After the mission report was finished, Tobirama let the two go back and have a good rest. Fūmori Masaki and Danzo Shimura parted ways outside the tent and walked alone towards the tent arranged for them.
Lifting the curtain, Fūmori Masaki saw that Satomi had already laid down to sleep, without even taking off her gear. He knew that the running around these days had exhausted her; he estimated that only he, relying on the beneficial effects brought by Senjutsu, was not as tired as the others.
Fūmori Masaki tried his best not to make a sound, sat down in a spot in the tent, and watched Satomi's sleeping face. Only at this time could he be so calm. In the Land of Wind, even while sleeping, he had to maintain mental vigilance; any slight disturbance would wake him up, and the pressure was immense.
He did not know when the war in the Land of Wind would end. They had already destroyed the Land of Wind's logistical reserves as much as possible. Given the barrenness of the Land of Wind, it was impossible for them to engage in a protracted war with the Land of Fire. He figured their subsequent offensives would be very fierce; regardless of whether they adopted a defensive or offensive stance, it would not be easy.
"Rest well, Satomi." Fūmori Masaki said in an inaudible voice.
Originally, Fūmori Masaki was also prepared to rest for a while, but he was still concerned about the war situation, and his physical state was not bad, so he went out and had someone bring over some intelligence scrolls about the war, intending to understand the current situation.
In the early stages of the war, the Land of Wind might have learned that the troops led by Tobirama were about to arrive, so they immediately mobilized their troops and launched a fierce attack on the Land of Fire's defense line. Uchiha Kagami had exhausted all his efforts and barely managed to stabilize the defense line, mainly because Tobirama was worried about the situation, led a unit to advance rapidly, and made timely remedies before gaps appeared in the defense line.
Since Tobirama, who was both his teacher and the Hokage, had arrived at the front line, Uchiha Kagami stepped down from his position as commander and transferred it to Tobirama. Compared to Uchiha Kagami, who was powerful but inexperienced, Tobirama was a veteran battlefield commander. With a few simple commands, he achieved goals that would have required Uchiha Kagami many attempts to complete.
Under the Hokage's personal command, the Konoha Ninja were also greatly boosted in morale. Before the main force arrived, they completely blocked the enemy's attack, and after the main force arrived, the advantage of the Sunagakure Ninja Village no longer existed, and they even showed a slight disadvantage.
Subsequently, both sides engaged in a mutual probing that was neither short nor long, until the logistics faced problems due to the appearance of Fūmori Masaki and the others. Only then did the Second Kazekage appear somewhat impatient. On one hand, he sent out troops to encircle and suppress the raiders, which dispersed part of his combat power, and on the other hand, there were some mistakes in command. Tobirama, of course, would not let this opportunity slip and made the Sunagakure Ninja Village suffer quite a bit.
Overall, the war situation for the Land of Fire was relatively good. As long as there were no major losses in any place and it continued stably, the Land of Wind would inevitably be defeated. This was determined by national strength and had nothing to do with anything else; the Land of Wind could not withstand a long-term war.
Fūmori Masaki was not just looking at these.
He also learned about some details of the war, mainly the Ninjas he needed to pay attention to. The Sunagakure Ninja he knew were only Chiyo, Ebizo, and the Third Kazekage; others presumably had not appeared yet. Although these three people were representative, it did not mean that the Sunagakure Ninja Village only had these three powerhouses. Perhaps there were some excellent Ninjas who did not live to later generations but were equally outstanding.
Just as Fūmori Masaki thought, there were still quite a few excellent Ninjas in the Sunagakure Ninja Village. Although they did not live to the future, at least for now, they possessed a certain degree of threat. However, what made Fūmori Masaki somewhat concerned was that no character suspected to be the Third Kazekage appeared in the intelligence.
The Third Kazekage was known as the strongest Kazekage of the Sunagakure Ninja Village. Although he was silently assassinated by Sasori of the Red Sand, which indirectly led to the outbreak of the Third Ninja World War, regardless of anything else, his strength must have been formidable, and he could also use the Magnet Release that controlled iron sand.
In Fūmori Masaki's view, this Magnet Release was a type of Bloodline Limit that could cause massive destruction to city walls. He did not think the Third Kazekage had not been born; it was highly likely that the Third Kazekage was hidden as a secret weapon, or that although he participated in the war, he did not use the Magnet Release Bloodline Limit.
If that was really the case, then at this time, the Third Kazekage might not be as powerful as he imagined, Fūmori Masaki thought to himself. If he already had city-level destruction capabilities, there was no reason not to use them before. But one could not be careless because of this; just because he wasn't that strong before didn't mean he wasn't that strong now.
There was another possibility: the Third Kazekage already had city-level capabilities, but the Second Kazekage intended to pull off something big, such as a plan to raid and take out Tobirama.
Fūmori Masaki felt that he still needed to pay attention to characters suspected to be the Third Kazekage on the battlefield. Either he hadn't appeared, or if he did, he must be among these outstanding Sunagakure Ninja—the Third Kazekage surely couldn't only be good at Magnet Release while being incompetent in other aspects.
While watching, night arrived without him realizing it. Satomi on the side made a light sound, then opened her eyes, sat up, and yawned. Seeing this, Fūmori Masaki said: "Awake?"
"Mm." Satomi was not surprised by Fūmori Masaki's sudden voice. The moment she woke up, she could already feel Fūmori Masaki's presence; this was an intuition brought by years of being a couple, which was not enough to surprise her. What truly surprised her was the large pile of scrolls beside Fūmori Masaki.
"You didn't rest, did you?" Satomi's eyes widened.
"Yeah, I didn't feel like resting, so I just learned about the situation." Fūmori Masaki said.
"No way, the pressure you and Danzo bear is the heaviest in the team, how could you not be tired?" Satomi found it incredible.
"You know it too, my energy has been very good ever since that, this level of exhaustion doesn't count for much." Fūmori Masaki said.
"That may be so, but even this scale of battle has no impact on you..." Satomi recalled some things from the past, her expression somewhat strange, "Your energy is too abundant, you should restrain it a little."
—This isn't something I can control, either.
Fūmori Masaki felt a little helpless inside. This was a positive boost brought by Senjutsu. From a combat perspective, it was naturally a good thing, but it looked different from ordinary people. Moreover, as Senjutsu improved, its benefits became more and more obvious; how could he possibly change it back?
"You must be hungry. I'll go get something to eat." Fūmori Masaki stood up and said.
"Please do." Satomi did indeed feel hungry and gently touched her abdomen.
During wartime, especially for Ninjas, the requirements for food were that it should be easy to carry, rich in nutrition, and easy to satiate hunger. The most typical was the soldier pill, a convenient military ration. But after all, they were in the camp. Although it was impossible to cook as carefully as they did at home, it was certainly better than something like a soldier pill.
Fūmori Masaki returned to the tent with food, eating while looking at the war situation. After eating his fill, an acquaintance came to visit. It was Uchiha Kagami. Since their separation at Konohagakure, this was the first time Fūmori Masaki had met him.
After greeting each other, Uchiha Kagami sat on the ground, looked at Fūmori Masaki and Satomi, and smiled: "It's great to see you are safe and sound. I thought you would come with the main force, but I didn't expect you to go to the Land of Wind to carry out a mission."
"Honestly, it was really quite dangerous; we almost didn't make it back." Fūmori Masaki shrugged.
"But in the end, you came back. Only four out of twenty-three people were lost, plus you destroyed a certain logistical supply line. The mission was completed beautifully." When Uchiha Kagami reached this point, he sighed softly, "It's different on my side. There were no flashy achievements, and there was even a disastrous defeat that shouldn't have happened."
"Having no achievements doesn't count for much. Your numbers were not as many as the Sunagakure Ninja to begin with, so it's good that you could maintain a stalemate." Fūmori Masaki said, "However, the failed battle was..."
"That's right, it was that rash advance." Uchiha Kagami nodded, "I had already seen that there was a conspiracy, but I just couldn't control my subordinates; they were my own clan members, and as a result, lives were lost in vain. Others try their best to minimize losses, but I feel those losses shouldn't have happened!"
Seeing Uchiha Kagami looking a bit depressed, Fūmori Masaki understood the pressure acting as a commander caused him, and comforted him: "This is not your fault. You had warned them, so it's the fault of those self-righteous people; it has nothing to do with you."
"That may be so, but I still feel I didn't do a good job." Uchiha Kagami shook his head, "Especially after Teacher Tobirama arrived, I felt more and more the inadequacy of my own abilities; there is still a lot to learn."
Fūmori Masaki was speechless for a moment. After a while, he asked: "Speaking of which, the leader of that rash mission seems to be Uchiha Setsuna, right?"
"It was him." Uchiha Kagami said, "I guess he just intended to go against me, so he didn't listen to orders. The result was like that. It would have been better if he had died and the others had returned alive."
Almost all the Uchiha Clan Members who rashly advanced in that mission were wiped out, yet Uchiha Setsuna, as the leader, returned alive. In that situation, it could be called a miracle. Although it was a rash advance due to underestimating the enemy, Uchiha Setsuna also brought back important intelligence. Considering he had contributed and someone pleaded for him, his life was not taken, but severe punishment was unavoidable. Not to mention anything else, even his status as a Chunin was revoked, and he was demoted to an ordinary Genin.
"What good luck, this guy." Fūmori Masaki couldn't help but say.
"Yeah." Uchiha Kagami didn't like this member of the Hawk Faction, but he couldn't bring himself to intentionally send Uchiha Setsuna to his death, so Uchiha Setsuna could live until now, which was due to both his strength and his luck. He could only say that he didn't intend to take Uchiha Setsuna's life yet.
Fūmori Masaki and Uchiha Kagami did not know that Uchiha Setsuna's miraculous return was not that simple. Only Uchiha Setsuna himself knew how he had survived.
That day, under the premeditated counterattack of the Sunagakure Ninja, Uchiha Setsuna was seriously injured. Even though he escaped temporarily, he fell due to exhaustion. The pursuers would arrive soon, and he thought he was done for.
Suddenly, he saw a pitch-black shadow emerge, then invade his body. His already powerless body seemed to have a new force injected into it, allowing him to run again, just in time to avoid the pursuit of the Sunagakure Ninja.
Uchiha Setsuna's body was completely out of his control, as if it knew the enemy's ambush route. He did not encounter any Sunagakure Ninja. When they reached a safe place, Uchiha Setsuna's body stopped, and then the phantom came out of his body.
"What are you?" Uchiha Setsuna looked at the phantom in front of him. Although he didn't know what it was, just when the phantom invaded his body, he clearly felt that it had self-awareness.
"I am Zetsu." The phantom looked as if it would dissipate at any time, "To be precise, I am the incarnation of Uchiha Madara's will before his death."
the new third hokage of konoha