Heart of Steel Half-Morph Sword Saint, Madara is willing to call me the strongest

The country of earth, the village of Iwagakure.

The Third Tsuchikage, Ohnoki, is holding a high-level meeting.

At this moment, the top leaders of the Togakushi Village who were sitting in the conference room had serious and solemn expressions on their faces.

Oonoki took a sip of tea and looked down at the scroll from the Sand Village in his hand.

After a moment's silence, he coughed lightly, breaking the depressing atmosphere in the room.

"Everyone, as this scroll says, forming an alliance with the Sand Village is our wisest choice at the moment."

"You should all have heard about the news that the Kumogakure combat unit is approaching the border of the Land of Earth. The Third Raikage is still so courageous."

An advisor from the Iwagakure Village who was sitting on the right side of the conference table frowned and said angrily, "Damn it, the Third Raikage took advantage of the fact that both we and Konoha were losing and actually dared to provoke us."

An old man with a haggard face looked at Ōnoki and said in a deep voice: "I support an alliance with the Sand Village, but they must send combat troops to help us resist the Cloud Village."

"I support it too."

"I agree."

In the meeting room, most of the Iwagakure Village's senior officials expressed their support for forming an alliance with the Sand Village.

The current situation in the ninja world has changed.

Among the five hidden villages.

Due to the disappearance of the Third Kazekage, the Sand Village fell into civil strife at the beginning of the Third World War. The morale and strength of the troops dropped sharply, and they were almost defeated in every battle. It has now become the weakest ninja village.

Therefore, the Sand Village took the initiative to invite the Iwagakure Village to form an alliance.

As for the Iwagakure Village and the Mist Village, their strength had been greatly weakened due to the repeated battles with the Konoha Village.

On the contrary, the Hidden Cloud Village has not made any major moves. As a result of the growth and decline of one village, the Hidden Cloud Village is now showing signs of being on par with the other three ninja villages and on par with Konoha.

Ohnoki glanced expressionlessly at the Iwagakure high-level officials present, nodded slightly, and after a brief silence, an old voice slowly came out:

"Not only that, I plan to bring the Hidden Mist Village into the alliance. The Land of Water is located in the east of the continent. There is no direct conflict of interest between us and the Hidden Sand Village. Moreover, we have a common enemy. If our three major ninja villages can join forces..."

After Ōnoki proposed the idea of ​​a tripartite alliance, the senior members of the Iwagakure clan present immediately started discussing and the conference room became noisy.

Soon, someone stood up to express support, followed by more voices of approval.

As the meeting progressed, a plan on how to establish an offensive and defensive alliance with Sand Village and Kirigakure gradually took shape.

……

Just as Onoki expected.

The invitation to an alliance with the Hidden Mist Village was not rejected by the Mizukage. After just two days of discussion, the Hidden Mist Village quickly agreed to form a tripartite alliance.

Iwagakure and Kirigakure began to frequently send envoys to communicate, exchange information and follow-up plans.

At about the same time, the combat troops of the Sand Village also quietly arrived at the border of the Land of Earth.

Although this group of Sand Ninjas were not very strong, with most of them only being Chunin and Genin, they had the advantage of having large numbers, with over a thousand of them.

The Kirigakure side also dispatched a large number of ninja troops to secretly sneak into the Land of Earth.

At the same time, the number of ninjas within Iwagakure was also expanding significantly, and many students who were still in school were graduated early, and a force of thousands of people was reorganized in a short period of time.

Including the combat troops sent by the Sand Ninja and the Mist Ninja, the number of ninjas assembled in the entire Earth Country reached a terrifying number of nearly 10,000!

Everything is done in secret.

The Third Ninja World War has gradually reached a turning point, and the undercurrent that is about to sweep across the Ninja World is becoming more and more turbulent.

……

Konoha Hokage Building.

Today, a high-level meeting is being held in the conference room.

There was a very long round table, with many Konoha high-ranking officials sitting around it. Most of those present were elite jonin and the patriarchs of major families.

This is a meeting of all high-level members of Konoha convened by the Hokage. All elite jonin in the village have the right to participate and vote.

Even in Konoha Village, elite jonin are considered the top fighting force of the village.

Because Konoha does not have any higher-level divisions such as Quasi-Kage, there are some ninjas among the elite jonin who actually have the strength of Quasi-Kage or even Kage.

For example, Minato Namikaze and Fugaku Uchiha who are present here, although they are only elite jonin on the surface, have actually already reached the level of Kage.

Uchiha Yi also attended the meeting and sat at the right hand side of the clan leader Fugaku.

After looking around, Uchiha Yi was a little confused.

Orochimaru did not appear in the meeting room.

Given Orochimaru's status and position, as well as his military achievements, he should not be absent from such a high-level meeting.

Uchiha Yi glanced at Minato Namikaze opposite him and had a guess in his heart.

The village leaders may be deliberately weakening Orochimaru's influence.

"Cough, cough."

Sarutobi Hiruzen glanced at the Konoha high-level officials sitting there, and said in a deep voice: "According to the intelligence sent by the Root reconnaissance team, the situation is not optimistic. The Sand Village, the Iwagakure Village, and the Mist Village seem to be plotting to form an alliance..."

"What's even more troublesome is that Kirigakure and Sand Village's combat forces have already gathered in large numbers at the border of the Land of Earth. This move is undoubtedly a huge threat to our Konoha."

The atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became tense. Everyone's expressions were solemn and they exchanged glances.

"The three major ninja villages join forces? This is no joke."

"It must be that old fox Ohnoki who is causing all this trouble. It seems he hasn't given up on invading the Fire Country's territory."

"How many troops have they assembled? Do you have more detailed information?"

The meeting room suddenly became noisy as the jonin of Konoha started talking among themselves.

At this moment, Danzo suddenly patted the table, signaling everyone to be quiet.

Danzo slowly said: "Not only that, our Root has also discovered small-scale signs of Kirigakure troop activities within the territory of the Land of Rice. The Land of Rice borders our Land of Fire, which means that the enemy has appeared on our northern border."

The combat troops on the Konoha front are mainly deployed on the east and west fronts, and the defense of the northern border is very weak.

The sudden appearance of Kirigakure in the north obviously poses a great threat to the border of the Land of Fire.

Danzo narrowed his eyes slightly, and his sight swept over Namikaze Minato's position. He moved his lips and continued expressionlessly: "With the strength of the Root, it is impossible to obtain more detailed information. We need to send a reconnaissance team to go deep into the enemy and obtain more intelligence."

"There are not many Kirigakure ninjas in the Land of Rice, about fifty in number. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, I suggest that the number of members in the reconnaissance team should not be too large."

After saying that, Danzo frowned, closed his eyes, and fell silent with an expressionless face.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, who was sitting at the head, lowered his head. His eyes swept across everyone in the meeting room. After pondering for a moment, he seemed to have made a decision and said in a deep voice:

"This reconnaissance team must be very capable. Minato, I'll leave this matter to you. And... Yi, your team should go as well."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!"

After receiving the order, Minato Namikaze immediately nodded seriously.

"I?"

Uchiha Yi, who was thinking hard about what to eat for lunch, was stunned for a moment, then he noticed the many eyes focused on him.

He touched the tip of his nose awkwardly, then immediately looked at the Sandaime Hokage, the head of the group, and quickly said, "Yes, Hokage!"