Naruto: Rebuilding the Hidden Sand

Chapter 236: Conquering the Rain Village

"Lord Kazekage."

Shortly after, Yuji’s group of three met up with Shimizu leading his unit.

"How did it go?" Yuji asked.

"We let him get away. His injuries were severe, but not fatal. Once he crossed back into the Land of Fire, Konoha almost certainly had people waiting to receive him."

Shimizu said it with a smile.

The person he was referring to was Danzo.

Shimura Danzo could not be killed yet. This particular man, left inside Konoha, would continue to act as a corrosive force eating away at the village from within. More importantly, the Uchiha clan massacre had been orchestrated from behind the scenes largely because of Danzo’s involvement. Yuji had no intention of letting that old schemer die so easily or so cleanly.

Shimizu’s group, operating with transplanted Sharingan active during the confrontation, would have deepened Danzo’s resentment and distrust of the Uchiha bloodline significantly.

Given the old man’s nature, the idea of the Uchiha bloodline escaping the village’s full control, with eyes and blood now spreading beyond its walls and potentially becoming a force that could be turned against Konoha, was something he absolutely could not tolerate. His urgency to eliminate the Uchiha clan entirely would only grow from this point.

Danzo’s stance toward the Uchiha clan had always been remarkably similar to the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama’s. The forbidden techniques and methods Tobirama had developed, when examined carefully, seemed largely oriented toward countering the Sharingan. The Flying Thunder God Technique and the Impure World Reincarnation, were the most obvious examples.

Shimizu’s group had acted with the specific intention of humiliating Danzo in the process.

"What about the other matter?" Yuji looked toward the ground at his feet.

A head emerged from the earth.

Black Zetsu.

"The Hidden Rain Village side did not put up much resistance either. Hanzo had taken the main force with him here, which left the Hidden Rain Village’s garrison forces thin. And when our forces attacked, most of them chose to flee rather than fight to the end. They are probably waiting for Hanzo to return before attempting any counterattack."

Black Zetsu said this with a casual chuckle.

"Let us move. We are going to the Hidden Rain Village."

At the Hidden Rain Village.

Sand Village ninja were pouring through the streets like a flood breaking through a dam. Every road, every building, every alleyway was filled with flickering Sand Village figures moving at speed, cutting through Hidden Rain resistance wherever it surfaced.

Against the Sand Village’s momentum, the Hidden Rain Village’s completely unprepared garrison forces could barely slow the advance. It was overwhelmingly one-sided. The village’s civilian population was either fleeing in every direction or barricading themselves inside their homes, terrified by the sudden eruption of open warfare in their streets.

"Over there!"

Shira stood on a rooftop, scanning the area below, and immediately directed a Sand Village unit to pursue several fleeing Hidden Rain fighters.

"Lord Shira. The outer defensive perimeter has been almost completely broken through."

A flash of blue light dropped and landed beside him as a Sand Village Jonin who had received Third Raikage cellular transplants leaped up and delivered the report.

"Take your people and run down the Hidden Rain stragglers trying to slip through," Shira ordered.

"Understood."

The Jonin acknowledged the order and moved immediately.

Boom.

A distant explosion echoed through the rain. Thick black smoke rose somewhere deeper in the village.

That location was Hanzo’s residence.

Rising alongside the black smoke was a spreading wave of heat vapor.

"That would be Pakura," Shira said quietly, glancing in that direction.

Pakura’s Scorch Release in close-quarters combat produced injuries of a genuinely terrifying nature. Ordinary Hidden Rain fighters struggled to counter it effectively.

The Hidden Rain forces that had remained in the village had pulled back and concentrated around Hanzo’s compound as their last defensive anchor. Pakura was leading a Sand Village unit in the assault on that position.

"Clear the battlefield and send relief teams to the civilian areas caught in the fighting."

Shira said this to a medical unit commander nearby, then immediately set out to link up with Pakura’s position.

The Sand Village had deployed nearly five thousand fighters for this operation, with the clear objective of seizing the Hidden Rain Village as quickly as possible.

But this was still the enemy’s home ground. Through his observations, Shira had noted that several fortified positions and mechanical trap installations remained active within the village. The Hidden Rain garrison was small, but fighting on familiar terrain with prepared defenses, they could hold out for a period.

In truth, the Hidden Rain Village had received word of the Sand Village’s advance not long after the main force had crossed into the Land of Rain. They had managed to arrange a defensive line outside the village in response. But without Hanzo present and with the main force drawn away to the ambush site, the resistance that formed was paper-thin.

It collapsed on first contact.

"We must finish the battle before Lord Kazekage arrives," Shira thought to himself as he moved.

...

’That bastard.’

The Fourth Kazekage. And the Uchiha clan.

Several hours later, Danzo was being carried back toward Konoha by several Leaf Village border ninja, his body soaked in blood, his complexion deathly pale from blood loss.

He could not stop the curses forming in his mind.

His own village, Konoha, the most prestigious and storied of all the great hidden villages, and now the Sharingan had become a blade the Sand Village was turning against them.

Again and again, Sarutobi Hiruzen continued to view the Uchiha problem from the perspective of village harmony, trying to balance the tension between the Uchiha clan and Konoha’s broader structure. He had never genuinely grasped the danger the Uchiha represented.

"Given the Uchiha clan’s hatred for the Fourth Kazekage, even if we expelled the entire clan from Konoha, they would never seek shelter with the Sand Village. And in the Uchiha’s own eyes, Konoha’s standing in the ninja world today was built in no small part through their clan’s contributions. They would not leave the village easily."

"But if things continue as they are, they will eventually rebel collectively."

"That clan cannot be allowed to remain. A method must be found to eliminate them thoroughly, ensuring that even in death they serve Konoha’s interests. And we absolutely cannot allow more Uchiha bloodlines and eyes to drift into the outside world where the Sand Village can collect them. This must be handled quickly."

"Sarutobi. After this, what argument do you have left?"

"It was your foolish reluctance that created the passive situation the village now finds itself in."

Danzo’s eyes darkened.

In his mind, all of this was Sarutobi Hiruzen’s fault. None of it had anything to do with him. If Hiruzen had listened earlier and moved against the Uchiha clan decisively, not allowing them to accumulate unchecked, how would the Sand Village have ever obtained Sharingan in the first place?

He had come within a breath of dying at Sand Village hands today.

"The Uchiha," Danzo thought, his mind continuing to turn.

At this point, he had no choice but to acknowledge the Fourth Kazekage’s formidable strength and the depth of his scheming.

The Sand Village intended to use the Uchiha bloodline as a tool to enhance its own fighting power. But this was not necessarily a good outcome for the Sand Village either. Even Konoha, across all its years of managing the Uchiha clan, had never been able to fully bring them to heel. The Sand Village’s ambition to do what Konoha had failed to accomplish was the delusion of a fool.

Those people’s fundamental nature was arrogant, self-aggrandizing, and willfully ignorant. Strong as individuals, but more trouble than they were worth to any village that tried to contain them. The Fourth Kazekage would eventually discover that his calculations regarding the Uchiha were a significant error.

When that happened, the same complications that had plagued Konoha’s relationship with the Uchiha clan would repeat themselves inside the Sand Village. Danzo actually found himself wanting to watch how the Fourth Kazekage would handle it. Because if he handled it poorly, the Sand Village would suffer the consequences. And that, for Konoha, would be a welcome development.

"Beyond that, the other villages must be made to understand the Sand Village’s true ambitions and recognize the danger they represent. The Sand Village may have emerged from this Great Ninja War as the apparent winner, but they have buried many seeds of future trouble throughout the process.

Rising to dominance is not as simple as it appears. The village that has always led the ninja world’s structure, and the only village that ever could, is Konoha. And it will always be Konoha."

Danzo’s thoughts settled around this with cold certainty as he was carried back toward home.

...

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