The Land of Earth possessed a vast territory, yet its per capita GDP remained low.
This was because, although rich in mineral resources, nearly all other natural resources were severely lacking.
Agriculture here was particularly difficult — an extremely arduous undertaking.
Even if Hashirama Senju himself had come to the Land of Earth during his lifetime to carry out greening projects, it still would have been a headache for him.
However, compared with the Land of Wind, the situation in the Land of Earth was much better — at least they had solid ground instead of sand riddled with holes and pits.
Iwagakure Village, when Konoha and Sunagakure began their war, marched forth with a momentum sweeping across the shinobi world. Determined to seize a piece of Fire Country's fertile land that they had long coveted, they launched an aggressive campaign.
But just as Iwa was on the verge of defeating Konoha, Kumogakure suddenly intervened, not only inflicting serious damage on Iwa but directly handing victory back to Konoha.
No one could quite figure out why the stubborn Third Tsuchikage ended up locked in direct conflict with the Third Raikage — he actually used ten thousand ninja to trade for the Raikage's death in battle.
Although Kumogakure lost their Third Raikage, in reality, they suffered the least losses among all villages during the Third Great Ninja War.
That was also why, in the original manga, they had the audacity to openly challenge Konoha toward the end of the war.
Now let's return our focus to today's main character — Iwagakure Village.
After signing a ceasefire agreement with Konoha, Iwa shifted its military attention entirely to Kumogakure.
Perhaps it was simply due to growing old and becoming more stubborn, but Onoki refused to ease tensions with Kumogakure even after making peace with Konoha.
Over these past few years, the two villages had constant skirmishes — both sides taking losses — though no full-scale battles broke out again.
Onoki was already in his sixties, but his abilities hadn't declined at all with age.
Quite the opposite — he had become sharper over time, deepening his mastery of ninjutsu.
"Ahh, being old sure is a pain. My waist just keeps acting up!"
Onoki sat on a custom-built cushioned chair, leaning slightly sideways while using one arm to repeatedly thump his lower back.
This was the Tsuchikage's Office. Compared to the Hokage's Office, this place appeared far more plain and simple — clearly constrained by budget limitations unlike Konoha.
All around, the walls were earth-toned, adorned with Iwagakure-style patterns — a hallmark of the village's design tradition. The large office was divided into two separate rooms.
The larger one belonged to Onoki; the smaller served as his assistant's space.
"Honorable Tsuchikage, there is an official dispatch from Konoha for you. It bears the Hokage's emergency insignia."
A woman with wheat-colored skin stepped inside. She was the Tsuchikage's aide. Serving an old man like this meant she had plenty of work every day.
Especially since this old man was good for nothing else but causing fights — always leading with his fists when words failed him.
"Hmm? Bring it over!" Onoki's face grew serious. He already sensed something might be wrong.
"Here!" The assistant handed over the scroll. Alongside the Konoha symbol, it carried Minato Namikaze's personal crest — the emblem he designed after ascending to the position of Hokage.
Floating slightly upward, Onoki extended his short arms from behind the desk to accept the intelligence report coming from Konoha.
Snap!
Onoki formed a series of hand seals over the scroll as his unique chakra slowly fused with the small barrier resting atop it.
Soon, the barrier sealing the scroll was undone. Onoki's face darkened as he began reading its contents.
This kind of scroll, passed between various ninja villages, could only be opened once. The content would self-destruct after some time through a barrier mechanism.
His female assistant stood beside the desk with arms crossed, silently waiting for orders from the Tsuchikage.
Onoki's eyes scanned quickly across the scroll as his expression began changing, his hands gripping tightly around its edges.
Bang! Onoki slammed a fist onto the table, making many items jump from the impact. His assistant jumped too, covering her mouth to suppress a scream.
"Tsuchikage…sama, what happened?"
She hesitated before asking in a careful voice after a pause.
She saw Onoki clench and unclench his hands several times repeatedly.
"Send word to *everyone*—I'm holding an emergency meeting! They're to come at once—*all* of them!"
Taking a deep breath, Onoki floated above his chair, leveling his gaze at his assistant while issuing commands.
"Yes!" She nodded quickly. She knew better than to push him now.
"Then go already! This is kind of urgent!" He nearly shouted but caught sight of the slight flush in the assistant's eyes, realizing his outburst. His voice softened slightly as he caught sight of her worried eyes.
"Understood!" The assistant hurried off, her robe trailing gusts of wind behind her.
Bang! The office door slammed shut, removing her from Onoki's sight.
"Damn that bastard! If only you had listened to me back then, none of this would've happened!"
His nose flushed red—he clearly was furious.
The "bastard" he referred to was naturally Roshi, mentioned in Minato Namikaze's intelligence report.
"I hope you're alright! Otherwise, just wait till I see you again—there'll be hell to pay for what's happened!"
Muttering bitterly, Onoki's body floated outward toward the exit.
He needed to get to the meeting room as soon as possible—many people were already waiting for him. If the information provided by Konoha was true, then Roshi's situation seemed dire. Still, they couldn't fully trust Konoha's intel.
All actions depended on confirmed intelligence.
Once again, Iwagakure was kept awake through the night!
...
The incident involving Roshi disrupted peace in multiple ninja villages.
Yet, life continued onward just as usual.
After Iwagakure held an emergency meeting, they rapidly dispatched units to the battlefield located within the Land of Grass.
Upon confirmation, the battle there indeed involved Roshi—an elder who hadn't returned to the village in years.
Moreover, traces of Four-Tails' chakra remained at the scene. Having housed the Four-Tails for so long, they were intimately familiar with it.
Since combat presence by Roshi had been verified, the information provided by Konoha was mostly substantiated.
Now, Onoki deployed more forces to gather further intelligence regarding Roshi.
He needed to confirm whether Roshi was truly captured—and identify who exactly targeted him.
The Land of Fire occupied the most fertile land in the Shinobi World, and its share of resources was equally high—perhaps even greater than all other major countries combined.
All conflicts within the ninja world revolved around resources.
As the largest nation with the least natural resources, the Land of Wind shared the same desire as many other nations—to possess the territory of the Land of Fire.
Sunagakure stood in the middle of a desert—
An isolated, desolate land scarce in both people and resources.
There was also this small historical anecdote: back when Hashirama Senju divided up the Tailed Beasts during the Five Kage Summit in an attempt to balance power among the villages.
Since the One-Tail had always belonged to Suna, the First Kazekage declared at the summit that they did not need any additional beasts from Hashirama, only monetary and material compensation proportional to the beast's power.
In the end, Suna got what they wanted, while the other villages received their Tailed Beasts.
Among the Five Great Nations—Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water—only Fire and Wind possessed one beast each; the others had two.
Konoha aside, possessing the mighty Nine-Tails naturally made them incomparable to Suna's One-Tail.
Back then, the First Kazekage and the rest of the Suna elites probably believed they had gained an enormous advantage.
But looking at history up until now, on the brink of annihilation and pushed to the edge among the Five Great Villages, Suna should have realized just how foolish their decision had been.
Currently, the Fourth Kazekage—Rasa—was in power over Sunagakure. He possessed tremendous strength, along with [Magnet Release], whose power was fully unleashed in desert conditions.
And currently, the host of the One-Tail was Rasa's son—Gaara.
A boy shaped by hardship, raised in a world of violence and bloodshed from a young age.
A sky full of yellow sand made navigation one of the toughest challenges in this place.
Fortunately for Saitama, someone who knew the terrain well accompanied him:
Sasori of the Red Sand!
A ruthless man who turned the Third Kazekage into his own puppet.
And this cruel genius went so far as to turn himself into an "eternal" masterpiece.
"The leader sent me here just to be safe—it's not like I doubt your strength or anything!"
Saitama and Hiruko walked side by side, their footsteps leaving marks upon the desert sands—though these were soon buried beneath the endless dunes.
At this moment, a large yellow straw hat covered Saitama's head, adorned with hanging white cloth pieces shielding his face from sand interference.
Upon hearing Saitama's words, Sasori remained silent, merely continuing forward while controlling his puppets.
"Honestly speaking, charging straight into the village like this may seem bold, but even with confidence in our strength, we shouldn't act this recklessly!"
Receiving no reply from Sasori, Saitama wasn't bothered—he simply continued searching for conversation topics.
He knew Sasori had people inside the village—he was just saying that stuff to try and get the guy to talk.
After all, on this whole trip, we haven't even seen another living soul—it'd be way too dull without some conversation.
"I already have spies placed inside the village. There won't be any problems regarding infiltration."
Hiruko dragged across the sand, leaving long trails behind. Draped in the Black Cloak Bearing Red Clouds, its appearance contrasted sharply with the vast desert.
"Let me make one thing clear—I can help you block some people, but if things go south, I'm out of there first!"
Saitama extended his right hand to the edge of his hat and pressed it firmly, securing it tightly against his scalp.
"Do whatever you want!"
Sasori's response remained cold and emotionless, as if he were discussing something completely unrelated to him.
A faint smile tugged at Saitama's lips under his hat, growing into a wide grin.
To him, Sasori charging headfirst into a ninja village was completely reckless.
Although during their previous discussion, Zetsu's intelligence had already indicated that Sunagakure was currently among the weakest villages, and one of the few possessing a Tailed Beast.
Even a weakened Sunagakure remains formidable. Unless Akatsuki fully mobilized, capturing the Tailed Beast would be extremely difficult.
Originally, Saitama had planned to wait until Rasa was away from the village before attempting infiltration, but Sasori seemed confident and well-prepared.
"I hope Sasori knows what he's doing. This kind of mission must succeed on the first attempt; otherwise, future attempts will be nearly impossible."
Saitama narrowed his eyes slightly, a glint of cold light flashing toward the distant yellow sands.
This time, after a brief rest, Pain summoned Saitama to join forces with Sasori, temporarily forming a squad to initiate the operation.
Meanwhile, Kakuzu and Hidan were also heading toward Takigakure Village, whose target was naturally the Seven-Tails there.
The missions of these two squads were being carried out simultaneously. Nagato, having tasted the success of capturing the Four-Tails, was now impatient for more such victories.
"We still have a day's journey ahead. Be prepared—don't say I didn't warn you!"
Sasori's voice came from inside the puppet, then all was silent again.
Two figures strode forward into the sea of sand, heading straight for Sunagakure Village.
...
"If Lord Jashin could see how faithful I am, He'd bless me again for sure!"
Hidan lay flat on the ground, where a symbol dedicated to Jashin had been drawn in blood, and he was lying precisely at its center.
His black cloak with red clouds flared open as a slender sword stabbed straight through his chest, pinning him to the ground.
"Hurry up, or I'll kill you myself!"
Kakuzu leaned against a nearby rock, his emerald eyes brimming with killing intent.
At his feet lay a rogue ninja wearing a forehead protector of betrayal, motionless—clearly dead beyond any doubt.
With a tearing sound, Hidan sat upright, gripping the sword in both hands and pulling it out one inch at a time.
"This feels incredible! Fucking glorious!" Hidan exclaimed while pulling the blade free, his expression filled with fanatical madness.
As the sword slid out, blood spurted from his chest wound.
He didn't flinch—not even once—in fact, he looked ecstatic. His hand reached toward the wound, scooping up some blood, then brought it to his mouth and licked it.
"Hurry up, idiot! The Golden Exchange is about to close for the day!"
Kakuzu stood up, slung the corpse over his shoulder, muttered one final phrase before leaving without looking back.
"Hey, wait for me! Also, use your threads to stitch this wound for me. I really can't handle much more of this bleeding!"
"Hey... Hey!"
Hidan chased after him, chattering nonstop, but Kakuzu had long gotten used to his talkative partner. His mind automatically tuned it out.
"I heard that for Takigakure Village, ordinary people can't even find its entrance. Is that true?"
Hidan, bare-chested with a uniquely styled scythe slung over his shoulder—half red and half silver—and a black sword hanging from his waist, continued,
"Hey... Just tell me something! After all, our current mission is to capture the Seven-Tails. What's the harm in knowing beforehand!"
Seeing Kakuzu's silence, Hidan circled around him persistently asking questions like a diligent little bee buzzing around a flower collecting nectar.
Boom! A black fist came flying in.
However, this punch hit directly onto Hidan's scythe.
"If you keep annoying me like this, I'll definitely kill you!"
Kakuzu spat out those words coldly, but obviously, it was just an empty threat because he'd tried many times before yet couldn't actually kill Hidan.
"Tsk, if you don't want to talk, then don't! Why throw punches?"
Having worked together for so long, Hidan understood Kakuzu's character well and stopped asking further.
Incidents like this were merely small episodes between them, happening daily.
...
Amegakure Village.
Pain stood atop a tall building, gazing down at the village with indifferent eyes, like a god overlooking mortals.
"What do you want, Zetsu?"
Without looking back, Pain immediately detected Zetsu's presence.
"As expected. Even my Elemental Release Jutsu cannot escape your Sage Mode eyes!"
Zetsu slowly emerged from the wall, landing on the ground. The Venus flytrap seemed to be his most reliable companion, inseparable from him.
"The Two-Tails just left the village. Should we take action?"
"Give me her details; I'll deal with her."
Pain turned around without wasting any words, his pale blue Rinnegan glowing eerily.
"Oh? You're actually going yourself?" White Zetsu said, a teasing tone in his voice.
"Yeah. I'll handle it faster myself. Besides, I want to test my latest techniques."
Pain glanced at Zetsu expressionlessly, as if he truly wanted only to test the Ninjutsu techniques he recently developed.
"Fine."
White Zetsu nodded, slowly sinking into the ground.
Whoosh! Shortly after Zetsu disappeared, countless white paper pieces suddenly appeared around the area, eventually forming into a human figure—Konan.
"Let me go. It's still not time for you to step out!"
Konan looked at Pain, frowning deeply, clearly worried about Nagato's condition.
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