It was New Year's, and for this one day, the entire Hidden Leaf Village ceased its frantic pursuit of missions.
The villagers busied themselves with holiday preparations. Shimenawa ropes were hung, Kadomatsu pines were placed by doorways, and for these two days, even the ramen shops served nothing but buckwheat soba.
On the first day of the New Year, people donned their most formal attire and headed toward the highest point in the village: the Hokage Rock. A massive crowd gathered at the summit to make wishes as they greeted the rising sun.
Monks from the Fire Temple had set up stalls to sell fortune slips, and wandering priestesses from the Land of Demons offered prayers and blessings. Under the soft chants of the priestesses, countless young couples arrived side by side and left hand-in-hand.
"It's been years since it was this lively."
"The situation is definitely improving. If it weren't for Hatake..."
"Don't talk nonsense!"
"Right, right. If it weren't for that incident, the war might have been over by now."
"Sigh, forget it. We should be able to crush the Hidden Rock after the New Year. The war shouldn't last past March."
"I hope it ends soon. Let it just end."
Konoha still had two enemies remaining. Although the fall of the White Fang had prompted the Cloud to restart hostilities and made the Sand's loyalty waver, the impact of the "White Fang Incident" was largely confined to the morale of high-ranking shinobi. It couldn't erode Konoha's peak hard power in such a short time.
Through a series of maneuvers by the Hokage—bonuses, family visits, rotations, and leave, coupled with a massive propaganda campaign highlighting heroic deeds—the morale of the lower-ranking ninja was reignited, eventually pulling the elite along with them.
After all, everyone wanted a victory.
By now, the Hidden Cloud had confirmed that Konoha's strength had not waned. Wisely, they pulled back, clearly adopting a posture of a spectator waiting to see the outcome of the final battle between the Leaf and the Rock.
If the Leaf won, the Cloud would simply surrender alongside the Rock. Thus, Konoha effectively had only one enemy left. Of course, if the Leaf lost—if nearly thirty thousand Leaf ninja lost to fourteen thousand Rock ninja—the Cloud wouldn't mind helping themselves to the remains.
Regardless, this was the greatest advantage Konoha had enjoyed since the start of the war. It was the only reason they could afford to grant leave and rotations, leading to this unprecedentedly crowded New Year.
Once the New Year passed, Konoha initiated a full mobilization.
Tetsumaru was the first to receive orders. As a member of the elite Independent Mobile Unit—commonly known as the "Fire Brigade"—he was to report to the Land of Rain.
Shortly after, Aburame Wafu and Aburame Aiko received their own orders. Predictably, one was sent to the Land of Birds to participate in a flank assault, while the other was assigned to a field hospital in the Land of Grass.
The whole family was being deployed to fight the Rock.
Standing before the assembled army of twenty thousand, the Hokage delivered a stirring "Final Battle" speech, promising that once the Rock was defeated, the war would end and everyone could return to a life of peace.
Good grief, Tetsumaru thought. The "Home by Christmas" vibes on this death flag are so strong even Douglas MacArthur would call him a pro.
The speech triggered thunderous cheers. From Year 31 to Year 40, the war had dragged on for nine long years. It was time for it to end.
This wasn't just the consensus of the Leaf ninja; it was shared by every village except the Hidden Mist. Everyone acknowledged that Konoha was currently the strongest. If it weren't so, the Sand and Cloud wouldn't be standing on the sidelines, and Konoha wouldn't have secured such a dominant position.
Even the Rock ninja admitted Konoha was the strongest. Onoki had likely wanted to surrender long ago, but the stubborn "Stubborn Nut" was actually the most sensible person in his village; the rest of the Land of Earth was far more pig-headed than he was.
Unless they suffered a crushing defeat, unless they were pushed to the brink of utter despair, the Hidden Rock would never surrender. Never.
As the Tsuchikage, Onoki had no choice but to follow the village consensus and fight to the end.
The Hidden Rock put forth their maximum effort, assembling fourteen thousand shinobi. They couldn't hope to go on the offensive, so they resolved to fight a war of attrition, setting up layer after layer of defenses to fight the kind of positional warfare they excelled at.
Konoha responded by mobilizing over twenty thousand fresh troops to join the eight thousand already at the front. Their total strength was more than double that of the Rock.
Orochimaru and Nara Shikato decided to spread the forces wide. Starting from four different countries, they launched a three-sided pincer attack composed of seven separate offensive divisions.
The main force pushing through the Land of Rain alone numbered ten thousand. If it weren't for the fact that the Land of Rain's infrastructure had reached its physical limit for troop transit, Konoha would have pushed for fifteen thousand.
Even so, ten thousand ninjas advancing in a single wave was an unprecedented mode of warfare. In the past, even if a front had ten thousand men, they were spread across hundreds or thousands of kilometers. They were never concentrated into such a terrifying density.
Against a ten-thousand-man legion, outposts of a few hundred were essentially free loot. A single push and they vanished, often with the Rock taking far heavier casualties.
Onoki quickly recognized the problem and withdrew his forces into the Land of Earth, utilizing the jagged mountain ranges to resist.
Konoha's advance slowed only slightly. Soon, the frontline had pushed four hundred kilometers deep, arriving at the core of the Rock's defense: the Akagi Mountain Fortress.
There, the Leaf's momentum ground to a halt.
Akagi Mountain was a famous peak in the Land of Earth, a rare geological anomaly known as an isolated peak. A lone rock spire rose abruptly from the center of a flat valley, disconnected from any surrounding ranges.
This massive, monolithic red rock had been a vital military stronghold since before the Warring States Period. A thousand years ago, samurai had built the first fortifications to control the fertile valley.
After the founding of the Hidden Rock, the shinobi took over. They cleared away the useless surface buildings and tunneled deep into the mountain, creating an intricate network of passages.
The tunnels contained granaries, reservoirs, and comfortable living quarters capable of housing four thousand shinobi. Furthermore, they reinforced the rock with barriers, creating a mountain fortress that defied conventional ninjutsu.
The Rock ninja, masters of Legion Ninjutsu, had also leveled the summit of Akagi Mountain. They built a massive tactical array that allowed six hundred ninjas to combine their power, launching Giant Stone Cannons that could strike targets six kilometers away.
With this fortress controlling the primary transit route through the valley, the Leaf's grand army couldn't advance toward the Hidden Rock Village without leveling it first.
It was the Rock's greatest source of confidence—the "Impregnable Fortress" that they intended to use to leverage the best possible terms for a ceasefire.
The brutal siege began. Leaf ninja launched wave after wave of attacks toward the summit, while Earth Style specialists tried to sabotage the foundation of the peak.
The ninja attacking uphill faced a nightmare. Over a two-kilometer climb, they were under constant fire while their own jutsu lacked the range to strike back.
With the Rock ninja firing down from above, their boulders and Earth Style techniques gained additional lethality from gravity, completely negating range limitations. The Leaf ninja could only grit their teeth and pray they survived the ascent.
When they finally reached the summit, the Rock ninja would vanish into the tunnels. Instead, Rock ninja would pop up from secret holes along the hundreds of meters the Leaf had just climbed, cutting off reinforcements or flanking those who had reached the top.
The Rock ninja knew every inch of Akagi Mountain and used the tunnels as perfect cover. The Leaf ninja, exposed on the open rock, suffered miserably. Their only option was to dive into the tunnel entrances and engage in desperate close-quarters combat.
But inside the tunnels, things were even worse. Outside, they at least had visibility and could coordinate. Inside, they were operating in a total information vacuum. Even when Hyuga ninja used their Byakugan to spot enemies and gave orders via Snail Phones, they couldn't gain an advantage because the Byakugan could see people, but it couldn't always distinguish the complex 3D layout of the tunnels.
"There's a Rock ninja sixteen meters ahead with his back to you!"
The Leaf ninja would creep forward, only to find a six-meter-thick solid rock wall in their way. The enemy was behind the wall, but there was no door.
After a full day of fighting, Konoha had hundreds of casualties and zero progress.
The Mobile Unit and the strategists watching the battle looked grim. Tetsumaru was no exception.
This... this tactic feels so familiar, Tetsumaru thought, a cold sweat breaking out. Why does this look like the tunnel warfare used by that one 'invincible army' from my old world?
Even if it was only a superficial resemblance, the thought of fighting an enemy that used those tactics made his legs go a bit weak. It was a primal, instinctive dread.
A few days later, after significant sacrifices, Konoha finally mapped out part of the tunnel system.
Jiraiya stepped up. Leading a vanguard of the Mobile Unit, he stormed Akagi Mountain and pushed into the tunnels, suppressing the Rock ninja into the deeper levels.
Two thousand Leaf ninja followed Jiraiya into the mountain, but they soon found the path blocked. The tunnels became so congested with their own men that they could no longer move or fight.
The rest of the army on the summit could only watch in frustration, unable to help.
The situation was too dangerous. The Leaf ninja were forced to withdraw, returning to the status of spectators.
The battle had devolved into Jiraiya leading three hundred ninja against several thousand who knew the terrain like the back of their hands. The outcome was obvious.
In the middle of the night, Jiraiya broke out with only a dozen survivors. Everyone was covered in wounds, and Jiraiya himself was seriously injured.
Upon exiting, Jiraiya complained that the maps they had drawn only covered the shallow levels, which were relatively straight. Once they pushed deep, the tunnels became a labyrinth—twisting up and down with no logic, filled with crossroads and, more importantly, dead ends created by hidden Rock mechanisms.
It was an impossible nut to crack.
Ten days later, Konoha was still no closer to victory.
The commanders and strategists were at their wits' end. A high-level meeting was called.
At the start of the meeting, Orochimaru stated the bottom line: "Retreat is not an option. Akagi Mountain must be conquered or destroyed. Our only discussion today is how to achieve that."
"Everyone is free to speak, but remember: we cannot fail. If we do, this war will continue indefinitely."
A Jonin in his forties stood up. "What if we just besiege them? Starve them out?"
"Impossible," Nara Shikato countered on behalf of the strategists. "The Rock is well-prepared. Intelligence suggests they have enough food and water for at least a year, possibly three."
"Our army of ten thousand cannot sustain a siege for that long."
A Jonin from the Shiranui clan stood up. "What if we split our forces? Leave a small monitoring unit and bypass the mountain to strike the Rock Village directly or—"
Orochimaru stood up and cut him off. "I said: we must take Akagi Mountain."
"My apologies, Lord Orochimaru. I was mistaken." The Shiranui Jonin sat back down, his face flushed.
"Could we dig a new tunnel from the base? Dig deep into the center of the mountain, pack it with Explosive Tags, and blow the whole thing up?"
Many ninjas perked up. It sounded like a solid plan.
A ninja who had spent the last two weeks digging rock stood up and shook his head. "In fourteen days, we only made it thirty meters. The deeper we go, the harder the rock becomes. We wouldn't reach the center even if you gave us a year."
"But the Rock dug plenty of tunnels!"
"The rock at the summit is weathered and full of fissures we can exploit. The rock at the base is under immense pressure from the weight of the mountain. Those fissures are sealed tight, making the rock incredibly dangerous and difficult to work with."
"Furthermore, Akagi Mountain has been under construction for over a thousand years. The Rock has been working on it for over thirty. We don't have that kind of time."
An Uchiha Jonin stood up to add, "Even if we could get there, Explosive Tags aren't powerful enough. No matter how many you stack, you won't collapse the core of a mountain this size."
Blast a mountain of this scale into the sky?
Nonsense. Not even the richest woman in the Shinobi World twenty-four years from now could afford that many tags. Unless you were in space, free from the world's gravity, and detonated six hundred billion tags at the core, it was physically impossible to shatter a mountain like this.
The conversation shifted toward poison gas, insect swarms, and other niche methods.
Because these methods were so specialized, no consensus could be reached. The meeting began to devolve into a shouting match.
The time has come, Tetsumaru thought. The perfect chance to plant a mushroom is now.
Tetsumaru stood up. Seeing the "Master of Giant Insects" rise, most of the Jonin stopped arguing out of respect, curious to hear what this genius had to say.
"I have a new species of insect," Tetsumaru said. "Its power is... immense. It might not be able to level the mountain itself, but I can guarantee it will utterly destroy the Akagi Mountain Fortress."
Silence fell over the room. It took a long moment before the whispers started.
"What is he saying? One bug can destroy a fortress?"
"Is he crazy? That fortress can withstand a Tailed Beast Bomb. Can one bug be stronger than a Bijuu?"
However, some Jonin who knew of his past exploits sucked in a breath. Does he really have something like that? If it's true, the Aburame clan is about to become terrifying.
Orochimaru's face lit up with genuine delight. He stood up and asked, "Are you certain it has the power to destroy the fortress?"
Tetsumaru nodded firmly. "I am. As long as it can reach a tunnel entrance—as long as it gets twenty meters inside—I can guarantee the total destruction of that fortress."
"Good," Orochimaru hissed. "We will use your method."