[Cloud Village]
[Raikage's Office]
After finishing reading the letter in his hand, the Raikage passed the letter to Dodai.
This letter claimed to have been brought by people from the Land of Fire.
There were quite a few words on the letter, but the content was very simple.
Sarutobi Hiruzen had taken away the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki; Konoha was now effectively without a tailed beast.
Also, Sarutobi Hiruzen had taken a large number of ANBU with him; the Hyuga clan's main family, including the head Hiashi, had been wiped out, and the branch family had tens of casualties.
The Hyuga had lost at least one-third of their strength.
Next, the letter listed which ANBU members had gone with Sarutobi Hiruzen's forces.
The list was very detailed, it could only have been leaked by someone on the inside.
Dodai read it with a grave expression; after all, with this information, the people he had sent to gather intelligence could even return.
"Is this real?", the Raikage asked uncertainly.
"Bring those three people up," Dodai ordered the ANBU first, then said to the Raikage, "It's possible this is true."
"But we can't be sure which side they're from."
There was a flicker of excitement in the Raikage's eyes. Previously they only knew Sarutobi Hiruzen had been driven off, but they didn't know that so many ANBU had left with him.
Especially that the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was no longer in Konoha, for the Cloud Village this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
At that moment there was a knock on the door.
The three people who claimed to be from the Land of Fire had already been brought in.
Dodai stared at the three and asked, "How did you obtain this intelligence?"
The man leading them looked at the Raikage, his voice calm and flat, "Have you seen this intelligence, Raikage-sama?"
The Raikage nodded.
The three exhaled. The leader then took another scroll from his person.
Just as the Cloud Village people took the scroll, something sudden happened.
The three exchanged glances, their mouths moved, and marks appeared on their faces; a burning, charred smell rose.
They all collapsed, bleeding from their seven apertures.
The Raikage was stunned, what the hell?
The ANBU hurriedly formed a protective barrier around the Raikage.
Dodai showed only mild surprise, "Bring Cee over."
Then, after a quick check of the three, they found the same intelligence scrolls on each of them as before.
It seemed they had worried that one scroll might not get through, so they brought three as insurance.
When they opened the last scroll, there was nothing on it, only a special seal.
But seeing that seal made Dodai's face change immediately.
He hurried to the Raikage's desk, took out an old piece of intelligence, and compared them.
They were identical.
At that moment Cee entered. On the Raikage's signal, Cee began to inspect the three as well.
The inspection results quickly came back. Cee reported, "Boss, these three are suicide troops; they have binding seals and poison inside them."
"Their suicide was to prevent any information from being revealed."
Dodai handed the seal in his hand and the old intelligence to the Raikage.
"Raikage, these people were the ones Konoha used to send us for intelligence."
The Raikage took the two seals, compared them, they were exactly the same.
"Could it be Danzo?"
"But Danzo is supposed to be dead."
In previous skirmishes, the Cloud Village had been receiving intelligence from a mysterious Konoha force, which had given them a lot of advantage.
Even the deployment map for the Hyuga household on Hinata's coming-of-age day a few months ago had been sent by that force.
Dodai and the Raikage had reasoned before that this person was very likely a high-ranking Konoha official, possibly Shimura Danzo himself.
But now that Danzo was dead, and yet the same kind of intelligence was still being sent, it became strange.
Moreover, suicide troops like these were not something ordinary people could maintain.
Still, the credibility of the intelligence had increased.
Dodai pondered a moment, "It's fine, we don't need to worry about who the source is."
"We just need to wait for our people to return this time; then we'll know whether this information is true."
———
[Konoha Village]
Rengoku was walking the streets with Karin, eating some street food.
Even though thirty thousand people had left Konoha, it didn't really affect Konoha's ordinary commercial districts.
With a resident population of hundreds of thousands, Konoha's daily transient population numbered in the thousands.
As long as the Five Great Nations weren't at war, merchant caravans kept moving.
The Land of Fire's largest commercial hub was in Konoha Village.
After all, so many people gathered here, many merchant caravans chose to come here to trade.
Karin's whirlpool body type stored energy astonishingly well, even very high-calorie food was absorbed quickly.
Right now Karin was eating fried rice cakes.
These are made from glutinous rice; a small bowl can fill you up, and after frying and adding sugar they're a calorie bomb.
Rengoku had already seen Karin eat ten portions and was impressed.
It made him very hungry, and he himself ate two portions.
But since Karin's body stabilized after the previous changes, her form seemed fixed to the age her body represented.
Rengoku, of course, hadn't simply brought Karin out for fun, he had another task.
At that moment an Uchiha approached Rengoku to report.
"Clan Head, Sarutobi Ishishu has been summoned."
Rengoku nodded slightly. From the moment Ishishu had been brought back, Rengoku knew Ishishu was going to try to escape.
Even if he hadn't been summoned, they had likely prepared other escape options.
But letting Ishishu go was part of Rengoku's plan as well.
"Tell Konan and the others to issue a statement."
"Yes!", The Uchiha left quickly.
Information from Sarutobi Hiruzen's side had not yet returned; Rengoku didn't yet know whether Hiruko would cause trouble for them.
But that didn't affect his plan; he would proceed as arranged.
"One more piece, ah!", Karin speared another rice cake and offered it to Rengoku.
Rengoku stuffed it into his mouth. The fried crust over the rice cake had sweet red sugar and crushed sesame on top.
It was chewy, soft, and sweet.
"After you eat, you have to work, okay?", Rengoku waved and had his companion pay the vendor, then left with Karin.
"Burp!"
Karin belched without a care and patted her full belly.
"Shishou, Kimimaro and Haku are on missions; leave village affairs to me!"
Konoha had four great clans deployed at once, including the Hyuga's losses and redeployments.
Uchiha elites were currently maintaining stability within the village; there was a shortage of hands for outside missions.
Orochimaru had already recalled Guren and the Sound Village people.
The elite class students were all dispatched, including Neji.
Hinata didn't go out because she was staying to care for five-year-old Hanabi's emotional state.
In fact, since the incident at home, Hinata and Neji hadn't seen each other; Rengoku planned to have them meet only after their emotions stabilized.
As for Naruto and Sasuke, their identities were sensitive; sending them out would make them easy to capture, so Rengoku hadn't sent them.
Karin had recently supplemented her sensory knowledge under Nagato's guidance and now could use the Kagura Shingan skill proficiently.
Rengoku specifically kept her behind to catch spies and White Zetsu.
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