Naruto: From Ninja Academy to an Early Grave

Makoto's group was staying in a town that wasn't actually far from Konohagakure. At a normal shinobi pace, it was only about half a day's journey back.

That was how they had been traveling over the past few days.

With only this short distance remaining, someone of their caliber could make it back in about an hour if they moved at full speed.

After delivering the intelligence, Itachi had already departed ahead of them.

Outside the town, after everyone finished packing, they prepared to return to Konohagakure immediately.

The relaxed expressions Naruto and the others had worn during lunch were gone. Sakura and Hinata looked somewhat nervous, while the four boys, despite feeling a little tense, were filled with an inexplicable excitement.

The intelligence Itachi had brought had landed like a bomb in everyone's minds.

The Jinchūriki of every village had vanished? Three Great Shinobi Villages were showing signs of mobilizing their forces?

No matter how they looked at it, it felt like the prelude to another Great Ninja War.

They had only just been discussing war with their teacher, and now it looked as though one was about to become reality.

Would the young shinobi of the different villages—who had actually gotten along quite well with one another—not soon be meeting as enemies on the battlefield?

Yet after leaving the town, Makoto not only refrained from increasing their pace, but actually stopped after they had traveled only a short distance.

Sakura asked, "Makoto-sensei, shouldn't we hurry back?"

Makoto replied, "No rush. We're waiting for some friends from Sunagakure."

"Eh? People from Sunagakure? Why would they be coming to Konoha at a time like this?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Sure enough, not long afterward, a group of four appeared before them. It was Sunagakure's jōnin representative, Baki, accompanied by his three students.

Temari, Kankurō, and Gaara—still carrying the large gourd on his back. Judging from his appearance, he had recovered quite well over the past few days.

Baki greeted him, "Higashino Makoto-sama, I didn't expect us to meet again so soon."

Makoto smiled. "Neither did I. Looks like Sunagakure received the news even earlier than we did."

"That's right. A day ago, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure jointly sent Sunagakure an invitation. That's the reason I've come to Konoha."

"So this is Kazekage-sama's decision?"

"It is the unanimous decision of Kazekage-sama and Sunagakure's leadership. We trust Higashino Makoto-sama's character. We believe this is all the work of the Akatsuki's scheme."

"As Konoha's ally, Sunagakure will stand firmly beside your village and face the coming war together."

Makoto glanced at Gaara and the other two, knowing Sunagakure had made the right call this time. Rasa had even instructed Baki to bring all three of his children to Konoha as a show of sincerity.

"Good. Then let's go."

...

After returning to Konohagakure at top speed, an ANBU operative immediately arrived to summon them.

Makoto turned to Naruto and the others.

"You've had enough rest over the past few days. Go back and prepare yourselves. The village will be assigning you duties very soon. Things won't be peaceful from here on."

"Yes, Sensei!" ×6

After dismissing the team, Makoto led Baki and the other three toward the Hokage Tower.

That afternoon, Konoha convened a jōnin council meeting to deal with the sudden crisis.

Naturally, Baki and the others were not permitted to attend. They were escorted to a reception room next to the conference chamber.

Upon entering the meeting room, Makoto discovered that, aside from a handful of jōnin who were still away on missions and unable to return in time, every member of the jōnin council had already arrived.

Even the retired Third Hokage and his two old friends had made a rare appearance. Clearly, the situation in the shinobi world had changed once again.

By the time Makoto arrived, the meeting was already drawing to a close. After taking his seat, Shikaku handed him a copy of the meeting minutes along with the latest intelligence.

Makoto carefully read through everything from beginning to end and discovered that, after issuing their joint inquiry to Konoha, the three Great Shinobi Villages had mobilized shinobi as quickly as possible and were now concentrating their forces at a single location.

They were clearly preparing to wage war against Konoha together.

From their perspective, it looked obvious that Konoha had suddenly reclaimed all the Tailed Beasts through overwhelming force and was preparing to launch a war of conquest against every shinobi village and every nation.

Given how suspicious shinobi tended to be, it was a perfectly reasonable conclusion—even though, at the last Five Kage Summit, Konoha had explicitly declared that it had no intention of unifying the shinobi world through military force.

But no one believed what Konoha claimed. They only believed what they could see with their own eyes.

The purpose of Konoha's jōnin council meeting today was precisely to respond to this sudden crisis. As the meeting adjourned and the jōnin gradually departed, orders were relayed one after another. The village would transition into a wartime state as quickly as possible.

Only then did Minato ask, "Makoto, ANBU reported that Baki returned with you from Sunagakure. So, what have they decided to do?"

Makoto handed Rasa's confidential letter to Minato.

"You'll understand after reading it. Our allies proved fairly reliable this time. The Kazekage even sent all three of his children here."

After reading the letter, Minato let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness. Sunagakure didn't side with the others—they chose to stand with us instead. It seems sending you there really was the right decision."

Makoto nodded.

"Rasa isn't a fool. Baki is next door right now. If Konoha needs Sunagakure's cooperation, we can discuss it with him, and he'll notify the village."

Hiruzen, however, still looked worried.

"Three against two... Instead of fighting one another like before, the Five Great Shinobi Villages have split into two camps. This war... may well become the bloodiest one in history."

Makoto chuckled.

"Don't worry, Third. This is actually a good thing. Besides, who says we're all enemies? Someone won't be able to resist stepping out and taking everyone's anger onto themselves."

Koharu looked at Minato.

"Fourth, was all of this part of your plan with Makoto?"

Minato nodded.

"Don't worry. Everything is under control."

Homura sighed.

"I only hope the two of you succeed. For some reason, the Capital hasn't offered us any support this time."

Makoto and Minato exchanged a glance.

"..."

What other reason could there be?

It was obviously the will of the daimyō of the other four great nations.

A unified shinobi world would hardly benefit them. Maintaining the current balance of power was what best served those nobles.

Silently, the two of them mentally crossed that entire bunch of parasites off their lists.

...

Not long after leaving the conference room, Makoto encountered someone unexpected on the street. It appeared the man had been waiting specifically for him.

He wore black-rimmed glasses, had light brown curly hair, and possessed an approachable face that made him look completely harmless.

When he saw Makoto, he stepped forward.

"Makoto-sama, someone asked me to deliver this intelligence to you."

After handing over the scroll, the man left without another word.

Makoto knew him as Akado Manabu, one of Konoha's registered jōnin.

During the Third Shinobi War, Manabu had served on the same team as Hyūga Tetsu and Mitarashi Anko, with Orochimaru as their jōnin commander.

Unlike his two teammates, however, Manabu had always remained one of Orochimaru's sleeper agents inside Konoha.

Konoha's leadership knew his identity, yet they never touched him. Even in the world of Adult Sasuke, he continued living peacefully in Konoha and was never purged after Orochimaru's defection.

So regardless of which world it was, Orochimaru and Konoha had always maintained a channel of communication. Their relationship had never truly reached the point of irreconcilable hostility.

Makoto opened the scroll and quickly skimmed its contents before instantly reducing it to ashes.

Once again, Orochimaru had shamelessly sold out the Akatsuki.

Not only that, he made no attempt to hide the contributions he himself had made to the organization. It was as though he wanted to make the situation as chaotic as possible, simply so he could sit back and enjoy the spectacle.

What a twisted sense of humor.

It seemed that, after obtaining the immortality he had always desired, watching the upheavals of the shinobi world and uncovering the secrets hidden beneath it had become one of the few interests he had left.

Unlike what Makoto remembered, the Akatsuki hadn't leisurely hunted down the Tailed Beasts one by one this time.

Instead, they had concentrated all of their strength and captured every Jinchūriki in a very short period of time.

With Impure World Reincarnation Madara's Wood Release, Obito's space-time transportation, Black Zetsu's planning, and White Zetsu's intelligence network, accomplishing that wasn't difficult.

As a bonus, they had successfully shifted the blame onto Konoha, buying themselves valuable time.

It seemed that Makoto's strength—and Konoha's growing power—had placed enough pressure on them that they could no longer afford to act as brazenly as they had in the original timeline.