The Sandthorn city, originally built to serve as a forward base, finally fulfilled its intended purpose today.
The Iwagakure side was led by Deidara, and of course, Kurotsuchi was with him.
None of Sunagakure's other higher-ups came. Clearly, they wanted to train Deidara.
Deidara was extremely smart. Commanding two thousand people was nothing difficult for him.
Kurotsuchi, who in the original timeline had become Tsuchikage, was naturally no incompetent either.
The two thousand men quickly entered Sandthorn City.
Although Konoha only had five hundred people, they included a large number of Uchiha and Hyuga clan members.
Just as Sunagakure had said, they were the advance reconnaissance force.
Five years ago, the purpose of the ninja war was to wipe out Sunagakure's fighting strength, so they only needed to pursue and kill Sunagakure's forces.
But this time was different. The goal of this war was to completely occupy the Land of Wind.
Reconnaissance therefore became the highest priority.
Konoha's leaders had originally been White Fang, Kakashi, and Nawaki, with two operating openly and one in secret.
Kakashi was mainly the one issuing orders, while White Fang had only come as a combat unit.
But after Tsunade woke up, she also came over to join in, so command passed to Tsunade.
Of course, they were not the only ones in the group. Ebizo and Chiyo had also come.
Although Chiyo could still fight, she had rarely done so over the past few years.
She and Ebizo had come here as advisers.
After all, the desert region and the Land of Fire were completely different worlds. Fully conquering this desert would require no small amount of effort.
[Inside Sandthorn City's Meeting Room]
Konoha's group, together with Deidara and Kurotsuchi from Iwagakure, were discussing battle plans.
"Judging from the terrain, once we head west, everything for about a day's travel is desert."
Chiyo pointed at a map hanging on the wall.
"Here... and here... are the two important routes connecting Sunagakure to the outside world. This time, Sunagakure will definitely have heavy forces guarding them."
"Apart from these two routes, Sunagakure is surrounded by desert, and it's the most dangerous part of the Land of Wind, the Demon Desert."
"If we don't enter through these two routes, then our only option is to enter Sunagakure through the Demon Desert."
"Sunagakure has a huge advantage in this environment, and the Demon Desert has detection barriers set up."
"If a large number of people cross through, they'll definitely be detected."
"We need to be careful not to get bogged down in the Demon Desert."
"The temperature difference between day and night here is extremely severe. The desert is full of quicksand pits, and the weather changes constantly, often causing sand tornadoes and sandstorms."
"There's no way to fight against those natural disasters. Even we can only find somewhere to hide."
"And there's no fixed time for when they appear."
"As long as we don't run into a sandstorm, we can cross it in a single day."
"Whether we fight our way through directly or green this area, these weather conditions are something we have to take into account."
From Konoha's perspective, Chiyo actually felt there was no need to bother with the outer desert or the Demon Desert. They could simply send elite troops through, capture Sunagakure, and be done with it.
After all, Minato's Flying Thunder God was still very fast at transporting troops.
Transforming this desert would take both time and effort, and there would be no results in the short term.
But Rengoku's intention was to use this to pressure Sunagakure and make them understand Konoha's determination to take the Land of Wind.
At the same time, he wanted to see whether Sunagakure would ask Kumogakure for help, and how Kumogakure would respond.
Still, as someone who had once belonged to Sunagakure of the Land of Wind, Chiyo did not want to see Sunagakure attacked directly.
After all, nearly ten thousand people had died in Sunagakure during the last ninja war. If Rengoku personally took action again this time, the death toll would be far more than ten or twenty thousand.
In Rengoku's view, with the Otsutsuki able to descend at any time, his priority should be improving his own strength.
As well as training enough powerful experts.
Attacking Sunagakure was only a means, not the goal.
Konoha's upper ranks basically all knew about the Otsutsuki and understood Rengoku's plans. No one objected.
After noticing this, Chiyo understood that Konoha intended to slowly swallow up the Land of Wind, and she also knew what they should do.
"We don't need to rush into those two routes. There's no need to wear ourselves down in a head-on fight."
"We can start from the Stone Vein and first take this area in front of the Demon Desert."
"We'll see how fast the desert can be greened. Sunagakure is just a weak opponent. What we really want to see is whether Kumogakure reacts."
Chiyo drew a circle on the map.
"Then it's settled. We'll spread our people out first and thoroughly explore the surrounding area."
Tsunade had originally come hoping to make a big showing, but now she had not even seen a single Sunagakure ninja, so she was naturally feeling drowsy.
Seeing that a workable plan had been proposed, she immediately approved it.
The others looked at one another, and no one had any objections.
Their agreement with Iwagakure from the beginning had been that they would not send people into costly frontal battles. Starting by greening this direction was naturally the best choice.
Deidara and Kurotsuchi had no objections either.
After reaching an agreement, the people from Iwagakure and Konoha split into groups together, collected supplies, and prepared the necessary equipment.
As the sun set and the temperature dropped, the group quickly headed toward the planned areas to scout them.
Along the way, they only encountered a few scattered Sunagakure scouts, and both sides merely spotted each other from a distance.
Konoha observed Sunagakure with the Byakugan, while Sunagakure used binoculars and other equipment to observe Konoha.
After all, the desert stretched endlessly without any cover, so binoculars served much the same purpose as the Byakugan.
Sunagakure was very cautious and only observed from a great distance.
If Konoha showed any intention of approaching, Sunagakure immediately withdrew at high speed.
By the end of the night, the entire area had been fully explored.
There were no dangers or special points that needed attention.
———
The Iwagakure shinobi formed teams of ten, stretching in a line from the edge of Sandthorn City all the way to the Stone Vein.
"Earth Release: Rock Solidification Technique!"
After forming hand seals, everyone pressed both hands onto the ground.
The sight of two thousand people using ninjutsu at once was truly spectacular.
Rumble! Rumble!
Deep, rolling booms like distant thunder echoed continuously from beneath the sand.
The sand kept gathering into stone slabs, hardening from the surface downward.
Only after all the sand down to a depth of five meters had been transformed into stone slabs did it stop.
Each successful team of ten Iwagakure shinobi raised the flags in their hands to signal that everything was normal.
Deidara flew overhead, quickly inspected the results, and then carried out the next step.
He fired a signal flare into the sky. As soon as his flare went up, another ten identical flares rose one after another from the formation.
The Iwagakure shinobi moved again, forming hand seals in unison and gathering chakra.
"Earth Release: Rock Perforation Technique!"
As they slapped both hands onto the ground once more, countless holes and cracks instantly appeared throughout the stone slabs below.
Near Sandthorn City, Tenzo was also performing a technique.
"Water Release: Water Channel Technique!"
This technique could connect to the water supply being diverted from the Land of Rain.
The underground rock channels gradually became soaked with water.
Of course, the winds and sand in the Land of Wind were extremely strong. If that were all they did, the stone slabs would soon be buried beneath drifting sand.
So now came the most crucial person.
Nawaki.
He made a hand signal, and the Uchiha had already begun scattering the prepared tree seeds across the designated area ahead.
Some kinds of trees were naturally better suited to the desert climate.
Clap!
Nawaki slammed his hands together.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
"Hah!"
As he poured out fierce chakra, the ground immediately began shaking without pause.
Countless trees burst through the earth, twisting as they grew into towering giants.
With this single technique, an area about the size of a football field was completely transformed into forest.
The trees twisted as their roots spread deep underground. Trees that should have been unable to survive in either the desert or atop the stone slabs... were able to live here because of the endless supply of water.