The Ninja World moved. The entire Ninja World moved.
Led by the combined might of the Four Great Shinobi Nations—Konoha, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure—every village, country, and mercenary faction mobilized under a single banner.
From the sky, the earth looked as though it were swarming with endless lines of ants. Massive battalions of shinobi and samurai marched from all directions, converging on the Land of Rain. Located perfectly in the center of the world and bordering the Land of Wind, Amegakure was chosen as the staging ground for the Grand Allied Shinobi Forces.
From the rain-soaked steel towers of Ame, they would launch a full-scale invasion, conquering the Land of Wind from north to south.
Gathering an army of this magnitude required time. While the troops assembled, the Kage and national leaders convened in Amegakure's highest tower to finalize their military strategy.
The Rain Tower - Central Conference Room
The supreme commanders of the Allied Forces sat at a massive round table on the podium. Below them sat the current Kage, resurrected Kage, and leaders from lesser nations like the Land of Birds, Grass, and Dragons. Even Kozuki Hiyori, the leader of the Land of Wano, had promptly abandoned her Suna-aligned neutrality to join the seemingly unstoppable coalition.
In the darkest corner of the room, the leader of Amegakure—Pain—sat silently. His face was devoid of emotion, pierced with dark black chakra receivers.
The resurrected Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, was the first to speak. He looked entirely too pleased with himself.
"Gentlemen," Rasa announced, "I have successfully reached an agreement with the forty-six civilian cities of the Land of Wind. They have all agreed to surrender without a fight and join our coalition to jointly execute the traitor, Mufasa."
Gasps rippled through the room.
In just a few days, Rasa had completely stripped Mufasa of his national territory.
The First Raikage, his Edo Tensei body crackling with energy, slammed his fist on the table and laughed heartily. "Excellent! Suna is completely isolated. We can march straight to their gates, crush the village, and drag this Mufasa out by his neck!"
Onoki, the grizzled Third Tsuchikage, frowned. Having personally suffered at Mufasa's hands, he wasn't so optimistic. "Don't celebrate yet. I suspect a trap. Mufasa is a cunning, terrifyingly pragmatic man. He doesn't just give up territory."
The Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hozuki, scoffed, his little mustache twitching in arrogance. "What is there to be afraid of? I say sitting here planning is a waste of time. Let's just charge Sunagakure right now and capture him ourselves."
The other Kage shot Gengetsu a collective glare. Easy for you to say! You haven't fought that electromagnetic pervert yet! The last time we fought him, seven Kage-level fighters got wiped out in minutes!
Sparks flew across the table. The coalition was ready to tear itself apart before the war even began.
"Everyone, please, let us not quarrel!"
Hashirama Senju, the eternal peacemaker of the ninja world, stood up, raising his hands. "Since we have mobilized the entire world, we will attack with the entire world. Mufasa will fall; it is only a matter of time and overwhelming force."
Hashirama gestured to a map. "Now, we need to properly structure this army. We should establish dedicated Intelligence, Combat, Medical, and Logistics divisions—"
"Absolutely not!" the Fourth Raikage interrupted, crossing his massive arms. "We have over three hundred thousand shinobi assembling! Do you know how long it will take to cross-train and organize that many people into unified divisions? By the time we figure out the chain of command, Mufasa will have fled the continent!"
"Keep it simple and brutal," the Raikage declared. "We divide the army by Village. Each of the Four Great Nations will act as a main vanguard, absorbing the lesser nations as auxiliaries. Sixty thousand men per division. We just surround Suna and crush them from all sides!"
The room murmured in agreement. According to their latest intelligence, Sunagakure only had about thirty thousand combat-ready personnel in the village.
With a ten-to-one numerical advantage, complex tactics were irrelevant. A 10-to-1 ratio was a guaranteed slaughter.
The First Raikage grinned viciously. "Look at the coward! We haven't even marched yet, and Mufasa has ordered his people to hide behind their walls. Our scouts walked right through the desert and didn't hit a single trap. The boy is waiting to die."
The room erupted into confident laughter.
In the corner, Pain remained deadpan, though one of his black piercings twitched slightly.
"Hey, Pain. Adjust your angle a bit, the signal is getting fuzzy."
Sunagakure - Central Command Tower
Thousands of miles away, Mufasa was casually kicking back in his command chair, humming a cheerful tune while grilling a batch of cumin-spiced mutton skewers over a specialized electromagnetic hotplate.
He was currently attending the Allied Shinobi Forces' top-secret war council... via livestream, directly through Nagato's Rinnegan and black receivers.
The Raikage's crude, brute-force strategy perfectly aligned with Mufasa's desires.
"Yes, yes, come quickly," Mufasa muttered, taking a bite of his skewer. "I'm getting impatient."
Through the psychic link, Nagato's voice echoed in Mufasa's mind. "Lord Mufasa... are you truly not worried? Should I deploy the Six Paths of Pain to secretly sabotage their supply lines and armories before they march?"
"Sabotage what?" Mufasa scoffed, flipping a skewer. "This is a war of absolute industrial power. Ordinary shinobi are just background scenery now. Sabotaging a few kunai crates won't change the outcome."
Mufasa's eyes narrowed dangerously. "If you want to help, use your network to find out who cast the Edo Tensei on those dead Kage. Both Orochimaru and Kabuto—the only two people who should know that jutsu—are working for me. So who the hell is the rogue necromancer causing me this headache?"
"Understood. I will investigate," Nagato replied.
The doors to the command center slid open. Mei Terumi, the exiled Mizukage, walked in carrying a steaming platter.
"I brought the abalone," Mei sighed, setting the dish down. "Freshly prepared. I soaked it for three days to get the texture right."
"Oh? Candied dried abalone?" Mufasa's eyes lit up. He popped one into his mouth. "Mm. Delicious."
Mufasa stood up, wiping his hands, and walked over to the massive floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the village. He struck a dramatic pose, reciting an old poem.
"Yellow sands roll for a thousand miles, a silver spear defies ten thousand foes... Golden armor worn in a hundred desert battles, the unbreakable Shinobi Army will not return until victory..."
Mei Terumi rubbed her temples, looking like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
"Mufasa, look out the window," Mei said flatly. "Look front, back, left, and right. Do you see a single speck of sand out there?!"
Mufasa's grand strategy for dealing with the 300,000-strong Allied Shinobi Forces had been... to do absolutely nothing.
Mei had traveled via submarine, stealth plane, and maglev train all the way from the Land of Water, expecting Mufasa to unveil some genius, multi-layered tactical masterpiece. Instead, he evacuated the civilians, locked the gates, and literally just waited for the enemy to surround them.
And surround them they did.
Starting exactly two hundred meters beyond Suna's walls, the desert was gone. It was entirely replaced by an ocean of enemy encampments. The Allied tents were packed so densely they looked like concentric rings of stars, completely choking the landscape. Three hundred thousand soldiers had turned the endless dunes into a claustrophobic sea of steel and canvas.
The only casualties the Alliance had suffered on their march were from heatstroke and scorpion stings.
When they first arrived, Mei had frantically suggested a preemptive night raid. Mufasa had just laughed and said, "I am an honest man. I don't do sneak attacks."
(Of course, the Alliance wasn't so "honest." They tried a sneak attack on night one, only for Suna's automated Prism Towers to instantly vaporize their vanguard into ash. Since then, they had been setting up a massive siege perimeter.)
"You have the nerve to compose poetry?!" Mei pointed out the window at the Kumogakure encampment. "Look! Their twenty Chakra Cannons are almost fully assembled!"
Taking the front lines, the Cloud Shinobi had decided to fight Suna's technology with their own. Having seen the Prism Towers, the Raikage ordered the deployment of their ultimate weapon. Originally, Kumo only had one prototype. But driven by the arms race Mufasa started, they had aggressively industrialized and churned out twenty massive artillery batteries.
Through his binoculars, the Fourth Raikage proudly admired the three-barreled cannons gleaming under the desert sun.
"Once fully charged, a single shot from my Chakra Cannon can shatter the moon!" the Fourth Raikage boasted to the gathered leaders. "With twenty firing simultaneously, Sunagakure will be instantly erased from the map!"
The Kage nodded in awe.
"Truly magnificent," Obito—still wearing his mask and acting as the Yugakure representative—stepped forward. "To prevent Suna from launching a desperate counterattack, I suggest we coordinate your artillery with my aerial strikes."
"Aerial strikes?" Onoki raised an eyebrow. Yugakure was a pacifist hot-spring village. Since when did they have an air force?
"Please, follow me," Obito chuckled darkly.
He led the commanders to the Yugakure sector. Standing in neat, terrifying rows were two thousand White Zetsu clones, all wearing masks. Beside each clone was a metallic crate as tall as a man.
"Each of these boxes contains one hundred specialized combat drones," Obito explained. "They are loaded with concentrated explosive tags. When the bombardment begins, my troops will launch two hundred thousand drones into the sky to rain fire upon Suna."
Obito had learned a harsh lesson from his previous defeats. He had ruthlessly copied Mufasa's modernized warfare tactics. His White Zetsu army no longer fought with basic kunai. They were equipped with drones, Gatling guns, and missile launchers. The Zetsu army had evolved.
The Allied leaders were deeply impressed. It was a flawless, devastating siege plan.
But Hashirama Senju looked at the horrifying array of weapons and felt a pang of sorrow. Suna was guaranteed to be annihilated.
"Our victory is assured," Hashirama said softly. "But... I must give him one last chance to surrender. A massacre benefits no one."
"Lord First," Obito warned smoothly, "I doubt Mufasa will appreciate your mercy."
"I will try anyway," Hashirama said firmly. "If he refuses... then I will use the Sage Art: True Several Thousand Hands to tear Suna's gates off their hinges."
The Kage agreed to let the God of Shinobi try diplomacy one last time.
Hashirama walked out to the exact 200-meter safe zone limit outside Sunagakure's towering steel walls. He cupped his hands around his mouth, his chakra amplifying his voice like thunder.
"MUFASA! I HAVE COME TO NEGOTIATE! WILL YOU MEET WITH ME?!"
Silence hung over the village.
Then, the sand beneath Hashirama's feet shifted. A sleek, metallic cylinder rose from the earth. The top of the rod hissed open, deploying a high-definition holographic screen.
Mufasa's face appeared on the screen, holding a half-eaten skewer.
"Hello there," Mufasa grinned.