Han left, forcefully dragging two extremely unwilling Ninja with him.
Roshi didn't hesitate and continued to give orders.
"Jonin Dokawa, Jonin Haishi, you are responsible for selecting Iwagakure Ninja who are skilled in stealth and have no attachments. Secretly lead them to the Land of Snow, to the sea, to countries that have not joined the Shinobi Alliance. The Village will list you as Rogue Ninja. Run, escape with all your might!"
With Han's departure, Dokawa and Haishi no longer hesitated and immediately agreed.
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama!" x2
Dokawa and Haishi once again forcefully dragged three more people from the room.
The office, which had previously felt a bit crowded with over ten people, now only had six people, including Roshi.
Looking at the remaining five people, Roshi said to them,
"Everyone, from now until the Allied Shinobi Forces arrive at Iwagakure, I will send you out one by one to your deaths. Are you afraid?"
Among the five, three were from the original War Faction, and one each remained from the Surrender Faction and the Escape Faction.
Facing Roshi's question, the five remained silent, but their resolute faces and fearless eyes said it all.
"Very good. Our mission is simple: buy time for Han and Dokawa!"
After the meeting concluded, the news of Roshi becoming the new Tsuchikage had already spread throughout Iwagakure.
Iwagakure, which had been fragmented, became united once again.
The feeling of the sky falling and not knowing what to do, which had plagued the ordinary Iwagakure villagers, had disappeared.
The gloom in their hearts still hadn't vanished, but at least they had regained their fighting spirit.
The sky might still fall, but everyone knew that the first one to be crushed would not be him.
A Kage is not just the actual leader of the Ninja; he is also the pillar of their inner world.
While Iwagakure appeared calm on the surface, beneath it, undercurrents surged.
Han's, Dokawa's, and others' actions are not to be mentioned for now, but Roshi also began to act in secret.
Many of those who had avoided eye contact at the previous meeting were secretly taken away, interrogated, and then dealt with.
The previous division within Iwagakure, with daily endless arguments, had caused the Village's espionage and counter-espionage work to almost come to a standstill.
Now, with Iwagakure once again having a unified will, counter-espionage work finally officially began.
Spies could never be completely eliminated; Roshi knew this well. However, the purpose of counter-espionage was not to completely clear the Village of spies.
Instead, it was to increase the difficulty for spies from other Villages to acquire and transmit intelligence, thereby minimizing the leakage of the Village's information.
-------
Allied Shinobi Forces.
The command center had already received news of Roshi's urgent ascension as the new Tsuchikage, and looking at the increasingly scarce intelligence being compiled.
The command center and the captains of each Village's forces understood that the good times were coming to an end, and they would soon truly face off against the Iwagakure Ninja.
However, everyone remained optimistic. The Ninja forces they brought existed for this very purpose, not to truly act as bandits in the Land of Earth.
Sunagakure forces' location.
As the Village that most needed this opportunity, Sunagakure's advance speed was the fastest.
While other Ninja Villages were still slowly gathering supplies, Sunagakure had long since finished everything, with the Puppet Brigade being key.
Unlike other Ninja Villages that could only turn acquired ore into various Ninja tools, Sunagakure had a large consumer of resources: the Puppet Masters.
Whether it was metal or wood, as long as it was suitable, the Puppet Masters would not hesitate to directly attach it to their own puppets.
Now, all the puppets in the Puppet Brigade had undergone drastic changes compared to before their departure.
There were also several large puppets that were hastily made during the march, serving as large logistics devices.
Not just the Puppet Masters, but everyone in Sunagakure's forces was beaming with joy, including the older ones who had experienced several Great Ninja Wars.
They had truly never been this wealthy since the day they were born.
Initially, during the looting, many newcomers who hadn't participated in war still had some psychological burden, but it was suppressed by the subsequent gains.
With the entry of the nobles, and all the people of the Land of Earth cheering behind them, all Sunagakure ninjas completely shed any psychological burden.
Sunagakure's convoy was orderly advancing towards today's objective.
The convoy structure was a common one: squads forming platoons, and platoons forming companies.
The squads adopted the classic three-one configuration, meaning three inexperienced newcomers paired with one seasoned veteran.
The journey was not yet halfway, and the objectives of each Ninja Village were still uniformly assigned by the command center.
Sunagakure's team, due to its lightning-fast actions of finishing work earliest every day, had recently become renowned among the Allied Shinobi Forces.
"Dong Wan, let's compete again today. Yesterday, I was careless and let you take the lead for a while. This time, you definitely won't beat me."
A boy of about fifteen or sixteen in a squad said to a deadpan-faced teammate beside him.
"Boring. You've been saying that since the beginning. You need to understand, I'm a Puppet Master. How could I lose to a regular Ninja like you!"
Dong Wan, the Puppet Master, showed no interest in his companion's boring challenge.
"Quiet down. The higher-ups said we might encounter Iwagakure Ninja starting today. Everyone be careful!"
The middle-aged Ninja walking in front was helpless against these lively youngsters. They reminded him of his first teammates; he had been a very lively fellow back then too.
Unfortunately, he had become increasingly silent after his teammates left one by one.
"Captain, don't worry. With my [Sand Tiger] here, no matter how many Iwagakure Ninja come, it'll be useless!"
Dong Wan patted his puppet, which had changed significantly in appearance, and said confidently.
The middle-aged captain shook his head, saying nothing, while the last girl in the team subtly curved her lips, watching the familiar scene.
[Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears!]
Numerous earth spikes erupted within the Sunagakure team, taking the lives of Sunagakure ninjas one by one.
The young Ninja watched in disbelief as Dong Wan, who had just been laughing and talking with him, was impaled by an earth spike.
"Take me... take my Sand Tiger, give it to Tetsu Maru, please... please."
The boy mechanically hugged the iron lump standing beside him, then stayed put, not knowing what to do.
"Captain, what should we do?"
The girl's clear voice rang out. Only then did the boy realize that another teammate had lost a leg, while the captain was looking up at the sky.
"Eat everything you can. Let's die with full stomachs!"
The middle-aged captain finished speaking, opened his Ninja tool pouch, and desperately crammed soldier pills and a multi-grain biscuit into his mouth.
The boy followed the captain's gaze to the sky and saw pure white, giant egg-like objects raining down.
Immediately, the entire squad's scene froze, engulfed by flames.
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