Shock flashed across Minato Namikaze's face.
Not far away, Ren and his teammates were supposedly waiting for him to finish speaking with the border commander. In reality, all three had fallen silent and were straining their ears, trying to catch every word.
"The Hidden Sand and Konoha signed an alliance agreement," Minato said, his expression turning grave. "A large-scale, unilateral invasion like this is practically a declaration of war, isn't it?"
"That's right." The Konoha jōnin lowered his voice, but the urgency in it remained unmistakable. "There's something else. Based on the evidence we've gathered, information concerning Konoha's defenses in this region may have been leaked. That would explain why our patrol squads have been ambushed so frequently."
His gaze shifted toward the wooden map spread across the command table. Several defensive positions had already been crossed out in red.
"I'll immediately reorganize the patrol routes and adjust the defensive line. Minato, please return to the village as quickly as possible. Deliver this intelligence directly to the Hokage and request reinforcements."
Minato stared at the map for a moment before nodding.
Sunagakure had broken its alliance with Konoha. Whether anyone was prepared to admit it or not, this was a declaration of war.
People were often slow to recognize the beginning of a war. A border skirmish could be dismissed as an accident. A missing patrol could be blamed on bandits. Even the loss of an outpost might be explained away as an isolated conflict.
It was only when the graves began multiplying that people finally accepted the truth.
Aside from Ren, no one present understood how far this conflict would spread. They could not know whether Sunagakure's invasion would remain a dispute between two villages or become a raging inferno that swallowed the entire shinobi world.
Ren knew.
This was only the beginning.
The Third Shinobi World War would not end after a few battles or a hastily signed treaty. Countless shinobi would die, celebrated heroes would fall, and children barely old enough to hold kunai would be sent onto battlefields from which many would never return.
Even if Sunagakure was considered the weakest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, it was still one of the five. A great village possessed thousands of trained shinobi, hidden techniques accumulated across generations, elite puppet masters, deadly poisons, and powerful bloodline users.
Konoha could not afford to underestimate it.
The remainder of Minato's conversation became too quiet for Ren and the others to hear. The door finally opened several minutes later, and Minato stepped outside with a calm expression that failed to conceal the tension in his eyes.
Obito immediately raised his hand.
"Minato-sensei, is there really going to be a war?" His usual excitement had disappeared, replaced by uncertainty. "Will we have to go to the battlefield too? When would they send us?"
Minato stopped in front of him and gently placed a hand on his head.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, offering them a reassuring smile. "The situation hasn't deteriorated to the point where children under ten need to fight on the front lines."
Obito opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"You are Konoha's next generation," Minato continued. "Your responsibility right now is to return to the village and become stronger. If the shinobi guarding the border know that the next generation is safe and preparing for the future, they can fight without constantly worrying about what is happening at home."
His hand slipped from Obito's head, and his smile became faintly melancholic.
"As for the day when you must personally participate in a war…I hope it comes as late as possible."
Kakashi stood with his hands in his pockets, his visible eye unreadable. Rin looked down, tightening her fingers around the strap of her medical bag. Even Obito, who usually dreamed aloud about performing heroic deeds, remained unusually quiet.
Minato's gaze eventually settled on Ren.
He hesitated.
That brief pause caused a cold weight to form in Ren's stomach.
"Ren," Minato began carefully, "your father was stationed in this region as part of the rotating border forces, wasn't he?"
"Yes." Ren's expression remained calm, but his eyes sharpened. "He was supposed to return home more than a month ago."
"I asked the commander about him." Minato's voice softened. "Your father completed his assigned rotation, but because the border forces were short-handed, he volunteered to remain here for a while longer."
Ren said nothing.
The wind passing through the outpost suddenly seemed much colder.
"Not long ago, his squad disappeared during a patrol mission," Minato continued. "Search teams have found traces of fighting, but they haven't located him yet. At present…his whereabouts are unknown."
Mikami Tajima had been officially classified as missing in action.
Ren's eyes lowered slightly.
At the beginning of the year, his father had sent a letter to him and Aoi. In that letter, Tajima had promised that his rotation would end in two months. He had written about eating a proper family dinner when he returned and complained that the meals at the border tasted like wet tree bark.
Those two months had passed.
April was approaching, yet Tajima had neither returned nor sent another letter.
Ren had already suspected that something had happened. He simply had not known whom to ask, and Aoi had continued waiting each evening with a stubborn optimism that Ren had never been able to share.
Missing in action was not the same as confirmed dead.
On a battlefield, however, the distinction was often little more than a kindness offered to the family until a body could be recovered.
Rin's eyes filled with concern. She took half a step toward Ren but stopped, seemingly unsure whether touching his arm would comfort him or make things worse.
Obito stared at the ground. For once, he had no loud declaration to make and no reckless promise that everything would somehow turn out fine.
Minato released a slow breath.
"I know the situation doesn't look good, but don't assume the worst yet," he said. "I've asked the border commander to continue searching for information about your father. If they find anything, I'll make sure you and your mother are notified immediately."
Ren raised his head. His face remained composed, though the gratitude in his voice was genuine.
"Thank you, Minato-sensei."
Ren, Rin, Obito, and Kakashi were not sensory shinobi. They were also unfamiliar with the constantly changing terrain and defenses around the border. Now that Sand forces were advancing and a battle could erupt without warning, allowing four newly graduated genin to wander around searching for one missing man would be suicidal.
They had no choice but to leave.
The return journey was far quieter than the trip out.
Rin repeatedly glanced at Ren, searching for an opportunity to comfort him. Each time she approached, however, she hesitated after seeing his calm expression.
"Ren…" she finally began while they followed a narrow forest trail. "About your father…"
"He may still be alive," Ren replied without turning around. "Until someone finds a body, there's no point deciding that he's dead."
Rin recognized the logic in his words, but his voice was too controlled. It sounded less like hope and more like something he had forced himself to accept.
"If there's anything I can do, tell me," she said softly. "Even if you only want someone to listen."
Ren glanced back at her and gave a small nod.
"I will."
Obito was unusually considerate as well. When the team stopped beside a stream to prepare a meal, he rushed to collect firewood, set up the cooking pot, and fetch water before anyone asked him.
He worked so enthusiastically that he nearly knocked the pot over twice.
"Careful," Kakashi warned from beneath a tree. "If you spill dinner, Ren might decide to bury you beside the road."
"I'm trying to help!" Obito protested, hurriedly steadying the pot. He then glanced at Ren and lowered his voice. "Besides…he probably doesn't feel like doing this stuff right now."
Ren, who had been practicing his swordsmanship nearby, paused for half a second.
"Obito."
"What?"
"You put too much water in the pot."
Obito looked down and discovered that he had nearly filled it to the brim.
"That doesn't matter! More water means more soup!"
"It means we'll be drinking tasteless hot water."
"Then you cook!"
Listening to them argue, Rin finally relaxed enough to smile. Even Kakashi's visible eye curved slightly before he returned his attention to his book.
Ren resumed swinging his sword. His movements remained smooth and precise, but his thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
He was already considering how to break the news to his mother.
Aoi had waited months for her husband to return. Telling her that Tajima was missing would be cruel, but allowing her to continue waiting without knowing anything would be worse. Ren silently drafted several versions of what he might say, rejecting each one as either too cold or too hopeful.
Perhaps he should tell her directly and stay beside her afterward.
Perhaps he should first ask Minato to confirm the details.
Perhaps—
Several days after Team Minato returned to Konoha, Ren received news that rendered every carefully prepared sentence useless.
The message brought him and Aoi rushing to Konoha Hospital.
They passed injured shinobi in bloodstained uniforms, exhausted medical-nin moving between rooms, and families clustered together in the corridors. Some people cried with relief. Others stood in numb silence while hospital staff delivered news that no family ever wanted to hear.
When Ren and Aoi reached the designated ward, both stopped at the entrance.
A man lay on the bed beside the window. Bandages covered most of his body, leaving only part of his bruised face exposed. His right leg was encased in a thick cast, and several seals had been placed around the blankets to stabilize his injuries.
Ren stared at him.
The man stared back.
Aoi's lips trembled, but Ren was the first to speak.
"Dad?" His eyebrows rose as disbelief broke through his usual composure. "You're not dead?"
Mikami Tajima's mouth twitched.
"That's the first thing you say after not seeing your father for months?"
Mikami Tajima was alive.
Aoi struck Ren on the back of the head before rushing to the bedside. She grabbed her husband's hand with both of hers, tears already streaming down her face.
"You idiot!" she cried. "You said you would come home two months ago! Do you have any idea how long we waited? Couldn't you have sent one letter? Just one?"
Tajima winced, though it was unclear whether the pain came from his injuries or his wife's grip.
"I'm sorry, Aoi. Things became chaotic at the border. By the time we realized Sand shinobi were operating inside our patrol zone, all the usual communication routes had been cut."
Ren remained at the foot of the bed, studying his father as though confirming that the man was real.
Only then did the tension buried inside his chest begin to loosen.
On the day Team Minato returned, Minato had immediately met with Hiruzen Sarutobi and reported the Sand invasion. The Hokage, however, had already received similar intelligence through ANBU operatives stationed near the border.
An emergency council meeting had followed.
Whatever was discussed inside that chamber remained secret, but Konoha's response came swiftly. A hundred-man force was assembled and placed under the command of Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin. Their mission was to reinforce the western and southwestern borders, prevent further Sand advances, and recover wounded Konoha personnel who could no longer fight.
After that, news of the invasion spread throughout the village like wildfire.
"Missing Third Kazekage, my ass," one shopkeeper snarled. "They're using him as an excuse to invade us! I could just as easily claim my son disappeared in the Land of Wind and demand they surrender half their country!"
"Why is there another war?" an elderly woman whispered. "It hasn't been peaceful for more than a few years."
"Let them come!" a young shinobi shouted. "We'll crush them and send them crawling back into the desert!"
Others spoke with far less confidence.
"If the White Fang were still alive, Sunagakure would never have dared to do this. His swordsmanship was the perfect counter to their puppet techniques."
"My parents are stationed at the southwestern border," a boy sobbed near the mission center. "Two outposts there have already fallen. What if they were inside? What if they…"
The shadow of war descended over Konoha.
Shinobi units moved through the streets in tightly packed formations. Supply warehouses remained open through the night. Kunai, Exploding Tags, medicine, and field rations were transported toward the village gates by the cartload.
Every restaurant, shop, training ground, and clan compound buzzed with rumors.
Even children too young to read could sense the change. They stopped playing war in the streets because the adults no longer smiled when they pretended to kill one another.
Fear intensified when the first group of critically wounded shinobi returned from the border. The sight of burned faces, missing limbs, and blood-soaked stretchers stripped away any illusion that the conflict would remain distant.
Hiruzen Sarutobi eventually addressed the village himself. His speech restored a measure of order, but no amount of reassurance could erase the truth visible inside Konoha Hospital.
War had arrived.
Only young fools who had never witnessed a battlefield spoke eagerly about earning glory and becoming heroes. Most shinobi understood that war offered neither. It offered pain, graves, and survivors who often returned with pieces of themselves missing.
Ren had believed the best possible outcome would be receiving his father's ashes in a small memorial box.
Instead, Tajima had returned alive.
But survival had demanded its price.
Tajima looked at Aoi and then at Ren. The relief in his eyes was genuine, yet shame and grief lingered beneath it.
"Aoi, Ren…I'm glad I got to see both of you again." His fingers tightened weakly around his wife's hand. "Our patrol was ambushed. The Sand shinobi had prepared for us in advance. They knew our route, our numbers, and even where we would retreat if we encountered trouble."
Ren's gaze sharpened.
Tajima stared at the ceiling, his breathing becoming heavier as the memories resurfaced.
"The other three members of my squad died during the attack. I was the only one who made it out." He swallowed, struggling to force out the next words. "An Exploding Tag went off beside me. The medics saved my life, but my right leg…"
Aoi's grip tightened.
Tajima closed his eyes.
"My right leg is gone. I'll never be able to serve as a shinobi again."
Silence swallowed the hospital room.
Aoi lowered her forehead onto his hand, her shoulders trembling. Tajima turned his face away, unable to watch her cry.
Ren stood perfectly still.
His father was alive. He should have felt nothing but relief, yet beneath that relief, something colder began to take shape.
The enemy had known Tajima's patrol route.
They had known the squad's strength.
They had even known its planned retreat.
That was not luck.
Someone had given Sunagakure the information it needed to slaughter Konoha shinobi.
Ren slowly placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
For everyone else, the war had begun at the border.
For Ren, it had just entered his family's hospital room.