The meeting with the Anbu 'Root' ninja lasted less than ten minutes.
Afterward, these individuals once again went into hiding, likely only to reconvene when the official operation begins, to confirm their respective preparations.
Upon arriving at a secluded patch of grass, Shiraishi and his two teammates sat down in a circle.
"Speaking of which, what kind of organization is the Anbu 'Root'? Is there such an organization within the Hokage's direct Anbu?"
The Hokage's direct Anbu was a subject specifically taught in Ninja Academy textbooks, primarily to prevent future ninja from mistaking their village's Anbu for enemies. To avoid such an awkward situation, all Konoha ninja were knowledgeable about this organization.
Ninja who could join the Anbu were all masters. The Anbu primarily consisted of seventy members, divided into four squads, with each squad further divided into four teams. There were a total of sixteen squad leaders across the four squads.
And the strength of each squad leader was at least Special Jonin level.
They were responsible for protecting the Hokage's safety and carrying out various high-risk secret missions. They could be said to be the ninja who protected Konoha from the shadows.
However, Shiraishi had never heard of the Anbu 'Root', which made him suspicious of the identity of those ninja.
Ayane also shook her head. Anbu matters were inherently confidential. Most ninja knew of the organization's existence, its unit structure, and its numbers.
As for who joined it, and what each Anbu ninja specialized in, these were all classified information.
Ruri, however, frowned slightly, crossed her arms, and after a moment of silence, spoke, "I once heard the elders of my clan talk about the Anbu 'Root'. It is said to be a direct unit of another high-ranking official from the Senju lineage. This unit is even more deeply hidden than the regular Anbu, and the missions they undertake are even more unsavory. They adhere to a 'better to kill a thousand innocents than let one enemy escape' strategy, silently protecting Konoha from the shadows."
"They adhere to a 'better to kill a thousand innocents than let one enemy escape' strategy? Would the Hokage-sama condone such a thing?"
Shiraishi was puzzled by this.
If such a thing were to be exposed, it would deal a huge blow to the reputation of the Hokage and the high-ranking officials.
Even when the Anbu captured someone, they would go through an interrogation phase to determine whether the person was an enemy or an ally.
However, the Anbu 'Root' did not need to do so. If they subjectively judged someone to be an enemy, they would directly eliminate them.
If such an organization mishandled an operation, it could easily cause immense damage to the reputation of the ruling authorities, leading to their forced removal from power.
"This matter should be condoned. Without tacit approval, Root would not have been able to grow by leveraging the Anbu's power. The ninja of this organization have no names, no emotions, no past, and no future. They only have missions that must be completed."
After listening to Ruri's narration, Shiraishi and Ayane recalled the current mission: the Anbu 'Root' planned to use self-made human bombs to destroy the Sand Village ninja's supply point. This indeed fit the description of machines.
Their sole purpose was to complete their missions.
As for the means and sacrifices, those were matters to be considered after the mission, or not to be considered at all.
"They are truly a terrifying group of people."
Shiraishi sighed with emotion.
No matter when, people who disregard their own lives for a certain goal will always evoke fear from the bottom of one's heart.
Without the darkness of the abyss, there would be no beautiful and calm lake surface.
No matter the era, there is a need for these people who work silently in the shadows.
"Well, getting back to the main topic, what are your thoughts on this mission?"
Ruri spread out the map given to them by the Anbu 'Root' ninja on the ground. It was a precise map of the Land of Rivers, meticulously recording every location, along with distances and environmental information.
Ruri pointed to an area in the central part of the Land of Rivers. That was the location of the Hidden Sand Village's supply point, and also the target of Shiraishi's team's attack.
Shiraishi looked at the map and slowly said, "The supply point is very close to the Hidden Sand's camp. According to the marked distance, reinforcements can arrive in just ten minutes. This means we only have ten minutes of operational time, from creating a large-scale diversion to safely withdrawing from the battlefield. Our three-person team is too stretched."
The division of labor was very clear: Shiraishi's team of three was responsible for a feint attack, causing maximum chaos, then quickly withdrawing from the battlefield, allowing the Anbu Root ninja to enter and self-detonate, destroying all the Hidden Sand supply point's provisions, and completing the mission.
The difficulty of the mission lay in how to quickly and effectively cause a large-scale commotion within ten minutes, attract the attention of the Hidden Sand ninja, create a reliable attack environment for the Anbu 'Root' ninja, and then how to timely withdraw from the battlefield to avoid being affected by their own exploding tags.
"No matter how you look at it, ten minutes is too short."
Ayane nodded, agreeing with Shiraishi's statement.
The number of Hidden Sand ninja guarding the supply point in the Land of Rivers would certainly not be small, and Jonin-level ninja were even more so. For such an important area, even deploying more than ten Jonin-level ninja would not be excessive.
And besides Jonin, the number of Chunin deployed would not be small either. To complete a feint mission under the siege of so many Jonin and Chunin, with a time limit of ten minutes, was theoretically an almost impossible task.
"If we're talking about causing a commotion, I can use large-scale Fire Style jutsu. And because there are important supplies there, the Hidden Sand ninja won't use large-scale ninjutsu attacks, so that's an advantage for us. But getting out of the Hidden Sand's encirclement won't be easy. I remember you made a lot of practical gadgets before we left, right?"
Ruri glanced at Shiraishi.
"I didn't expect them to be useful so soon."
Shiraishi sighed helplessly, took out a scroll from his ninja tool pouch, unrolled it on the ground, and after releasing the sealing jutsu on it, a pile of items appeared with a puff of white smoke.
"These are..."
Ayane picked up a pellet similar to a smoke bomb, showing curiosity.
"Poisonous smoke bombs. Their range and duration are longer than ordinary smoke bombs, and there's also an antidote."
"But what if the enemy uses Wind Style to disperse it then..."
"It's fine. I'll use Fire Style jutsu then. If the enemy uses Wind Style to attack, it will strengthen my Fire Style jutsu and expand its range."
This way, the enemy's Wind Style could not be easily used, and the three of them could use the poisonous mist for their feint attack, causing a huge disturbance there.
However, after that, they would face a large number of Hidden Sand ninja pursuing them, so how to escape still needed careful planning.
By this time, the sky had already darkened. The river valley area bordering the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers was enveloped in night, and cold winds blew in gusts.
"Let's discuss the retreat plan as we go. We need to reach the mission location by midnight, and there's less than six hours left, so time is very tight."
This was a surprise attack plan, so there wasn't much time to strategize. The supply point had to be destroyed before it was relocated.
Otherwise, once the intelligence became outdated, it would not be so simple to pinpoint the Hidden Sand's supply point again.
◎
Late at night, at the Konoha camp on the border of the Land of Fire, it was so quiet that not even the chirping of insects could be heard.
Inside one of the tents, the simple electric light was dim, with only the center of the tent illuminated, while the edges remained covered in darkness.
Tsunade stood before a table, organizing a piece of intelligence.
Because this intelligence was of no small matter, it required meticulous scrutiny.
Just then, a white-haired ninja entered from outside.
"Tsunade, still working? It's already this late."
The newcomer was Jiraiya, one of the Sannin along with Tsunade. As soon as he entered, he smiled at Tsunade and greeted her.
"It's you, Jiraiya. Is something wrong?"
Tsunade looked up at Jiraiya, then continued to lower her head and carefully examine the intelligence.
It was clear she was not in the mood for conversation at the moment.
Seeing Tsunade like this, Jiraiya sighed softly and said, "I'm so sorry about Nawaki. If I had been there then..."
If he had been able to rush back quickly when the war between Hidden Sand and Konoha broke out, and watched over him with Orochimaru, perhaps Nawaki's tragedy could have been avoided.
However, that matter was already in the past, and the dead could not be resurrected. Seeing that Tsunade's smile was much less frequent than before, Jiraiya felt both worried and guilty.
"This has nothing to do with you!"
Tsunade's tone was very cold and hard.
Hearing Jiraiya mention Nawaki, Tsunade felt a pang of pain in her heart, but she quickly pulled herself together, refusing to be defeated by such a thing.
She now bore the lives and livelihoods of many Konoha ninja, and she absolutely could not show weakness at this time and be looked down upon.
"..."
Jiraiya stood silently to the side, not refuting Tsunade's words.
"Since you're back, just do your job quickly. Don't hinder my work here."
Tsunade's tone softened somewhat, but her intention to send him away was clear.
Jiraiya said nothing, but a look of disappointment appeared on his face.
"Wait!"
Tsunade suddenly called out to him.
"What is it?"
Jiraiya felt strange.
"The mission to raid the Hidden Sand supply point this time is Sakumo's squad, right?"
Tsunade suddenly asked a question unrelated to the present.
"It's Sakumo's squad. Because this mission is very important, and only Sakumo is suitable to complete it, the higher-ups assigned this mission to his squad."
This mission to cut off the Hidden Sand supply point concerned the direction of the future war.
If the mission could be completed perfectly, then the Hidden Sand Village would collapse due to insufficient supplies, and Konoha would achieve the greatest results with minimal sacrifices.
At that time, both sides would enter peace talks, ending the war that had lasted for more than two years.
If it failed, it would mean the war would continue to drag on, which was not a good outcome for Konoha and the Land of Fire.
The best outcome was to end the war quickly, with both sides entering peace talks to conclude the conflict.
Jiraiya had great trust in Sakumo's abilities, and consequently, he also had great confidence in this mission.
He probably wasn't the only one; the village side was likely already drafting the peace treaty between Konoha and Hidden Sand.
Seeing Tsunade's increasingly uneasy expression, Jiraiya's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly asked, "What happened?"
"The intelligence here conflicts with the plan Orochimaru and I devised. And this is not the usual contact signal used by the Anbu..."
Tsunade retrieved one document from a large stack of files.
Upon hearing this, Jiraiya's expression changed.
"Jiraiya, when you received intelligence from the Anbu in the village, are you sure it wasn't swapped out by someone?"
Tsunade frowned, looking at Jiraiya.
Because the matter was of great importance, the intelligence transmitted from Konoha this time was delivered by the Anbu to Jiraiya, and then personally escorted to the front lines by Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, to ensure foolproof safety.
"Impossible! I was with Sakumo's squad the whole way; no one could have tampered with this intelligence!"
Jiraiya snatched the intelligence from Tsunade's hand and read it carefully from beginning to end.
His face grew increasingly pale.
"W-what's going on? Why is the content here different from what Sensei Sarutobi told me?"
Jiraiya's shoulders began to tremble, and he looked at the intelligence displayed with some disbelief.
"It seems you've been played. Since no accident occurred during the journey, there's only one possibility: the Anbu you met in Konoha wasn't Sensei Sarutobi's subordinate."
Tsunade's words were like a bolt from the blue, stiffening Jiraiya's body and causing cold sweat to break out on his face.
This was completely messed up!
The failure to complete the mission was secondary. If his carelessness led to Sakumo's squad being wiped out in this mission due to enemy schemes, then that would be the real major problem.
"No, I must save them!"
Jiraiya, sweating profusely, rushed out of the camp without a second thought.
"Wait, Jiraiya, don't be impulsive. Even if you rush over now—"
However, by the time Tsunade caught up, Jiraiya had already disappeared into the vast night, his figure gone.
"That idiot, rushing to rescue them so recklessly, he'll easily be ambushed by the enemy!"
Tsunade cursed under her breath, only able to stand at the entrance of the tent, staring helplessly.