God of Amegakure."
Hanzo was a man of great ambition.
He had dreamed of elevating Amegakure into the Sixth Great Ninja Village, and had spent years building up his military strength.
But before his ninja forces could even take shape, the three great nations decided to start a war on his land—without asking.
Hanzo was enraged.
And when Hanzo got mad, the consequences were severe.
He personally led his forces and swept through the forward camps of all three villages, brazenly declaring:
"If you want to fight in the Land of Rain, you'll have to kill me first."
In other words, Hanzo had just declared war on all three of the Great Villages simultaneously.
The situation changed instantly.
What was supposed to be a two-sided conflict suddenly became a three-way war, with Hanzo at the center, challenging everyone.
Rain's ninja were mostly second-rate.
But Hanzo himself? He was a walking biological weapon.
Hanzo rarely needed backup.
He would teleport into battle, unleash his deadly poison gas, and then cut down enemies with overwhelming taijutsu before vanishing again.
Anyone poisoned by him was as good as dead—there was no antidote.
In the first week alone, even before the three villages truly clashed, over a thousand ninja had already died.
More than one-third of those deaths were directly caused by Hanzo's poison and surprise attacks.
For a time, Hanzo alone managed to suppress the combined forces of the three great villages.
His title of "Demi-God" echoed across the land.
Realizing they couldn't ignore Hanzo anymore, the three villages paused their own battles and turned their forces toward Amegakure.
Under these circumstances, Hoshiyomi Gekkō and his companions could no longer stay in Konoha.
At the latest Jōnin meeting, Danzō and his allies in the opposition dragged Hoshiyomi's group into the war effort, forcing them to the front lines.
But Hoshiyomi and the others didn't resist.
For people like Jiraiya and Orochimaru, who were still young, the political scheming went over their heads—or they simply didn't care.
They were eager to fight, driven by hot-blooded enthusiasm.
But Tsunade and Hoshiyomi knew better.
They understood Mito's final plan—they were waiting for this chance to seize military merit and elevate their political standing.
Hiruzen hesitated.
But in the end, he still agreed to send them to the front.
The battles at the front lines were too intense. Konoha needed elite fighters to counterbalance Danzō's growing influence.
At the same time, Hoshiyomi and Tsunade jointly submitted a list of Senju clan members—those who had been hiding their identities.
They requested to bring these shinobi with them to the battlefield.
The opposition was overjoyed.
They saw this as the perfect opportunity to weaken the Senju faction further.
They didn't suspect any deeper scheme.
As far as they were concerned, with Mito gone, the idea of reviving the Senju clan was basically a lost cause.
If Hoshiyomi wanted to bring a bunch of half-hidden Senju to the front lines?
So much the better. It just meant those people would die faster.
They were more than happy to let him take as many as he wanted.