In the fourth ninja world war that was supposed to happen a few years from now, the army of the alliance made by the various hidden villages as well as the samurai from the land of iron only consisted of 80000 members... and they lost half of them on the first day!

Now however, the number of beasts of A rank alone surpasses 100000, not to mention the hundreds of S rank!

This force wasn't something that could be faced by normal means, so Bakorio planned to build academies in each land that work as both a way to gather talents to groom into strong ninjas or samurais depending on their potential as well as bases of command!

Thankfully, humans will always remain smarter than beasts so they can find a way to overcome the difference in strength...

…

Hearing Bakorio's question, Fugaku responded with his face still stern from the earlier shocking information "Yes, we already got the approval of the other major lands with the exception of the land of lighting…"

"Hmm, so the land of iron joined our alliance as well?" Asked Bakorio with intrigue and Fugaku nodded in response before he said "Yes, They decided to join our alliance under the leadership of their general Mifune"

"I see, that's good to hear, make sure to finish building those academies as soon as possible, as you can see, just dealing with those devil gates will be a problem in the near future if far more stronger devils keep leaving them… We will need to produce more manpower as soon as possible"

Fugaku remained silent before he nodded and said "I understand"

Understanding how hopeless he was feeling at the grim future they were facing through his Jikininki, Bakorio smiled slightly at Fugaku before he said "Don't worry, I'm preparing many things to face this disaster, trust me"

Seeing the confident look on Bakorio's face, Fugaku felt a rush of adrenaline emerging from the deepest part of his soul, and even Shikaku felt the same as he clenched his hands and said "Let's do this"

Bakorio nodded at them before he disappeared with the confident smile having been completely wiped out of his face and was replaced with pure coldness…

'We've allied with the land of iron huh, I guess it's time I go find that man… it's time to evolve my swordsmanship mastery and grow stronger!'

….

As Bakorio was trying to react to the ever-changing situation all around the globe, a huge rush of dark energy was rising to an unknown location. It was generated from all the chaos that was happening…

And in that location covered in absolute darkness, 4 people were currently kneeling in front of a throne in a dimly lit room…

"How's the situation?" Spoke the hidden shadow on the throne with an eerie tone as the sound of chains rustling echoed in the background…

"Everything is going as intended with the gates of hell, we didn't initiate an all-out attack and we plan to slowly increase the level of devils emerging from the gates, in fact, this is a good way to train my underlings as well" The first one to speak was Amatsu whose forces were currently putting the biggest pressure on the hidden villages…

"My demons are slowly conquering the land of demons and will soon try to spread to the rest of the world" Replied Doji with as few words as possible as his dark abyssal eyes threatened to swallow the few traces of light left in the room…

"My… My ghosts are being hunted down by an unknown force that can control the power of death… we weren't able to deal as big of an impact as the others" spoke Izumo hesitantly which made him receive looks of scorn from his peers, yet the shadow on the throne didn't say anything... yet!

"My forces haven't made a move yet, I'm waiting to see what kind of preparation the humans will make to face us before I decide on the amount of power necessary to deal with them, after all, our mission isn't to eradicate them, that would be too easy…" Seiryu spoke calmly with the wild aura usually seen surrounding his body now appearing to be restrained.

After each one of them gave his report, the rustling sounded once more before the eerie voice said "Izumo, I'm disappointed"

Izumo instantly knelt even lower and said "I'm sorry my lord, I'm going to rectify the situation as soon as possible"

An eerie silence covered the room as Izumo and the other three were covered by a terrible aura that sent chills down their spines as a devilish voice, seemingly coming from their very hearts echoed throughout their bodies

"My darkness, It was forged by my prison for countless years and I vowed, that I will make my suffering bloom until I'm free again…" After some silence, the eerie voice echoed in their hearts again

"I have no goodness left, it was taken from me, stolen! So, all I want you 4 to do is spread my terror, tear from the consciousness of these people the will to live, leave no traces of hope, force them to embrace despair… Until the time comes, for me to reap their souls!"

After this voice echoed in their hearts, the four of them found themselves back in their domains and they all had cold sweat covering their bodies as the curse that was controlling them triggered one last time as the eerie voice said "I won't accept failure"

"That idiot Izumo really screwed us up along with him" Thought Seiryu with an awkward smile after regaining his bearing and he could only wish that this kind of mistake doesn't occur again...

"Just who in the hell could seal such a monster…" Muttered Amatsu before she shook her head and continued to order her followers…

….

Meanwhile, in the pure lands, Izumo's face was twisted like that of a ghost as he called for his right-hand man Mara and yelled "How come our ghosts got captured the moment they left the pure land?"

Mara froze slightly before he bowed slightly although it was hard to notice with his already hunched back before he said "Izumo-sama, I detected someone using the impure land summoning Jutsu to capture our ghosts and trap them into weird seals… This is clearly a carefully laid out plan targeted against us"

Izumo frowned slightly since he didn't expect such a thing would happen 'The ghosts are quite strong if someone doesn't know how to deal with them in their spiritual form, but if the person dealing with them is experienced with souls, it would be a piece of cake to deal with them before they possess a body… this is quite troublesome' thought Izumo before he ordered

"Have you found the identity of the person using Edo Tensei?" Asked Izumo calmly and Mara instantly replied "I'm sure he's working with the dead hunters, as for his identity, the most likely suspect is Orochimaru"

Izumo went silent for a while before he ordered "Send the soul reapers to claim his head for me"

Mara calmly bowed again before he said "As you wish, Izumo-sama" before he took his leave while thinking 'It seems like Izumo-sama is truly angry… for him to actually mobilize the soul reapers this early…'

…

Meanwhile, Orochimaru suddenly felt an itch in his nose until he sneezed and he couldn't help but wonder "Is someone talking about me?" before he shook his head and continued his research.

Meanwhile, Kabuto was working on improving Edo Tensei and he was the one behind the capture of the ghosts, yet Orochimaru was soon going to face the wrath of a terrifying being for something he didn't even do, and that being was the living representation of the thing he wished to avoid the most… Death!