[Sunagakure Village]
The yellow sand remained, and the poverty remained.
It was already late, but Kazekage Pakura was still working.
"Lady Kazekage!"
An ANBU slammed the door open with a bang, panic filling his voice.
"Elder Fuka's entire unit has been captured by Konoha!"
"What?", Pakura immediately stood up, shock and confusion on her face.
"What happened?"
"Wasn't everything fine yesterday?"
Although the formation Elder Fuka was in charge of did not require high-level shinobi, and was made up mostly of genin and chunin, there were a lot of people under Elder Fuka. There had been a full two thousand of them.
Sunagakure could be defeated, but unless they were surrounded by a large force, it was impossible for not even a single person to escape.
The Sunagakure forces in the nearby cities had not received any bad news. As soon as the news arrived, it turned out that all of them had been captured.
"What happened? Give us the details," Maki, who was helping Pakura handle documents in the office, asked.
"It's true. Konoha specifically sent people to our Oasis City to notify us."
"The place where we previously set up the Wind Prison Sandstorm Formation has already been turned into a base by Konoha."
"Of our two thousand people, a thousand have already been killed. Their bodies are piled up outside that base, and they're currently burning the corpses."
"The other thousand have been imprisoned there."
"Konoha wants us to pay money to ransom them."
Pakura was somewhat stunned when she heard this, "Pay money to ransom them?"
Maki immediately reminded her, "Lady Kazekage, Konoha is planning to use this to drain Sunagakure."
In a war between two villages, it was not unusual for prisoners to be ransomed for money.
But that usually happened after the fighting was over.
Demanding a ransom at a time like this clearly meant they had ulterior motives.
They would definitely cripple the prisoners, cutting off their hands and feet. At the very least, they would cut off their fingers.
That way, the prisoners would be unable to return to the battlefield and would also become a burden on Sunagakure Village.
If you ransomed them, you would not only spend a huge amount of money, but also take back a bunch of burdens.
If you did not ransom them, you would not spend any money, but it would cause dissatisfaction among the other Sunagakure shinobi, and their morale would also plummet.
As for sending people to rescue them, that would be even better.
Konoha's combat strength was already higher than Sunagakure's, and they would also be well rested while waiting for Sunagakure to come to them. How could Sunagakure fight them?
"Damn it!", Pakura slammed her palm against the desk with a dull thud.
Her voice was filled with anger, but deep down, she was completely lost.
Pakura no longer knew how to fight this war.
She steadied herself and still wanted to make one final effort.
"First, gather intelligence and see how many Konoha shinobi have crossed the Demon Desert."
"Strengthen the cities surrounding Oasis City."
"Station the appropriate personnel in every city and guard against Konoha infiltration."
"Continue producing large-scale war machinery."
Pakura's side was like a blind man. They had no idea how many people Konoha had sent over or which experts had come.
At this point, she had done everything she could.
Maki sighed inside. He knew that if the other villages did not intervene, it was only a matter of time before Sunagakure was completely occupied.
Still, he saluted and quickly went down to make the arrangements. Sitting around and waiting to die was not their style.
———
[Front line of the Land of Wind]
Rows of wooden houses had already risen from the ground.
The Iwagakure shinobi and the others outside also took advantage of the time before Sunagakure could react to cross the Demon Desert.
They arrived at the front line and quickly built a temporary prison, locking up the Sunagakure shinobi who were still alive.
Meanwhile, the bodies of the Sunagakure shinobi were all thrown into a sand pit that Konoha had found.
Then they lit a fire and began burning the corpses.
The extreme weather in this desert meant that the bodies would start to stink after just a few hours.
If they were not burned, an epidemic could easily break out.
At that point, the ones in trouble would not be the Sunagakure shinobi, but the Konoha people.
Burning them was the best and most convenient choice.
With Nawaki there, they did not have to worry about finding fuel.
The wood he rapidly grew could be cut off at the roots and then regrown. It would quickly turn yellow, dry, and brittle.
It was extremely suitable as additional fuel.
A huge sand pit was already burning with roaring flames, and the Konoha shinobi only needed to throw the bodies down from the edge of the pit.
The bodies would naturally slide down along the edge of the sand pit.
It could be said to be very convenient.
Although they were corpses, they could not be completely burned in a short time.
The news that Konoha was demanding ransom money from Sunagakure had been deliberately leaked by them.
Spies from other villages and spies from the black market secretly came to the area to investigate.
Konoha's purpose was to put pressure on Sunagakure, so they did not bother with them. They simply threw the bodies into the sand pit and then returned directly to the base.
A white head rose from inside the burning sand pit.
It grabbed a severed hand and quickly sank back down.
———
[Mountains' Graveyard]
Since such a major incident had occurred, White Zetsu, who had been keeping an eye on the war between Konoha and Sunagakure, had already reported the information to Black Zetsu.
Faced with this situation, Black Zetsu wanted to slow down Konoha's expansion, but he was somewhat powerless to do so.
His combat strength was decent, but there was only so much he could accomplish alone.
During the previous Chunin Exams, Black Zetsu had nearly been killed by Itachi (Rengoku).
He did not even know how many people Konoha had sent over.
Konoha had all kinds of powerful detection methods, and the White Zetsu he sent out did not dare get too close. After all, White Zetsu was pretty stupid.
"Hello..."
At this moment, another White Zetsu emerged from the ground.
Hearing this slick, teasing voice, Black Zetsu knew that Tobi had returned.
"Why are you back?"
Black Zetsu knew that although this guy was unreliable, he must have come to find him for some reason.
Tobi was much smarter than the other White Zetsu.
"Look what I brought you," Tobi put his hand behind his back and, like a magician, pulled out a section of a dead person's palm covered in fresh blood.
Black Zetsu asked in confusion, "What does this mean?"
After shaking the palm twice, Tobi said, "You don't even know how many people Konoha sent this time or what they went there to do. How can that be okay?"
"I picked this up from the corpse-burning pit in Sunagakure. Use Impure World Reincarnation on it and see if there's any information."
Black Zetsu was extremely surprised, "You actually did something useful."
He was genuinely surprised. Tobi had always wandered around aimlessly, and he had never expected him to actually come through for once today.
Tobi said somewhat gloomily, "The shinobi world is too peaceful now. Even though Konoha and Sunagakure are at war, Sunagakure is completely on the defensive. It's not fun at all."
Black Zetsu understood what White Zetsu meant, but he did not answer Tobi.
He also wanted to slow down Konoha's expansion now.
"I'll use Impure World Reincarnation first and see if there's any information."
"You continue going to the front line in the Land of Wind and see if you can find anything useful."
"There are many Hyuga clan members and sensor-type shinobi on Konoha's side. Be careful."
With that, Black Zetsu took the palm Tobi had brought back. His body sank into the ground, and he used the Mayfly Technique to leave.
Tobi thought about it. He did not seem to have anything else to do right now, so he obediently used the Mayfly Technique as well and headed toward the Land of Wind.