Most of the Land of Wind is desert, with only a few oases suitable for habitation. Residents who live here year-round cannot survive long outside the oases, and even highly trained Ninjas cannot do so in the desert. Therefore, the regular army of the Land of Wind and the Sunagakure Ninja Force are stationed near the oases.
At this moment, inside a tent at the Sunagakure camp, a tall man stood quietly before a table. His face bore a dragon-like porcelain mask, exuding a cold temperament. This was the second leader of Sunagakure—Shamon.
Shamon looked at the intelligence report sent recently, a hint of worry appearing on its face. It had not expected the always-aggressive Land of Lightning to be the first to withdraw from the war. Although the civil war made it impossible for them to continue fighting, the withdrawal of the Land of Lightning meant Konohagakure could now divert its forces to deal with the Land of Wind.
As the leader of Sunagakure, Shamon was dedicated to improving the strength of the Ninja Village and the country's territory. Using its own intelligence, it proposed many novel suggestions, leading to the development of the Puppet Technique and Sand Secret Techniques. Moreover, the Land of Wind was effectively the first country to possess a Tailed Beast. After the First Hokage distributed the Tailed Beasts, Shamon began working on the militarization of Ichibi, which had now yielded results.
During the era of the First Kazekage, Shamon was the second-in-command of the entire Village. Its policies were already being implemented, and after becoming the Second Kazekage, the entire Village executed them without reservation, allowing the strength of Sunagakure to expand rapidly in a short time.
While governing the Ninja Village, Shamon also observed the situation of the entire Ninja World. After receiving news of the Land of Lightning's movements, it judged that the Land of Lightning was likely to provoke a war. Thus, it planned to take advantage of the standoff between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire to allow the Land of Wind to seize some land from the Land of Fire.
Although the Land of Wind had gained some land at the Five Kage Summit as the price for giving up the second Tailed Beast, it was far from enough. For a country like the Land of Wind with barren land, the desire for fertile land was no less than a person's thirst for water after a long time without drinking.
The result was exactly as Shamon had anticipated. The Land of Lightning initiated the war first, and it adopted a surprise tactic that caught everyone off guard, achieving good results for a time and successfully containing the power of Konohagakure. Shamon did not act rashly. Only after the Land of Earth and the Land of Water joined the battlefield did it, under the order of the Daimyo of the Land of Wind, lead the Sunagakure Ninja Force to war, brazenly invading the Land of Fire.
The war went very smoothly. The army of the Land of Wind, tempered by the desert environment, was very powerful and captured many towns in the Land of Fire in one fell swoop. Just as Shamon was enthusiastically planning to expand the results of the battle, the Land of Lightning had to withdraw because its logistics were cut off, and Konohagakure could divert some of its forces to deal with the Land of Wind.
Although the forces sent by Konohagakure were limited, Shamon did not dare to underestimate them because the opponent was primarily composed of the Uchiha Clan. Any Ninja who was active during the Warring States Period would surely know the strength of the Uchiha Clan. Moreover, it was said that the commander of the force was the successor who had been by Uchiha Madara's side since childhood, so their strength must not be simple.
Facts proved that the strength of the Uchiha Clan was not to be doubted. Relying on the Sharingan and Fire Release, which restrained Wind Release Ninjutsu, they blocked the offensive of the Sunagakure Ninja Force. Although the regular army of the Land of Wind was fierce, the regular army of the Land of Fire was no pushover. The true advantage had been the individual combat capability of the Sunagakure Ninja, but after the Konoha Ninja joined, these advantages ceased to exist, and the war slowly entered a stalemate.
Shamon held a vigilant attitude towards the Uchiha Clan. Although the Sunagakure Ninja were all elites, their numbers were limited, and the Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan was very suitable for one-on-one duels. It was a consensus in the Ninja World that unless one was very familiar with the Sharingan, one should not engage in one-on-one duels with the Uchiha Clan. Unfortunately, the small number of Sunagakure Ninja were easily dragged into one-on-one duels.
Even with the Puppet Technique as assistance, this remained the case.
The genjutsu of the Sharingan could not be dispelled by a single person, and the mechanisms of the Puppet Technique were easily seen through by the Sharingan. They would not be easily tricked like other Konoha Ninja, and Fire Release would damage the bodies of the puppets. The active performance of the Uchiha Clan made the Sunagakure Ninja miserable.
Consequently, Shamon decided to deal a major blow to the Uchiha Clan. After careful planning, it ordered the Sunagakure Ninja to deliberately retreat, luring the Uchiha Clan Members to the desert area of the Land of Wind. By utilizing the geographical advantage of the Sand Secret Techniques, the Sand Secret Techniques that swept the entire environment would surely severely damage the Uchiha Clan.
However, whether by luck or something else, the commander Uchiha Kagami felt that there was something wrong with this victory. Although it could not completely stop the reckless advance of its clansmen, it greatly reduced the losses. After encountering the ambush, the arrogant Uchiha Clan Member also put away its contempt, and no longer dared to disobey Uchiha Kagami's orders.
Uchiha Kagami, who had completely controlled the entire force, adopted a comprehensive defensive stance. Now, the Sunagakure Ninja Force could no longer gain any advantage. Although they did not suffer a major defeat, they could not achieve any valuable victory either. The territory was still being slowly eroded, but obviously, it could not hurt the roots of the Land of Fire.
Shamon organized several surprise attack plans against the Konoha Ninja, but none achieved good results. The defense line of the Konoha Ninja looked precarious, but it always stubbornly persisted. Just as it planned to further concentrate its forces, news arrived that the Land of Lightning had withdrawn from the war and the Konoha Ninja Forces were moving westward in large numbers.
It's becoming more and more troublesome. Shamon sighed, feeling a bit of retreat. It no longer hoped to occupy a large area of the Land of Fire; as long as it could keep the existing land, it would be fine. However, with the personality of Senju Tobirama, it would certainly not be willing to watch the Land of Wind occupy those places and would make the Land of Wind spit it all out.
Regardless, the war had to be taken seriously. The final result would certainly be a peace negotiation, but it must not be a peace negotiation under the condition of failure. Don't look at how the Land of Lightning seemed to have no harsh treaties; that was only because the Land of Fire still had to deal with other countries and could not force the Land of Lightning into a desperate situation. Now that the Land of Water was contained by the Land of Earth, if the Land of Fire really defeated the Land of Wind, could it count on it to give the Land of Wind the same peace conditions as the Land of Lightning?
Dream on!
Shamon said these two words in its heart, its gaze appearing somewhat cold. Then, it shifted its gaze to another intelligence scroll. It was from Sunagakure, stating that a Ninja squad was operating in the rear, constantly attacking the supply locations and transfer stations of Sunagakure.
Shamon immediately guessed that it was the Konoha Ninja who had borrowed the path from other countries to sneak in, likely from the Land of Rain. Because of the so-called righteous war declaration, the Land of Fire was relatively close to those small countries, and it was natural for the Land of Rain to provide help. In the future, it must find an opportunity to settle the score!
However, the priority was to eliminate this sneaking Konoha Ninja squad. Judging from the intelligence scroll, these Konoha Ninja were obviously very powerful. Not only were their movements rapid, fast enough that the defending troops could not react, but by the time they did react, more than half of the supply locations and transfer stations had basically been destroyed. Blocking them was impossible; if there were few people, they were directly killed, and if there were many, they could only watch them fly away.
According to Shamon's judgment, there was at least one Jonin among these sneaking Konoha Ninja, perhaps even more, otherwise, this level of combat power could not be explained. As such, the people it sent out would need to have equivalent strength.
Shamon initially wanted to send out its student. His talent was outstanding. After Shamon developed the Sand Secret Techniques, he even went a step further and created the technique to manipulate iron sand—a Secret Technique called Magnet Release. Despite his young age, his strength was approaching that of Shamon, and Shamon even intended to treat him as the next Kazekage.
However, now that the army of Konohagakure was pressing on the border, such a person could not easily leave. Shamon thought for a while and decided to let those two siblings go. Originally, it would have been better to send their teacher Monzaemon, but the front line still needed Monzaemon's experience, so it had to settle for second best.
Call Chiyo and Ebizo here. Shamon said to the guard at the door.