After intense and rapid deliberations, the high command of the Allied Forces finalized the command structure:
Supreme Commander: Fifth Hokage Tsunade—serving as the commander-in-chief due to her medical skills, decisiveness, and status as the representative of the initiating nation.
Deputy Supreme Commander: Fourth Raikage A—responsible for leading the charge and supervising the battle with his immense frontal combat prowess and prestige.
Strategists: Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki and Fifth Mizukage Mei Terumī—two experienced Kage responsible for strategic planning and rear-guard logistics.
Regiment Commander: Fifth Kazekage Gaara—best suited for large-scale battlefield control and support due to his ability to manipulate vast amounts of sand.
Special Response Unit Captain: Uchiha Sasuke—as the strongest combatant capable of confronting "world destroyer" Uzumaki Naruto head-on and having rescued the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki from him, he is tasked with a decapitation strike specifically targeting Naruto.
The command structure appeared rational and efficient, as if everything was moving toward unity.
However, the scene shifted to the massive encampment where the Allied Forces were gathering.
One hundred thousand Ninjas!
Hailing from different nations and Villages, they carried the weight of blood feuds spanning decades.
These were blood debts accumulated over countless missions, deep-seated hatred born from loved ones and comrades dying at the hands of the other side.
How could such hatred be easily dissolved by a mere joint order?
At first, a superficial order was maintained, but as the crowds grew denser, friction inevitably broke out.
"What are you looking at? You Sunagakure bastard! Your people killed my teammate during our last mission!"
"Hmph! You Kumogakure lot weren't exactly soft when you were stealing our missions!"
"You insidious Iwagakure scumbags, get lost!"
"Executioners from the 'village under the blood mist policy' of the Hidden Mist, you think you're worthy of standing with us?"
Arguments spread through the crowd like a plague, quickly escalating from small-scale shoving and bickering into large-scale accusations and standoffs.
The entire Allied Forces camp became a cacophony of chaos; it seemed the newly formed alliance might implode from within at any moment.
The estrangement and hatred between them were more deeply rooted than any enemy.
Just as the chaos was on the verge of spiraling out of control—
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Heavy footsteps echoed, and atop the high platform, five figures along with a solitary, proud figure in black suddenly appeared!
It was the Five Kage and Uchiha Sasuke!
Just by standing there, an invisible pressure radiated outward as if it were tangible.
The arguing and cursing were cut short as if someone had seized their throats, coming to an abrupt halt.
Every Ninja, regardless of their Village, instinctively stood tall, their gazes snapping toward the platform to look upon their respective Kage.
The chaos was forcibly suppressed, but on every face, the indelible marks of wariness, estrangement, and deep-seated hatred remained.
This Allied Force was far from a true "union"; it was as fragile as a thin layer of ice, liable to shatter completely under the slightest pressure.
While undercurrents surged within the hundred-thousand-strong Allied Shinobi Forces, a figure atop the platform took a step forward.
It was the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara.
In those emerald eyes, the coldness and deadness of the past were gone.
"I am the Regiment Commander of the Allied Forces, the Fifth Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village, Gaara."
Gaara's voice wasn't booming, yet it possessed a peculiar, raspy quality that cut through the noise, reaching the ears of every Ninja below with clarity.
He didn't immediately discuss tactics or discipline; instead, he slowly peeled back his own bloody scars.
"I once... like many of you, was filled with an unresolvable hatred in my heart."
"My father, the Fourth Kazekage, out of fear of the monster inside me, sent assassins after me countless times just to test if I was a suitable vessel. How foolish."
"My uncle told me my only purpose for existing was to be a 'killing tool,' and tortured me day and night with my mother's dying curse."
"Everyone in the Village looked at me as if I were a monster, ostracizing and fearing me."
"In my world, there was only myself, and endless darkness and slaughter. I lived only to prove my existence—by killing everyone who stood against me."
He calmly recounted that hellish childhood; his voice didn't waver much, yet it moved the countless Ninjas below.
Because to some degree, they could all see the marks that war and hatred had left on themselves, their loved ones, and their comrades within those experiences.
"I I thought, I thought I would be lost in that darkness forever, until... I met someone."
At the mention of this person, a faint glimmer finally appeared in Gaara's calm eyes.
"Like me, he had a Tailed Beast sealed within him. He lost his parents at a young age and was loathed and ostracized by the whole Village, called the 'Demon Fox'."
"He endured even more loneliness and pain than I did, yet he never gave up."
"He screamed at me with all his might, saying he was 'all alone' and understood me better than anyone... but he would never give up! Because he had a Village he wanted to protect, and people he wanted to protect!"
"He told me... that he was the 'bond' I had finally managed to form!"
"Uzumaki Naruto..."
Gaara spoke the name, a name that now carried an indescribably complex meaning to everyone present. "It was he who... pulled me out of that hell of solitude."
Gaara paused for a moment before continuing.
"Later, my father, the Fourth Kazekage, was murdered. I myself died after my Tailed Beast was extracted during a battle."
"It was a Village elder, Granny Chiyo, who used her own life to perform a Forbidden Jutsu and grant me rebirth."
"It was everyone in the Village who, after my rebirth, chose to trust me and placed the burden of the Kazekage upon me—a teenager who had once been viewed as a monster."
His gaze slowly swept across the dense crowd of Ninjas from various Villages, and his voice rose sharply, carrying a resolute conviction:
"I stand here not because I am a flawless hero. On the contrary, I carry the heaviest darkness and sins."
"But I have experienced hatred, and I have experienced redemption!"
"I have experienced being abandoned by everyone, and I have felt the weight of being trusted and relied upon!"
"I know better than anyone that drowning in past hatred will only create more monsters like I once was, and will only keep this world trapped in an eternal cycle of slaughter!"
"And now, we gather here not to settle old scores, nor to perpetuate hatred!"
"We are here to protect! To protect our respective cherished Villages, to protect the fragile trust and connections we have finally built, and to protect this world that, while imperfect, is still worth fighting for!"