For the next stretch of time, Amegakure gradually began to get back on track.
The Great Ninja War, however, raged on.
While Kumogakure sent its main force to attack Konoha, it also dispatched the newly returned Two-Tails jinchūriki, the Eight-Tails jinchūriki, and several elite squads against Iwagakure.
They had never forgotten the grudge of the Five-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball.
While Rōshi was busy guarding against both Sunagakure and Konoha, this Kumogakure force still managed to keep Iwagakure on edge.
Left with no choice, Rōshi had to take the field personally. Though all three were jinchūriki, Rōshi's control over the Four-Tails' chakra had already reached an astonishing level.
But Kumogakure's two jinchūriki were no pushovers either.
Kumogakure had established a training system for perfect jinchūriki on an island shaped like a giant turtle. Though the two had not succeeded in becoming perfect jinchūriki, their control over tailed beast power had still improved tremendously.
After a fierce battle, all three jinchūriki were left heavily wounded.
At that point, Rōshi resorted to Iwagakure's old tactic—overwhelming numbers.
Thousands of ordinary Iwa shinobi swarmed the two jinchūriki and kept them trapped for a full day and night. In the end, the Two-Tails jinchūriki exhausted all her chakra, her seal collapsed, and the Two-Tails ran wild.
The Eight-Tails jinchūriki used the chaos to escape.
Facing the rampaging Two-Tails, the Four-Tails, Son Gokū, reminded Rōshi of their agreement. Rōshi also knew there was nothing to gain from tangling with a tailed beast head-on, so he quickly withdrew with the Iwa shinobi.
After venting its fury, the Two-Tails disappeared to parts unknown.
---
At the same time, Sunagakure was fending off Iwagakure while waging war against Konoha in the Land of Rivers.
After the surprise squad that had invaded Iwagakure completed its mission, Sasori's father led part of the Suna force away to lure off the returning Fourth Tsuchikage, Rōshi, creating a path of survival for Sasori's mother and the others.
When Ebizō saw that only Sasori's mother had returned, he said he had no face left to meet his sister. He swore to avenge Sasori's father, and from then on continually increased troop deployments along the Land of Earth border.
Once Iwagakure repaired its supply lines, it too stationed its main forces back at the border. The two sides fell into a tense standoff, and the atmosphere steadily grew more volatile.
As for smaller villages like Takigakure and Kusagakure, they weren't idle either.
After Amegakure defeated Konoha, Takigakure bit another chunk out of Iwagakure. Then Amegakure defeated Iwagakure as well.
At this point, the intensity of the war had become incomparable to before. The great nations no longer had the time or energy to waste on these smaller villages.
When Kusagakure saw what Takigakure had gained from the Land of Earth, their eyes went red with envy. They secretly carried out a sweep through the Land of Fire.
It just so happened that Konoha was now beset by crises both at home and abroad, with no time to deal with such "minor" problems. As a result, Kusagakure's actions became more and more rampant—until eventually even Takigakure joined in.
Hiruzen Sarutobi and the two advisors were furious about this, but utterly powerless to stop it.
Unlike the original course of events, this Great Ninja War had been drastically altered by Hanzo of the Salamander.
At the borders of the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire, Konoha had lost nearly six thousand shinobi.
The first time, in the Land of Rain, they fell into a trap set by the Third Kazekage, and thousands were shredded to death by Iron Sand.
The second time, at the Land of Fire border, Hanzo's forbidden jutsu nearly annihilated them.
Then there was Kumogakure. Though that Tailed Beast Bomb had missed its intended target slightly, it still caused around a thousand casualties.
Many more lost the ability to fight from the aftereffects alone, while consuming enormous medical resources.
Iwagakure had it even worse.
First, Hanzo killed the Third Tsuchikage. Then Danzō led Konoha's army deep into the Land of Earth. Then Sunagakure pinned them down and tried to grind them to death.
After taking a Tailed Beast Ball from Takigakure, they were then slaughtered by Hanzo and the Ame forces at the border, losing more than a thousand Iwa shinobi in one go.
It was nothing short of disastrous.
If not for the sheer number of shinobi Ōnoki had left behind, Iwagakure would not have been far from destruction as a village.
Sunagakure fared little better.
Hanzo later killed both the Third Kazekage and Chiyo, and while he was at it, he also wiped out over a thousand Suna shinobi behind them.
As for Kirigakure, the Third Mizukage, acting under hints from Uchiha Madara, had focused all his efforts on Konoha and kept feeding shinobi into the battlefield as if lives meant nothing.
Compared to canon, the Five Great Nations had all suffered a sharp reduction in shinobi numbers. None of them had enough troops left to rotate forces properly.
So for the moment, they could only let these "flies" buzz around a while longer.
The Land of Rain was quietly recuperating, and with Hanzo around, no one dared stir up trouble there.
As for Hanzo himself, he was currently still on the road to the Land of Snow, supposedly conducting "research."
He had left behind a pile of Shadow Clones in Amegakure to handle the daily routine, and tossed the rest of the government work to Kan, Rikuto, Hattori Murakami, and the others.
Officially, he called it training the next generation of Amegakure leadership.
Word was that the Daimyō of the Land of Snow had recently founded Yukigakure.
Hanzo absolutely had to go and… make something happen.
No, no—just go "have a look around."
For example, the man who invented Chakra Armor, and the Land of Snow's railway system…
People like that could absolutely be invited to Amegakure for research and development.
Leaving them in the Land of Snow would just be a waste of talent.
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