Chapter 102: The Haze of War
On the road back to Konoha, the devastation left in the wake of passing battles cast a long shadow over Team 7's spirits.
The familiar birdsong was gone.
The fish and shrimp in the rivers had vanished.
Even the ever-present, grating buzz of summer cicadas had fallen silent.
The landscape told the story. Scorched earth. Fallen trees, blackened and shattered, littered the barren ground. A waterfall to their side had been diverted, its course brutally altered by a massive boulder hurled into the stream.
"This is war," Minato said, his voice calm but heavy as he watched his three students take in the scene. From his pouch, he drew a kunai wrapped with an explosive tag. With a practiced flick, he sent it arcing toward the obstructive boulder.
BOOM.
The rock shattered. The water, freed, roared back into its original channel, carving through the charred soil.
"Like that," Minato continued, "all we can do is protect what we have, and try to mend what has been broken."
"But why do they start wars?" Rin asked, her voice thick with pain. The beautiful world of her childhood was being erased. This pervasive silence of death was not what she wanted. Ninjutsu shouldn't be just for killing; it had so many other, wonderful uses.
"You're mistaken, Rin." Minato knelt beside her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "War has no clear 'right' or 'wrong.' No one caught in its machinery is truly innocent. The rights, wrongs, the conspiracies and machinations behind it… even I, even the leaders of our village, cannot see them all clearly."
Riiip.
Obito: "?!"
Liumu had casually torn a strip from Obito's sleeve and handed it to Rin. "Don't cry. Your eyes are getting red."
Just then, a sharp, foreboding caw cut through the heavy air. A Konoha messenger crow circled above them.
Minato swiftly unsealed a blank scroll. The crow dove, its form dissolving into droplets of ink that resolved into lines of tight script on the parchment.
"The Hokage's orders," Minato said after a moment, his expression turning grim. He incinerated the scroll with a tiny flame. "We are not to return to the village. We are to proceed directly to the Land of Rain to reinforce the front."
"To the Land of Rain?" Liumu's brow furrowed. That was the heart of the storm.
"Correct. Sunagakure from the Land of Wind has officially entered the conflict. Konoha's frontlines are under immense pressure. They need support now."
On the Road to the Land of Rain
Minato had initially suggested Team 7 return to the village first, but Liumu persuaded him to let them stay. Kakashi, Obito, and Rin were chūnin now. Sheltering them forever wasn't protection; it was stagnation. A shinobi had to face the crucible of life and death eventually. A flower raised only in a greenhouse would wilt at the first real wind.
Though, if Liumu was being honest with himself, his decision wasn't entirely selfless.
Obito had awakened his Sharingan. The evolution of the dōjutsu required intense emotional stimulus. The brutal reality of the Rain front might just provide the catalyst for his next step.
"I heard the 'brother' you speak of, Yahiko, is in the Land of Rain," Minato commented as they traveled.
Liumu's expression tightened almost imperceptibly before he gave a slow nod.
The Land of Rain, trapped between three great nations, was more than just a battlefield; it was the primary battleground of this war. Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan's dream of a peaceful nation was being drowned in the bloodshed of the Third Great War. But Liumu knew one thing for certain: in this timeline, Yahiko would not die here. The Rain Country itself, however, would not be spared the suffering before his new Akatsuki could grow strong enough to change its fate.
"Many great powers fight, and the small nations suffer. And behind it all, it's the common families who truly bleed," Liumu mused aloud, his words seemingly casual but carrying a weight that settled over Minato and the genin. They glanced at him, his placid face offering no further explanation, but the truth of his statement resonated deeply.
Time passed.
When Team 7 finally crossed into the Land of Rain, Liumu noted the eerie change. The nation famed for its perpetual, mournful rain was under a stark, unforgiving sun. The intense heat amplified the stench of decay and rot that hung heavy in the air.
"Konoha's main defensive position should be here," Minato said, unrolling the map and pointing to a marked geographical stronghold. "If we push, we can reach it in about three days."
"Shouldn't we head straight to the front lines?" Obito asked, eager.
Before Minato could give a diplomatic answer, Liumu shot Obito a sharp look. "Are you in a hurry to become cannon fodder?"
Minato offered a more tactical explanation. "The situation in Rain is a complex stalemate, a balance of power enforced by the great nations. Konoha's involvement is primarily defensive—holding our designated sector against incursion. The large-scale battles between other forces… we do not directly intervene."
In wars between major powers, casualties were astronomical. Konoha was not the aggressor in this conflict, so its engagements were limited to securing its borders and skirmishing. The other villages that had historical grievances with Konoha were now themselves embroiled in the wider war, unable to spare the forces for a full-scale assault without risking their own positions.
Team 7 reached Konoha's fortified position without incident.
The commanders here were Nara Shikaku and Akimichi Chōza, renowned as Konoha's premier strategic mind and his steadfast pillar of support. Seeing the legendary figures in person, even Obito and Rin felt a flicker of awe.
"The situation is volatile," Shikaku explained to Minato in the command tent, his fingers steepled. "Based on intelligence, both the Third Mizukage of Kiri and the Third Raikage of Kumo have fallen."
"However," he continued, pointing at a map cluttered with markers, "Kirigakure's forces have mysteriously withdrawn from several fronts. As a result, the focused aggression of both Kumo and Iwa seems to be shifting… toward us."
"What does that have to do with us? We didn't kill the Third Raikage," Liumu muttered under his breath.
Logically, the Third Raikage had fallen to Iwagakure's forces. Kumo's wrath should be directed at Iwa. Picking a fight with Konoha now seemed like looking for a scapegoat.
But Liumu knew the deeper truth. The roots of this Third War were tangled with the machinations of a specific, shadowy individual. Kumo's anger was real, but Konoha, as the victor and focal point of the previous war, was a convenient target for the pent-up frustrations and ambitions of multiple villages. Suna, Kumo, and even minor nations… if they all turned their gaze to Konoha at once, the village would face a catastrophe.
"By the way," Shikaku added, his tone shifting, "we received a rather… peculiar communique this morning." He produced a small, unmarked scroll, its seal already broken. "It wasn't sent through normal channels. It mentions a location deep within Rain Country, and a request for a meeting. It's addressed… rather vaguely. But the phrasing reminded me of certain intelligence Jiraiya-sama has sent in the past."
He slid the scroll toward Minato. "It concerns a group calling themselves 'Akatsuki.'"
(End of Chapter)
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