Hiruzen stood in his office by the window, his gaze heavy. He appeared to have no interest in the scenery outside.

The Third Raikage had died in battle at the Sand Village.

For a Great Ninja War that had only just erupted, this news was nothing short of a thunderbolt striking the ninja world.

From Konoha’s perspective, it was beneficial. After all, Konoha was fighting the Hidden Cloud Village on its own front. Losing the Raikage would undoubtedly have a significant impact on Cloud Village operations.

However, unlike the Sand Village, the Hidden Cloud Village was almost equal to Konoha in terms of economy, military strength, and population, far surpassing the current Sand Village in overall reserves. Their resources remained substantial.

But the Third Raikage’s death would inevitably affect their front line battlefield. Most likely, Ai would have no choice but to step forward and take over, succeeding as the newly appointed Raikage under these circumstances.

Compared to the Hidden Cloud Village, Hiruzen was more worried about the Hidden Sand Village.

Having just assessed the Sand Village’s current state, its rise appeared genuinely unstoppable.

The Sand Village’s military strategy and battlefield tactics had clearly undergone fundamental changes, producing a new generation of talent unlike what had come before. Adding to that the equally renowned Akasuna no Sasori, and now the emergence of another top-tier Kage-level warrior in Blood Doctor Yuji, Hiruzen felt a genuine sense of danger that he could not dismiss.

He could even foresee it. The future of the Sand Village was extraordinarily bright.

Looking back now, the mysterious disappearance of the Third Kazekage had not dealt nearly as heavy a blow to the Sand Village as it should have. Someone had been holding everything together and pushing it forward through that entire period.

"A fifteen-year-old Kage."

Hiruzen sighed after thinking this through.

The talent was truly dazzling. Even he could not help but feel a reluctant admiration. This young man’s brilliance almost overshadowed the entire generation of the ninja world.

No one could genuinely compete with him at this stage. He had quite literally stepped over the bodies of those who came before him to climb to the absolute top of the pyramid.

Hiruzen understood precisely what level of strength the Third Raikage had possessed. No matter how he compared it, at minimum this young man had ensured that no one in the entire ninja world would dare to underestimate the Sand Village ever again.

"It is him again!"

On the other side of the ninja world, in the Hidden Stone Village, the old man Onoki also received the news.

Onoki’s body rose from his chair, floating upward as it often did when agitation overrode his composure. Then he settled back down.

Standing beside him was his son Kitsuchi.

From the Hidden Stone Village’s perspective, the sequence of events had been startling in its speed. A Sand Village genius had suddenly eliminated the Third Raikage and then immediately become the Kazekage. There had been absolutely no warning.

The news had only reached them in stages over the past few months. The Sand Village had fired the opening shot of the Great Ninja War at the Land of Rivers and Land of Fire border, dealing severe damage to Hiruzen and the Konoha army.

Following that, the two villages’ armies had clashed continuously in small-scale engagements within the Land of Rivers. A few days ago, those smaller exchanges had escalated into a major battle.

And then, in what felt like the blink of an eye, the Third Raikage had attacked the Sand Village, been counterattacked, and killed. The Land of Wind and the Sand Village had simultaneously transmitted the news outward. At fifteen years old, Yuji had become the youngest Kage in history.

In terms of understanding the Hidden Cloud Village, the Hidden Stone Village considered themselves more informed than Konoha. After all, the Great Ninja War had created a significant and direct feud between them.

"That young devil is terrifying. Not only did he kill the Raikage, he dealt with the entire situation in a remarkably short window of time afterward."

"He developed to this point and then rose to power in just a matter of days."

"That alone proves one thing," Onoki said in a low voice. "After fighting the Raikage to the death, he did not even need significant time to recover from his injuries before handling everything else."

This was what concerned the old man most. If he had killed the Raikage but was himself left severely injured in the process, that would be somewhat within the range of what he could accept and understand.

But to fight that kind of battle to the death and then apparently carry on without any meaningful period of recovery afterward, that was genuinely troubling.

However, in Onoki’s overall view of the situation, the Raikage dying was ultimately a matter of powerful figures destroying each other. Whoever died among that group, the Hidden Stone Village could only feel satisfied.

After the previous Great Ninja War, the Hidden Stone Village and the Hidden Cloud Village had continued fighting each other on the battlefield for a very long time afterward.

As for Yuji’s reputation, it had now been officially and unmistakably ignited across the entire ninja world without any exaggeration. This was the person who had been steadily beating the Hidden Stone Village’s forces throughout this conflict.

The young man had leaped onto the stage in the most dramatic way imaginable.

Yuji, one person, had killed over a hundred Hidden Stone Village members across the battlefield and inflicted devastating losses on the Hidden Stone Village’s forces throughout the campaign.

To this day, many within the village harbored deep and personal hatred for this young man. Without any exaggeration, if he had not been present on that battlefield, the Hidden Stone Village’s casualties would have been at least halved. They might even have come away with meaningful gains against the Sand Village.

But this infuriating young man had ultimately forced the Hidden Stone Village to passively accept a ceasefire, and even then only after paying an extremely heavy price. They had gained no strategic advantage whatsoever from the entire engagement and had instead come close to a complete collapse.

This made Onoki grind his teeth with a hatred that was deeply personal. He genuinely wished he had never encountered this particular young man.

Otherwise things would have gone very differently.

"What did the Daimyo say?" Onoki regained his composure and looked toward the yellow-skinned man beside him, who was Kitsuchi.

"The Daimyo has returned with the documents. He expresses his congratulations to them," Kitsuchi said, scratching his head with a somewhat awkward smile.

"Hmph!"

Onoki snorted coldly. Their village was in the middle of a chaotic and costly war, yet these Daimyo figures seemed completely unaffected by any of it, sending congratulations as though attending a pleasant social occasion.

"Prepare yourselves. We have just withdrawn our forces from the Land of Wind and Land of Fire battle lines. Next, we launch a full-scale offensive against the Land of Lightning. Taking advantage of the Hidden Cloud Village’s weakened state after losing the Raikage, I want them to pay the price for everything that happened before."

Onoki looked at Kitsuchi, who was still standing in place.

"What are you standing there for? Go!"

"Yes," Kitsuchi nodded with a somewhat sheepish expression and turned to leave.

It was clear that even though Kitsuchi himself was getting on in years, he still felt a degree of instinctive wariness around his father.

"By the way, how is the Sand Village pharmaceutical procurement going?"

Just as Kitsuchi’s foot was crossing the threshold, Onoki seemed to suddenly remember something and called after him sharply.

Kitsuchi stopped and turned back.

"Now that the ninja world and the Sand Village maintain cooperative relationships through various nations and villages, although there is no outright shortage of supply, given how precious this medicine is, purchasing it indirectly through intermediaries costs more than double the market price.

Furthermore, the worsening ninja war is causing prices to rise sharply with each passing month."

He continued.

"Add to that the ongoing conflict itself. During this period, both villages and nations are prioritizing these medicinal resources for their own battlefield use. Even offering money does not guarantee they will sell to us.

Currently, the medicinal resources we have acquired through unofficial channels are only sufficient to sustain a short-term battlefield operation. And purchasing through intermediaries indefinitely is clearly not a viable long-term strategy.

The financial burden on the village would become unsustainable."

Kitsuchi delivered this assessment earnestly.

"Understood. Go now," Onoki said, waving his hand.

Kitsuchi left.

Onoki sat with his thoughts for a moment.

The Sand Village was clearly controlling supply deliberately, not releasing the full volume of production onto the market unchecked.

This kind of approach was a calculated strategy, an attempt to use this Great Ninja War to inflate prices and generate enormous profit from the demand created by every village’s desperate need for battlefield medicine.

The war had only been underway for a few months, and the situation in each village and country had not yet reached its most critical and desperate point. But the value of the Sand Village’s pharmaceuticals had already become undeniably apparent to everyone watching.

The product was simply too effective to dismiss or ignore. Otherwise the Third Raikage would never have put himself in personal danger by going directly to another village to steal it.

The consequences of that decision were now obvious to everyone.

"The Fourth Kazekage," Onoki murmured quietly to himself, staring at nothing in particular.