On the Wind Country side of the Land of Rivers, the weather was already dry and the rivers had grown scarce. Taiichi's shadow clone carried the captured White Zetsu to a cliff face near a small water source. Using Earth Release, he carved out a large hidden space inside the rock, then dragged the prisoner inside.
After setting up a concealment barrier at the entrance, the clone dispelled itself, leaving only a Flying Thunder God kunai behind.
A moment later, Taiichi's real body appeared in the same spot. He looked around the empty cave and allowed himself a small smile. The Flying Thunder God plus shadow clone combo had already proven more useful than he expected. He had only planned to use it for running missions, but now he was already building secret bases outside the village.
Once you crossed one line, the rest came easy. Taiichi was already thinking about setting up several more of these hidden labs.
He glanced at the noisy White Zetsu still complaining about not getting to experience what it felt like to poop. With a sigh, he created a soundproof barrier and tossed the creature inside. Finally, silence.
His real body left again, heading back into the Land of Wind while leaving a clone behind to expand and reinforce the cave into a proper hidden research facility.
Disguised as a thirty-something Sand jonin he had seen during his last visit, Taiichi strolled openly through Wind Country territory. He wasn't worried about running into patrols. In fact, he hoped he would. It would save him the trouble of hunting them down himself.
Back in Konoha, Hiruzen finally received Jiraiya's detailed battle report. The moment he saw it was a victory dispatch, a rare smile spread across his face. The past few weeks had been nothing but bad news from every front.
He flipped straight to the casualty section. When he read that Sand had lost nineteen jonin and over a hundred chunin while Leaf had only suffered twenty-three chunin deaths, he couldn't help slamming his hand on the desk.
"Excellent work!"
Hiruzen lit his pipe and took a long, satisfied drag. The victory felt even better with a good smoke.
But when he read the part about Taiichi single-handedly tying down the Fourth Kazekage and saving the medical camp, his expression grew serious. That boy was only ten years old. If he was already this strong, he would become one of Konoha's absolute pillars in the future. And since he was both Tsunade and Jiraiya's student, his loyalty was unquestionable.
Hiruzen's mood lifted again. Konoha needed every bit of strength it could get right now.
Just then, the office door slammed open. Danzo walked in, leaning on his cane, his face dark.
"Hiruzen, I heard a battle report came in from the front. Which front lost this time?"
Hiruzen ignored the jab and simply handed over the scroll. "Read it yourself. Jiraiya sent good news. A major victory."
Danzo took the scroll and began reading. His face remained expressionless, but inside he was far from pleased. The entire report kept circling back to one name: Matsushita Taiichi.
If it had been anyone else—even Minato—Danzo might have felt some satisfaction. But Taiichi? That name made his blood boil. Every time the boy achieved something great, it reminded Danzo of how the kid had slipped through his fingers and gone straight to Hiruzen.
Worse, it brought back memories of how the Second Hokage had once chosen the Third. The more Taiichi shone, the deeper Danzo's resentment grew. The seed of hatred had already taken root.
Hiruzen pretended not to notice. As long as Danzo didn't do anything stupid, he was willing to let the two of them stay on opposite sides. The more Danzo hated Taiichi, the more firmly the boy would stand with him.
Danzo finally closed the scroll. "Tell the front to keep an eye on Iwa and Kumo. Especially Iwa. I have a feeling they're about to move."
Hiruzen looked at him in surprise, then immediately understood. With Leaf's crushing victory over Sand, the other villages wouldn't just sit back and watch. Iwa in particular had paused their own war with Sand for this exact reason. If Sand looked like it was about to collapse, Iwa would likely declare war on Leaf to relieve the pressure and drag Konoha into a long war of attrition.
Hiruzen sighed and reached for his pipe again.
News traveled fast in the ninja world when it mattered. Within a day of Konoha receiving the report, every major village had learned the details of the battle.
Iwagakure moved first.
Inside the Tsuchikage's office, Ōnoki read the intelligence with a grim face. His son, Yellow Earth, could barely contain his excitement.
"Father— I mean, Lord Tsuchikage! What are we going to do now?"
Ōnoki floated up from his chair and studied the large map on the wall. He had hoped to wait until Cloud and Leaf were fighting before making his move. But Sand's defeat had come too quickly. If Sand lost all hope against Leaf, they might turn around and ally with Konoha again to attack Iwa instead.
He made his decision.
"Summon the high council. We're declaring war on Konoha."
The meeting was less of a discussion and more of a formality. Iwa's militaristic culture meant the war faction had been pushing for this for weeks. Once Ōnoki gave the order, the decision passed instantly.
That same day, Iwa assembled a thousand-man force and marched toward their base in the Land of Grass. A formal declaration of war was sent out across the entire ninja world.
Leaf responded just as fast. Within hours, another five hundred shinobi were mobilized to reinforce the front lines. Among them was Nonou, reassigned as a field medic.
Taiichi's worst fear had come true.
Meanwhile, deep in Wind Country territory, Taiichi had no idea any of this was happening. His days had fallen into a comfortable rhythm: cause chaos in the Land of Wind during the day, then teleport back to camp at night using Flying Thunder God.
But "comfortable" didn't mean he was slacking. Quite the opposite.
At first he only ambushed small Sand squads. As he got better at hit-and-run tactics, his targets grew larger—medium teams, then full companies of a hundred men. He never tried to wipe out entire groups. He would strike hard, kill as many as he could in the opening chaos, then vanish with Flying Thunder God the moment things got messy.
Simple. Efficient. And most importantly, safe.
Thanks to this method, Taiichi ran wild across the desert while Sand struggled to respond. They sent elite hunter teams after him—even the Fourth Kazekage personally joined the chase for a while—but Taiichi was simply too well-rounded. Sensing, medical ninjutsu, overwhelming offense, strong defense, and instantaneous retreat via Flying Thunder God. After a few weeks of fruitless pursuit, Sand gave up.
It was better to use those forces against the main Leaf army than waste them chasing one slippery ghost.