Watching their Kazekage defeated and forced to flee shattered the spirit of the entire Sand Village army.
Even with the jōnin shouting encouragement, it couldn't mend what had been broken. The fall of their leader was the collapse of their faith. Against Konoha's relentless offensive, the Sand shinobi lost ground fast, pushed back step by step.
And once Orochimaru's colossal summoned beast entered the field, the battle turned into a slaughter. By the time Rasa finally appeared to declare surrender at the narrow gorge of Ichinen-ten, barely one-tenth of his army remained standing.
That defeat scarred Rasa deeply. It also taught him the lesson that led to tragedy later — the importance of a mighty tailed beast weapon, and the cruel destiny of Gaara becoming a jinchūriki.
With Wind Country defeated, Orochimaru didn't linger. The wars against the other nations were still raging, and there was no time to rest. After a short regrouping, he left a division to watch over the Sand Village in case they broke the treaty, then led Fugaku and the rest of his victorious, high-spirited forces toward the Lightning Country front.
When they arrived, the camp bristled with tension. Dozens of sharp-eyed shinobi with Byakugan scanned every inch of the new arrivals before finally relaxing once they confirmed it was really Orochimaru.
Fugaku found it strange. He asked around and soon learned the situation. The front lines here had no single commander.
Jiraiya, it turned out, was no longer in Lightning Country. He had moved on to the Earth Country front.
The reason for this chaos was rather brilliant. When Orochimaru used the reverse summoning to rush to the Wind Country battle, it left the Earth front without a commander. So Jiraiya had deliberately made himself highly visible on the Lightning front, showing his face enough times to make the enemy believe he was stationed there, then quietly slipped away to Iwagakure's battlefield.
By the time the enemy realized something was off and that Orochimaru had vanished from Earth Country, Jiraiya had already appeared there in his place. And when news of Jiraiya's presence reached the Lightning front, Orochimaru had just arrived from the Wind front.
A flawless timing trick.
Fugaku slapped his thigh in admiration. "Brilliant move!"
He could already imagine the confused faces of the Raikage and Tsuchikage, both wondering how Sand had joined the war, and how, before they even had time to process it, Sand had already been crushed.
"Can someone explain to me what in the world just happened?" they were probably shouting right now.
No matter what, Orochimaru's arrival restored confidence across the camp. With their commander present again, the Konoha shinobi finally looked relieved.
Inside the main tent, despite the dust of battle still clinging to them, Orochimaru, Fugaku, and the Ino–Shika–Chō trio gathered to assess the situation.
There, a young Hyuga Hiashi was briefing the group, rattling off facts nonstop. He went over troop deployments, strategic positions, and Jiraiya's standing orders—but half of his report was bragging about how many enemies the Hyuga had crushed, how many ambushes they had detected with their Byakugan, and how their clan's brilliance had turned the tide of several battles.
On and on it went.
Fugaku sighed inwardly. "Still too young. No subtlety at all."
Hiashi's sharp gaze even carried a hint of challenge, as if daring Fugaku to acknowledge the Hyuga's superiority.
Fugaku almost laughed. He was tempted to play the fool, lure Hiashi into arrogance, and then crush him — classic story material, the kind readers loved. But no, that would be childish. And besides, he knew something Hiashi didn't.
One day, that proud Hyuga would pay dearly for his arrogance.
Orochimaru's placement was smart. The Hyuga clan, with their Byakugan, were perfectly suited to fight the shinobi of Kumogakure. The Raikage's forces relied on high mobility and lightning-quick taijutsu, but in front of all-seeing eyes, that agility meant nothing. The Hyuga were close-range masters; against an enemy exposed from every angle, Cloud shinobi suffered terribly.
Ironically, it was this conflict that would later fuel the tragedy of the Hyuga Incident — the Cloud's revenge attempt to kidnap Hinata, and Hiashi's desperate choice to sacrifice his brother to save the clan.
Fugaku only smiled faintly. Destiny, it seemed, always had its own designs.
He didn't bother to warn Hiashi. After all, these were events far in the future, and Hyuga and Uchiha had never been on good terms. Let him fall a little harder.
When Hiashi finished his report, Namikaze Minato stepped forward to give his own. Although Jiraiya had left for the Earth front, Minato stayed behind to ensure communication between the two fronts. With his Flying Thunder God technique, he could transmit critical information faster than any messenger.
In essence, Minato was Jiraiya's trump card here.
After hearing the reports and reading the battle data, Orochimaru waved a hand, signaling the meeting's end.
Fugaku stretched and yawned behind his mask of discipline. They had traveled non-stop, fought, and gone straight into a strategy meeting without even a drink of water. His body and mind both cried for rest.
As the group dispersed, he exchanged polite goodbyes and turned to find a quiet place to sleep. But before he could leave, Minato approached, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile.
Fugaku suppressed a sigh, forcing himself to stay awake. "Minato, what's wrong?"
"Well," Minato said, "since Jiraiya-sensei went to the Earth front, he took my team with him…"
"You mean Obito and the others?"
"No, they're still in the village. It's a different squad."
Fugaku nodded. The war hadn't yet reached the stage where the youngest were being thrown into the fire. But that time would come.
"So you're basically a free agent now. Didn't Lord Orochimaru assign you a team?"
"I thought he looked tired, and I didn't want to disturb him…"
Oh, so I'm the one it's fine to disturb, huh?!
Fugaku rolled his eyes, then smirked. "Fine. Join my unit. We're short one man anyway."
Minato's eyes brightened. "Really? Then we're a complete four-man squad!"
And just like that, the calm before the next storm began.
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