The drumbeats of war were accelerating.
The best way to stay alive during a war is to stay off the battlefield, but Tetsumaru now understood Konoha far too well: deployment was mandatory. In Konoha, everyone except the absolute top brass had to fight. Only those who proved their combat value on the front lines could protect their own interests.
This systemic reality stemmed from the fact that the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was a profoundly contradictory figure.
He valued the Academy's education, yet restricted the dissemination of high-level ninjutsu. He preached the Will of Fire and claimed to cherish the village's children, building orphanages while simultaneously throwing ninjas under the age of ten onto the battlefield in droves. He prioritized civilian ninjas to suppress the clans—even tacitly allowing the Uchiha's eventual isolation—yet he stood by as the Sarutobi clan's population exploded a hundredfold.
Hiruzen's greatest flaw was his indecisiveness. His constant vacillation on domestic and foreign policy infuriated the village's "Iron-Blood" faction. Compounded by his lack of courage to take responsibility for necessary evils, he effectively created Danzo Shimura and the Root.
By pursuing "moral purity" and cutting himself off from the darkness, Hiruzen allowed the Root to become a state within a state. This fractured the Hokage's authority and resulted in a host of warped policies. Regardless of what the Third said, his actions proved he didn't truly care for those who didn't fight. In his heart, they were expendable.
Tetsumaru knew that only overwhelming strength offered a hope of survival. Thanks to Hiruzen's "reforms," he was barred from high-level Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, forcing him to pin all his hopes on Chakra Rune research and his insect experiments.
Now that his friends had all graduated, staying at the Academy had lost its last shred of value. Tetsumaru racked his brain for an excuse to take a leave of absence—perhaps under the guise of "independent research"—but he couldn't think of a convincing cover story.
Fine, he decided. I'll just play truant.
By skipping class, he could increase his testing time to twelve hours a day, allowing him to check 1,600 combinations. He had 120,000 five-seal combinations left; he could finish in about eighty days. This would leave him three months before graduation to figure out some actual combat moves. Plan: Success.
Tetsumaru entered "God-Tier Truancy" mode. He showed up only for the first period every morning, and unless there was a test, he'd vanish and slip back home by the second bell.
Three months later, carrying six formal warnings on his record, Tetsumaru completed Phase One of his Chakra Rune research.
The results, however, were... underwhelming. He hadn't found a sudden spark of inspiration that revealed the "Ultimate Secret of the Universe," nor did his combat power skyrocket instantly. To be honest, he was disappointed.
With only six months left until graduation, he had to hurry. Fortunately, no matter how busy he was, he never slacked on his Chakra Refinement or Meridian Adjustments. He now possessed a body as robust as a full-grown adult's and a staggering volume of chakra.
In this era, the legendary "Chakra-ton" measurement unit—Hashirama Senju—was long dead. The future standard of measurement, Kakashi Hatake, hadn't even been born. Tetsumaru couldn't exactly walk up to the Hokage for a comparison, so he used his teacher, Domoto Oomono, as a benchmark.
The chakra currently flowing through Tetsumaru's Grand Circulation was equivalent to roughly fifty Domotos.
Ninjas had supplanted Samurai and Onmyoji precisely because of chakra. With such a massive reserve, Tetsumaru was confident he could handle any Genin—excluding a few of Konoha's "special" cases. He could even outlast and eventually kill a mediocre Chunin by simply winning a war of attrition.
But a Jonin was a different story. A Jonin was a different class of existence entirely. Tetsumaru might have more raw chakra, but in every other category, he was a non-factor. He had zero ways to actually land a killing blow on an elite.
In these final six months, he needed to find a way to, at the very least, escape from a Jonin.
Sunagakure
Suna, currently the most "stubborn child" of the Shinobi World, was picking fights with Iwa, Kiri, and Konoha simultaneously. The young Third Kazekage had personally moved to the newly built Northern Fortress to oversee the primary front.
After the Third Tsuchikage, Ohnoki, finished a creative string of curses, he had been forced to dispatch his son, Kitsuchi, with reinforcements. The two armies were now locked in a tense standoff where a single spark could ignite a wildfire.
Inside Suna:
Chiyo stood by her office window, gazing at the village in silence. Behind her, a dozen ninjas led by her brother, Ebizo, were frantically crunching numbers. Eventually, Ebizo walked up to her with a stack of reports.
"Sister, the statistics are complete."
"And?"
"It's grim. Now that the ninjas are mobilized, the resource consumption is far higher than we anticipated. The Northern Fortress is the worst; every scrap of grain and every drop of fresh water has to be hauled up from the village." Ebizo's voice dropped. "The village has grain. The oases have water. But we can't get it to the north. Our logistics are severely insufficient."
Chiyo let out a cold, self-deprecating laugh. "We didn't realize that at this scale, the consumption during transport would be this astronomical. Our teacher taught us this, yet we never took it to heart. Truly..."
Outside, crowds were cheering for the coming war.
Chiyo sighed. "First: order the puppeteers to research transport-specialized puppets. Second: mobilize every Genin in the clans to serve as manual porters. Third: send a message to the Third Kazekage. Tell him to return immediately. We need to change our direction of attack."
As the messenger left, Chiyo looked back out the window and whispered, "Teacher was right. He was always right. We are the fools."
You don't know the price of rice until you run the household. The new leadership of Suna had bitterly discovered that in a real war, their "wealthy" village didn't even have enough water to support an offensive. Their vast territory, once their shield, was now a crippling logistical burden.
Iwagakure
The Third Tsuchikage, Ohnoki, was fuming. The Kamizuru clan was as arrogant as ever, actually daring to question his decisions.
Iwa's war strategy was split three ways. Ohnoki's faction wanted to strike the Land of Wind first, crush Suna's Northern Fortress, and drive the "sand rats" back into the desert before turning on the Land of Fire.
The clan faction, led by the Kamizuru, wanted a full-scale assault on the Land of Fire while maintaining a defensive posture against Suna and Kumo.
The Daimyo's faction believed the Land of Wind was weak and the Land of Fire was cowardly; they believed the only true threat was the Land of Lightning.
In Ohnoki's eyes, the clans were blinded by greed. Suna was powerful and close; if they didn't break Suna first, any army invading the Land of Fire would have its supply lines cut by the Sand. As for the Daimyo's plan? It was madness. Iwa ninjas specialized in Earth Style, which was naturally countered by Kumo's Lightning Style. Attacking them across the sea or through multiple buffer states was idiotic.
Ohnoki went to see the Daimyo to plead his case.
He failed.
The Daimyo had been swayed by the Kamizuru. The court now supported the "clans' strategy." Ohnoki was livid, but powerless. Sometimes, a pure ninja simply couldn't comprehend the "logic" of the nobility.
Kumogakure
A series of thunderous booms echoed through the valley. A massive crowd of Cloud ninjas stood on the perimeter, watching in awe as their Raikage traded blows with the rampaging Eight-Tails.
Yesterday, the Jinchuriki's seal had spontaneously failed. Knowing their sealing techniques were subpar, Kumo kept their Jinchuriki far from the village, which limited the collateral damage. Unable to re-seal the rampaging beast, the ninjas could only attack desperately to keep it contained in the valley.
After a dozen lives were lost, the Third Raikage arrived. He took on the beast alone. His brutal Lightning Style Chakra Mode clashed violently with the Full-Release Hachibi. The shockwaves alone were enough to kill a Jonin, forcing the other ninjas to flee the valley entirely.
Two days later, as both sides began to tire, the ninjas returned to the edge of the crater to witness the madness. The valley was gone. The Raikage's "Hell Stab" had carved deep, crisscrossing ravines into the earth, while the Hachibi's Tailed Beast Bombs had pockmarked the ground with overlapping craters. They had literally reshaped the landscape.
In the final stage of the struggle, both combatants mustered their last reserves for a finishing blow.
The Hachibi opened its maw, condensing a Tailed Beast Bomb. The Lightning Armor on A surged and expanded. He thrust his right hand forward, his thumb and pinky tucked in.
"Hell Stab: Three-Finger Nukite!"
The Raikage's strike severed three blocking tentacles, racing through a shower of sparks straight for the beast's mouth. He hit the Tailed Beast Bomb dead center just as it was forming.
The sphere shattered. Massive bolts of raw energy leaked out, striking both the Raikage and the Hachibi. The Hachibi's eyes rolled back as its massive body collapsed. The Raikage, too, lost consciousness and hit the dirt.
Both sides had hit "GG" at the same time.
"Quick! Sealing team, secure the Eight-Tails!" shouted the Jonin Dodai, Kumo's lead strategist. "Medical team, save the Raikage!"
A reached consciousness only ten minutes later. The final clash had left a lightning-shaped wound across his chest—it was deep, and it would leave a massive scar.
Bandaged and bleeding, the Raikage refused to rest. His first order back at the office was for a full briefing.
"Delay the Academy expansion?" he growled. "No. Did we not learn our lesson at the end of the last war? Expand as planned. I'll 'negotiate' the funding with the Daimyo."
The ninjas understood: "negotiation" meant "extortion." Since taking office, the Third Raikage had been gentle with his people but iron-fisted with outsiders and the nobility. He never backed down.
"Accelerate the stockpiling of war materials. Once the fighting starts, money won't buy what we need. Spend whatever it takes now."
"As for strategy: Kumo will not prepare for an offensive. We will hold a defensive posture for at least two years. The moment you prepare to attack is when you are most vulnerable to an ambush. Until the target and the timing are perfect, we stay on the defensive."
"Our primary concern is the Land of Water. The Land of Earth's nobles are greedy and ignorant; they'll target the Land of Fire. The Land of Fire has no spine; they're just fat pigs worried about their own homes. The Land of Wind is too far. Only the Land of Water—isolated, chaotic, and unpredictable—is a wild card. Focus our defense on them."
Once the briefing was over, Dodai led the staff out, closing the door behind them. A moment later, the sound of furniture being smashed echoed through the hall. The staff didn't even blink; they just hurried away.
Dodai sighed and headed for the logistics department to order another desk. The Raikage had been "broken through" by the Eight-Tails today; he was clearly in a foul mood. Best to order three desks just to be safe.
Kirigakure
The Third Mizukage was in agony. According to the Kiri Anbu, the four mainland villages were in full mobilization, yet Kiri was still tearing itself apart.
Since the Second Mizukage and Second Tsuchikage had managed to kill each other in their last duel, the Third lacked the absolute authority needed to suppress the village. He was a leader whose orders barely left the village gates.
In the current Kiri, the Three Great Clans held the power, while dozens of smaller clans brawled for scraps. They would even unite specifically to spite the Mizukage. His authority was currently lower than that of the Elder, Genji.
When Konoha's Academy proved its strategic worth, the Mizukage proposed building one for Kiri. No problem. He offered to be the Principal. Also fine.
But they refused to give him control over hiring or enrollment. Everything followed the clans' whims; not a single teacher in the school was loyal to the Mizukage. The Academy produced a hundred ninjas a year, accelerating Kiri's recovery, but the graduates were either from the clans or immediately recruited by them. The Mizukage remained powerless.
"I need more civilian ninjas," the Third Mizukage muttered, a blood-red light flickering in his eyes. A dangerous, suppressed impulse was bubbling to the surface. "I need my own force to take back control."
Damn those clans. Scavenging dogs acting like they own the house. You all deserve to die.
Amidst the tension of the coming war, Kiri quietly implemented a new policy at the Academy: The Bloody Mist. The curriculum now prioritized lethal combat. To graduate, a student had to kill their own partner. This ensured that every graduate was a hardened killer, ready to be thrown directly into the meat grinder of war.
Konohagakure
The Third Hokage was worried sick.
All four villages were on the move, eyeing Konoha like wolves. While Konoha's total numbers rivaled the other four combined, they lacked top-tier talent. Specifically, they lacked ninjas of Hiruzen's own caliber.
Once war broke out, they would face at least three, possibly four fronts simultaneously. He could command one. Danzo could command another. But who else?
Lady Mito? Her strength was undisputed, but she was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and far too old to leave the village. The Hyuga? No, they didn't have anyone strong enough to hold a front alone. The Senju? He sighed. Since his teacher's passing, the legends of that era had grown old, and the new generation hadn't stepped up. And honestly, he thought darkly, it's better if the Senju don't produce another 'God.' It would only complicate things.The Uchiha? Even less likely. If Kagami were still alive, he could have held a front and mobilized his clan. But Kagami was gone. Torifu Akimichi? Strong, but he required a team to be effective. Besides, since Kagami's death, Torifu had grown distant, and Hiruzen couldn't afford to let the Ino-Shika-Cho power base grow any larger.
Feeling misunderstood and unsupported by his old friends, Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed furiously on his pipe, letting the thick smoke envelop him in a lonely shroud.