For his sake, the Hokage himself was willing to leave the village, personally head to the front lines, and lead an army of ten thousand in a fierce invasion of the Land of Lightning!
Tonight, the flames of war would no longer remain limited to the borders of the Land of Fire.
Tonight, Konoha's blade would point directly at the Village Hidden in the Cloud's heart.
Naturally, Village Hidden in the Cloud could not fail to notice Konoha's unusual movements, especially since they had to cross so many small nations like the lands of Hot Water, Moon, and Frost.
Village Hidden in the Cloud maintained intelligence networks throughout these countries. The mobilization of an army exceeding ten thousand people was simply impossible to conceal.
Several hours later, at dawn…
"What? The Konoha army has mobilized? It may even be that old monkey personally leading them?" The third Raikage, who had only just resumed command of the village, slammed the table and stood up.
The aftermath of the Eight-Tails' rampage needed cleaning up. The villagers, thrown into panic by the consecutive attacks, needed calming, and that Shinichi Higashino, whose hiding place remained unknown, might appear again at any moment to stab them once more.
Every one of these matters required someone capable of stabilizing morale to remain in the village.
His son A, meanwhile, was leading an elite force of three thousand men together with the two thousand under Toroi, who had returned to the Land of Lightning, continuing the hunt for Shinichi Higashino and his subordinates.
And just moments ago, urgent news arrived from the front lines.
Konoha's northeastern main force had fully mobilized and was crossing the border, charging fiercely toward the Land of Lightning.
"Has Hiruzen Sarutobi gone mad?"
The third Raikage instinctively wanted to curse, but the words stopped midway. He thought of Shinichi Higashino.
This person, who had caused the deaths of his two B, brought enormous losses and humiliation to the village.
Though he wished nothing more than to tear that kid into pieces, precisely because of that, he was forced to acknowledge one thing.
Shinichi Higashino's talent was simply too terrifyingly high.
For Konoha, he was simply too important.
If this Shinichi Higashino were someone from the Village Hidden in the Cloud… the third Raikage could almost instantly imagine how much he would cherish and protect him. Forget leading ten thousand people to rescue him, even if he were alone, he would dare charge into enemy lines himself, even willing to personally cover the retreat and battle ten thousand enemies for his sake.
Such a genius is the pillar of the village for decades to come; he is a priceless treasure.
He's only eleven years old, and he's already accomplished this.
What about ten years from now? Or twenty years from now?
That's why his killing intent surged even more. The more that old monkey, Hiruzen Sarutobi, tried to save him at all costs, the more it proved that this kid absolutely could not be allowed to live!
"Send the order to Dodai." The third Raikage shouted.
"Have him establish defensive positions within the Land of Frost immediately, and I will immediately use the Heavenly Transfer Technique to reach the front lines."
He paused briefly, then continued, "At the same time, order A to return to the village immediately. The village needs him to defend it. The task of hunting down Shinichi Higashino is entirely transferred to Toroi!"
Several staff members turned and left the room. The third Raikage stood there, his gaze passing through the gradually brightening sky outside the window. A new day had begun.
Half an hour later, in the center of Village Hidden in the Cloud, near the temporary Raikage's office, a burst of white light shot out as the third Raikage used the Heavenly Transfer Technique to head to the front lines, preparing to personally confront the overwhelming Konoha army.
Just over an hour after the third Raikage left, Shinichi Higashino and his team, who had been hiding somewhere… suddenly reappeared from nowhere and launched another attack on the Village Hidden in the Cloud.
However, this time, the commotion was much smaller.
This cunning young boy seemed to know that although the Village Hidden in the Cloud did not have a top expert in charge at this time, its strength was obviously not as weak as it was last time.
Therefore, they did not attack the core area, but only destroyed a few newly built temporary outposts and some houses on the periphery.
After causing a certain amount of chaos, Shinichi Higashino once again turned into an elusive gust of wind with his team before the Kumogakure ninja could complete their encirclement, disappearing into the mountain forests.
The attack was short, the destruction limited, but the humiliation was immense, delivering another resounding slap directly across the Village Hidden in the Cloud's face.
Naturally, this made A, who later returned to the village, furious beyond measure, yet there was nothing he could do about it.
The news also quickly reached the third Raikage, who had already arrived at the front lines and was discussing defensive deployments with Dodai. He reacted the same way and could only order Toroi to intensify the search efforts, sparing no cost to find them.
Immediately afterward, he devoted all of his attention to the approaching Konoha army.
That afternoon, fierce clashes erupted between the vanguard forces of both sides in the border region of the Land of Frost.
Konoha's side came in aggressively, but the Village Hidden in the Cloud was not an easy opponent either. Although most of the village's logistics and medical systems had been destroyed, the logistics and medical support of this frontline legion had no major problems, at least for the moment.
As a result, the battle rapidly escalated from probing skirmishes into an intense tug-of-war.
For three straight days, the flames of war did not cease. Both sides repeatedly fought and slaughtered one another across the hills, valleys, and riversides of the Land of Frost, while casualty numbers continued to climb.
The supreme commanders of both armies, Hiruzen Sarutobi, hailed as the strongest Hokage in history, and the third Raikage, known as the strongest spear and the strongest shield, personally clashed on the battlefield several times.
The collision between these two top-tier powerhouses of the Shinobi World shook the earth and split the mountains, becoming the greatest focal point across the entire frontline. Yet, even they could not easily break the deadlock.
At the same time that the main forces of Konoha and the Village Hidden in the Cloud were locked in fierce battle within the Land of Frost, another far more bizarre and unpredictable pursuit and counter-pursuit battle was unfolding deep within the vast interior of the Land of Lightning.
Under Toroi's unified command, the previous two-thousand-man search force and the three-thousand elite troops left behind by Yotsuki A were integrated into a combined force of five thousand Kumogakure ninja. Like an enormous net spread open, they followed every suspicious trace and launched a tightly coordinated pursuit against Shinichi Higashino and his forces.
However, although five thousand men sounded like a large number, once scattered into the mountains and ridges of the Land of Lightning, they became thin as paper.
Shinichi's unit was like the wind in the mountains. Traces could be seen, yet the figures themselves could never be grasped. They always managed to find a gap and slip out before the encirclement fully closed, or when Village Hidden in the Cloud's forces were forced to divide their troops during pursuit, they would gather superior numbers and launch swift, thunderous short assaults against isolated units.
Not only did the five-thousand-man army fail to capture Shinichi Higashino and his men, but they also suffered over one hundred casualties in just three days.