In the backyard of Chiyo's house, by the pond, Chiyo and Ebizo sat fishing leisurely. The chaos outside seemed to have no effect on them at all.
Even when Rasa, the acting Fourth Kazekage, came to visit, they barely acknowledged him. Their relaxed attitude made it clear exactly where their heads were at.
"Elder Chiyo, the whole village is in an uproar. Are you really going to keep ignoring it?" Rasa asked, clearly anxious. He had already been sitting there watching them fish for over an hour, and his limited patience had run out.
"It's not that we're ignoring it," Chiyo replied calmly. "Things have already reached this point. What's there left to hesitate about?"
"Every gain comes with a price," Ebizo added. "Since the Kazekage chose this path, there's no point second-guessing it now."
Rasa understood. With Sunagakure's current situation, they couldn't have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to take a big bite out of Konoha without being the first to attack. That was never going to work. If they didn't find an outlet soon, the village would tear itself apart first.
Rasa had only come here to get the elders' approval. Now that he had it, the war could finally begin. Any longer and Sunagakure would collapse on its own.
Soon, all kinds of rumors began spreading rapidly through Sunagakure.
Some claimed Konoha had broken the alliance and refused to help Sunagakure against Iwagakure.
Others said the Third Kazekage had been assassinated by Konoha working together with Iwagakure.
There were even stories that Konoha had sent elite shinobi to attack Sunagakure forces while they were busy fighting Iwagakure.
In a short time, all sorts of rumors hostile to Konoha filled the village, creating a wave of anger directed at the Leaf.
That anger was simmering, waiting to explode. And it wouldn't be long now.
Back in Konoha, at Taiichi's house.
After nearly a month of hard work, Taiichi had finally made significant progress on improving Flying Thunder God.
His original plan had been too ambitious. Even with his current abilities, he couldn't complete a fully automatic version that combined perception, feedback, and reverse summoning in such a short time.
What he had developed so far was a semi-finished product missing the most important part—the automatic perception system. It wasn't that he couldn't do it. He was confident he could finish it with another month of work. But time had run out.
This morning, he had received direct orders from the Hokage. His squad was being deployed to the southern front again—not as a temporary mission this time, but as full members of the army. They were to report to the front lines immediately.
They were leaving tomorrow morning.
That meant Taiichi had to stop his research. Still, he was happy with what he had achieved. Even though it wasn't perfect, the core functions were complete. It had just changed from fully automatic to manual activation.
He looked at the new custom Flying Thunder God kunai in his hands. Without the perception module, it could only be activated manually by the holder. Once triggered, it would call Taiichi to their location using Flying Thunder God.
It wasn't exactly what he had planned, but it was more than good enough for now. He could finish perfecting it later. That was why he decided not to spend a skill point on it yet.
The past month hadn't been wasted on just this one project. Taiichi's overall strength had improved across the board.
Name: Matsushita Taiichi
Rank: Chunin Lv9 (967/1600)
Talents: Hard Work Compensates, Top Student, Potency
Age: 10
Constitution: 28
Strength: 25
Agility: 25
Spirit: 29 (+1)
Chakra: 59,000 (62,400)
Attribute Points: 25
Skill Points: 10
Fire Nature Transformation Lv12 (3423/4000)
Wind Nature Transformation Lv12 (312/4000)
Water Nature Transformation Lv12 (123/4000)
Earth Nature Transformation Lv8 (103/1400)
Lightning Nature Transformation Lv7 (1158/1200)
Yang Nature Transformation Lv11 (1001/3000)
Yin Nature Transformation Lv8 (731/1400)
Chakra Shape Transformation Lv11 (811/3000)
Chakra Control Lv12 (843/4000)
Ice Nature Transformation Lv8 (501/1400)
Skills: Advanced Taijutsu Lv6 (5412/7000), Advanced Meditation Lv6 (4404/7000), Advanced Kenjutsu Lv6 (4422/7000), Super Strength Lv9 (720/1400), Sealing Technique Lv11 (2511/3000), Flying Thunder God Lv6 (431/1000)
Evaluation: Go for it, kid. You're ready. The village is too peaceful— the battlefield is where you belong.
Ignoring the annoying evaluation, Taiichi could see clear progress everywhere. Most notably, both Wind and Water Nature Transformation had finally reached Lv12, just like Fire. This also gave Ice Release a big boost, adding a thousand points of experience.
It was a double celebration.
With this kind of power, Taiichi felt confident he could survive the Third Great Ninja War. Even if he ran into a dying Uchiha Madara, he might not win, but escaping with his life would be easy.
Holding the new kunai, Taiichi headed straight to the hospital to find Nonou.
When he found her, he noticed she had a new group of apprentices following her. The previous batch had already been sent to the southern front. The hospital had become like a factory—raw recruits were given basic medical training and then rushed to the battlefield. Some would survive and learn more on the job. Others would die, leaving only a name on the memorial stone.
Taiichi pulled Nonou into her office during a quiet moment and handed her the new kunai.
"Nonou-nee, this is a specially made Flying Thunder God kunai. If you ever run into danger you can't handle, just pour chakra into it. I'll come straight to you using Flying Thunder God."
Nonou looked at the kunai in surprise. She hadn't expected it to have this kind of function. But then she thought—if she really was in that much danger, what could Taiichi even do? She silently decided she would never use it.
Taiichi saw right through her. "You might not know this yet, but with my current strength, even if I can't win, running away is easy. So if you're in real trouble, call me. I mean it."
Looking into his serious eyes, Nonou understood he wasn't exaggerating. She felt both touched and deeply reassured. "Alright. I understand. If I really need help, I'll use it."
Only after getting her promise did Taiichi finally relax. With both the sealing tag and the Flying Thunder God kunai, unless an enemy could kill Nonou in one hit, he would have a real chance to save her.
All that sleepless research had been worth it. Protecting the people he cared about was the best reward for a month of hard work.
The war came faster than anyone expected.
That very afternoon, a declaration of war reached Konoha—and spread across the entire ninja world.
Sunagakure announced they were breaking the alliance because Konoha had failed to provide support during their war with Iwagakure. They declared war on the Leaf.
The excuse was laughably thin. Just days ago they had been fighting Iwagakure to the death. Now they were attacking Konoha? Anyone with half a brain could see that Sunagakure and Iwagakure had made a deal. They were teaming up against the Leaf.
At the same time, an urgent message from Jiraiya at the front lines arrived in Hiruzen's hands.
Sunagakure had assembled three thousand shinobi under the personal command of the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa. They had entered the Land of Rivers yesterday at noon. Jiraiya had already ordered a defensive withdrawal. Small skirmishes had already broken out.
Tension instantly filled Konoha. While there had been fighting on the borders for months, it had felt far away. Many villagers hadn't even realized how serious things were.
But Sunagakure's official declaration changed everything. The shadow of war descended over the entire village. Both shinobi and civilians understood—the war had truly begun.
The first to react were the shops. Prices of daily necessities shot up. Villagers rushed to stockpile food and supplies in panic.
Taiichi walked through the chaotic streets. He knew this frantic behavior was only temporary. Once people calmed down, most would go back to their normal lives. Still, it showed just how much fear the war had created.
Just then, an ANBU wearing an animal mask appeared in front of him.
"Special Jonin Matsushita Taiichi. Orders from the Hokage. Assemble your squad at the village gate immediately. The support unit will depart for the front lines in one hour."
Taiichi was caught off guard. The situation at the front must be extremely urgent if they weren't even giving them one night to prepare.
"Understood. I'll carry out the Hokage's orders."
The ANBU vanished in a swirl of leaves, no doubt going to notify the others.
Taiichi didn't waste time. He created two shadow clones—one to find Yohei, the other to find Saori—while his real body rushed home to grab his prepared supplies: medicine, kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, and a spare short sword.
This deployment wouldn't be over in a month or two. He needed to bring everything he could. Especially the special medicines he had made—they could save lives. There was no guarantee he'd be able to make more on the battlefield.
By the time he finished packing, it was almost time. Taiichi left immediately and headed for the village gate.
When he arrived, over a hundred shinobi had already gathered. They stood in small groups, quietly discussing Sunagakure's declaration of war.
Some were furious, cursing Sunagakure for their betrayal.
Others looked excited, eager for a chance to earn glory.
A few looked worried, wondering if they would survive the coming war.
Taiichi quickly spotted his team. They were standing with Kakashi's squad. Yohei and Obito were arguing heatedly. Obito's face was red, and he looked like he was getting worked up.
As Taiichi got closer, he realized what was happening.
Yohei was using this chance to "educate" Obito again. And the way he was doing it was pretty brutal.
"Obito, I've always heard you have great luck with girls. I just didn't expect them all to be old ladies!"
"Who—who said that?!" Obito shouted, waving his arms. "It's just that I happened to run into a few old ladies today! They were struggling, so of course I helped them!"
Kakashi rolled his eyes. Rin smiled helplessly. This kind of thing was completely normal for Obito.
Saori, standing nearby, looked completely lost. She had no idea what they were talking about.
"If I hadn't run into you, you'd probably still be helping old ladies cross the street right now. Who knows when you would've shown up for the assembly."
Yohei's tone had become noticeably colder, but Obito still didn't seem to understand the point.
"It's fine! I made it in time. Helping someone cross the street doesn't take long!"
Kakashi and Rin couldn't stay silent anymore. They could see that Yohei was trying to correct Obito's bad habit, so they joined in with serious expressions.
Being a shinobi with no sense of time could get people killed.
"Forget the fact that this is an emergency assembly for the front lines. If you're late, people might think you're deserting. But what if Rin was fighting for her life right now, waiting for backup, and you showed up too late because you were busy helping someone? What then?
I heard you're always late because you're helping people. Is that what you call 'making it in time'?"
Every word from Yohei felt like a needle stabbing into Obito's heart. He couldn't say anything back. The image of Rin dying because he was late made his chest tighten painfully.
"I—I—I wouldn't— I would never—"
Obito opened his mouth but couldn't form a single proper sentence.
Rin looked like she wanted to speak up, but Kakashi grabbed her arm. This was a rare chance. If they could finally fix Obito's chronic lateness, it would be good for everyone.
"You need to know your limits. If you like helping old ladies so much, why don't you learn Shadow Clone? And don't tell me you can't learn it—you just never bothered to try. Don't you think there's something wrong with your attitude?
We're at war now. If you keep acting like this, do you want to die on the battlefield first… or do you want to watch Rin or Kakashi die in front of you?"
"Stop—please—stop saying that!"
Obito covered his ears, looking completely defeated. All his earlier energy was gone.
Taiichi, who had been watching from a short distance, decided Yohei had made his point. He walked over and gently patted Yohei's shoulder, signaling him to stop. If he kept going, Obito might actually break down.
Yohei took a deep breath and calmed himself.
He had really been pushed too far by Obito today. On his way out earlier, he had run into him and watched him help three different old ladies find their way. If he hadn't personally dragged Obito here, who knew how many more strange old ladies he would've encountered.