As the saying goes, "In a position of power, one must attend to its duties." Officially speaking, although Orochimaru had lost interest in the current war, since he was appointed as the frontline commander, he still had to do what was required… To completely quell the war between Konoha and Sunagakure was one of his most important responsibilities.
Privately speaking, firstly, only after the war ended could Orochimaru truly leave the front lines and dedicate his limited life to the unlimited research of ninjutsu. He no longer wanted to waste his time on meaningless things. Secondly, Orochimaru also wanted to engage in some "under-the-table" activities in Sunagakure. More specifically, he wanted to "smuggle" some private goods.
Based on the principle of speed and efficiency, Orochimaru planned to take advantage of Sunagakure's current state of chaos and launch a swift, deep strike, directly stunning Sunagakure. Such an action was naturally best done as quickly as possible. Therefore, even including some support personnel, the total number of Konoha troops participating in this operation did not exceed fifty. Thus, preparations were very fast… The combat readiness level of Konoha's frontline camp was already quite good.
During his tactical arrangements, Orochimaru didn't let Habara and his two companions leave. After most of the combat matters had been decided, Orochimaru said to Habara and his team, "Of course, you will also be accompanying this operation. In case we arrive at Sunagakure and find that the Fourth Kazekage isn't dead, I'll have to hand you over to Sunagakure as criminals who failed to assassinate the Kazekage, hehe."
Habara: "…"
What the hell is there to "hehe" about? However, at this point, Habara and his team could only nod in agreement.
Honestly, Habara hadn't expected Orochimaru's reaction to be so quick and his actions so decisive and resolute. However, considering that following Orochimaru on this operation wouldn't be more dangerous than their previous trip to Sunagakure for peace negotiations, he didn't strongly resist this order.
But Habara also knew that since Orochimaru was willing to make arrangements for an attack, it meant that this person believed their intelligence. And since it was the intelligence they brought back, their participation in the tactical action based on this intelligence was only natural.
Okay, Habara was actually overthinking things. He only considered things from the perspective of rationality and ignored Orochimaru's personality and way of thinking… The reason for letting Habara and Tenzo participate in the following battle was simply that Orochimaru wanted to observe the growth of his "test subjects" up close.
Orochimaru had absolutely no prior expectation that Habara and his team would have the ability to assassinate the Kazekage. However, they actually accomplished this feat, which meant that their growth far exceeded expectations. Undoubtedly, Habara and Tenzo were "anomalous data." Based on a scientifically rigorous attitude, Orochimaru naturally had to pay attention… Naturally, Orochimaru would participate and personally command the following attack.
Uh, that was a bit redundant. If Orochimaru didn't participate in the operation, what would a small force of forty to fifty Konoha ninjas be doing infiltrating the Land of Wind? Delivering food?
When all the ninjas participating in the operation had assembled, Orochimaru began his operation. He directly summoned a giant snake as a "mount." Then, this "snake bus" carried the Konoha ninjas and began to move rapidly.
However, the "snake bus" didn't go directly west. Instead, it first headed due south. The Konoha troops very secretly went out to sea in the Land of Rivers, then bypassed Sunagakure's defense line, directly landing in the Land of Wind via the sea… This small tactical maneuver basically ensured the secrecy of the operation, ensuring that Sunagakure wouldn't receive prior notice.
The giant python summoned by Orochimaru was clearly specially selected. It goes without saying that snakes can swim; that's normal. But this giant python was super fast, whether running on land or traveling in the sea.
By the time the sky began to brighten, the Konoha surprise attack team had already reached the estuary. And by the time the sky was fully bright, they had already arrived in the Land of Wind.
Well, Orochimaru was, after all, someone who liked to do bad things, so he was very good at covert operations.
......
That evening, in the Land of Wind, Sunagakure.
A day and a night, plus another day, had passed since the Konoha envoys launched their surprise attack at the negotiation meeting, but the shock and chaos caused by the unexpected death of the Fourth Kazekage had not yet subsided… Who could believe such a thing? The Konoha envoys were only three people, the oldest of whom was only sixteen years old, and then, facing an attack from kindergarteners, Sunagakure's leader just… kicked the bucket?
Just hearing it made it particularly unbelievable.
So, some rumors that sounded somewhat plausible, but were actually even more unreliable, began to spread in Sunagakure. For example, the advisor siblings had always been dissatisfied with the current Kazekage, so they took this opportunity to eliminate him and pinned the blame on the Konoha envoys. And it was during this attack that the brother advisor and the Kazekage perished together. Now the surviving sister advisor wanted to welcome back her grandson, who was somewhere unknown, and make him the new Kazekage.
Some people also said that the previously mysteriously missing hero, Pakura, had actually been lurking in the village all along. She was also dissatisfied with the Fourth Kazekage's policies, so she seized the opportunity to launch a coup.
In short, the more urgent the moment, the more various reliable or unreliable rumors flew around. Fortunately, Chiyo had survived. She was a powerful ninja who had built up a formidable reputation during the previous ninja wars. Therefore, although she wasn't the Kazekage, her prestige in Sunagakure was undeniable.
Under her efforts, Sunagakure was barely maintaining a semblance of stability on the surface. But that was all. Sunagakure at this time was like a pile of loose sand. It was barely held together by Chiyo, but even if Chiyo had a slight tremor, it would all fall apart.
Sunagakure's core ninjas were now cleaning up the Kazekage's office building. All sorts of confidential information, secrets of the ninja world collected over a long period, secret and forbidden techniques created by past sages, and so on, many of these "national treasures" were stored here, so now they had to dig them out again.
So a large number of Sunagakure ninjas were carefully surrounding this "broccoli" like archaeologists, carrying out excavation work. And there were ninjas here who were even more miserable than these "archaeologists," namely, several "funeral workers."
Inside the Kazekage's office building, in the center of a certain conference room, several Sunagakure ninjas were scratching their heads around a golden flower sculpture… Because they didn't know how to retrieve the Fourth Kazekage's body.
"How can we do it without damaging the Kazekage's body… Regardless, we need to let other ninjas see the Kazekage's body. Only after that will many rumors be dispelled without us having to refute them."
"It's difficult. There are essentially three methods: cold cutting, hot melting, or acid dissolution. However, because the Kazekage's body is tightly wrapped by this gold, any of these methods will damage the original appearance of the body…"
"The dignified Kazekage can't just be left inside a sculpture, can he?"
"Perhaps being a bit violent is okay. We all know the situation when the Kazekage was attacked, so his body was already…"
Under the gazes of his companions, this ninja's voice became lower and lower. But even after he completely stopped speaking, those gazes didn't shift… Everyone knew that Rasa at this moment looked even worse than Rosaria, but did he have to say it out loud? (Rosaria, an anime character known for ugliness)
Time passed, and it was getting late. Lights began to come on in Sunagakure. On the "construction site" outside the Kazekage's office building, the Sunagakure ninjas, who had been working continuously for more than ten hours, could finally rest for a while during dinner time.
A Sunagakure ninja with a relatively high status and responsible for directing the excavation work took the opportunity to say, "Everyone, although Sunagakure has suffered a sudden change, and Lord Kazekage has unexpectedly died, Sunagakure's strength has not been greatly damaged. Next, we must make Konoha pay the corresponding price… Using peace as a pretext to carry out an assassination, we absolutely cannot tolerate such behavior!"
It was just the death of a Kazekage. Honestly, the Fourth Kazekage wasn't a beloved Fourth Hokage. His prestige, achievements, and qualifications were all unremarkable. Even in Sunagakure, not everyone was particularly convinced by him.
Sunagakure's hope was still there, and its strength was also still there. Therefore, they could be a bit more ambitious and show the spirit of a great nation and a great ninja village.
It was a reasonable argument, however, just as the other ninjas were about to chime in…
Boom! Boom! Boom!
With a series of loud bangs, at least seven or eight abnormally large summoned snakes suddenly appeared in the sky above Sunagakure, and then fell down one by one.
After a full day of long-distance travel, Konoha's surprise attack had finally begun.
A giant python raised its neck high, then slammed it down heavily again. Then it coiled its body and swung its tail, directly leveling a large area of buildings around it. As for the civilians mixed in… Honestly, a person with modern thinking like Habara would distinguish between military units and civilian units in war, but Orochimaru would absolutely not care about such things.
It wasn't that he took pleasure in slaughtering civilians, nor would he deliberately avoid attacking civilians. He simply didn't care. It was an indifference that simply didn't register.
The Konoha ninjas who came to participate in the surprise attack could only be considered "supplementary forces." The main combat power of this operation was Orochimaru alone. For someone like him who was good at summoning, appearing here was equivalent to bringing an army with him.
Ordinary ninjas had no way to deal with large summoned beasts. In fact, even someone as strong as Chiyo wasn't good at dealing with large targets. Sunagakure wasn't without the ability to deal with large summoned beasts. However, at this time, Shukaku was dead, and Sunagakure's "ultimate weapon" was completely unusable.
So, after Orochimaru's summoned snakes invaded Sunagakure, a village of the same status as Konoha, for a time, they were actually unopposed.
Sunagakure was instantly plunged into war.
Of course, as long as the Sunagakure ninjas organized themselves in large numbers, they could certainly kill Orochimaru's summoned snakes with sheer numbers, because although these summoned snakes were huge, they were "ordinary snakes" from Ryuchi Cave.
Orochimaru strolled leisurely through Sunagakure. He casually tossed aside a Sunagakure ninja who had already been strangled to death, and then began to form hand seals again:
"Now it's time to summon the more interesting guys…
Manda, it's time for a walk."