A few minutes earlier, a figure rushed through the vast deserts in the Land of Wind while Sunagakure dispatched several Anbu squads towards Aramachi town. Surprisingly, despite running for a long time, he didn’t run into a single Sunagakure ninja. As he ran, he glanced behind and thought, ‘My Clone ran out of chakra nearly an hour ago. By now, Sunagakure should have realized something is off. That said…’

A smile formed on his face as he chuckled and muttered, “What an unfortunate village… Of everyone they could have selected, they chose me… No, this isn’t bad luck, this is karma. It is retribution for their treacherous acts! Sunagakure is doomed! Hehe, I’m finally here!”

The ninja was running straight to the camp being set up by Fujin’s army. His movement was finally picked up by Sunagakure’s patrol squads, but they couldn’t identify who he was since he had used the Transformation jutsu. They wanted to stop him, but it was too late. He was very close to the Konoha camp. Several Konoha sensors, including Fujin and Hoka, also picked up his presence.

Hoka muttered, “A Jounin-level ninja is coming straight at us. I can’t see any traps on him. Hmm, that’s strange. He doesn’t look afraid. On the contrary, he seems happy and excited. What’s up with Sunagakure?”

Fujin replied, “Who knows? It’s a crazy village for sure. Maybe it has finally spread into their ordinary ninjas too.”

Renjiro glanced in his direction and asked, “Does he have seals hidden on his body? Or perhaps, poison?”

Fujin replied, “I don’t feel any seals on his body. As for poison, it’s hard to say. Though I have some knowledge about it, I can’t be compared to the experts in Sunagakure. Thankfully, poisons need a medium to travel. Anyway, this should be interesting.”

Renjiro and Hoka nodded. The Konoha ninjas responsible for keeping an eye out immediately reacted and confronted him. A Yamanaka ninja grabbed a kunai and asked, “Who are you? And, why did you come here?”

The ninja calmly answered, “I am here to meet Konoha’s Sword, Suzuki Fujin. I have something he needs.”

The Yamanaka ninja snorted, “Do you think we’ll let anyone meet our commande…”

He stopped talking as winds suddenly began moving around him and echoed, “Send him in…”

Surprise and shock appeared on the faces of the Konoha ninjas as well as the Sunagakure Jounin. He thought, ‘Incredible… His control over the winds is insane! No wonder those guys were so spooked! I would be too if I had to face something like this…’

Following Fujin’s orders, the Konoha ninjas led him into the main tent. The man finally dropped his disguise and respectfully said, “I’m Hisakawa Takahiro. I bring you information that is very critical for Konoha’s plans. However, it is extremely sensitive. The fewer people who know it, the better it would be for Konoha.”

Renjiro raised an eyebrow and wondered, ‘Information, huh? Is he betraying his village, or is he a…’

Renjiro glanced at others in the tent who quickly left. In a few seconds, only Fujin, Hoka, Renjiro, Illumi and Konomi were left in the tent, all watching Takahiro like hawks. Takahiro didn’t pay much attention to others, instead focusing on Fujin.

He thought, ‘Even though he is sitting with a harmless smile on his face, I can feel his intensity… If I make a single suspicious move, my head will roll before I realize… Sigh, he’s much different from Lord Third…’

Takahiro finally explained, “I was given a mission by Lord Third to infiltrate Sunagakure before the Third Great Ninja War started. Over the years, I have provided several crucial pieces of information to Konoha. According to my orders, I should have stayed there for a long time, but I saw an opportunity that I just couldn’t pass on.”

Fujin thought, ‘As expected. No wonder he is as calm as he is despite my intent.’

He smiled and asked, “So, what was the opportunity?”

With a grin on his face, Takahiro answered, “In order to prepare for an impending Konoha invasion, Sunagakure dispatched Fuinjutsu Grandmaster Renkaze to create over a hundred new small bases in the Land of Wind. They sent an Elite Jounin along with four Jounins to protect him. Unfortunately…”

A grin appeared on his face as everyone else in the tent was surprised. He continued, “They chose me as one of the four Jounins. Though it was difficult, I found an opportunity to make a move against them. I drugged them before killing them silently. I left a Shadow Clone to fool Sunagakure, but it ran out of chakra around an hour ago. They should have figured out something is off by now.”

Konomi’s eyes widened, ‘Did he really kill a Grandmaster? Sunagakure has only 3 of them! This is a huge blow!’

Others had similar thoughts while Fujin thought, ‘That’s 2 down. They now have only 1 in active duty. To lose 2 Elite Jounins and 2 Fuinjutsu Grandmasters merely due to coincidences… Those guys truly are unlucky.’

Takahiro grabbed a scroll, placed it on the table and said, “This scroll contains their well-preserved bodies. We can read Renkaze’s memories and understand more about Sunagakure’s seals. And…”

Takahiro pulled out another scroll, opened it and summoned a large folded paper from it under the watchful gazes of Fujin and others. He spread the paper on the table, showing a large map of the Land of Wind with several markings.

He explained, “The 84 blue markings here are the new bases Renkaze created after the attack on Konoha failed. The 116 green markings are the older bases whose seals he improved upon. And, the yellow markings are the location of other bases that I remember from my memory. They aren’t accurate, but knowing that ambush squads could be present there should help us save some lives.

Every base marked green has an ambush squad hiding there. As for blue markings, 52 of them are occupied while the rest are traps that will blow up if we send our ninjas inside. And, I have no idea about the status of the black markings. If we make a move swiftly and stealthily, we could eliminate over 1300 Sunagakure ninjas even before you launch your assault!

Combined with their losses in Konoha and several smaller but significant losses even before that, this will be a massive blow to Sunagakure! They’ll be forced to withdraw their remaining ambush squads and give us a clear path to Sunagakure. We will have an opportunity to destroy Sunagakure as revenge for attacking us!”

The more he spoke, the more passionate Takahiro became. There was little doubt about how much he hated Sunagakure for attacking Konoha. However, that wasn’t surprising. The leaders of the army focused entirely on the map laid out in front of them.

Everyone had a hard time believing that they had access to such information at this particular moment. Needless to say, the information was too good. However, unlike what Takahiro thought, the Konoha army wasn’t here to attack. They were merely applying pressure and had orders against taking a single step in the Land of Wind.

As such, everyone’s gaze turned towards Fujin, the commander of the army. Konomi and Hoka thought, ‘This intel… It is marvelous! If we make a move, we could cripple Sunagakure’s army and completely crush their morale. However, Shikaku… Will Fujin disobey Shikaku’s orders and act upon this intel?’

Illumi sighed internally, ‘This is troublesome… Why didn’t we get such information during the Second or Third Great War?’

Renjiro looked at Fujin, who was deep in thought, and said, “Fujin, don’t forget what Shikaku-san said.”

Fujin finally took his gaze off the map and looked at Renjiro. He said, “I understand, but the situation has changed drastically. With this information…”

Fujin thought, ‘Even though sending the army in could be risky, in case this is some sort of a trap. I could make a move and eliminate them one by one within a few hours. Unless Sunagakure realizes what’s happening and orders a mass retreat, they are doomed. That said, a mass retreat will be another opportunity to kill a large number of ninjas. Unfortunately…’

Fujin said, “Contact him and get his opinion. We’ll see what he has to say after this development. Takahiro, you’ve done a great job. Eliminating one of Sunagakure’s Grandmasters is a huge accomplishment.

However, it is also a sensitive matter as you rightly said. Returning to Sunagakure will be too risky for you now. Transform into a different disguise. You’ll stay with the army and return to Konoha with us. Let the absence of their Grandmaster stay a mystery to them.”

Takahiro nodded and left as Fujin continued thinking, ‘Unfortunately, there isn’t much for me to gain. If I could plunder their treasuries like I did in Kumogakure, it could have been worth the effort. However, my attack on Kumogakure had the element of surprise. Sunagakure knows that a war might be coming. They should have moved everything of value a long time ago. Finding it would be difficult and dependent on luck. It’s not worth it considering I could earn a lot more while just sitting here and enjoying the show…’

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