Profits tempting enough to sway two great hidden villages were, of course, even more irresistible to the smaller ones.
Naturally, there were a few small villages that weren't afraid of dying. They sent out shinobi to secretly tail the combined forces of the two great villages from behind.
Unfortunately for them, while the two great villages were restraining themselves from attacking each other, they showed no such restraint toward those small villages.
Any small-village ninja who tried to follow behind them were blasted to pieces, every last one.
Even though most of the scouts sent out by the small villages were wiped out, they still managed to glean one useful piece of information: both of those marching forces seemed to be heading toward the Land of Fire.
The joint assault on Konoha by the Hidden Sand and Hidden Mist had happened so suddenly that many villages didn't even have time to react.
To be precise, even Konoha itself felt a bit dazed at suddenly being attacked by both Sand-nin and Mist-nin.
Aside from Orochimaru, even the Sand itself hadn't known that the Mist would also move against Konoha.
It could only be said that the Mist's sudden move had caught everyone off guard. And even once they did react, they had no choice but to make their respective decisions.
If the Mist hadn't joined the assault, facing Konoha's overwhelming strength, the Hidden Sand probably would've surrendered long ago instead of clinging on as stubbornly as they were now.
At this moment, deafening booms rumbled every now and then from Konoha's direction, and with the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Stone openly mobilizing their own forces as well…
Now, even the slowest of minds understood that something huge was about to happen.
Hidden Rain Village.
In a deeply concealed, lightless cavern.
Pain stood on top of the head of Gedo Mazo (Demonic Statue of the Outer Path), staring expressionlessly down below.
Before long, one after another, hazy projections began to appear on the finger positions of Gedo Mazo (Demonic Statue of the Outer Path).
Pain turned his head, his gaze resting briefly on two empty positions. Those spots belonged to Itachi and Kisame.
They didn't come?
Pain turned back, once again looking down with an emotionless face.
"Didn't we just have a meeting not long ago? What is it this time?"
Sasori's voice carried a clear note of irritation. Right now, he was back in his territory working on his puppets—at a crucial moment, no less.
Pain's sudden summons had naturally put him in a foul mood.
"Hey!! I'm in the middle of finding sacrifices for Jashin-sama right now!"
Hidan shouted, his tone dripping with annoyance.
"There's something important I need to inform you all about."
Pain ignored their reactions, his voice remaining cold as ever. As he finished speaking, he turned his head to look at a spot beside him.
Following Pain's gaze, everyone else looked that way too, just in time to see a strange-looking figure with a half-white, half-black face slowly emerge from the ground—White Zetsu.
"My, my, long time no see."
White Zetsu's voice was light and playful. Black Zetsu at his side kept his mouth firmly shut, with no intention of speaking.
"Spit it out already!"
Deidara's lips twitched hard. Between Hidan and White Zetsu, he always had the urge to just blow the both of them sky-high.
He wasn't the only one. The looks everyone else gave White Zetsu carried a faint but very real threat. Clearly, no one wanted to hear him ramble.
Sensing all the hostile stares, White Zetsu muttered under his breath, then obediently began to deliver his report.
"What? The Mist and Sand have joined forces to attack Konoha?!"
Hidan's eyes went wide with surprise as he shouted.
"And that's not all. The Cloud and the Stone are already on the move as well, heading to join the assault on Konoha."
White Zetsu spread his hands as he continued.
"Even the Cloud and Stone are taking part… interesting."
Kakuzu's hoarse voice rasped out.
"So there's a chance war will break out ahead of schedule. Any more detailed intel?"
After thinking it over for a moment, Sasori asked in a calm tone.
"That's all. Both around Konoha's battlefields and on the outskirts of the Cloud and Stone forces, there are loads of sensor-type ninja. If I get too close, I'll probably be detected."
"And more importantly, all four villages have bijuu (Tailed Beast) chakra signatures flaring. They've clearly deployed their jinchuriki (Tailed Beast hosts). No way I'm getting too close to that," White Zetsu said helplessly.
"Heh-heh! Now things are getting fun. Are we moving our plan up?"
"Since the Cloud and Stone have already committed major forces, this is a pretty great opportunity for us," Kakuzu said, a bright grin spreading over his face.
"Oh yeah, how come those two, Itachi and Kisame, aren't here? I remember they went to Konoha, didn't they?"
Hidan looked toward the positions belonging to Itachi and Kisame with open curiosity.
"They've probably run into some trouble."
Pain's voice sounded, making everyone fall briefly silent.
"Now that the intel has been relayed, that's all for this matter. Dismissed."
Pain's cold voice came again.
"We're not doing anything? This situation is to our advantage," Kakuzu said hoarsely, a puzzled look on his face.
"Until everything settles… we observe and wait."
As that voice fell upon everyone's ears, Pain's figure disappeared.
Seeing Pain gone, the other projections faded one after another, leaving only Zetsu behind.
"For a war to erupt this suddenly, without any warning at all… what do you think?"
White Zetsu muttered, then asked Black Zetsu.
Black Zetsu couldn't be bothered to respond, as if he'd sunk into deep thought.
Seeing Black Zetsu stay silent, White Zetsu took it in stride and continued talking to himself.
"We'd better let Ta— I mean, Tobi know about this. Wonder if it'll make him happy."
With that, Zetsu's body sank rapidly into the earth and vanished.
Not long after Zetsu left, a single piece of paper fluttered quietly through the air before disappearing just as quickly.
...
Konoha's battlefield.
Facing the full might of Konoha's forces and with no large-scale reinforcements, the Hidden Sand simply couldn't hold the line. They were forced to keep retreating toward Konoha's main gate.
The one thing that allowed Maki and the others to breathe easier was that the Mist's forces made no move to pincer them, letting them fall back through Konoha's gate unimpeded.
Once they had withdrawn to the gate, Maki caught sight of the Three-Tails, Isobu, lying not far from Konoha's main entrance, and couldn't help the shock that showed on his face.
That was definitely not a jinchuriki (Tailed Beast host), but an actual bijuu (Tailed Beast). For the Hidden Mist to have a bijuu (Tailed Beast) obeying them so completely—it was almost unbelievable.
Since when did the Hidden Mist have that kind of capability?
Among the Five Great Hidden Villages, everyone had always assumed the Mist and Sand were the two weakest. But as Maki saw it now, the Mist's strength was anything but weak.
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