Hyūga Tennin raised a hand, his voice steady despite the smoke still drifting through the trees.
"Retreat for now. That blast definitely alerted the Wind Demon vanguard. They'll be heading this way."
His team didn't argue. After cutting down the ten Wind Demon scouts, the Konoha vanguard pulled back through the underbrush, silent and fast. Their job wasn't to start a war; it was to map the battlefield before one broke out. Tennin understood that better than anyone. Charging into another skirmish now would only waste chakra before the real fight began.
Moments after they vanished, the Wind Demon vanguard slipped out from the deeper woods. They stopped dead at the sight of the bodies.
"Damn Konoha…" their captain growled, fists trembling.
The others wore the same look: rage sharpened by the cold clarity of loss. They reorganized quickly, then pushed deeper into the forest on their captain's order.
Far away, hidden beneath the thick canopy, Tennin crouched with his squad.
"We won clean, but don't get stupid about it," he murmured. "Those Wind Demon shinobi aren't weak. If they hit us in numbers, a lot of ours won't walk away."
He wasn't wrong. The victory had been quick because he and the Chiba clan's jōnin had been there to carry the weight. The average Konoha ninja wasn't ready to handle techniques like the Wind Demons' Hell Ant Technique. Half the village would freeze the second their feet touched that trapped earth.
Chiba Nomura exhaled lightly. "Even so, we outnumber them. If it comes to a full clash, numbers will carry us."
Tennin nodded. "All we need is reliable intel. Once we send that back, command will plan the first strike."
The vanguard broke into five smaller squads and began scouting. Tennin's instructions were simple:
If you can win, fight.
If you can't, run.
No heroics. No corpses.
Not yet.
And so the hidden war of the forest began.
Konoha scouts hunted Wind Demon scouts.
Wind Demon scouts hunted Konoha scouts.
No banners. No speeches.
Only steel, breath, and dirt.
By nightfall, both sides had enough intel to move mountains. Each team sprinted homeward, delivering sealed reports straight to their commanders.
At Konoha's temporary base camp, someone stood over the map table, arms crossed.
Amamiya Raizen.
Dragged here the second the war machine rumbled to life.
Dragged here because the Fire Country didn't have time for hesitation anymore.
The other nations were founding their villages at breakneck pace. If Konoha didn't unify the Fire Country first, they'd be torn apart by every hungry border nation the moment the ink dried on their constitution.
Raizen flipped through a report as Sarutobi Sanbei approached.
"My lord, this is today's reconnaissance data on the Wind Demon clan."
Raizen skimmed the pages. Enough to work with.
"Sanbei," he said, "carry my order."
Sanbei straightened. "Yes, Raizen-sama."
"Konoha will mobilize three thousand shinobi. March on the Daikakuzaki Ravine at once."
Sanbei's eyes widened. "Already? We've only just confirmed their location. Daikakuzaki is heavily fortified—"
"That's why we're moving," Raizen cut in. "Deliver the order."
Sanbei swallowed his doubts. "Understood."
Minutes later, three thousand Konoha ninja assembled like a storm rolling in. Sanbei led them toward the ravine, boots hammering against the root-tangled earth.
News traveled fast.
Hyūga Tennin heard it first, and the shock almost made him drop the scroll.
Their plan had been simple: wear the Wind Demon forces down, slowly grind them until surrender was their only option.
Raizen, apparently, had dropped the entire plan in a bonfire and walked away.
Tennin took one long breath, forced his heartbeat to settle.
So that's why.
Raizen was here.
Plans meant nothing when that man took the board into his own hands.
He pulled back the vanguard, sealing the forest behind them. No Wind Demon scout was allowed to slip through. If the enemy learned of the coming assault too early, the price would be disastrous.
The Wind Demon vanguard sensed the shift, but by the time their scouts tried to retreat, the forest was already a cage. They had no idea Konoha's army was already on the move.
Eventually, the rumor broke through.
The Wind Demon vanguard reeled, panic sparking in their ranks. They sent a runner racing toward the main force at Daikakuzaki Ravine.
But Raizen's army marched faster than their fear could travel.
Before the Wind Demon defenders could finish assembling their barriers and steel traps, the first wave of Konoha shinobi stepped out from the treeline.
And the forest exhaled like a beast waking.