The Second Great Ninja War was, on the surface, sparked by Hanzō of the Salamander, but in truth, it was entirely orchestrated by the Hidden Sand Village. The Hidden Rock Village only jumped in later, seeing an opportunity to exploit.
Hanzō was fighting a defensive war, countering invasions, while the Sand Village was the polar opposite. Not only did they instigate the war, but they had their strategy locked in from the start.
On the Rain Country battlefield, after tying up the Leaf's main forces, the Sand Village swiftly invaded the River Country, seizing the Shinano Great Plains and even taking control of the River Country's daimyo.
Their plan? Use the River Country as a springboard to strike deep into the Fire Country's heartland.
Too bad for them, the Hidden Leaf saw through their strategy early on. They reacted fast, sending forces to the River Country, halting the Sand's advance and delivering a brutal counterattack that pushed the Sand ninja back.
The Sand retreated to the Shinano River defense line in a hurry, but not before dragging the River Country's daimyo and his entourage of nobles and officials to their rear stronghold.
As a result, while the Leaf technically reclaimed the daimyo's mansion on the Shinano Great Plains, the daimyo and his officials remained under Sand control.
From there, the Sand Village used the River Country's daimyo to squeeze every ounce of value from the region.
The northern occupied zone of the River Country was under direct Sand military rule. The civilians there faced heavy oppression but bypassed some exploitative middlemen, managing to scrape by.
The southern occupied zone, however, looked "safer" but was a chaotic mess, with the people's livelihoods in tatters.
The Sand Village set up the daimyo and his nobles in a puppet capital in the south, planning for a long-term occupation. They oppressed the River Country but didn't go overboard.
Compared to the barren deserts of the Wind Country, the River Country was a goldmine. The Sand's higher-ups wanted to govern it slowly, but their clans and ninja couldn't resist the temptations of the River Country's wealth, constantly undermining their efforts.
The River Country's daimyo and nobles, eager to curry favor with the Sand ninja stationed in the occupied zone, pulled out all the stops—bribes of money, women, you name it, happening daily.
Even the lowliest Sand genin reaped some benefits from this setup.
Case in point: when Umino Yoru, Uchiha Shun, and Yamashiro Greenleaf entered the daimyo's mansion for recon, disguised as local villagers selling firewood, the gate guards hit them with a so-called "barefoot tax."
Not only did they have to pay an entry tax, but even going barefoot got taxed! Of course, civilians who wore straw sandals to avoid it got slapped with a "sandal tax" instead. The rule was simple: if you were a commoner, you paid. But if you wore fancy cloth or leather shoes and had connections, you got a free pass.
"Lord Yoru, this 'Leaf Hundred' they're talking about… it's not us, is it?" Uchiha Shun, soft-hearted as ever, felt a pang of guilt, thinking they might be adding to the River Country civilians' suffering.
Yoru reassured him, "Shun, the Sand ninja will find any excuse to jack up taxes. It's got little to do with us."
The Sand ninja were just using the "Leaf Hundred" as a pretext to rake in cash and smear the group's name, redirecting the civilians' anger.
Ever since Yoru's unit wiped out Ebizo's Sand ninja regiment twice, their reputation had spread like wildfire across the River Country warzone, even landing on the desks of the other villages' Kages.
Yoru's unit, small but mighty with just over a hundred members, earned the nickname "Leaf Hundred" for their insane track record.
Led by Yoru, the Leaf Hundred operated deep behind enemy lines, never once getting wiped out, posing a massive threat to the Sand's entire River Country defense line.
This forced the Sand Village to keep pouring troops into the region, ramping up their logistical strain.
To ease that pressure—and pocket some extra cash—the Sand ninja stationed there came up with every excuse to hike taxes.
The "barefoot tax" and "sandal tax" to "fund the fight against the Leaf Hundred" were just the start. There were even weirder taxes, all under the guise of "bandit suppression."
The daimyo's mansion was poorly defended. A quick recon revealed that the biggest threats were the River Country's Six Guardian Ninja and a Sand logistics convoy heading to resupply the coastal fortress, which had decent strength.
"Lord Yoru, should we wait for the Sand logistics convoy to leave before striking, or hit tonight—" Yamashiro Greenleaf slid a hand across his throat, eyes glinting with killing intent.
"Tonight," Yoru decided.
Taking the daimyo's mansion wasn't really about the daimyo himself. The real goal was to lure the Sand ninja from the coastal fortress to come to the rescue.
In simple terms, it was a classic "besiege Wei to save Zhao" tactic—draw the enemy out and ambush them.
The coastal fortress only had about two hundred Sand ninja, but it was a tough nut to crack.
And since it controlled the southern sea access of the River Country, taking it out was a must to move forward.
The Sand ninja in the fortress were elites, tasked with keeping the Hidden Mist's lunatics from swooping in to take advantage of the chaos. They weren't pushovers.
Since the strategic goal was the coastal fortress, letting that logistics convoy slip away wasn't an option.
The daimyo's mansion had weak defenses anyway—might as well take it down in one go.
Plus, the Six Guardian Ninja weren't necessarily all enemies.
Even if they'd all sided with the Sand, their strength paled compared to the Fire Country's Twelve Guardian Ninja. Not only were there half as many, but they were only jonin-level, not elite jonin like the Fire Country's.
"Lord Yoru, I've made contact with Kawa Akira," Yamashiro Greenleaf reported. Using part of the Uchiha clan's intelligence network, he'd reached out to Kawa Akira, one of the River Country's Guardian Ninja, proposing a joint operation to take the mansion and minimize losses.
Kawa Akira was shocked that Leaf ninja had made it this far and were bold enough to attack the mansion. Still, he agreed readily, setting a signal for the attack that night.
"Greenleaf, Kawa Akira's already in bed with the Sand. We move now," Yoru said.
Using his soundwave radar jutsu, Yoru had seen through Kawa Akira's false promises.
On the other hand, Kagami Baisai, a Guardian Ninja who'd always opposed Fire Country interference, was genuinely loyal to the River Country's daimyo, only pretending to side with the Sand.
Wasting no time, Yoru unleashed a swarm of shadow clones to coordinate with the Leaf Hundred.
The Leaf Hundred's strength was leagues beyond what it used to be. Led by the shadow clones, they easily seized the city gates and stormed the daimyo's mansion.
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