Black Naruto: Shadow Moon

Although Sarutobi Hiruzen still insisted on a peaceful stance, he was very aware of the danger of the situation.

In order to prevent war from coming suddenly, he began to prepare for war secretly within Konoha.

He ordered the strengthening of border defenses, mobilized the village's elite ninja teams for combat training, and closely monitored the movements of other major powers.

At the same time, Sarutobi Hiruzen strengthened material reserves and logistical preparations to ensure that if Konoha was involved in a war, it could quickly mobilize troops to respond.

He also convened a group of advisors and family representatives to discuss how to protect Konoha's interests without actively provoking a war.

The village police department is led by Uchiha Kagezuki, who is responsible for maintaining law and order in the village and gathering intelligence to ensure that the village is not easily infiltrated by hostile ninja villages.

The ninjas of Konoha Village also felt the gradually thickening fighting atmosphere in the air.

Despite Sarutobi Hiruzen's efforts to keep the peace, the village's chuuno-genin began to participate in more rigorous training, and the medical unit began to strengthen its wartime plans.

Although Sarutobi Hiruzen hoped to maintain the status quo, he knew that Konoha had to prepare for the worst.

The Daimyo of the Land of Fire has recently become dissatisfied with the peaceful attitude of Konoha Village.

As the supreme ruler of the Fire Nation, he not only cares about domestic affairs, but also keeps in touch with the daimyo of other major countries.

The daimyos of various countries often communicate with each other and hold banquets. Among these exchanges, the most talked about topic recently is the expansion efforts of the Land of Lightning, the Land of Wind, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Water.

At the banquets of these great powers, the daimyos of the Land of Lightning, the Land of Earth, and the Land of Wind all boasted about how their ninja villages had annexed small countries through war and gained large amounts of land and resources in the process.

From time to time they showed off the wealth they had gained from newly conquered territories and how they were consolidating their position.

This gradually put pressure on the Fire Country Daimyo, especially since he had always been proud of the Fire Country's strength and wealth, but now he had nothing to show off.

The competition at these banquets made the Fire Country Daimyo feel frustrated, and the Fire Country's Konoha Village, as the largest ninja village in the ninja world, did not participate in these expansion actions, which made the Daimyo feel unhappy.

He began to think that Konoha Village was falling behind in the game of great power competition and that it had deprived the Fire Nation of the opportunity to demonstrate its strength.

In fact, the mentality of the Fire Country Daimyo is very similar to that of Konoha's Shimura Danzo.

As a selfish ruling class, the Fire Country Daimyo are essentially concerned with gaining more wealth and power through aggression.

Like the daimyo of other countries, he believed that war was a means to enhance the status of his country, and he did not care about the civilians and ninjas who died in the war.

To these daimyo, casualties were just numbers, pawns in their game of power.

Their goal was to expand more territory, gain more luxuries and greater power through war.

No matter what the outcome of the war was, the daimyo himself and his cronies were always in the safe upper echelons, and only the lower-level ninjas and civilians were injured and killed.

Amid the changes in the ninja world, the Fire Nation's Daimyo increasingly hoped that the Fire Nation could participate in this expansion game.

He knew very well that Konoha Village's powerful military force could easily annex small countries and bring him more wealth and resources.

However, he was disappointed with Sarutobi Hiruzen's peace policy, so he began to put pressure on Konoha's top leaders, hoping to regain the dominant position of the Fire Country in the expansion wave of the ninja world through means of aggression and expansion.

The Daimyo of the Land of Fire could no longer tolerate the conservative policies of Konoha Village and sent a group of high-ranking envoys to Konoha to directly put pressure on the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen and Konoha's top leaders, demanding that Konoha Village take action and participate in the expansion wars of other major powers.

The purpose of the daimyo's envoys' trip was very clear - to force Konoha Village to participate in the war and expand its territory through aggression in order to bring more benefits to the Fire Country.

After the envoys of the Fire Country Daimyo entered Konoha Village, they went directly to the Hokage Building and met with Sarutobi Hiruzen, Hokage's assistant Danzo Shimura, and Hokage's advisors Koharu Utatane and En Mito Kado.

The envoys went straight to the point and conveyed the daimyo's dissatisfaction and demands.

They made it clear that the Fire Country Daimyo was frustrated with Konoha's passive attitude and demanded that the Leaf Village participate in the expansion efforts of other great nations.

One of the messengers even used Konoha's financial allocation as a threat, saying bluntly: "If Konoha does not take action, funding will be affected. The daimyo wants to see results and victory, not empty talk." This threat made Konoha's top leaders feel under increased pressure.

The third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen still insisted on his own peace philosophy and opposed Konoha being involved in an unnecessary war.

At the meeting, Sarutobi explained the dangers of the invasion to the daimyo's envoys.

He explained that although Konoha Village was powerful, the risk of an all-out war was too great, and invading a small country might not only lead to a waste of resources, but could also intensify conflicts with other major powers.

Sarutobi believes that Konoha Village's position is already very stable, and that acts of aggression will only damage Konoha's reputation and may not necessarily bring enough practical benefits.

"The cost of war is far greater than you can imagine," Sarutobi said, "Konoha's safety should not be risked for short-term gain."

In the face of Sarutobi Hiruzen's persuasion, the daimyo envoys of the Land of Fire acted very indifferent. They did not care at all about the difficulties or losses mentioned by Sarutobi.

The leader of the envoys sneered and said: "The Daimyo does not care about your concerns. We care about the situation and the results. Your mission is to protect the interests of the Fire Nation, no matter what the cost."

These words made Sarutobi Hiruzen feel deeply helpless. He understood that the Daimyo of the Fire Country only cared about the benefits brought by expansion and completely ignored the destruction and casualties caused by the war.

Throughout this debate, Sarutobi Hiruzen always maintained an opposing stance, believing that invasion was not the best option at the moment.

In this meeting, Utatane Koharu and Mito Kado En acted relatively neutrally. They neither explicitly supported the expansionist intentions of the daimyo, nor completely denied Sarutobi Hiruzen's peace proposal.

Both of them realized that the current situation was complicated and Konoha Village must find a balance between maintaining peace and responding to potential threats.

In stark contrast to Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzo clearly expressed his support for the Fire Country Daimyo's demands at the meeting.

He believed that Konoha had fallen behind the expansion efforts of other major countries, and if no action was taken, it would lose the initiative in the future.

"Konoha is strong enough, we should not be timid," Danzo said, "Now is the era of war, we must take the initiative, otherwise we will be eliminated by history."

Danzo's views were apparently shared by the envoys of the Fire Country Daimyo, but they also exacerbated divisions within Konoha's upper echelons.

Although Sarutobi Hiruzen still insisted on the peace path, Danzo's voice became louder and louder, and Konoha Village's decision-making faced greater pressure.