The Otsutsuki Road from Kirigakure

The speech of the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen lasted for more than half an hour. He was indeed an outstanding politician. Through his speech he downplayed the problems in his decision-making, while at the same time arousing everyone's momentum of solidarity against the enemy, fanning the hatred and anger in everyone's hearts and mobilizing everyone's passion for fighting.

"Now, in the name of the third Hokage of Konoha Village, I hereby declare that Konoha will enter a state of total war from now on. Every resident of Konoha, for you, for your loved ones, for your homes, from now on, contribute every bit of your strength to the village, to this war started by the enemy, and to our final victory! The battle horn has sounded, beat our war drums, put on our armor, take up our ninja swords, we will fight the enemy to the end and never surrender! Wherever Konoha dances, the fire will continue to live. The flames will continue to illuminate the village and let new leaves sprout!" Sarutobi Hiruzen ended with this widely circulated will of fire, which once again aroused a round of cheers.

Everyone who was listening to the speech became excited, and even some older ninjas recalled the passionate years of the last Ninja World War.

Although Sarutobi Hiruzen's voice was not majestic enough, his firm and passionate voice told every Konoha member that at this critical moment of life and death, Konoha will use all its strength to fight this war to the end and defeat every enemy until the final victory is achieved.

-----------------

Time quickly came to the end of the year. In the past three months, several battles involving thousands of ninjas broke out between Sand Village and Amegakure, and between Konoha and Amegakure. The battle lines had been gradually pushed back from their respective countries to the Land of the Rain.

When the two huge war machines of Sunagakure and Konoha started moving, although the Hidden Rain Village still had an advantage in the number of ninjas, the disadvantages of a small country and village had gradually begun to be exposed.

Sunagakure and Konoha only sent out a part of their ninjas, and the potential for subsequent wars is great, but Amegakure has already put all its efforts into facing these two behemoths. Hanzo, who has invaded two major ninja villages at the same time, is now in a difficult situation.

If it weren't for the fact that Sunagakure and Konoha were not on guard against each other, and even had some minor frictions occasionally, the Hidden Rain Village, which was a small ninja village that was trying to compete with the two large ninja villages, might have been invaded by Sunagakure and Konoha and invaded the heart of the Rain Country long ago, and would not be stuck in a stalemate near the border of the Rain Country now.

Hanzo of the Salamander, who originally had the ambition to lead the Hidden Rain Village and the Land of Rain to become the sixth largest ninja village and the sixth largest country, has recently been running back and forth between the two battlefields and is exhausted.

However, from another perspective, Hanzo did slow down the pace of the two major ninja villages, and achieved part of the original strategic goals mentioned by the Third Mizukage Bing.

Moreover, it is almost the new year, and the intensity of the war has slowed down a little recently. Although small-scale confrontations are still continuing, large-scale battles between the two villages have not broken out for some time.

At the same time, the Iwagakure Village and the Kumogakure Village, which had not yet joined the battle, had already prepared for war, sharpening their swords and ready to join the chaos at any time.

On December 34st of the 12th year of Kirigakure, the last day of the year, Kirigakure Village far away overseas paid no attention to the hustle and bustle of the ninja world and held a selection of ninja swordsmen at the No. 31 training ground in the north of the village.

The No. 15 training ground was built based on the huge artificial lake created by the first Mizukage Byakuren using water jutsu. It is one of the most frequently visited training places for the jonin of the Hidden Mist Village.

Quite a lot of ninjas had gathered near the training ground, some were there to participate in the selection, and some were there to watch the game.

Kiyoshi and his subordinates have also arrived. In addition to Kiyoshi, there are four other people participating in the selection for the first team. They are the team leader of the first team, Xiguashan Pufferfish, the team member of the first team, Biwa Juzo, and the team members of the sixth team, Kurisan Kushimaru and Murashi Shinpachi.

The others just came to watch the battle, or according to Qingsi, to see the world.

Among Seiji's friends and subordinates, Yagura has a family heirloom coral stick and cannot use a ninja sword. Although Chinano has strong combat capabilities, she mainly serves as a medical ninja. Zi specializes in ice escape, and Qing mostly serves as a perception ninja, so none of them chose to participate.

Although it is a tradition of the Hidden Mist Village that the Mizukage comes from the Shadow Guard of the previous Kage, all the members of the First Squad who are well aware of the huge gap in strength between them and Kiyoshi have no intention of competing with their superiors.

After becoming the squad leader, Qingsi would often exchange ninjutsu with his subordinates, imparting to them various ninjutsu that he had improved as well as a large amount of ninjutsu knowledge. The strength of the entire first squad has made great progress in the past year or so.

Xiguashan Pufferfish Demon, Biwa Juzo, Kurikaze Kushimaru and Murashige Shinpachi were deeply impressed by Kiyoshi's strength and his wise leadership that had never made any mistakes and clearly distinguished between rewards and punishments. They had not originally thought of competing with Kiyoshi, but only came to participate in the selection because Kiyoshi felt that they might be more suitable for four of the ninja swords.