A few days later, news swept through Konoha.
Sakumo had taken his own life at home.
The moment the announcement spread, every villager and ninja who'd spent weeks condemning him for "violating ninja protocol" fell silent. Maybe they'd been caught up in rumors, unconsciously adding fuel to a tragedy without realizing it. But none of them had imagined that the man whose name alone made enemy ninjas retreat would end his own life.
Only now, too late, did they understand what they'd lost.
Sakumo's presence had been a deterrent. His reputation alone had kept enemy forces cautious. His death was like breaking one of Konoha's finest blades, and everyone who mattered knew it.
Without that deterrent, Konoha immediately became prey in the eyes of other villages. Border skirmishes that had been minor irritations exploded into serious confrontations overnight. Ninjas were rushed to the frontlines in massive numbers. The smell of war grew thicker by the day.
But the real damage ran deeper than anyone expected.
Sakumo's death triggered a vicious cycle that ate Konoha from the inside. In an effort to "ensure mission completion," more and more ninjas started abandoning injured teammates. Some even killed them outright to prevent capture or intelligence leaks. The medical-nin system that Konoha had built up since the Second War collapsed almost immediately.
Medical-nin, with their focus on healing rather than combat, became the first to be abandoned.
Within weeks, medical-nin started refusing missions. Some applied for early retirement. Others just stopped showing up for duty assignments. The ripple effects were catastrophic.
In the six months following Sakumo's death, Konoha's casualty rate doubled. Retirement applications tripled. And defections, ninjas abandoning the village entirely, increased by 300%.
Regular ninjas found themselves trapped in an impossible situation. Continue a mission while injured and risk being left behind to die. Refuse a dangerous mission and risk the same condemnation that had destroyed Sakumo. Many chose a third option: they ran. They fled Konoha and became missing-nin, preferring to take their chances as fugitives rather than stay in a village that would sacrifice them.
By the time leadership realized how bad things had gotten, Konoha's active ninja population had dropped to its lowest peacetime level. The numbers were approaching Second War figures, and they weren't even at war yet.
The village scrambled to repair the damage. They frantically promoted the Will of Fire again, this time emphasizing protecting comrades and mutual support. They stressed that ninja lives came before missions, that abandoning objectives was acceptable when necessary. Mission assignments now came with explicit reminders that "protecting teammates is the first priority."
Sakumo had used his life to shatter the doctrine of "mission above all else." He'd delivered a harsh lesson to Konoha's leadership about the consequences of their policies.
But the price had been devastating.
As a jonin, Kenji was assigned to border patrol duties like everyone else. He used the deployment as cover for something he'd been planning.
Using his Transparency Release puppet, he quietly made his way toward Kusa. He needed to confirm whether Karin's mother had already relocated there.
The puppet moved through the forests separating the Land of Fire from the Land of Grass. No one could see it, and it left no chakra signature to track. When Kusa came into view, he was mildly surprised.
"Huh. Bigger than I expected."
For a minor village squeezed between two major powers, Kusa was fairly developed. The architecture even borrowed stylistic elements from Konoha, probably their way of trying to look friendly to their larger neighbor. In the original timeline, Kusa never became particularly powerful, but they had ambition and more screen time than most minor villages.
This was also where the Kannabi Bridge incident would occur. The mission that changed Kakashi and Obito's fates forever.
The puppet circled the village's outskirts first. According to Karin's flashbacks in the series, she and her mother had lived in a small round hut outside the village proper. As the puppet moved, he periodically placed Flying Thunder God marks in hidden locations. He'd made it a habit since mastering the technique, leaving coordinates scattered across the shinobi world for emergency teleportation.
But after a complete circuit of the village perimeter, he found nothing. No red-haired woman or hut matching the description from his memories.
"Guess I'll have to check the hospital."
In Karin's backstory, her mother had been forced to work at Kusa's hospital, using her Uzumaki healing abilities to treat injured ninjas. It was how they'd eventually worked her to death.
Without a map and needing to avoid detection, he carefully guided his invisible puppet through Kusa's streets. The village was busy with normal activity. Civilians going about their business, ninjas training or heading to assignments. No one noticed the transparent construct moving among them.
Eventually, a building with a sign reading "Kusa Hospital" came into view.
The puppet slipped inside through an open window. He spent the next hour having it search every floor, room, and corner of the facility. He listened to conversations, checked patient rosters, and examined the staff working there.
No Uzumaki or strange rumors of anyone with their healing abilities.
"They're not here yet," he concluded. "Probably won't arrive until after the Third War breaks out and refugees start flooding into minor villages."
It made a bit sense. Karin's mother would have been in hiding somewhere, trying to avoid being used. She wouldn't voluntarily come to a place like Kusa. Something would force her here later, probably desperation when the war displaced her from wherever she'd been living.
The puppet left a final Flying Thunder God mark near the hospital's back entrance. After two seconds, he activated the technique and teleported it back to his location at the border.
He blinked as the mental connection stabilized. He was back in his own body, standing in a forest clearing in the Land of Hot Water with his patrol team.
"Are you alright?" Minato asked, noticing his momentary distraction. "Did you find something?"
"Enemy presence nearby?" Enma immediately went on alert, his three-tomoe Sharingan activating as he scanned their surroundings.
"No, nothing like that," Kenji said with a slight smile. "I just remembered something I needed to take care of later. We're clear."
The three of them formed a jonin squad assigned to the Land of Hot Water border. Recent intelligence indicated that Kumo had been unusually active, with reports even suggesting the Fourth Raikage and Kumo's jinchūriki had been spotted near the border. Konoha had responded by stationing high-level ninjas like Minato, Kenji, and Enma to monitor Kumo's movements and gather intelligence.
Kenji knew from the original timeline that Kumo wasn't planning to invade yet. They'd received intel about the Third Kazekage's disappearance and were testing the waters, probing for weakness. So while the patrol duty was tense, no major conflict had erupted.
But the situation deteriorated faster than anyone anticipated.
Konoha didn't get invaded by Kumo.
Suna declared war first.
The announcement came through official channels and was blunt: Suna accused Konoha of assassinating the Third Kazekage. Without waiting for any response or investigation, Suna launched a massive invasion across the southern border.
Orochimaru was immediately deployed with a large force to intercept them.
Then, while Konoha and Suna were tearing into each other, Iwa made their move. Iwa forces struck Suna's rear positions, then wheeled around and invaded the Land of Grass, pushing toward the Land of Fire's borders.
Jiraiya was rushed to the Land of Grass front to counter Iwa's army.
The chain reaction had begun.
With two major conflicts already underway, Kumo stopped hesitating. Kumo ninjas began launching raids across the Land of Hot Water border with increasing frequency and aggression.
The Third Great Ninja War had erupted in full.
The pressure on Kenji's patrol sector increased dramatically. Within days, Konoha sent reinforcements to bolster their border defenses. More jonin teams, chunin squads, and bodies to throw at the problem.
They were stretched thin, fighting on multiple fronts simultaneously.
"Hold up. Something's wrong."
Kenji stopped mid-step during their latest patrol route. His sensory technique had caught something unusual ahead.
"There's a squad with unfamiliar chakra signatures about two hundred meters north. Roughly four people. Two of them have extremely strong chakra, way above normal jonin level. Stay alert."
"Understood," Minato said immediately, his hand moving to his kunai pouch.
Enma's Sharingan spun slowly as he scanned the forest. Akimichi Dōtō and Inuzuka Gaku, the two other members of their expanded patrol, tensed and prepared for combat.
They moved forward, advancing toward the chakra signatures Kenji had detected. The forest was quiet, too quiet. No birds or animal sounds. Just the whisper of wind through leaves. Then they broke through a line of trees and came face to face with another squad.
Both groups stopped.
For a moment, nobody moved. They just studied each other, taking in uniforms, headbands, weapons, and body language. Assessing threat levels and identifying who they were dealing with.
The Kumo ninjas were distinctive. Dark skin, lighter-colored clothing, the standard Kumo uniform design. One of them was massive, built like a mountain with muscles that suggested he could tear trees out of the ground. Another stood slightly ahead, clearly the leader.
"You're the Third Raikage's son," Minato said, breaking the silence. His eyes were locked on the powerfully built ninja leading the enemy squad. "A, right?"
One of the Kumo ninjas tensed, recognizing Minato immediately.
"You must be the Yellow Flash."
The title had already spread across the shinobi world. Minato's reputation was growing fast.