The Hidden Stone, disguised as Hidden Rain shinobi, attempted to intercept and assassinate wounded Konoha ninja. Their goal: to incite conflict between the Rain and the Leaf, buying time to launch an invasion into the Land of Fire and block a potential Rain-Leaf alliance. Though they succeeded in killing one wounded Jonin, they left behind two of their own Jonin corpses, leaving their conspiracy fully exposed.
The Hidden Leaf, harboring ill intent, used the pretense of an alliance with the Rain as a springboard to invade the Land of Earth. Elite squads were sent to infiltrate the Stone's borders for reconnaissance. Upon discovery by Hidden Stone patrols, they fled back into the Land of Rain. Outraged, the Stone border forces dispatched a Jonin squad in pursuit, only to be lured into a counter-ambush. Two Jonin were killed in action, and two more escaped back with grievous injuries.
The same event, processed through the propaganda machines of Konoha and Iwa, turned into two wildly different intelligence reports that spread across the shinobi world like wildfire.
To the other hidden villages, the truth mattered little. What mattered was the undeniable reality: just as the two-year war between Fire, Wind, and Rain was drawing to a close, the Hidden Stone was stepping into the fray. The flames of war were about to be rekindled.
This was precisely why Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzo Shimura had performed such a sudden about-face, rushing to sign the peace treaty with Suna.
While such treaties could be unilaterally torn up at any moment, the Hidden Sand's current state meant they were effectively out of the race for spoils. Their only remaining value was as a deterrent—a boost to Konoha's international standing. As long as Konoha didn't show signs of a total collapse in the coming conflict with Iwa, Suna would remain a "steadfast" ally, offering every form of support except for actual soldiers.
The other reason Konoha was so desperate to close the deal with Suna was to pressure the Hidden Rain to follow suit.
Securing the Rain's cooperation was far more critical than Suna's. If war broke out between the Leaf and the Stone, the fighting would be confined to two primary fronts: the Land of Rain and the Land of Grass.
If the Hidden Rain signed a treaty, Konoha could confidently move their main forces into the Land of Grass to meet the Stone head-on. Meanwhile, on the Rain front, they would only need to station a small number of sensory ninja at the border to keep watch. Even if the Stone tried to take the "long way" through the Land of Rain for a sneak attack, the travel time alone would give Konoha more than enough breathing room to prepare.
Conversely, the Hidden Stone would be forced to station a massive army at their own borders to prevent Konoha from using the Land of Rain as a shortcut into the Land of Earth.
This naturally diluted the Stone's strength in the Land of Grass.
As the strongest of the Five Great Villages, Konoha possessed the absolute confidence to win any one-on-one war, even after two years of continuous fighting.
While Konoha was pulling out all the stops to prepare for war, the other side of the story was still mired in internal bickering.
"Mobilization has begun. The Daimyo has already moved the supplies; he intends to use a victory in this war as the crowning achievement for his succession to silence all dissent. This war is inevitable!"
"Absurd! Who would be stupid enough to launch a war they know they'll lose?"
"Coward! Fearing defeat before the first strike? Who says we'll lose?!"
"Hmph. We lack time. Neither personnel nor supplies are fully ready. Now that the intelligence has leaked, we've lost the element of surprise. How can we possibly win this?"
"It's all that bastard Fumikawa's fault!"
"Exactly! Four Jonin against one one-legged Jonin, three newly promoted Chunin, and two Genin who haven't even been out of the Academy for a year... and they still failed? They even left two corpses behind! Absolute incompetence!"
Fumikawa, the Jonin who had started this chain of events, was currently the primary target of the Hidden Stone's collective vitriol.
Keyboard warriors and armchair generals exist in every era. It didn't matter that Fumikawa's team had faced a formidable force; in the eyes of these "experts"—who sounded like the Sage of the Six Paths once they opened their mouths—a one-on-two disadvantage should have been an easy win.
In their minds, you just had to do a "sliding tackle," hit them with this and that, and everyone dies, right?
"This subordinate is incompetent. I await Lord Ryotenbin's punishment."
Fumikawa—the "useless waste" in the eyes of so many—was currently kneeling before Ohnoki, his face pale with shame.
Though the armchair generals were biased, they were right about one thing: the Hidden Stone's current disadvantage was indeed his fault. If you make a mistake, you own it. If you get beaten, you stand tall and take the hit. As a Jonin, he understood this well.
If he hadn't been overconfident at the start... if he had brought two more Jonin... if he hadn't focused solely on Water Style specialists just to mimic the Rain ninja...
The failure was so bitter that he had spent the last two days obsessively cataloging every mistake he'd made.
"This isn't entirely your fault."
Ohnoki was currently nursing a massive headache over the situation, but he was pragmatic enough to know that Fumikawa wasn't the only one to blame.
"The timing was tight, and our intelligence couldn't keep up. It was always a gamble. In the end, it was I, the Tsuchikage, who was too impatient. Let me finish."
Seeing Fumikawa look up in shock, ready to protest, Ohnoki pressed his hand down to signal for silence.
"Furthermore, from your report, those kids were members of the Ino-Shika-Cho families. Their secret techniques are famous for a reason; they aren't easy to handle in a sudden skirmish. However..."
Ohnoki paused. He stood up, floating into the air until he hovered before Fumikawa, his presence and pressure rapidly mounting.
"The past is the past. We cannot change it. All we can do is seize the present."
"Please, give your orders, Lord Ryotenbin!" Fumikawa shouted, his voice thick with gratitude and renewed fire. He knew the Tsuchikage was giving him a chance to redeem himself.
"At this point, if we abandon the war, the Hidden Stone will become the laughingstock of the shinobi world. It would crush the morale of our ninja and draw the ire of the Land of Earth. But we aren't ready. If we launch a full-scale war against Konoha now, we will be at a disadvantage."
"Then, Lord Tsuchikage, you mean...?"
"We still need time," Ohnoki repeated. "But now that the plan to sabotage the Rain-Leaf relations has failed, we only have one option left."
A look of ruthless determination crossed Ohnoki's face.
"We will keep Konoha running in circles before the real war even begins—even if we have to pay an equal, or even greater, price to do it!"