As news of the alliance army ford by the Lands of Wind, Earth, and Lightning spread, it didn't just reach the other hidden villages—Konoha got word too.
"Has anyone sent a ssage to Chizumi yet?"
Inside the Hokage Tower, Tsunade looked at Uchiha Izumi with a grave expression.
After Uchiha Chizumi left the village, the one taking over for him in Konoha was Izumi. And after Kitsujiro left, he had also arranged for her to stay in contact with his network of ninja cats.
"I already had a ninja cat send the ssage to Senior Chizumi, but…"
"But there hasn't been any reply from him. I don't know whether he even received it."
Izumi knew perfectly well how urgent the situation was. No matter how much faith she had in Uchiha Chizumi, that was still an alliance army of over ten thousand.
In fact, by the ti Konoha got the news, the combined forces of the Lands of Earth, Wind, and Lightning had already reached more than sixteen thousand shinobi.
Like everyone else, Uchiha Izumi never doubted Chizumi's strength—but she also believed that if he really had to fight tens of thousands of ninja, his chakra would eventually run out.
"Lady Tsunade, is Konoha going to…"
Izumi looked at Tsunade, clearly hoping Konoha would send troops.
In her mind, if Konoha deployed and combined its strength with Uchiha Chizumi's, then against an alliance army of over ten thousand, they'd at least have a fifty percent chance.
But what she got was a disappointed shake of Tsunade's head.
"We can only send a few elite teams. Large-scale deploynt is impossible."
Tsunade wanted to be decisive too, but as soone who had lived through both the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars, she understood all too well what would happen if Konoha sent a full army.
The mont Konoha's forces appeared on the battlefield in large numbers, the Lands of Earth, Wind, and Lightning would have no choice but to fully commit as well. And once that happened, a new shinobi war would beco inevitable.
After Uchiha Izumi left the Hokage Tower, the Uchiha clan mbers imdiately gathered around her.
"What did the Hokage say? Is Konoha sending troops to help Lord Chizumi?"
The younger and middle generation of the Uchiha looked at Izumi expectantly. Ever since they learned that Uchiha Chizumi might be targeted by the alliance army of the three nations, the entire Uchiha clan had been worried sick for him.
By now, the whole clan firmly believed that Uchiha Chizumi was the one leading them toward true greatness again.
Maybe Uchiha Chizumi had never explicitly said anything like that, but the Uchiha could see with their own eyes how much their standing had changed. Especially since the dream of spreading the Police Force across the entire shinobi world had been raised, the clan was now more united than ever.
"Lady Tsunade can't send troops…"
"If Konoha sends a large force onto the battlefield, it could trigger a new shinobi war…"
Izumi hesitated for a mont, but in the end she honestly told them what she was thinking.
Ever since Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Fugaku died, and ever since Uchiha Chizumi put forward that lofty ideal of establishing Police Forces across the shinobi world, the Uchiha clan had changed dramatically.
Once they had a higher ideal to pursue, they stopped obsessing over Konoha's internal political power.
And because the Uchiha were an extraordinarily proud clan by nature, the younger generation now studying at the Academy had basically made upholding justice their life goal.
At the sa ti, the Uchiha's increasingly principled law enforcent had gradually improved their reputation in Konoha.
A lot of that also ca from Tsunade quietly pushing things in that direction. She understood the Uchiha very well—after all, Tobirama Senju used to spend his free ti studying them whenever he got the chance.
Tsunade had even subtly encouraged a narrative that justice was now the pride of the Uchiha clan.
And everyone knew the Uchiha valued their pride above almost anything else.
These changes were subtle, but the Uchiha themselves could clearly feel that the way the villagers looked at them had changed—aside from the few fools who still insisted on provoking them, of course…
"We understand Lady Tsunade's position, but Lord Chizumi's safety…"
One of the Uchiha sighed in disappointnt.
"No. You don't understand how strong Lord Chizumi really is."
"Stop crowding around here and get back to your posts!"
"Lord Chizumi possesses the strongest Susanoo our Uchiha clan has ever seen. Even an alliance army of tens of thousands will never be able to bring him down!"
This ti, it was one of the older Uchiha who spoke. He had even seen Uchiha Madara himself in the past. In his eyes, Uchiha Chizumi's current strength was fully on par with Madara's.
With that kind of power, the old man simply couldn't believe that even ten thousand enemy shinobi posed much real threat to him.
And at the Ninja Academy, the students had also learned about the alliance army from the Lands of Earth, Wind, and Lightning.
"Damn it!"
"How much evil have those daimyo done that they'd form an alliance army just to go after Lord Chizumi?"
Naruto stood at the front of the classroom, angrily shouting down at his classmates. The seeds of justice had already been planted in the Academy without anyone really noticing, and now bullying had practically disappeared from the school.
After all, if you tried to bully soone at the Academy now, you were asking to get beaten up.
"Neji has already applied to graduate."
From the side, Sasuke suddenly cut in.
"What?"
Naruto didn't react at first, but the mont he fully understood, his eyes widened.
"Neji probably wants to graduate early so he can go find Teacher Chizumi. Naruto, I'm planning to graduate early too."
Sasuke looked at Naruto and then calmly dropped another bombshell. The mont those words left his mouth, Naruto almost blurted out that he wanted to graduate too.
But Naruto knew his current strength wasn't enough. He hadn't even fully reached the standard for graduation in the basic Three Jutsu yet.
anwhile, in the Academy office, Jiraiya was watching all of this unfold.
After Hiruzen retired, Tsunade had just tossed that crystal ball aside, and Jiraiya had spent forever digging through the trash before finally finding it again.
Most of the ti he still used it to peek at the won's bathhouse, but every now and then he also used it to keep an eye on village matters—especially anything involving Naruto.
"An alliance army of over ten thousand ninja…"
"Two Sages, do you think Uchiha Chizumi might actually be killed this ti?"
After seeing Naruto's reaction, Jiraiya finally turned to the two sages on his shoulders and voiced the question weighing on his mind.
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