Yōkō went up to the guest room on the second floor and found the room where Nara Umeka had stayed.
Using Earth Release: Fish in Earth Reflection Technique to pass through the wall, Yōkō smelled the scent of cheap perfume.
A man and a woman lay on the bed, their clothes disheveled.
Yōkō ignored them and searched the room for signs.
He felt under the surface of the table and indeed found some indentations.
Bending down to look, he confirmed they were the Nara clan's cipher.
Later, he found the second and third sets of cipher marks in other places.
What a hassle, he still had to rearrange the three sets of cipher marks.
Just then, the woman on the bed woke up.
"What, another man! What do you take me for! You didn't mention there was another person before!"
The woman scratched the man's neck with her nails, drawing bloody marks.
The man woke up groggily and said, "What other man? There's only me."
"You still deny it! He's already in the room! If I hadn't noticed, would he have climbed into bed too?"
"What are you talking about!"
"More money! Stop sleeping! Pay me more first!"
The two looked around the room; it was empty.
"Are you so desperate for extra money you're seeing things? There's no one in this room."
The woman snorted sheepishly; she must have been seeing things, imagining another person in the room.
After leaving the inn, Yōkō first found the White Goat Squad and told them to follow him to the location indicated by the cipher.
The location indicated by the cipher was the town's only lumber yard.
Around the lumber yard, White Goat found new cipher marks.
The cipher indicated that Nara Umeka had already gone to the next town.
Yōkō was puzzled. Nara Umeka was being pursued deep behind enemy lines; why was she running around instead of hiding securely in one place?
They went to another town, but only found cipher marks near the lumber yard, not the person.
Following the cipher information, they arrived at a third town.
Again, around the town's lumber yard, White Goat found cipher marks. This time, the cipher finally didn't point to another town.
Inside the lumber yard, Nara Umeka's current identity was that of a timber merchant.
Her acting was excellent; the lumber yard owner didn't suspect her identity at all.
She was in the lumber yard, waiting for her goods to be loaded onto a cart.
However, her eyes occasionally glanced at a batch of goods nearby.
"Boss, that's high-quality Yellow Hardwood, right? Such a large quantity of Yellow Hardwood, who has such substantial resources?"
Yellow Hardwood was a premium material for puppet shells, being hard and highly malleable.
The lumber yard owner said:
"Yellow Hardwood is known as the bane of nails; even thin nails can't be driven into it.
All the Yellow Hardwood near this town has been bought up by a major merchant. I heard that merchant has connections to Sunagakure."
Nara Umeka had obtained the intelligence she wanted.
Crucial intelligence was often hidden in the details.
Back when Nara Umeka first became a staff officer in the Hokage Building, she analyzed an interesting piece of intelligence herself.
Whenever more onigiri were sent to the Forest of Death, it indicated the Konoha Anbu was planning a major operation.
Anbu ninja, when at their base, wouldn't eat military ration pills. Thus, onigiri wrapped with meat bits or fish flakes became the best supplemental food.
The Anbu's 'Onigiri Coefficient' – the more onigiri, the more difficult the mission.
She had even told Clan Head Rokaku about this observation, and he praised her, cautioning her that since it involved the Konoha Anbu, she must not speak of it.
Forced away from the front lines and hiding deep in the Land of Wind, while escaping, Nara Umeka saw two carts of Yellow Hardwood and judged that Sunagakure might be planning a major operation.
Someone was buying Yellow Hardwood in large quantities.
For the Suna-nin, Yellow Hardwood had one important use: making puppets.
Puppets from Sunagakure typically had steel frames, with shells made from Yellow Hardwood and other hardwoods.
Judging from the abnormal sales of Yellow Hardwood, Sunagakure might be organizing a military adventure, one primarily involving puppet masters.
Nara Umeka thought of many things internally, but showed nothing on her face. She said:
"Yellow Hardwood is so expensive. I wonder when I'll have the capital to participate in the Yellow Hardwood trade."
As soon as she finished speaking, the sandy ground suddenly burst open.
Flying sand obscured Nara Umeka's vision as a kunai with a purple-glinting tip stabbed towards her abdomen.
Nara Umeka quickly jumped backward, barely dodging the poisoned kunai's thrust.
After landing, she immediately formed hand seals, preparing to use her shadow secret technique to control the pursuing Suna-nin and seize an opportunity to escape.
However, a sound of something cutting through the air came from behind her.
Two snake-shaped puppets emerged from the woodpile behind her.
Poisoned kunai extended from the mouths of the long snakes, heading straight for Nara Umeka's back.
Nara Umeka turned her head, intending to have her shadow stab backward to control the shadows of the snake puppets.
But she was still too slow.
She only managed to control one snake puppet. The other snake puppet was extremely fast, unavoidable. She watched helplessly as the kunai stabbed towards her shoulder.
Clang!
After a clear, sharp sound, Nara Umeka saw a large hand pressed against her shoulder.
The poisoned kunai from the snake puppet had struck the back of that hand.
Against the red-copper-colored back of the hand, the kunai's tip shattered.
"Copper Fox?"
She hadn't expected Clan Head Rokaku to send Copper Fox to rescue her.
Copper Fox was a rising star on the Land of Rivers battlefield, his reputation growing.
Pushing Nara Umeka's back, Yōkō said, "Follow me."
White Goat found the puppet master hiding in the shadows and created an escape opportunity for the others by fiercely attacking the puppet master.
The Konoha personnel quickly fled.
Nara Umeka followed behind Copper Fox, thinking she was safe now.
After escaping the town, Yōkō said, "Let's go, Umeka Jonin. We should return to the main camp as soon as possible."
But Nara Umeka shook her head and said:
"No. Right now, there's something more important than our lives.
The abnormal Yellow Hardwood market relates to the movements of Sunagakure's elite puppet masters.
I suspect Sunagakure might be sending a large number of elite puppet masters to launch a surprise attack on the Konoha frontline forces.
We must investigate the flow of Yellow Hardwood to determine the intelligence regarding Sunagakure's elite puppet masters, such as their assembly point and route direction."
Most Konoha shinobi possessed a strong spirit of self-sacrifice.
Faced with danger, their first thought wasn't to escape, but to die for Konoha.
Nara Umeka's choice surprised Yōkō somewhat, greatly changing his impression of her.
He had previously thought Nara Umeka was a pampered elite from a great clan, but he hadn't expected her to have such courage now.
Where did she get this courage from? Wait, could it be from him?
After a moment's hesitation, Yōkō said, "Alright, you devise the investigation plan. We are responsible for protecting you."
He couldn't go against Konoha's political correctness.
Nara Umeka was very certain the Anbu would follow her opinion and didn't find it surprising.
The group hid outside the town, waited for a long time, and eventually encountered a camel train.
Over twenty camels left the town, each carrying five heavy logs of Yellow Hardwood tied to its sides.
After following the camel train from a distance for several days, Nara Umeka said, "The merchants in the camel train have astonishing stamina, completely unlike ordinary civilians. They are likely shinobi in disguise."
Yōkō, meanwhile, was calculating the time.
They were in the middle of nowhere. He couldn't waste this month's lottery draw. Who should he 'draw' it from?
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(Chapter End)