Sunagakure, central plaza.
A group of people stood on a raised platform in the distance.
Chiyo stepped out from the crowd.
She stood on the hastily built platform. Her aged face looked especially stern in the blowing sand.
Behind her, Suna stood with arms folded, his eyes sweeping coldly over the Suna army assembled below.
Chiyo's slightly bony fingers slowly unrolled a bloodstained scroll.
Her hoarse voice, amplified by chakra, carried across the entire village.
"The truth behind the Third Kazekage's murder has been determined!"
Several thousand Suna-nin in the plaza held their breath at the same moment.
"Konoha spies used despicable methods, ambushing the Kazekage while he was inspecting the border..."
Chiyo's voice suddenly rose sharply.
"And drove a poisoned blade through his heart!"
"Uproar!"
The plaza erupted in an instant.
"Those Konoha bastards actually killed our Kazekage!"
"The Third Kazekage died at the border for Sunagakure. This is unforgivable!"
"Konoha is truly vicious! The Third Kazekage was such a good man!!"
"..."
Young ninjas with bloodshot eyes beat their chests and broke into shouts.
"Warriors of Sunagakure!"
Chiyo's voice, carried by chakra throughout the plaza, was now charged with power and swept people up with it.
"Today, we stand here. Not to invade, but to take revenge!"
She suddenly unrolled a bloodstained scroll. Written on it, unmistakably, was the Third Kazekage's handwriting.
"This is the secret letter the Kazekage left behind before his disappearance. In it, he says Konoha's spies have already infiltrated our high command! These people plotted to murder our Kage and tried to tear our village apart!"
An outburst of furious roaring erupted from the crowd.
Pakura stood at the very front of the formation, her brow furrowed tightly.
'Konoha spies?'
'Assassinated the Third Kazekage, said to be the strongest in all of Suna history?'
'How is that even possible?'
Pakura did not believe a word of it.
But at this moment, with emotions running so high, she could only stay silent.
Suna stepped forward. The golden sand on the ground trembled faintly with his movement.
"The recent Kirigakure attacks were nothing but a cover! According to the latest intelligence from the ANBU, on the kunai of those Ice Style ninjas..."
He held up a kunai and declared with complete confidence.
"Were carved the markings of Konoha!"
"They too were coerced by Konoha into attacking us!!"
"This is slander!"
Pakura could not hold back.
'All kunai look the same. How would you tell which village they came from?'
Before she could continue, Chiyo's sharp gaze cut her off.
"Jonin Pakura."
Chiyo's voice turned abruptly cold.
"You have repeatedly spoken up for Konoha. Could it be, as the Elder Council has suggested, that you truly are..."
She deliberately left the words hanging. The Suna-nin around them immediately turned suspicious eyes on Pakura.
With everyone's hostile stares pressing down on her, the words that had been at the tip of her tongue were swallowed back.
Suna spoke up at just the right moment.
"Jonin Pakura has probably not been sleeping well lately, which is why she said something inappropriate. Jonin Pakura is a hero of our Sunagakure. Naturally she would never betray the village."
After Suna said this, the hostility in everyone's eyes faded.
Some of the more hot-tempered ones gave her a cold snort.
Chiyo also drew her gaze away and gave the most important order of all to the ninjas below.
"Sunagakure officially declares war on Konoha! Avenge the Kazekage!"
Wave after wave of fanatical battle cries rose and fell.
Beside them, the quiet Pakura watched their backs and tightened her fists.
'The village has come to this after all...'
Suna suddenly leaped onto the platform. The golden sand surged into a wave that lifted his body.
"March on the Land of Fire!"
...
The following day at dawn, the border of the Land of Fire.
"Crack!"
A Konoha squad captain guarding the border suddenly stopped walking. His nose caught the heavy smell of blood.
The ninja dog he kept suddenly had its fur standing on end.
"Underground there is..."
"BOOM!"
Ten ninjas burst up through the earth simultaneously.
Explosive tags tied to kunai were flung outward.
The violent blast wave sent two ninjas flying straight into the air.
The ninjas rolled through the scorching wave of heat, watching helplessly as Sunagakure's combat units appeared from behind the sand dunes.
"Send a message! Send it now!"
He coughed up blood and shoved a scroll into his ninja dog's mouth. The next second, a spear of condensed golden sand drove through his shoulder and pinned him.
From high above came the piercing screech of hawks. Those were Sunagakure's aerial units hunting down Konoha's messenger hawks.
At noon, the Kikyo Castle fortress.
"Third outpost has gone silent! Repeat, the third outpost..."
The communications squad leader's shout was swallowed by a deafening explosion.
A Hyuga ninja on top of the wall activated his Byakugan.
The veins on his face stood out sharply. His expression was agitated.
On the distant horizon, a sand storm that blotted out the sky suddenly rose. Within the storm, a charging formation made up of countless puppets could faintly be seen.
"It is the Puppet Corps!!"
"Wait... behind them there is still..."
The sandstorm was suddenly cleaved apart by some force, revealing a massive jutsu being cast jointly by three hundred Suna-nin behind it.
The Iron Sand World Method, what the Third Kazekage in his lifetime had been most skilled at, was now being replicated by Suna using golden sand, achieving roughly seven parts resemblance.
The vast golden sand transformed into giant shuriken, howling forward and slamming into the barrier protecting Kikyo Castle.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The moment cracks appeared in the barrier, dozens of explosive puppets suddenly bored up from underground beneath the fortress.
"BOOM!!"
A blazing white fire dragon dove down from the castle wall, detonating them early.
Yūhi Shinku, serving as squad captain, issued orders to the ninjas behind her.
"Pass the command down."
"Relay intelligence back to the village. All units except the reserve corps, assemble at full defense. Kikyo Castle is entering combat alert level one."
The desert at dusk was stained even redder with blood.
Suna stood alone in the ruins of a burning outpost, standing atop the body of a Sunagakure messenger.
In the distance, the horn calls of the Suna main force and the battle cries of Konoha's defensive units intertwined into a hellish symphony.
Sunagakure had officially declared war on Konoha.
Like a kunai driven hard into the calm surface of the shinobi world.
At dawn.
In the sandstone canyon at the border of the Land of Wind, twelve elite members of Sunagakure's demolition unit were carving a sealing array into the cliff face.
The leading Jonin wiped the sweat from his forehead. The chakra blade in his hand carved the final rune into the rock face.
"Move quickly. Before Konoha's patrol changes shifts."
His voice cut off abruptly.
A kunai wrapped in an explosive tag drove into his throat without warning. Blood sprayed across the unfinished sealing array.
From the shadows on both sides of the canyon, figures darted out one after another.
Blades flashed. Flickering afterimages of Body Flicker Jutsu made the eyes spin.
Interspersed with explosive tags, towering walls of flame charged in from both ends of the canyon, trapping the Suna-nin between walls of fire.
The scorching blast wave overturned the sealing scrolls on the cliff face, revealing the dense mass of explosive tags packed inside, enough to destroy an entire stretch of the border fortifications.
These people were the ANBU unit that Hatake Sakumo had sent earlier to patrol the border.
"Collect any survivors. If found, bring them back to the village for treatment!"
The masked ANBU at the front quickly issued orders to those under him.
"Yes!"
Everyone spread out and began searching for anyone still alive.
"Captain, there is a survivor here!!"
Hearing this, the ANBU captain flickered over quickly and looked at the person. The one in front immediately recognized who it was.
"Captain Yūhi Shinku?"
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