Konoha's abrupt military shift further galvanized the four great ninja villages. Their distrust of the Hidden Leaf deepened, accelerating the joint operation to strike the Whirlpool Country. Intelligence had confirmed Uzushiogakure was strengthening its defenses in anticipation.
The coalition's guiding principle: strike swiftly and decisively. Seize the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques, then retreat before Konoha could respond in full. They couldn't afford a large-scale war—yet. Until each village possessed a stable jinchūriki, challenging Konoha directly was folly.
Among them, Kumogakure was the first to mobilize, and Dodai, assistant to the Third Raikage, led their advance team.
"Master Dodai," Tamura Hao began, standing at the ship's rail, watching the waves break. "You once said Kinkaku and Ginkaku sealed the Six Paths Ninja Tools using a spiritual technique. Outsiders can't unseal them. But what about the Uzumaki clan's sealing art? It's the most advanced in the current ninja world. Could they break it?"
He wasn't asking idly. Ever since discovering how the Sword of the Thunder God enhanced his Lightning Release, he had been thinking of the Bashōsen—the Banana Palm Fan.
Unlike Thor's Blade, which only amplified lightning, the Bashōsen allowed the wielder to use five chakra natures regardless of affinity. To someone like him with only a Lightning affinity, it represented a dream artifact. The five-element utility of the fan could bridge gaps in training and drastically expand his battlefield versatility.
Though chakra nature affinity was innate, others could be cultivated. Difficult, yes, but not impossible. Jiraiya himself was said to have mastered multiple natures. With effort, and the right tools, Hao believed he could too.
At this point in history, the Impure World Reincarnation had not been redeveloped. They couldn't revive the Gold and Silver Brothers to summon the ninja tools. But perhaps the Uzumaki could bypass the spiritual contract using a high-level sealing method.
Tutai frowned, deep in thought.
"Do you have any of their remains?"
The question was blunt. For sealing arts, especially ones connected to spiritual contracts, a physical medium was often essential.
Tamura Hao nodded and produced a scroll. From within it, he summoned two nutrient capsules containing preserved human hearts—Kinkaku and Ginkaku's. He then activated a sealing array on another scroll, transferring the organs inside.
He never left valuables at home. His quarters lacked proper security, and he preferred to carry important assets on him. Fortunately, his custom armor included sealing matrices. He used one such compartment to store this scroll, along with a stash of high-grade explosive tags—1,000 in total. He had planned to buy 10,000, but village policy enforced purchase limits due to wartime rationing.
He kept these trophies with another goal in mind: building rapport with Kakuzu, the bounty-hunting immortal. Hao believed the money-obsessed S-rank rogue would appreciate his pragmatic thinking and shared love of forbidden knowledge.
"We'll try," Tutai said, carefully tucking the scroll into his cloak. "There's nothing to lose. If it works, we retrieve the four ninja tools."
The impact of regaining them in this war could be immense. A single use of the Benihisago or Shichiseiken in Uzumaki hands could cripple enemy command structures. And if the Uzumaki used the tools themselves, it might redirect suspicion toward them, reducing blame directed at Kumogakure.
"Commanders from each of the four villages will be holding a meeting soon in Uzushiogakure," Dodai added. "Join me. It's a chance to observe your future adversaries."
Tamura Hao blinked in surprise. "A summit? Again?"
"We only had a provisional pact before. But with Konoha's movements, the others are spooked. Some conditions may change."
Dodai chuckled. He wasn't worried. After all, it was Kumogakure that had secretly leaked intelligence to Danzo Shimura. Danzo, in his hunger for control, would always act first. It was easy to manipulate people like him.
In ninja warfare, intelligence was king. A single leaked document could unravel an army's cohesion. A spy in the right place could do more damage than a battalion. Strength still mattered, but brains determined when and how to apply it.
"Konoha's practically the public enemy of the entire ninja world right now," Tamura Hao said with a smirk.
It was the outcome he desired. If Konoha crumbled in this war, the original plot would be shattered, and he could rewrite fate itself. He needed chaos. The greater the disruption to the timeline, the more 'destiny energy' he could draw from it—his golden finger's source of power.
This energy wasn't just for cultivating faster or sharpening his insight. It also fueled Kaguya's phantom—an echo of her mind linked to him. It helped absorb chakra from shadows of fate and improve itself, eventually becoming capable of extracting energy independently from branded shadows.
In short: he needed to break the world to master it.
But Konoha was no ordinary village. Even when plagued by political strife and internal sabotage, by the time of the Fourth Shinobi War it was still the strongest force. The rest of the Five Great Nations were little more than supporting cast.
Even the Edo Tensei summons were mostly Konoha's dead: the previous Hokage, legendary swordsmen, and former Anbu commanders.
The foundation ran too deep.
Tutai sighed, eyes on the horizon. "The First Hokage tried to establish a world with one superpower and several strong states. He thought the Kage system would balance everything, just like the feudal clans balanced internal village politics. But conflict between villages is far greater than clan rivalry. It was bound to fail."
Even the Tailed Beasts, distributed by Hashirama to equalize power, hadn't helped. Instead, they had fueled arms races and jinchūriki disasters.
"Hashirama and Tobirama were excellent shinobi," Tutai said, "but poor statesmen. Their hearts were in the right place, but they misunderstood systems and power structures."
Tutai wasn't just a field strategist—he was a scholar of political theory, supply chains, and bureaucratic development. He saw the cracks most shinobi ignored.
"Still," Tamura Hao said, "the Second Hokage did a lot—Anbu, the academy, infrastructure…"
"That's just it," Tutai cut in. "He didn't invent those. He copied them from the daimyō system."
Tamura raised an eyebrow.
"The Fire Daimyō's court has had secret agents, military academies, and elite guards for generations. The Anbu are just the ninja version of the royal shadow guards. Even the academy mimics the court scholar training schools. Guardian ninja are for show. The daimyō never trusted ninja fully. He would never hand over true sovereignty."
Tutai's tone dripped with scorn. "Tobirama just militarized an existing bureaucracy. He was no political innovator. He was an enforcer."
Tamura Hao stood quietly, turning this over. It made sense. The feudal state had existed for centuries, perhaps even before Kaguya's time. The ninja village system was barely half a century old. Of course it borrowed heavily.
It also explained why the Daimyō still held financial and legal control over ninja villages. If the daimyo had no counterweight to ninja might, he would've been overthrown long ago. History demanded checks and balances.
Tamura Hao remembered an old quote from his past life: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
In this world, the "gun" was chakra.
And Konoha still had the biggest one.