Today, Aburame Tetsumaru realized that killing Suna Jonin was far simpler than he had imagined. Even a company commander was easy enough to dispatch once he got serious. Yet, the performance of these Suna ninjas was clearly top-tier—so where was the disconnect?
Through a Shadow Clone, Tetsumaru had made contact with a Kazekage fighting at full tilt. He confirmed that his own chakra reserves had already surpassed those of the Kage. If the Kazekage's chakra was a 100, Tetsumaru's sat somewhere between 150 and 160.
However, the gap in their ninjutsu was staggering. If the Kazekage's Magnet Style had a power rating of 100, Tetsumaru's best Wind Style only hovered between 30 and 35.
This wasn't because Tetsumaru's techniques were poor; through his dealings with Orochimaru, he had mastered several A-rank jutsus. The problem was that Magnet Style was a Bloodline Limit.
The Kazekage's Magnet Style was not only devastatingly powerful but required very few hand seals and possessed an incredibly fast startup time. That combination of speed and ferocity provided a decisive advantage.
It was just like the First Hokage: clap your hands together and yell out whatever you want to happen.
When you're facing a man who can spam instant, seal-less jutsus where even the "weakest" move—the Deep Forest Emergence—far outclasses standard S-rank techniques, how could the ninjas of that era not feel despair?
Tetsumaru no longer needed A-rank techniques. He needed Forbidden Jutsus.
Damn that Danzo, Tetsumaru thought, his irritation peaking.
Five years had passed, and the friction between Root and the noble clans continued. In truth, it was simply Danzo stirring the pot. He wanted a Root that obeyed him and him alone. His first step was to brand every Root ninja with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal.
That sealing jutsu was essentially a "Caged Bird" with a master key. It focused heavily on control and punishment; if maintained for too long, it could even suppress an individual's personality and independent thought. It was, for all intents and purposes, a Slavery Seal. Naturally, the clans that had participated in the rebuilding of Root refused to accept such a thing.
Thus, the struggle continued, though its intensity had dipped during the war.
On the surface, the Third Hokage opposed Danzo's methods, but in practice, he supported them. Danzo's method of suppressing the clans was to "give them small shoes to wear": delaying promotions, withholding merit, and inflicting heavy punishments for minor infractions. All of these fell under the Hokage's administrative purview.
With the myriad of affairs during wartime, several "Hokage Assistants" had to be appointed to handle administration. Danzo just happened to be the one in charge of auditing shinobi merits.
Whenever Danzo went too far and the clans threatened to go on strike, the Third would step in, reprimand Danzo, temporarily strip him of power, and offer a wave of promotions, raises, and financial compensation to soothe the clans.
Then, a few days later, Danzo would be back in the same office, finding new ways to be a nuisance.
Tetsumaru had been a victim of this petty persecution for five years. Otherwise, with his combat record and merits, how could he possibly still be a Tokubetsu Jonin?
Fine—Tetsumaru didn't actually care about the rank. But he wanted the jutsus: the Bringer-of-Darkness, the Spirit Transformation Technique, the Shadow Clone, the Multi-Shadow Clone, and the high-end Vacuum series of Wind Style.
The administrative departments kept finding excuses to deny him anything above B-rank, solely to prevent the Aburame clan from gaining access to high-tier offensive power.
He had traded extensively with Orochimaru for Ninjutsu and Fuyinjutsu, but it wasn't enough. Not nearly enough.
Tetsumaru spent the night contemplating which pieces of knowledge he could use to squeeze new Forbidden Jutsus out of Orochimaru. However, he had already taken a massive risk by trading the Ninjutsu Meridian Mastery and the Chakra Runes. Some of the knowledge he still held was too precious; he was both unwilling and afraid to trade it.
Amidst his internal grumbling, a dark thought suddenly sprouted.
Maybe... I should just find an opportunity to kill Danzo.
Damn it. That thought is way too tempting.
At dawn, the Suna forces divided into three groups and resumed their eastward march.
The two leading groups consisted of five hundred men each, followed by a hundred-man unit led by the Kazekage, guarding the supplies and the wounded. Along the way, insects constantly lunged from beneath the earth, from under bark, and out of the brush to attack or self-destruct, keeping the Sand ninjas on a knife's edge.
The Suna forces became obsessively cautious, sweeping every insect they saw, checking every hollow log and rocky crevice, and even scrutinizing every patch of disturbed soil. Their pace slowed to a crawl.
Tetsumaru observed their movements. Against this specific formation, he was powerless to launch a meaningful strike. He decided to stop fighting and focus on harassment. He scattered a massive number of autonomous ambush bugs and Landmine Insects along their route, setting up alarm bugs at key intervals.
Since there wouldn't be any combat today and he was drowsy from the previous night's watch, Tetsumaru set up a training and guard schedule for his three disciples and promptly went to sleep.
As the Land Rivers front settled into a dull, repetitive slog, the theater in the Land of Wind was reaching a fever pitch.
The White Fang had arrived at the gates of Sunagakure.
At dawn, the main entrance of the Hidden Sand was already bustling. Shinobi, merchants, and civilians hurried in and out. Life was hard during the war, forcing everyone to work twice as hard just to survive.
The great gates of Suna were nestled within a massive fissure in the rock walls. Nearly a kilometer away sat an unremarkable sand dune. Twenty meters down from its crescent-shaped peak lay a hidden hollow.
This was an outer sentry post for the Hidden Sand—a hidden nest designed to monitor the guards at the main gate. The Suna ninja currently inside was in his final moments of life.
The poor soul had just been stabbed. A sharp, straight short-blade had been driven through his back, sliding between his shoulder blade and ribs to puncture both his heart and lungs with surgical precision. A burst of chakra from the blade had instantly paralyzed his motor functions.
The killer didn't withdraw the weapon. Instead, he pushed the Suna ninja aside and lay down in his place.
The Suna ninja realized he was slowly drowning in the blood seeping from his heart. A slow death meant his chakra wouldn't fluctuate violently, ensuring the kill remained silent and secret.
It was a miserable way to go. Pushed against the cold wall of the burrow, the feeling of suffocation intensified. He turned his head with a look of pure hatred to see his killer. He didn't see a face—only a crouching back.
But the shocks of white hair and the short-blade scabbard strapped vertically to the man's back were features etched into the soul of every Suna ninja.
The White Fang of the Leaf.
Recognizing his killer, the Suna ninja's resentment actually faded. As a Genin, he was destined to die eventually; dying by the blade of the White Fang was an "honor" usually reserved for high-ranking Jonin. In a way, it was worth it.
Sensing that the Suna ninja had expired, Sakumo Hatake gently withdrew his blade. He reached into the dead man's tool pouch, pulled out a kunai, and plugged the wound to stop any blood from leaking.
The White Light Chakra Sabre was clean and shimmering as it left the body. It wasn't some legendary divine weapon; Sakumo had simply vibrated his chakra upon withdrawal, shaking off the blood before a single drop could leave the body.
He watched the gate in silence. As the time for the sentry rotation approached, Sakumo placed the body back into its original position and vanished without a sound.
Not long after, ear-piercing alarms shrieked through Sunagakure. Squads of Suna ninjas began frantic patrols, the massive gates slammed shut, and the village entered a state of lockdown.
The White Fang is here!
For a village that had lived in the shadow of Sakumo Hatake for six years, this was the worst possible news—equivalent to the arrival of a Great Disaster.
A short while later, the gates opened again. A massive convoy hurried out of the village: dozens of varied wagons surrounding several ornate, aristocratic carriages.
The Suna ninjas never expected that Sakumo hadn't gone far. He was right on top of the dune where the sentry post was hidden, buried under a simple layer of sand. He utilized the psychological blind spot of "the darkness directly beneath the lamp" to hide in plain sight. He had intentionally killed the sentry using his signature style to trigger a defensive response, allowing him to audit the village's current strength and alert status.
The numbers are low, and the quality is even worse. Orochimaru's intel was correct.
Last night, Sakumo had received a message from Orochimaru: the Kazekage was leading Suna's final elites on a raid through the Land of Rivers. Orochimaru admitted he hadn't anticipated the Kage's personal involvement or the scale of the force. He had notified Konoha for reinforcements and was preparing his own army to move into the Land of Rivers to trap the Kazekage.
Orochimaru had asked Sakumo to take command of all harassment units in the Land of Wind. His job was to support the upcoming encirclement by striking the Hidden Sand itself as hard as possible, preventing them from sending reinforcements to the Kazekage.
Sakumo Hatake's offensive power was peerless; he could shatter a hundred-man defense in seconds or take a commander's head in the middle of a thousand troops. However, because his style was so focused on the kill, he lacked the utility to stop a mass offensive by dozens or hundreds of ninjas at once.
After a moment's thought, Sakumo decided to threaten the village directly. If the enemy was forced into a total defensive posture—or better yet, forced to recall troops—they wouldn't be able to help the Kazekage. Mission accomplished.
Targeting the village itself wasn't arrogance. Over the last two months, Suna's internal defenses had been hollowed out. Sakumo had systematically dismantled every viable target in the country; only a few fortified outposts and the village itself remained.
The Suna ninjas had been beaten into a state of numbness. When Sakumo attacked an outpost, the defenders would often just drop everything and run without a fight. The only way to force Suna into a defensive lockdown was to target the village gate.
"The White Fang is right outside! Going out now is suicide!"
"Even if the Hokage and the White Fang were both out there, we have to move! What about the thousands of our men in the southern army? They'll starve!"
"We can accept failing a mission if we run into the White Fang. But he's just one man! He's blocking our front door. If we can't drive him off, Sunagakure has no reason to exist!"
"Tch. It's not the first time someone blocked the gate. The Uchiha did it once, too. As long as the village isn't breached, Suna will not fall."
The news of the "gate-blocking" caused a massive uproar in the village. With Chiyo and the Kazekage absent, a group of retired elders was causing a scene, all claiming to speak for the village's best interests.
But the ones clamoring for war weren't the traditional "Hawks." They were the "Landlord" faction of the conservatives—a group with massive business interests in Suna. The severance of trade routes was gutting their profits.
And the ones advocating for defense? Were they acting out of genuine concern for the village? Of course not. They were the opposition—a group that opposed everything the current administration did, simply because they wanted to be the ones in power.
The supply convoy for the southern army had already massed. If it didn't leave on time, the army commanded by Chiyo would face defeat. If that happened, Chiyo and the Kazekage would be forced to step down.
Ultimately, when Suna was at its wits' end, the people left in the village were the small-timers. The real "Peace" and "War" factions were already on the front lines.
The "small-timers" could argue all they wanted, but they influenced no one. Ebizo, who was currently in charge of the village's defense, ignored them entirely. He made the final call: the supply team would depart as scheduled.
As one of the Five Great Hidden Villages, Suna could not allow itself to be bullied by one man. Reputation was the foundation of a hidden village's survival; without it, clients wouldn't trust them with missions, and the village would wither and die.
In this moment, even knowing people would die—even knowing they might fail—they had to go out and fight.
Furthermore, the southern army consisted mostly of puppeteers. Their reliance on logistics was far higher than a standard ninja unit. If the supplies were cut, their combat effectiveness would plummet.
"Reinforce the guard. There's already one battalion assigned?" Ebizo asked.
"Yes, sir."
"Increase it. Add four more battalions. Bring the guard to five hundred men."
Deploying five hundred ninjas—and none of them could be rookies—meant Sunagakure would be left with almost no one to defend its own walls.
Not only were the odds of success slim, but even if they won this engagement, the war was already lost.
This convoy was their very last. It had been secured only by selling off vast amounts of the village's assets at rock-bottom prices. The nobles and merchants who had provided the goods had already fled the country. There was nothing left.
Ebizo felt a wave of sorrow wash over him. How did we ever fall this far?
Watching the convoy roll out of the gates, Sakumo Hatake was genuinely surprised. In his memory, Ebizo had always been a soft, portly figure. He hadn't expected the man to have the spine to make such a move. He had underestimated him.
Five hundred Suna ninjas as a guard? I definitely can't take that convoy alone.
The White Fang smiled, showing teeth as white as his hair. He radiated a cold, bone-chilling killing intent—a far cry from a certain other "White Fang" (Kakashi) or the goofy "Big Grin" ninjas of the village.
Sakumo couldn't kill five hundred ninjas on his own. But did five hundred ninjas really think they could protect the cargo from him?
Ridiculous. If the "foolish" Sand ninjas thought Sakumo Hatake was only capable of fighting alone, they were about to be corrected. Did they think he'd spent the last five years as a commander for nothing?
Sakumo retreated silently. He had people to gather.
At noon, during the most oppressive heat of the desert day, over forty Konoha ninjas gathered in a field of ruins. They were led by Yakushi Tenzen into a hidden underground chamber to rest.
This place had been a Suna outpost. Half a month ago, Sakumo had attacked it repeatedly until the defenders could no longer hold. They had sabotaged the living quarters and retreated.
After they left, upon Tenzen's suggestion, Sakumo had returned to set the entire base on fire in full view of the Suna scouts, burning the structures to the ground.
That same night, Tenzen and Inuzuka Kuro had slipped back in, excavating a massive space beneath the charred ruins. The basement was cool and pleasant. They had stocked it with food, medicine, and weapons, and even reopened the well the Suna ninjas had tried to fill. It had become Team White Fang's secret base.
The signal for assembly had been sent today. Every Konoha ninja operating within the Land of Wind had been guided here. Tomorrow, this base would be abandoned.
In the Shinobi world, no one could guarantee a location was free of spies, nor could they guarantee that the coming battle wouldn't have casualties. And in this world, death meant the leak of intelligence.