Black Naruto: Shadow Moon

As the situation in the ninja world continues to change, the Third Raikage Ai of the Hidden Cloud Village in the Land of Lightning has begun to realize that the power of the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Iwa Village alone may not be enough to fight against Konoha.

Especially after Konoha showed its strong fighting power, especially the powerful performance of Uchiha Kagezuki, the Third Raikage Ai decided to expand the scope of his allies.

Upon learning that the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki of the Iwagakure Village was trying to persuade the Sand Village to join the war, Ai was not willing to be left behind and decided to send the diplomatic ninjas of the Cloud Village to the Sand Village to try to persuade the Third Kazekage to join the war against Konoha.

After the diplomatic ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village arrived at the Hidden Sand Village, they began lobbying the Third Kazekage.

The Raikage's emissaries stressed the potential benefits of the Sand Village joining the war.

They specifically mentioned the land of River Country, emphasizing that River Country should have been the territory of the Sand Village since ancient times.

The messengers added: "The Hidden Cloud Village fully recognizes your claim to the Land of the River. Konoha should not give itself the land of the Land of the River through a peace treaty and also demand the establishment of a buffer zone. This is simply a challenge to the sovereignty of the Hidden Cloud Village!"

At the same time, the envoy from the Hidden Cloud Village also hinted that Konoha is now the "public enemy" of all countries, and its expansionist policies threaten all ninja villages.

In addition, Konoha Village is rich in resources, and if it does not participate in the war against Konoha, it will miss a huge opportunity.

Through war, the Sand Village can regain the complete territory of River Country and rebuild its former glory, and the Cloud Village and the Iwagakure Village will also support the Sand Village in this process.

Faced with the double pressure from the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Iwa Village, the Third Kazekage began to waver.

He realized that although a peace treaty had been signed with Konoha, the treaty seemed increasingly fragile under the current situation.

At the same time, Konoha's strong performance in this war made the pro-war faction of the Kazekage and the Sand Village feel fearful.

The mines and fertile land of the River Kingdom were extremely important to the Wind Kingdom, and the Third Kazekage could not ignore these interests.

Therefore, the Third Kazekage decided to convene a high-level meeting of the Sand Village again, inviting elders of various clans, elite ninjas, and heads of various departments to discuss the matter together.

At the meeting, Fengying first listened to the opinions of the pro-war faction.

The war factions argued strongly that this was the best opportunity to retake River Country and suppress Konoha's hegemony.

The voices of the war factions are becoming increasingly powerful. They believe that as long as they can rely on the strength of the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Iwa Village, and the three parties join forces, Konoha Village will be beaten and unable to fight back.

However, conservatives disagree. They believe that the current military and economic strength of the Sand Village has not yet fully recovered, and rashly joining the war may lead to disastrous consequences.

The conservatives reminded the Kazekage that war was not only an opportunity to retake the land, but also a dangerous gamble that consumed extremely resources, and that Konoha's strength should not be underestimated.

Finally, facing the pressure from the war faction and the persuasion from the Cloud and Rock countries, the Third Kazekage made an important decision: the Sand Village will formally declare war on Konoha. To this end, they will use the banner of "opposing Konoha's hegemony and taking back the lost land of the River Country".

With the decision made, the Sand Village began to actively prepare for the upcoming battle.

The Third Kazekage hopes that with the help of this war, he can not only consolidate the status of the Sand Village, but also recover the interests of the River Country and lay the foundation for the future of the village.

The news of the Sand Village's declaration of war on the Hidden Leaf Village quickly spread throughout the ninja world, and the Hidden Cloud Village, the Hidden Iwa Village, the Hidden Mist Village and other ninja villages that were at war with Konoha were all excited about this.

The Kages of the major ninja villages believed that the addition of the Sand Village would greatly increase the pressure on Konoha, making victory in the war just around the corner.

In their opinion, with the four major ninja villages united, Konoha would not be able to deal with such a large enemy force alone.

The Third Raikage Ai even publicly stated: "The final winner of this war will not be Konoha." And the Third Tsuchikage Ohnoki became more determined to join forces to suppress Konoha. He firmly believed that as long as the pressure continued to increase, Konoha would not be able to hold on sooner or later.

However, in Konoha Village, the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen could hardly suppress his anger after learning the news of the Sand Village's betrayal.

He originally thought that the peace treaty signed with the Third Kazekage could maintain a glimmer of peace in the ninja world. Who would have thought that the Third Kazekage would suddenly tear up the treaty and openly declare war on Konoha.

This made Sarutobi Hiruzen extremely disappointed. He slammed the table in the Hokage's office and said angrily: "Is the peace treaty a joke?!"

In order to express the position of Konoha Village, Sarutobi Hiruzen immediately sent an envoy to issue a strong condemnation to the Sand Village, criticizing the Third Kazekage for being treacherous and violating the peace principles of the ninja world.

He lamented with deep sorrow that the hope for peace in the ninja world had been trampled to pieces by these greedy ninja villages.

At the same time, the situation in Konoha Village also made Sarutobi Hiruzen very worried.

The fighting force of Konoha Village has already been fully mobilized, and now almost all the ninjas who can participate in the war have been sent to various battlefields for support.

It was already extremely difficult to mobilize more combat power from the village. Sarutobi Hiruzen realized that if he increased the mobilization efforts further, he would have to use Konoha's resources, and even have to send trainees who had not yet fully received training to the battlefield ahead of time.

In addition to human resources issues, the financial situation of Konoha Village is not optimistic.

Since the beginning of the war, the village's funds have been consumed as fast as running water. Expenses for various military equipment, medical resources, and pensions for casualties have made Konoha's financial burden very heavy, especially after the last distribution of rewards and pensions, the village's treasury is almost empty.

The Third Hokage had to face a thorny problem: how to provide sufficient funds for the follow-up of the war? Faced with the huge war needs, Sarutobi Hiruzen fell into deep thought.

He understood that these expenditures had to be made. If the funding shortage problem was not solved in time, the combat effectiveness and morale of Konoha Village would be seriously affected.

In this dilemma, Sarutobi Hiruzen decided to take two measures.

First, he planned to negotiate with the major families in Konoha Village, trying to persuade them to contribute more manpower and materials to help Konoha overcome the difficulties when Konoha was in danger.

He knew that families like the Hyuga clan, the Ino-Shika-Cho clan, and others had a long tradition and strong combat power in Konoha, and were an important force supporting the village.

Sarutobi Hiruzen said to the representatives of these families: "This is a moment of life and death for Konoha, every bit of strength is crucial!"

At the same time, Sarutobi Hiruzen also decided to go to the residence of the Fire Country Daimyo in person to ask the Fire Country Daimyo for more war funding support.

Although he knew that the Daimyo of the Fire Country cared more about the results rather than the process in the Ninja War, he had no choice but to use these resources to ensure that Konoha Village would not be in a desperate situation in future battles.

Before leaving, Sarutobi Hiruzen specifically instructed the village leaders: "We cannot fail in requesting funds this time. The fate of Konoha depends on this trip."

As Sarutobi Hiruzen was busy trying to gain more resources and support, the entire Konoha Village was preparing for the upcoming larger-scale battle, and the atmosphere was tense and depressing.

And with the joining of the Sand Village, the war situation in the ninja world has become increasingly complicated, and the storm is about to sweep across the entire ninja world.