Chapter 44: The Pain of Small Nations
When war reignited between Konoha and Kumogakure, those who suffered the most were not the citizens of the two great nations of Fire and Lightning—but the small countries caught between them.
Viewed on a map, the Land of Lightning resembles a high-heeled shoe.
If its long, narrow southwestern region is seen as the bottleneck, then the Land of Frost, the only country bordering it there, becomes the cork sealing the bottle—the sole land bridge connecting Kumogakure to the continent.
As for the Land of Hot Water, which lies adjacent to the Land of Fire, its geography is no less delicate. It is like a thick, sturdy shield, firmly protecting Fire Country's entire northeastern frontier, standing in Konoha's place to bear the brunt of Kumogakure's blade.
It could be said that the lands of Frost and Hot Water were, by their very existence, natural battlefields.
Just as Nagato would later say:
"Great nations never care about the pain of small ones."
Once war begins, the only things considered by the decision-makers of great powers are how to prevent the flames from reaching their own homeland—and how to minimize losses among their own people.
As for the suffering of small countries?
Who cares?
Senju Morin acted no differently.
From a purely rational standpoint, he would never choose to fight on the soil of the Land of Fire. Leading Konoha's main forces personally, he crossed the border without hesitation, turning the territory of the Land of Hot Water into Konoha's forward battlefield.
All the indirect costs of war—destruction, displacement, economic collapse—would be transferred wholesale onto the weaker nation.
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A few days later—
In the northeastern region of the Land of Hot Water, a massive temporary encampment rose seemingly overnight.
This had once been a country famed for its hot springs and natural beauty. Yet under the shadow of war, every corner now reeked of cold, lethal tension.
Dense forests were cleared away to create vast open grounds.
Beside a clear, flowing river, hundreds of tents were erected within a single day, while at the heart of the camp stood several wooden structures hastily built from local materials.
A frontline had been born—
and with it, the quiet suffering of a small nation no one had bothered to ask for permission.
The Land of Hot Water bordered the Land of Fire. Although it possessed its own hidden village—Yugakure—the village had always been small, with few shinobi and even fewer capable ones. In ordinary times, most of the nation's missions were outsourced to Konoha.
Now that war had erupted, this tiny ninja village—one that could not even secure enough work within its own country—had no choice but to curl up in a corner and play dead, watching helplessly as the Land of Hot Water was turned into a battlefield for great powers.
The daimyo of the Land of Hot Water did issue a diplomatic protest to the Land of Fire, condemning Konoha's barbaric conduct in strong terms.
He was met with open indifference.
Reality proved, once again, that discrimination against the weak existed not only between ninja villages. Among nobles and daimyō, it was just as blatant.
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With no need to fight on multiple fronts, Senju Morin found himself with an abundance of troops at his disposal.
In addition to the more than 1,000 shinobi he had brought directly from the village, there were also several hundred ninja from the former northeastern border defense forces. Altogether, his command numbered roughly 1,400 personnel.
And this was only the force allocated for a limited conflict.
If Kumogakure chose to escalate the war further, Morin could continue drawing reinforcements from Konoha without difficulty.
In a one-on-one confrontation, manpower was the one thing Konoha never lacked.
In conventional ninja warfare, jōnin were unquestionably the elite core. Yet the bulk of any army was still composed of chūnin and experienced genin.
Unless absolutely unavoidable, no village would be foolish enough to send freshly graduated students onto the battlefield.
A group of children who knew nothing beyond the Three Basic Techniques would accomplish nothing—except inflate the casualty statistics.
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"Hokage-sama, a large number of Kumogakure ninja have appeared within the Land of Frost. Several squads have crossed the border and are already engaging our forces…"
Inside the temporary command center—assembled entirely from reinforced tents—a jōnin reported the latest intelligence.
Besides Morin himself, several shinobi from the Nara and Senju clans were present, assisting in real-time analysis and processing the steady stream of incoming reports.
Just as Morin had anticipated, the Third Raikage had no intention of accepting his harsh demands. Once the envoy returned, Kumogakure immediately mobilized its forces and launched an undeclared war against Konoha.
And just like Konoha, Kumogakure was unwilling to let its own homeland become a battlefield. Its main forces withdrew from the Land of Lightning and advanced en masse into the neighboring Land of Frost instead.
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Unlike the straightforward clashes favored by samurai, ninja warfare was far more intricate—and far more ruthless.
At the outset of a war, it was never a matter of two massive armies colliding head-on and trading ninjutsu in an open field.
Instead, it began with covert engagements between small squads—probing, testing, and bleeding one another in the shadows.
Infiltration.
Assassination.
Reconnaissance.
Sabotage of roads.
Interdiction of supply lines.
Through specialized operations away from the main battlefield, ninja sought to weaken their opponents to the greatest extent possible—or even to secure victory outright without a decisive clash.
More than twenty years later, the battle at Kannabi Bridge between Konoha and Iwagakure would become the textbook example of this style of warfare.
Only when these small-scale engagements reached a stalemate would the conflict escalate further—toward a full-scale decisive battle.
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Compared to the Third Raikage—who urgently needed victory and prestige—Morin had already secured his position as Hokage. He could afford to fight a war of attrition, dragging the conflict out and exhausting Kumogakure over time.
There was no reason for him to rush into a decisive engagement.
On the contrary, the moment he arrived at the front, Morin issued orders to construct layered defenses.
Using the main Konoha encampment as a foundation, large-scale fortifications were erected through Earth Release, while extensive barriers and traps were deployed throughout the forests along the borders of the Lands of Hot Water and Frost.
At the same time, elite squads composed of jōnin and special jōnin were dispatched to infiltrate deep into the Land of Frost to gather intelligence on Kumogakure's movements.
Among these units was the "Special Tactical Unit" led by Danzō.
Morin had no intention of feeding Danzō false intelligence—but there was no doubt that this unit would be assigned the most dangerous and demanding missions of the entire war.
As for the remaining jōnin, they formed standard four- to eight-man combat teams with their chūnin subordinates, continuing to lay traps and hunt down Kumogakure operatives attempting to infiltrate the Land of Hot Water.
With the Hyūga clan's Byakugan, the Aburame clan's insects, the Inuzuka clan's ninja hounds, and a wide range of sensory techniques, Konoha possessed reconnaissance capabilities far superior to Kumogakure's comparatively one-dimensional combat doctrine.
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Kumogakure, constrained by geography, had no choice.
Unless it was willing to risk catastrophic logistical failure by attempting a forced maritime invasion, it had only one viable path—a frontal breakthrough through the Lands of Frost and Hot Water.
There was no third road.
As Morin issued orders within the temporary command center, he also prepared himself to take the field personally—to face the Third Raikage in battle.
He was genuinely curious.
Under these circumstances…
how exactly did Kumogakure intend to break the deadlock and continue this war against Konoha?