34 Before the Dawn!
{Kazekage's office, Sunagakure}
Shinsuke Kōsuke was sitting in his office looking at the stack of documents and report one last time, in front of him, Yūma Katsurou stood quietly waiting for any final orders.
It's been four years since Shinsuke took over the position of the Third Kazekage, his life has been mundane for a long time, looking at documents and looking at the decline brought by the lack of natural resources to Sunagakure.
Suna is surrounded by sand, a brazen piece of land that could not grow almost any kind of food, most of the civilians in Sunagakure worked in the large number of metal mines that could be found all around the country and then worked as merchants and sold the only natural resource Suna had, to other countries in exchange for food.
Shinsuke knew that the only way for Suna to stabilize and grow would be through this war. Unlike Iwa who wanted to size Konoha's missions and diminish their strength. Suna had different ambitions, Shinsuke wanted a part of the land that the Land of Rain occupied, so his war was with Amegakure as much as it was against Konoha.
'According to Isamu, if we could even get a small piece of land from the Land of Rain we would be able to create a stable enough agricultural site to reduce the food shortage in Suna.' Shinsuke thought as he checked on everything one last time. After today his advisor Yūma would stay behind and handle the personal affairs of Sunagakure.
'Konoha is giving us trouble at the border, I need to push them back so that we can focus on Ame.' Shinsuke glanced one last time at his office as he put the Kage hat that was hanging on his chair on his head, he looked around the office one last time before he walked out.
His eyes looked at the quiet village from the building as he jumped towards the village gates.
'This war is going to be bloody...'
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{Tsuchikage's office, Iwagakure}
Ōnoki stared silently at the bustling village, Iwagakure had always maintained the mentality of slowly working towards success, and even late into the night, everyone was doing the job that they were assigned.
Iwagakure was built in a valley in between a series of mountains that acted as natural barriers, of all the shinobi villages Iwagakure was the most well-defended... after Kiri of course, they have a literal death sea between them and the rest of the 5 great nations.
With a natural defensive formation, logically Iwagakure should have started this war long ago, but Ōnoki bid his time. The one virtue that Ōnoki had against his peers was patience, he was absurdly patient, and that was the reason he was able to learn the Dust Release when his peers gave up.
Dust Release was the ultimate offensive and defensive skill set, he was very versatile in battle and his strong willpower made sure he took every step after careful consideration. Years of keeping to themselves and coping in their own land after the First Shinobi World War made the military might of Iwagakure slowly grow.
And the news about the death of the Kyuubi Jinchuriki presented Iwagakure with the perfect opportunity to attack. What he never expected was their advance to be stopped by one man alone. Ōnoki had stared at the face of death itself when he looked at his sensei fight Madara, so he was a little hesitant right now, the name of the White Fang was already echoing throughout the battlefield.
'''...Hatake Sakumo, the white fang of Konoha has extremely fast speeds that are beyond the realms of even Elite Jonins, his white saber leaves a trail of chakra every time he moves and his kenjutsu standards are through the room. At least no one in battalion 1 has been able to last more than 2 moves against him...'''
'Damn Konoha and their prodigies,' Ōnoki cursed as he put the report aside, he had no choice but to lead his troops to battle, at the same time he read the scroll for an alliance he had received from A.
...
'''...The threat the Uzumaki clan presents outweighs their current defensive compatibilities, they are enabling Konoha to fight on multiple fronts as Konoha's home is well-defended thanks to their fuinjutsu. Their knowledge of the sacred arts is a danger in itself. Who knows when they could create a seal that could destroy our villages or even the world itself...'''
...
'The Fuinjutsu of the Uzumaki clan,' Ōnoki thought, he was never that interested or even able to understand the sealing arts. The squiggly lines that were able to hold back a demon itself in a human body and harness its powers to create monsters were frightening.
'And that was something we were able to come up with just a hint of fuinjutsu knowledge that had leaked from the Uzumaki clan's stronghold. What could we do with the knowledge of their whole system itself.' Ōnoki thought.
'Though attacking Uzushio won't be easy, even though they are a small clan with around 1000 members. Each of them could be considered a shinobi since most if not all of them had a rudimentary understanding of their fuinjutsu system... attacking a natural stronghold against a clan that had the capabilities to defend and decades' worth of time to set those defenses up was stupid.' Ōnoki thought as he put aside the letter from A.
He didn't need to answer it right now, and he was more interested in expanding his borders for the moment. He didn't have to worry because there was no way A would dare risk attacking Uzushio by himself.
'I think I got a report that Suna is stuck in their front against Konoha as well, should we team up for a bit... no that seems a bit risky, Hanzo is still waiting in his turtle shell and according to Mifune, he has Kage-level strength as well. I wonder if I could goad the Kazekage into clearing the Land of Rain for us...' Ōnoki thought as he closed all of the scrolls on his desk and stood up.
He had no choice, he had to make a move, while he would like to think about it some more, Iwa can not have Hatake tearing through their armies.
'Hiruzen is still not seen on the front lines, I wonder where he would show up...'
...
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{Hokage's office, Konohagakure}
Hiruzen sat on his chair as he listened to the reports that he got from the borders. The war has almost officially broken out and soon it would be time for him to move to the front lines too.
"So Suna has begun infiltrating the Land of Rain but Ame is resisting them as well, that saves us some manpower. Orochimaru and the others will be able to deal with them." Hiruzen spoke as he made plans, his tactical advisor, Sakai Nara nodded at that thought.
"Sakumo is easily able to handle Iwa for now but Onoki won't stay still like this and let Sakumo dismantle his armies, he would be moving in soon so our first priority would be to handle that front. Danzo could reinforce against Suna if need be, his battalion had only dealt with some basic skirmishes from Suna till now." Sakai replied.
"No word about what Kumo and Kiri are planning?" Hiruzen asked and received a negative head shake in return. He was in a dilemma right now, as much as he wanted to retaliate against Kumo for their attempt to capture Kushina he couldn't be the one to provoke another enemy at this fragile moment.
'Until Kumo deals with the Land of Sky A won't consider attacking us, I should use Danzo's unit to cause obstructing in their lands while buying time.' Hiruzen thought.
"Alright, send another platoon to both the Uchiha and the Hyuga clans, they can hold onto our eastern borders. I'll move on to the Land of Grass and deal with Iwa first. Will you be able to handle things from here?" Hiruzen asked.
Upon seeing Sakai's nod he stood up and walked back to his clan compounds, the reason he selected the Land of Grass was simple, he and Onoki belonged to the same generation, so he was able to read his plans better than the rest of the Kage's.
'Sakumo is getting stronger and his reputation is becoming greater, if this goes on I would have to give him a position as an elder as well.' Hiruzen thought as he frowned.
He knew what the problem was, it was because he was appointed as the Hokage by Tobirama-sensei during the final mission. No one questioned his appointment as it was Tobirama-sensei's order but the Sarutobi clan really did not have enough reputation to allow him to solidify his position as Hokage, not when there were the Hyuga clan and the Uchiha clan that had their eyes set on his seat.
'I need to gather some merits as well, if I can get enough achievements and at the same time direct Konoha to win this multifaced war, then no one would doubt my appointment.' Hiruzen thought.
His motive for starting this war wasn't entirely ideal, even though he was in his mid-40s he still had the ambition to run the village for a few more years before passing the hat on to Orochimaru, his student.
Hiruzen quickly got ready to fight this war as he left Konoha silently, all while unaware that a pair of yellow eyes had already noticed his departure.
...
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{Mizukage's office, Kirigakure}
Gengetsu Hōzuki was the second Mizukage to sit at the helm of Kirigakure. Unlike the other villages that were very involved in this war, Kirigakure was passive. Gengetsu was a shinobi who believed in seeing through the veil of deceit, he was a patient individual and he wasn't going to jump into this hotpot of a war just for some minor benefits.
'Even if it would be a good idea to weaken the other nations it is still too soon to participate, with the amount of shinobi each village had sent out, it would take years of battle to weaken any village as everyone poked and prodded at each other.' Gengetsu leaned back in his chair as he read through the mission reports.
Kirigakure was able to take this turtle-like approach simply because of its advantageous geographical location. They were so far away from the mainland that all four shinobi villages would soon have to fight against each other.
'Though that makes attacking them harder as well. What I need out of this war is for fucking Uzushio to be gone.' Gengetsu thought as he looked at the map of the elemental nations once again.
The Uzushio were directly south of their southern border and with them always being there with their own turtle-like seals and fighting style, attacking them head-on was like a suicide.
Luckily he had an option, though he didn't hurry to respond, if he could get some more concessions and get the strongest spear of Kumo to attack those seal barriers, then the attack could go further than planned.
Gengetsu grinned as he put A's letter in a special drawer and then he opened the next scroll.
'Now's not the time, let A finish off the rest of Land of Sky first, they were starting to get annoying as well...'
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{Hidden Cave, Graveyard Mountain}
Madara listened to the events that were happening around the world, it was getting increasingly difficult for him to align himself with the current times and the famous shinobi of this era.
'Idiot Hashirama...' Madara cursed in his mind and then he began ordering, "Instigate a fight between Kumo and the Uchiha clan, and also complete the Nagato mission as soon as possible, now that war has spread the seeds you planted can be used to create chaos."
"Remember to target Nagato with transformation as Konoha shinobi and don't let him see your actual face, the Rinnegan had powerful insight capabilities so he would be able to figure it out if he focused too much. If he can't awaken the Rinnegan even after seeing his parents die, kill him, and retrieve my eyes, we might need a new host then..." Madara ordered.
He waited for a bit and then spoke, "Kirigakure would end up being too strong if the war continues at this pace, try to instigate a fight between Kumo and Kiri and see if it works. Since the monkey is going to the land of grass, ignore that area for now, and let him and Iwa brat battle it out. It would be great if Iwa suffered a little defeat so they would be forced to merge with Kumo and Kiri in this war."
...
Zetus nodded and he slinked to the ground, his first target was in the Land of Rain.
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AN - Each village has its own ambitions for this war, who do you think would be able to achieve them?
Double release for the start of a new month. From the next chapter onward the focus would be shifted to Hikaru for most of the War.
Some chapters might contain the basics of what is happening around the world but I'll try to tell this war from Hikaru's perspective.
Chapter length of each chapter from now on is set to 2k words.
The release rate is 1 every 2 or 3 days.
