After the Hidden Mist Village declared war on Konoha, the other three great hidden villages immediately followed and also declared war.
Among them, the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, even sighed:
"I didn't expect Hidden Mist to be the first to move. Those guys isolated overseas actually managed to see the situation clearly for once."
Konoha quickly made its own response.
Shimura Danzō led five thousand Konoha ninja to guard the coastline of the Land of Fire against the Hidden Mist.
Akimichi Torifu temporarily returned to the battlefield, leading five thousand Konoha ninja to defend against Hidden Stone.
The Third Hokage's eldest son, Sarutobi Shinnosuke, led five thousand Konoha ninja to the Land of Rivers to prevent an invasion from the Sand Village.
Hatake Sakumo led three thousand ninja to the border, determined to keep the Cloud Village outside the Land of Fire.
Thus, the situation of four villages surrounding and attacking Konoha—just like during the Second Great Ninja War—once again took shape.
Meanwhile, the forces stationed in the Land of Rain entered a brief period of calm.
Of course, that was only if one ignored the Inuzuka unit that occasionally came to stir up trouble.
Operating under the philosophy that "killing even one enemy is a huge profit, and killing one or two is never a loss," the Inuzuka unit harassed the Hidden Rain Village day and night without pause.
The Rain ninja had repeatedly set traps, hoping to ambush them.
But every single time, the Inuzuka forces slipped away.
Regarding this situation, the Inuzuka elite Inuzuka Ryoha simply said:
"When that many people are packed together, the human scent is overwhelming. Even an idiot would know there's an ambush."
The Rain leader Hanzō had also considered personally taking action, but every attempt ended in failure.
Another Inuzuka elite, Inuzuka Rinko, explained it even more simply:
"Sumimaru started trembling in fear. That means there's definitely something extremely dangerous ahead. Retreat immediately."
So from then on, Rain ninja only operated in groups of a hundred.
Whenever they encountered harassment, they immediately withdrew back to camp.
Even so, the Inuzuka clan's harassment never stopped.
The entire Inuzuka clan collectively said:
"Since we're idle anyway, we might as well go out and have some fun. If we run into enemies, it's profit. If we don't, we'll just treat it as walking the dogs."
The Inuzuka ninja hounds had their own opinion:
"You should get out and run around more often. Staying still all the time makes you sick."
And just like that, under the constant harassment of the Inuzuka clan, the Rain ninja endured an entire year.
The ninja war had also continued for a full year.
Against the Stone ninja, Konoha had no effective way to stop their steady advance. However, the Stone forces still feared that terrifying technique which had once wiped out the Rain ninja, so overall the situation remained slightly in Stone's favor.
From Konoha's perspective, this result was still acceptable.
After all, they were fighting four enemies at once—no, counting the Rain ninja, it was essentially one against five.
...
On the Cloud Village front, the Third Raikage suddenly appeared during a major battle and single-handedly smashed through a thousand-man Konoha defensive position. Konoha suffered heavy losses.
That night, however, Hatake Sakumo infiltrated the Cloud Village camp and assassinated twenty-three members of their command hierarchy.
Cloud Village's chief commander, Dodai, lost one eye. If the Third Raikage hadn't arrived in time to save him, he would have died at Sakumo's hands.
But with their command structure crippled, the Cloud forces were unable to organize large-scale operations for a while.
The names of the strongest Raikage—the Third Raikage—and Konoha's White Fang echoed throughout the ninja world.
Both sides entered a tense standoff.
The Third Raikage and Hatake Sakumo essentially fell into a mutual deterrence.
"If you don't act, I won't act."
...
On the Hidden Mist front, the first clash was brutal.
Shimura Danzō immediately ordered a direct attack.
Hidden Mist's landing force refused to back down.
After more than two thousand corpses were left behind on each side, both armies withdrew.
Konoha and Hidden Mist quickly reinforced the battlefield with another thousand ninja each.
But once the maniacs of the Kaguya clan joined the battle, Konoha's casualties began rising rapidly.
Danzō refused to back down.
Members of his Root organization adopted suicide tactics—bodies covered in sealing formulas or plastered with Explosive Tags—as they charged directly toward Kaguya clan members.
Casualties skyrocketed on both sides.
Yet neither side showed any intention of stopping.
Overall, however, Konoha was at a disadvantage.
...
But the most critical battlefield wasn't there.
It was the Land of Rivers.
Facing the Third Kazekage, Sarutobi Shinnosuke had no ability to fight back and could only retreat again and again.
His troops were also completely helpless against the Sand ninja's puppet forces.
If they closed in for close combat, the puppets were coated in poison.
If they tried ninjutsu bombardment, the puppet bodies were extremely durable—made from specially treated hardwood through unique craftsmanship. Ordinary Fire Release and Lightning Release barely affected them.
And unfortunately, among low-level ninjutsu, those two were the most powerful types.
As for high-level ninjutsu… not everyone had them.
And even if someone had them, whether they could actually master them was another matter entirely.
Suicide attacks?
Those were puppets—just piles of wood.
Who would want to die together with a pile of wood?
So the Sand ninja relied on endless puppet attrition and layers of poison.
In just one year, they had almost pushed through the entire Land of Rivers.
They were about to enter the Land of Fire itself.
Sarutobi Shinnosuke could no longer hold the line.
He sent a request for reinforcements to Konoha.
And he knew very well that the moment this request was submitted, his chance to ever reach that position would disappear forever.
This was different from Shimura Danzō.
The village had proactively sent Danzō reinforcements.
Shinnosuke, on the other hand, truly couldn't win—so he had to ask for help.
Konoha would never allow a failure to become Hokage.
...
After the request for reinforcements reached Konoha, the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, immediately summoned Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu to discuss countermeasures.
"Shinnosuke's side can't hold on anymore. The Third Kazekage personally took the field, along with that puppet army. They only have a little over three thousand ninja left."
"On the Sand side, most of their losses are puppets. Their personnel casualties are probably only a few hundred. Their total strength is still over five thousand."
Hiruzen spoke while smoking, calmly relaying the intelligence he had received.
Koharu and Homura both frowned deeply.
"There's nothing the daimyō's court can do," Koharu said helplessly. "The Four Great Nations have gone crazy this time. They're supporting their ninja villages no matter what."
Most of Koharu and Homura's influence was within the daimyō's court.
If the court couldn't help, there was little the two of them could do.
Hiruzen took several more puffs of his pipe.
"Homura, summon the clan heads of the ninja clans. Call them for a meeting."
Homura hesitated.
"Hiruzen, didn't you say the ninja clans had too much power?"
"This is a special situation. Danzō is under enormous pressure from Hidden Mist. The Kaguya clan has already entered the battlefield. Root only has a little over a hundred men—they can't keep trading with over a thousand Kaguya clan members."
"Sakumo's side can defend themselves, but there's no chance he can spare forces."
"As for Torifu's front… Ōnoki will probably increase the pressure soon."
"I suppressed the ninja clans so Konoha could develop better. But now Konoha is almost gone. What's the point of suppressing them anymore?"
"Better to send them to the battlefield."
"Let these enemies finally experience the power of Konoha's ninja clans."
Hiruzen took a deep drag from his pipe and slowly exhaled.
"Unlike other countries, the Cloud Village doesn't really have ninja clans. The Stone Village has some, but they're all small clans. The Sand Village was originally formed by wandering groups."
"Hidden Mist does have three major clans—the Yuki, the Hōzuki, and the Kaguya."
"But in Konoha?"
"We have eight of them."
"Senju, Uchiha, Hyūga, Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi, Inuzuka, Aburame…"
"And countless smaller clans—the Kurama, Yūhi, Gekkō, Mitarashi…"
"Homura, in the early days of Konoha, eighty percent of the ninja came from clans."
"They were selfish and only cared about protecting their own interests. They didn't understand what Konoha truly meant."
"So the future of Konoha must not depend on overly powerful clans."
"The First Hokage and Tobirama-sensei were both members of clans, so there were some things they couldn't do directly."
"That's why it fell to us."
"For years, this has been our goal."
"Now clan members make up only thirty percent of Konoha's ninja."
"That's a tremendous success."
"But it's still not enough."
He paused.
"Of course, all of that only matters if Konoha still exists."
"Right now the entire ninja world is besieging Konoha. The village is on the verge of destruction."
"In a situation like this… how could I not use the clans, Homura?"
Hiruzen quietly looked at him.
Homura nodded slowly.
"Hiruzen… you're right."
"The survival of Konoha is the most fundamental and important thing."