Chapter 50: The Outbreak of the Second Great Melee
At this time, the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Sand Villages were still unaware of this terrible news because none of the defense forces on the Land of Rain border survived. The Hidden Leaf Village and the Hidden Sand Village were still filled with a peaceful atmosphere.
Seeing that the surprise attack had achieved such great results, Hanzo wanted to press on, continue to expand his gains, occupy more land, and plunder more resources.
Because most of the Land of Wind was desert with few habitable areas, it was far inferior to the fertile land of the Land of Fire. Therefore, after leading a raid, Hanzo focused his subsequent main attack on the Land of Fire.
On the Hidden Sand Village's side, although the border defense forces were completely wiped out and the Hidden Rain Village had invaded the Land of Wind, because the Third Kazekage Iron Sand had previously ordered an increase in the level of border defenses, the Hidden Sand Village noticed something might be wrong on the 19th due to the loss of contact with the border troops.
Soon, the Hidden Sand Village understood the situation.
Although extremely angry at the Hidden Rain Village's undeclared war and sneak attack, Iron Sand immediately began to mobilize troops and timely blocked the Rain ninja forces' attack, preventing them from advancing the battle line into the heart of the Land of Wind.
On the Hidden Rain Village's side, because Hanzo went to the Land of Fire front to take overall command, the offensive gradually slowed down. They relied on the several border towns of the Land of Wind that they had already occupied to build defenses and reached a stalemate with the Hidden Sand Village there.
Looking at the Hidden Leaf Village's side again, two days had passed, and the Hidden Leaf had not yet noticed anything amiss.
Soon, it was the night of September 21st. A full three days had passed since the Hidden Rain's surprise attack on the Land of Fire, and Hanzo's forces were aimed directly at the heart of the Land of Fire. After he arrived at the Land of Fire battlefield, none of the Hidden Leaf ninjas he encountered along the way escaped. The news was tightly sealed off.
Just as the Rain ninjas had rapidly advanced the battle line to within one day's journey from Tanzaku Street, the Hidden Leaf Anbu, who had not been able to contact the border troops even after the normal contact time had passed, finally realized that something was wrong.
In the end, it was a small team of Root ninjas under the command of the "Iron Pot Shadow" Shimura Danzo who happened to pass by the Rain ninja forces while on an external mission. Coincidentally, there was a sensory ninja in this small team who moved away before being discovered by the Rain ninjas. Only then did they finally learn the exact intelligence that the Rain ninjas had already invaded the Land of Fire.
"Bang!"
The door to the Hokage's office was violently kicked open, and Shimura Danzo rushed in, his face full of anger.
"Sarutobi Hiruzen! Look at what you've done! Those Hidden Rain bastards are about to reach the Hidden Leaf! How dare you still sit here calmly!" The furious Shimura Danzo roared at Sarutobi Hiruzen, throwing the intelligence scroll he was holding fiercely at him.
"I told you long ago! Salamander Hanzo had no good intentions! We should have directly wiped out the Hidden Rain! If you had listened to me earlier, would this kind of thing have happened now!" Danzo continued to point his finger at Sarutobi Hiruzen's nose and unleashed a torrent of accusations. Although he had done many things privately in the name of the Hidden Leaf and had always had designs on the Hokage position, wanting to seize it, this didn't mean he could sit idly by while the Hidden Leaf was being humiliated at its doorstep. After all, he regarded the Hidden Leaf as *his* Hidden Leaf.
Sarutobi Hiruzen was somewhat bewildered for a moment. He didn't yet know what had happened, but hearing Danzo's immediate barrage of insults, he first felt a slight displeasure, but then an ominous premonition rose in his heart.
Without bothering to refute Danzo, and without dwelling on the fact that Danzo dared to point his finger and scold him, Sarutobi Hiruzen hurriedly opened the scroll and quickly scanned it.
After reading the intelligence, Sarutobi Hiruzen's vision went black, and a mouthful of reverse blood surged up. He murmured, "Homura and Koharu have misled me!"
Danzo on the other side was still furiously ranting, "I clearly reminded you time and time again to be wary of Hanzo and the Hidden Rain's wolfish ambitions, but you just refused to believe me! If you had just spared a portion of the ninjas sent to the border to strengthen the defenses against the Hidden Sand, Hidden Stone, Hidden Cloud, and Hidden Mist to guard against the Hidden Rain, this situation wouldn't have occurred! Wasn't I doing this for the Hidden Leaf? Huh???"
Shimura Danzo's spittle kept flying out, almost drowning Sarutobi Hiruzen. At this moment, Mito Menyan and Utatane Koharu, having received the news, arrived at the Hokage's office.
The "Sleeping Dragon" and "Young Phoenix" had no sense of their own incompetence. After all, in their view, they were just Hokage advisors responsible for analysis and making suggestions. The one who truly made the decisions was the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen himself.
"Danzo, stop talking! The most urgent matter is to quickly organize ninja forces to drive Hanzo and the Rain ninjas out of the Land of Fire and push the battle line back into the Land of Rain!" Mito Menyan advised, trying to mediate.
However, it would have been better if Mito Menyan hadn't spoken. As soon as he opened his mouth, Danzo became even more enraged. If it weren't for him and that pit of a partner Utatane Koharu confusing Sarutobi Hiruzen with their constant back-and-forth, how could Hiruzen, as his good friend, not have considered his suggestion as the Hokage's assistant?
Furious to the point of wanting to summon all the Buddhas, Danzo raised his fist, wanting to give Mito Menyan an old-fashioned punch.
At this moment, Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had finally come back to his senses, stopped him. Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the three of them, calmed his mind, and said, "Stop arguing. Danzo, you first take Root to block the Hidden Rain's forces. I will send Anbu to go with you! Homura, Koharu, quickly notify all the major clans and convene a meeting of the Jōnin squad leaders. We need to assemble an elite force composed entirely of Jōnin as quickly as possible and then reinforce Danzo. I will also personally go to the battlefield and have another match with Hanzo. We must drive them out of the Land of Fire!"
Danzo didn't say anything more, just snorted coldly, turned around, and left the Hokage's office. He was going to leave with Root and the Anbu first.
At this time, although Danzo also had some small calculations in his heart, he hadn't yet reached the level of absurdity and perversion he would later become.
At this time, he was still contributing to the Hidden Leaf, so he was willing to empty his family's coffers to defend the Hidden Leaf.
On September 22nd of Hidden Mist Year 34, the news that the Hidden Rain Village of the Land of Rain had launched a war against the Hidden Sand Village of the Land of Wind and the Hidden Leaf Village of the Land of Fire, after repeated confirmation by various scouts, finally spread throughout the entire ninja world. The new round of the Great Ninja War had thus begun.
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