Tsukasa Kaede's chakra was draining fast.
Since the fighting began, he had already expended six reanimated corpses. Over half of his chakra reserves were gone. If this continued, he'd hit a critical point.
Worse, he could feel it—more and more Suna-nin were starting to focus on him. Whether consciously or not, they were probing the Konoha line, hunting for a breach, a path to get directly to him.
Medical-nin were always a high-priority target for Suna. A medic with unique battlefield techniques like Kaede? Even higher.
When the fourth wave of poison mist bombs detonated over the war zone, Kaede finally accepted the obvious—it was time to pull back.
With over ten thousand shinobi clashing across the valley, no single engagement would decide the war. There would be many battles to come. Tsukasa gauged the flow of chakra, the fatigue setting into both sides, the pace of death. One side would soon be forced to retreat.
And it wouldn't be Konoha.
Even with so many poisoned and staggering, even with casualties mounting, Konoha wouldn't take a single step back. Not against Sunagakure, not on Fire Country soil.
The Sand ninja were the aggressors. Hungry desert-dwellers coveting the fertile land of Hi no Kuni, they fought like cornered animals—desperate, brutal, relentless.
Originally, the war had centered in Amegakure, the nation wedged between the borders of Fire, Earth, and Wind. Konoha, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure had all tacitly agreed to use Ame as a proxy battlefield. Destroying Ame's land and economy was cheaper than letting the fighting spill into their own borders.
That plan died the day Hanzō of the Salamander defeated the Sannin and declared Amegakure's withdrawal from the war.
None of the great nations dared provoke him further. Hanzō had earned his title of "Half-God." No one wanted to force his hand.
With Ame off-limits, direct conflict became inevitable. Sunagakure pushed into Fire Country's borders, clashing head-on with a detachment led by Hatake Sakumo.
"Forty-seven more died to poison today?"
Sakumo sat still in the command tent, face grim.
He wanted to fight. Gods, he needed to. But the timing wasn't right. He had to wait—for Sunagakure's vanguard to commit. Until then, he remained still.
Hatake Sakumo, the White Fang of the Leaf—a name feared throughout the shinobi world. He was the cornerstone of Konoha's might during the Second Great Ninja War. A battlefield demon, carving paths through enemy ranks with his chakra blade.
Most notably, Sakumo had earned glory by striking down Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law—Sunagakure's most promising puppeteers, both tipped to become future Kazekage candidates. He had taken both in a single battle, dismantling their puppets and killing them cleanly.
That one mission shattered Sunagakure's morale and derailed their war effort. It also cemented Konoha's strategic dominance after the Sannin ended the Ame conflict.
And yet, Sakumo wasn't satisfied.
He sat in the war council tent, listening to the distant ka-boom of jutsu detonations, to the screams of wounded ninja from the triage units behind him, feeling like each cry carved a notch into his bones.
He didn't believe in "mission first." He fought to save his comrades, even if it meant failure on paper.
If he were on the front line, he could kill dozens of enemies in minutes, turn the tide, save more lives. But as commander, he was bound by the Third Hokage's cautious doctrine.
And Chiyo still hadn't made a move.
"She's gone mad," Sakumo muttered. "She won't be able to hold herself back much longer."
He didn't trust the Third Hokage's strategy. Hiruzen's war doctrine was too conservative, too risk-averse.
According to Hiruzen, even if Konoha traded blows at a 1:1 or even 1:1.5 loss ratio, it was still a win. Because Konoha had the numbers, the bloodlines, the finances. Fire Country's backing was deeper than anyone else's.
Konoha didn't need to conquer—they had no interest in the barren territories of Wind Country. What good was stealing sand? What would they do, train Magnet Release shinobi to pan for gold in dunes?
No. Hiruzen's strategy was to grind. To bleed the enemy, outlast them, and win through attrition.
With Konoha's superior recovery and support infrastructure, even minor setbacks would heal over. Every week they lasted was a step toward inevitable victory.
Kumogakure and Kirigakure still hadn't joined the war in force. Amegakure was out. That left Sunagakure and Iwagakure, who were also at war with each other—the Third Kazekage had even pushed a battalion into Earth Country's borders.
Hiruzen's grand strategy was simple: stall. Outlast. Let the enemy tear each other apart. Then swoop in to collect.
And after the victory?
Mission quotas.
The true payoff wasn't territory—it was the control of the world's mission economy.
After a war, the defeated villages wouldn't just pay reparations. They'd have to sign away a percentage of their mission contracts, letting Konoha fulfill them instead.
In peacetime, a shinobi village survives on missions. More missions mean more money. More money means better jutsu research, more academy students, faster growth. Konoha would get stronger, richer, deadlier.
It created a self-perpetuating power loop.
With a decisive win in the Second Shinobi World War, Konoha's prestige would skyrocket. Clients worldwide would flock to them. The other villages would be starved of work.
Worse, they'd be contractually obligated to let Konoha take a slice of their remaining assignments.
It was a slow form of strangulation.
The seeds of the Third Great Ninja War were already sown. The moment the other villages recovered, they would rebel. They would band together to shatter the cycle.
That's why Konoha had to fight every major village in the Third War—because none of them could afford to let this imbalance stand.
Back in the present, Hatake Sakumo sat still, swallowing his fury. He processed every report, reviewed every field transmission, and waited. Not because he wanted to—but because he was ordered to.
And somewhere, in the chaos of that hellish front, Tsukasa Kaede was still holding the line.
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300 Stones in this story = 1 Bonus chapter in every fanfic currently translated