Suna attacks

A few more months passed.

It has nearly been a year since Konoha's war against Kumo and Iwa had started. In this time, Konoha had slowly but surely started to lose in this war of attrition. They were receiving far more casualties than their adversaries.

Well, it was quite natural since many of Konoha's Shinobis were straight out of the academy. Kumo had stopped sending their young shinobi in the battlefield. Now, a little more experienced genins and chunins would be sent to attack Konoha's Shinobis. Hence, their losses weren't that significant.

The Third Hokage hadn't made any particular move since then. He was trying to send word to Tsunade, but somehow his message would never reach her.

He had lost any hope of receiving help from Araki. It would instead be better if Araki didn't use that opportunity to attack him, so the Hokage wasn't looking forward to making him an enemy right now. Perhaps later, but surely not now

Nearly a year had passed since the start of the war with Konoha against Kumo and Iwa.

At this moment, he heard reports from Jiraiya and Sakumo that the Iwa and Kumo had been relatively quiet for nearly a week right now.

The Hokage frowned at this information. It wouldn't have mattered if they had done that separately but considering they had chosen to stay quiet at the same time meant that they had a scheme.

Just what were they planning at this point? This question appeared in his head, but he couldn't think of anything.

A few days later, he heard another news, it seemed that Suna Shinobi was charging at Konoha with full speed. Considering their speed, they would need only 3 days to arrive.

Moreover, that was after a full rest. Perhaps the Suna Shinobi would have arrived earlier if they didn't want to conserve chakra.

The Hokage slammed his table and crushed it into bits. He was angry…

This was an absolute disaster for Konoha. He had sent a lot of higher ranked Shinobi to Jiraiya and Sakumo's camps. Now, there was no time to ask them to return. They would take at least 4 days to return.

And if they wanted to return while resting, another 2 days were required.

By that time, Konoha might as well be rubble!

He never expected this war to reach such heights that even people of Konoha would see bloodshed.

Moreover, he had no idea about the movements of the Suna's movements for some reason. Even though his spies were in all sorts of administration position, they still didn't inform him of this invasion plan.

Just as before, he had received reports from his spies. There was nothing strange about it. So, just what could have happened? How did they suddenly amass so many resources and launch an attack?

The answer to the Hokage's question was Orochimaru!

Since the time of his deal with the Third Kazekage, Orochimaru had captured all the Konoha's spies within Suna and turned them into his experimental subjects.

He was researching a great jutsu which required their 'co-operation'.

The Hokage heaved out a sigh and felt that this meant that they needed to protect Konoha with whatever strength remained in Konoha.

Meaning, the Clan Leaders, Clan Elders, and some more higher-ranked Shinobis from each clan. If the quantity wasn't sufficient, then they could only make it up with quality.

The Third Hokage didn't really place the Third Kazekage in his eyes. The ones who were especially troubling to deal with were the puppet users. Especially that Chiyo, the hundred puppet master. Just by herself, she was equivalent to hundred shinobi skilled in close combat.

Wouldn't this boost their numerical advantage even more?

The Third Hokage chose his first target rather quickly. It should be none other than those puppet users.

He immediately called out for an urgent meeting.

All the clan heads, excluding Araki, joined. The Third Hokage informed them of the situation… The Suna was coming at them with a large number of Shinobi and a lot of puppeteers among them.

The clan members were to gather all the members who could fight and make a stand against Suna. They must not allow Suna Shinobi to breach past them and let their fangs reach Konoha!

Uchiha Keshiro… He unconsciously gulped down a mouthful of saliva. He was prepared that this would happen.

The one who had informed him of this was none other than Senju Araki.

A month earlier, Senju Araki had visited Keshiro. It was a rather short meeting. He still remembered the details of the meeting.

"Prepare yourself, Sunagakure will soon attack Konoha. It can be today, a week later, or maybe a month later. This will be your moment to shine. Show the entire village of Konoha that the Uchiha Clan is capable of protecting Konoha. Gain so much respect that you will be called heroes by the entire village." Araki had informed Keshiro while staring at him.

"Very well… I, thank you for this information." He thanked Araki quite politely, but he wasn't done, he asked Araki, "What will you be doing at that time?"

"Me? I guess I will be dealing with some matters of my own as well." Araki said with a smile before he left the clan.

Keshiro was a bit curious about what he meant, but he placed it in the back of his mind. There was no need for him to poke into Senju Araki's matters.

With that, he had already readied the entire Uchiha Clan for war against Suna.

In this war… Keshiro wasn't planning on showing any mercy. He had long since allowed himself to stay within the Clan while giving important orders and administrating everything. Even his own body had started to itch for a good fight.

Other than regularly sparring against members of the Uchiha Clan, he hadn't had a good fight against someone.

Perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity for him to see his own true capabilities with the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan!

Unconsciously, Keshiro couldn't help but grow excited deep within his heart. The time had finally come where he could show his own strength.

The other clan heads who had been called to the urgent meeting were startled upon hearing that Suna would be invading Konoha.

All of them immediately returned to ready the preparations. The Hyuuga Clan also wanted to use this opportunity to show that it was the strongest clan within the Konoha.

They were well aware that the situation was dire, so they tried to think of all the countermeasures they could. Whether to use traps or guerrilla warfare…

The Hokage mentioned that he would face the Third Kazekage and deal with him as quickly as possible. Until then, the clans must fight against the puppeteers using defensive tactics.

This was because the Hokage was immensely confident about his own power and a few of the other Clan Heads. He was well aware that if struck together, Sunagakure would be struck a heavy blow.

At this moment, Araki had a cold smile on his face as he sensed a large number of shinobi entering Konoha's borders. He said, "That Orochimaru… He really took his sweet time. Looks like they have finally attacked!"