Time flew quickly, and soon the calendar turned to Konoha Year 26.
Perhaps as a form of "post-war rebound," a baby boom swept across the entire shinobi world in these five years.
One after another, the individuals who would one day shake the world were being born.
The eldest sons of both the Third Raikage A and the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki ("Ōnoki of Both Scales") were born during this period.
After reaching the peaks of their careers and becoming the leaders of their villages, they finally filled in the missing piece in their personal lives.
The Raikage A named his first son A, known in the future as the Fourth Raikage.
The meaning of "A"—wild, fierce, aggressive like a beast—reflected the unique hope and blessing that the fierce people of the Land of Lightning had for their children.
In addition, the Raikage selected a young boy named Killer B from within his clan and sealed the Eight-Tails, Gyūki—previously a great disaster upon Kumogakure—into his body.
Ōnoki, on the other hand, gave his son the name Kitsuchi, a rather plain name that likely carried his earnest hope for "steadiness and dependability."
As new fathers, the two Kage became far more settled, dedicating themselves fully to village governance and development.
It had to be said—both Third Raikage A and Ōnoki were truly outstanding leaders.
Under their rule, Kumogakure and Iwagakure both grew rapidly.
The only matter causing Raikage A constant headaches was the heavy burden hanging over his village—the reparations treaty signed with Konoha.
And because of this, it wasn't long before Iwagakure surpassed Kumogakure's former standing, becoming the second-strongest shinobi village, just after Konoha.
As for the last of the Second-generation Kage—the Second Kazekage of Sunagakure, Shamon—he finally succumbed to illness over these five years.
Despite his fierce, intimidating appearance, he left Sunagakure with an exceptionally rich legacy.
Although Sunagakure was the poorest of the Five Great Villages, it had avoided participating in the brutal First Great Ninja War and thus preserved its strength remarkably well.
During his governance, Shamon firmly stabilized the foundation left by the First Kazekage, Reto, and launched several innovative initiatives.
He was the first to propose weaponizing the tailed beast One-Tail Shukaku, sealing the chakra monster into a monk named Bunpuku.
However, his tailed-beast-weapon project ultimately did not achieve true success.
Sunagakure's immature sealing techniques couldn't properly restrain Shukaku's power, resulting in frequent rampages within the village.
In the end, both Shukaku and Bunpuku had to be imprisoned together.
Fortunately, even without creating a stable jinchūriki, Shamon's continued research on Shukaku led to the development of a special secret technique—
the Magnet Release: Sand Manipulation Technique.
His disciple Third Kazekage inherited this technique and, with great strength, succeeded him.
At the same time, the puppet techniques he helped refine were passed on to another gifted elite jōnin—Monzaemon, an exceptional talent in the puppetry arts.
Compared to those two promising stars,
a child named Rasa was quietly born in Sunagakure.
If nothing unexpected occurred, that child would one day become the Fourth Kazekage…
but as of now, no one yet recognized his potential or his unique talents.
Five years passed, and Konoha Village also underwent significant change.
The Hyūga advisor, Hyūga Sōgo, finally saw his lineage continue—his daughter-in-law gave birth in Konoha Year 22 to a healthy pair of twins.
The child carried out first was named Hyūga Hiashi, who, as Sōgo's eldest grandson, inherited the noble status of the next head of the Hyūga Main Family.
A few minutes later, the second child was carried out and named Hyūga Hizashi, becoming a member of the Branch Family whose lifelong duty would be to protect his brother. This year, he had just received the Caged Bird Seal.
The next generation of the Ino–Shika–Chō trio was also born one after another.
Nara Shikajō, advisor of the Nara clan, named his eldest son Nara Shikaku, while the other two clans named their children Yamanaka Inoichi and Akimichi Chōza.
The Uchiha clan head, Uchiha Isshin, had a son—Fugaku—who successfully graduated from the Academy with top honors due to his exceptional talent.
At age six, he graduated early and was accepted as a personal disciple of the Third Hokage, Senju Mori, and two years had already passed since then.
Meanwhile, relations between Konoha and Kumogakure were growing increasingly tense.
As of this year—Konoha Year 26—the peace treaty signed after Kumo's defeat had only reached its sixth year.
However, under the leadership of the Third Raikage A, Kumogakure was steadily recovering from the chaos and humiliation of civil strife and defeat.
Its population and number of shinobi were rapidly increasing.
Many young shinobi of the new generation viewed the annual reparations paid to Konoha as a deep disgrace, and increasingly radical militant ideologies were spreading throughout the village.
Kumogakure was like a wounded beast licking its wounds, its scarlet eyes staring constantly toward Konoha.
All across the shinobi world, people whispered and wondered—when would the next war break out?
During these seemingly peaceful five years, every nation was quietly recuperating and developing rapidly, with only one exception—
the Village Hidden in the Mist of the isolated Land of Water, still shrouded in dark turmoil.
In these five years, the internal strife in Kirigakure had not eased in the slightest—on the contrary, it had intensified even further.
The shinobi within the village had clearly split into two opposing factions.
Under orders from the new Mizukage Kiyoshi, most of the "clan-preference policies" established during the era of the Second Mizukage, Hōzuki Gengetsu, were abolished, enraging major clans such as the Hōzuki.
The Kaguya clan, the Yuki clan, and other prominent bloodline clans banded tightly around the Hōzuki, trying to pressure the new Mizukage into compromise through collective resistance.
At the same time, the Third Mizukage Kiyoshi, while suppressing the major bloodline clans, began heavily promoting members of smaller clans and civilian shinobi, rapidly forming a faction loyal to him—the Mizukage's own power bloc.
To further strengthen his position against the great clans, he even brought out the unique ninja tools inherited from the First Mizukage's era—the Seven Ninja Swords—and prepared to assemble a personal elite shinobi unit.
He named them The Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
...
"Hokage-sama."
An ANBU member pushed open the door to the Hokage's office, and the figure of Senju Mori, seated behind the desk, came into view.
Five years had passed, and the twenty-eight-year-old Senju Mori had shed his youthful appearance. Framed by his white Hokage robes, he appeared even more mature and dignified.
"It's intelligence from the Land of Water."
The ANBU knelt on one knee and presented the information scroll with both hands.