The issue of face was sometimes more important than anything else, especially for the Five Great Nations.
Because of that, although the major hidden villages had been attacked one after another by an unknown force, they all silently agreed to suppress the news, limiting knowledge of the incidents to only their highest-ranking officials.
It was an astonishing situation. Four of the Five Great Nations had already lost their Tailed Beasts, yet almost no rumors of these catastrophic events had spread throughout the Ninja World.
Konoha, however, knew the truth.
While Danzo Shimura was still alive, he had occasionally sent back intelligence regarding the Akatsuki's movements. Although Danzo was now dead, Hiruko had inherited his position. Unlike Danzo, Hiruko was far less secretive, even if the information he passed back to Konoha was often deliberately insignificant.
Even so, the Akatsuki's overall movements remained under Konoha's watch.
Because of this, Hayashi, Minato, and the others all reached the same conclusion.
The other four great nations were nearing the limit of their patience.
In other words, the loss of the Tailed Beasts would soon become impossible to conceal.
The reason was simple.
Six of the Nine Tailed Beasts were already in the Akatsuki's possession. No matter how desperately each village tried to hide the truth, the others would inevitably discover what had happened.
Once every village realized they were not the only victim, preserving face would no longer matter.
Finding those responsible would become the highest priority.
After all, every village had not only lost one of its greatest military assets, but had also suffered devastating attacks.
Those debts had to be repaid.
Among the Five Great Nations, Sunagakure had been comparatively fortunate.
Only Shukaku had been stationed there, and after Sasori and Pakura's assault, there was little reason for another invasion. As a result, the village suffered the least destruction.
Kumogakure, however, was nowhere near as fortunate.
Less than a year earlier, Hayashi had nearly destroyed the village himself. Kumogakure had yet to fully recover before suffering another attack.
Had it ended there, the village could have endured through the strength of its foundation.
Unfortunately, disaster struck once again.
Kumogakure suffered a third attack.
The story began with Kakuzu and Danzo.
Assigned to capture the Two-Tails, Danzo barely escaped Kumogakure by sacrificing one use of Izanagi along with a Mangekyō Sharingan technique.
Kakuzu, meanwhile, abandoned three of his hearts and survived by pretending to be dead.
Afterward, the Deva Path ordered the two of them to continue by stealing the Three-Tails.
Originally, the Three-Tails had been released in Konoha by Fugaku before Hayashi launched it into Kumogakure like a living bomb.
As a result, the Three-Tails was now being held within Kumogakure.
However, it remained Kirigakure's Tailed Beast.
Kirigakure had merely entrusted Konoha with its temporary custody. They had never relinquished ownership.
This immediately sparked disputes between the two villages.
Since negotiations were still ongoing, the Three-Tails remained sealed inside a storage scroll rather than being transferred into a new Jinchūriki by the Fourth Raikage.
Its protection was even more secretive than that of the Two-Tails.
But after nearly dying while attempting to capture the Two-Tails, Danzo had no intention of risking his remaining lives by attacking Kumogakure yet again.
He was merely an operative carrying out orders.
Unlike Nagato, who led the Akatsuki himself, Danzo had little reason to gamble with his own life.
It was also one of the reasons he had ultimately chosen betrayal.
And in the end...
He died.
Following Danzo's death, Hiruko officially joined the Akatsuki in his place.
Unexpectedly, the Deva Path did not assign Hiruko to accompany Kakuzu in attacking Kumogakure.
Instead, he dispatched the Third Mizukage and Fourth Mizukage, both controlled as members of the Six Paths of Pain.
The sudden appearance of two missing Mizukage immediately shifted Kumogakure's suspicion toward Kirigakure.
After all, the attackers were former Mizukage, and the target was Kirigakure's own Three-Tails.
Anyone would naturally suspect that the Hidden Mist was behind the operation.
As a result, tensions between the two villages escalated once again.
While their relationship deteriorated, Konan and Zetsu disguised themselves as Kumogakure shinobi, infiltrated the Land of Water, and attacked the Six-Tails Jinchūriki.
Meanwhile, to capture the Seven-Tails, the Deva Path assigned the newly recruited Hiruko, with Kakuzu accompanying him to supervise the mission.
In less than a single year, four of the Five Great Nations had suffered one catastrophe after another.
At first glance, it seemed unbelievable that the Five Great Nations could be attacked so easily and lose their Tailed Beasts in rapid succession.
Yet the circumstances made perfect sense.
Within only a decade, the great nations had fought through the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars.
Every hidden village had been severely weakened.
Sunagakure was the perfect example.
Before the Second Great Ninja War, it had been regarded as second only to Konoha in military strength.
After the Third Great Ninja War, however, it had become the weakest of the Five Great Nations.
Even worse, the attackers were Sasori and Pakura.
Sasori had long since severed his emotional ties to Sunagakure. He had even assassinated the Third Kazekage himself.
Pakura had once been fiercely loyal to the village.
But what had that loyalty earned her?
She had once been considered a leading candidate to become the Fourth Kazekage, yet the village had ultimately sacrificed her.
Once she learned the truth behind that betrayal, the love she once held for Sunagakure transformed into overwhelming hatred.
She wanted nothing more than to see the village destroyed.
With two powerful shinobi who despised Sunagakure and knew its defenses inside and out, failure was almost impossible.
Iwagakure should have been one of the most difficult hidden villages to invade.
Nestled within towering cliffs, the village resembled a massive natural fortress.
The problem was that Roshi, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, had already been away from the village for nearly half a year.
Roshi and the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, had always shared a strained relationship.
Although the Third Great Ninja War had temporarily eased the tension between them, Roshi's earlier capture had placed Iwagakure in an extremely difficult position. After the war, Ōnoki's patience wore thinner with each passing day.
He no longer bothered hiding his dissatisfaction.
Roshi, meanwhile, felt deeply wronged.
His disciple, Gari, had died on the battlefield.
He himself had been captured while fighting for the village and had nearly died during Konoha's imprisonment.
In his own eyes, he deserved to be honored as one of Iwagakure's heroes.
Instead, he received neither recognition nor respect.
Their relationship continued to deteriorate until Roshi finally forced his way through the village's defenses and left.
He was not declared a rogue ninja, and Ōnoki chose not to pursue him.
He feared that pushing Roshi any further would truly drive him into becoming a missing-nin.
Besides, similar incidents had happened before, and very few people in the Ninja World possessed the strength to defeat Roshi.
Unfortunately, his departure created the perfect opportunity for the Akatsuki.
Fugaku and Jūzō captured him with surprisingly little difficulty.
After capturing Roshi, the two deliberately laid a trap to lure Iwagakure's rescue forces.
When Ōnoki dispatched shinobi to save the Four-Tails Jinchūriki, Fugaku and Jūzō exploited the village's weakened defenses and infiltrated Iwagakure, successfully capturing the Five-Tails Jinchūriki.
Enraged, Ōnoki personally killed Jūzō.
Fugaku escaped only by relying on his Mangekyō Sharingan technique.
By then, however, both the Four-Tails and the Five-Tails had already fallen into the Akatsuki's hands.