If Iwagakure had fallen into such a state, the other hidden villages were undoubtedly faring no better.
Therefore, while the successive loss of the Tailed Beasts by the Five Great Nations was shocking, it was not entirely difficult to understand.
Every major village was burdened with its own internal problems, and all of them were operating from a position of weakened military strength.
In fact, in the original timeline, the Akatsuki managed to capture and seal seven of the nine Tailed Beasts within a single year, leaving only the Eight-Tails and the Nine-Tails uncaptured.
Yet people often remembered the organization as if it had spent years carefully preparing for that moment, unlike the current Akatsuki, whose actions were swift and relentless.
The reason was simple.
From the time Obito inherited Madara's will and orchestrated the Nine-Tails Attack until Naruto came of age, fourteen years had passed.
During that entire period, the Akatsuki did not actively pursue the Eye of the Moon Plan.
Instead, they spent those years accepting mission after mission as hired mercenaries.
Although the Akatsuki was a terrorist organization, it still possessed both short-term and long-term objectives, complete with its own guiding ideology.
According to Nagato's vision, they would first establish a mercenary organization independent of every nation. By accepting missions at extremely low prices, they would monopolize contracts from smaller countries and hidden villages while deliberately provoking localized conflicts.
Once they had secured control of the mercenary market, they would release the Tailed Beasts to escalate wars, undermine the existing shinobi system maintained by the Five Great Nations, and eventually monopolize warfare itself.
Only then would they gather and seal all nine Tailed Beasts, revive the Ten-Tails, and use overwhelming fear and pain to force the world into what Nagato believed would be everlasting peace.
To accomplish that dream, Nagato faithfully followed the path of collecting the Tailed Beasts.
The Akatsuki possessed strength, planning, courage, and remarkable execution.
The only problem was that their first phase took far too long.
More than ten years.
Looking at it another way, Nagato gathered ten of the Ninja World's most notorious rogue ninja, kept them under control for over a decade, and had them complete countless dangerous missions at bargain prices.
Even at the height of the Akatsuki's influence, the Third Tsuchikage frequently hired them.
The reason was straightforward.
The Akatsuki provided cheaper labor, allowing the Land of Earth to profit as a middleman without deploying its own shinobi.
Ōnoki firmly believed that only a fool ignored an opportunity to profit.
Why would he refuse the chance to take advantage of the Akatsuki?
He outsourced nearly every difficult mission to them while reserving the easier assignments for Iwagakure's own shinobi.
He even commissioned the Akatsuki to attack shinobi from rival villages.
That was precisely why the Fourth Raikage later confronted Ōnoki during the Five Kage Summit.
The old man truly had no bottom line.
As for why the Akatsuki suddenly abandoned more than a decade of mercenary work and shifted directly to the Eye of the Moon Plan in the original timeline, the answer was probably quite simple.
Nagato eventually realized something.
After ten years of undercutting everyone else's prices, the economies of the Five Great Nations had barely suffered any meaningful damage.
The great nations remained prosperous.
Although they had weakened slightly over time, the pace was painfully slow. At that rate, it might have taken another hundred years before the effects became truly significant.
It was far less effective than simply weakening them through open conflict.
If that was the case, why continue wasting time?
It made far more sense to begin collecting the Tailed Beasts immediately.
The entire idea that cheaper mission fees could collapse the economies of the Five Great Nations had always been unrealistic.
Those nations controlled most of the Ninja World's territory, resources, and production.
The Akatsuki was merely a mercenary organization.
It possessed neither natural resources nor industrial capability.
The Ninja World's economy was not sustained by mission contracts alone.
Resources determined true national strength.
Otherwise, why had every major nation coveted the Land of Fire throughout history?
Because it was rich in resources.
From that perspective, the conflict between the Akatsuki and the Five Great Nations was fundamentally a struggle between a mercenary organization selling inexpensive labor and powerful nations that controlled the world's resources.
The Akatsuki intended to raise the price of its ultimate weapon, the Tailed Beasts.
The Five Great Nations, naturally, intended to eliminate this troublesome competitor before that could happen.
As for Obito, he had possessed countless opportunities during those fourteen years to safely collect the Tailed Beasts much earlier.
Yet he never acted.
He excelled when everything favored him, yet squandered every advantage once circumstances became difficult.
That perfectly described Obito.
The result was that Akatsuki members gradually lost their lives one after another.
Obito might have accepted that outcome.
Fugaku absolutely would not.
By the time he inherited Madara's legacy, he was already far older and more experienced than Obito had been.
Raised from childhood as the future head of the Uchiha Clan, Fugaku possessed far greater overall judgment.
At the very least, he understood what needed to be done and when it had to be done.
More importantly, Hayashi's growing strength left him no room to delay.
If he waited another ten years before collecting the Tailed Beasts, there would likely be nothing left for him to accomplish.
However, with Fugaku and the Akatsuki acting so aggressively, it was impossible for the Five Great Nations to remain idle.
One of the first to respond was the Fourth Raikage.
"What? Lord Fourth Raikage, you intend to reconvene the Five Kage Summit?"
Inside the Raikage's office, Dodai stared at him in astonishment.
The Five Kage Summit was a conference attended by the leaders of the Five Great Nations whenever conflicts between nations or major international decisions required discussion.
Everyone understood its purpose.
Unfortunately, throughout history, the summit had become almost synonymous with war.
Aside from the very first summit convened by the First Hokage, nearly every subsequent Five Kage Summit had eventually been followed by another great conflict.
War itself did not frighten Dodai.
He had never believed lasting peace was possible, and Kumogakure had always embraced a militaristic philosophy.
The problem was the timing.
The Third Great Ninja War had ended only two years earlier.
No nation was in a position to begin another large-scale conflict.
An unspoken consensus had already formed throughout the Ninja World.
After ten years of war, there should be roughly ten years of peace.
The Fourth Raikage shook his head.
"It isn't for war. Our village has already been attacked three times. We don't have the strength to wage another conflict. At least ten years will be needed before Kumogakure fully recovers.
"But the ones who attacked us were the Third and Fourth Mizukage.
"Kirigakure must provide an explanation."
To put it simply, the Fourth Raikage intended to use the Five Kage Summit to pressure Kirigakure into offering compensation and political concessions.
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