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Among the several intelligence scrolls, the one delivered first reached the Stone Village's side. This was only natural, as Onoki was personally stationed at the border camp.
"Who goes there?!" The ninja who had come to deliver the intelligence scroll was intercepted immediately. In an instant, a group of Stone Village ninja, their gazes far from friendly, surrounded him. "The Leaf Village's claws really do reach far, don't they? You dare to come hopping onto our Land of Earth's territory all by yourself? Haven't you ever seen death before?"
Gulp! Taking in the hostile faces encircling him, the Leaf ninja sent to deliver the message instantly began to panic slightly. He hastily held up the scroll and shouted, "Everyone, please do not be alarmed! I am not a combatant. I am merely here under the Advisor's orders to deliver a piece of critical intelligence to the Tsuchikage."
Under these circumstances, the best course of action was to immediately clarify his identity. Even between warring sides, envoys would not be overly mistreated. In war between two sides, the messenger is not to be executed. This principle holds true no matter which world you're in. If you start slaughtering people sent from the opposing side to deliver letters, relay intelligence, or engage in negotiations, who would dare to dispatch envoys in the future?
"Hmph. You'd better not be lying, or it won't end well for you." Once the Leaf ninja had stated his identity and purpose, the surrounding Stone Village ninja suppressed their impulse to seize him outright. Still, vigilance was absolutely essential. "Kid, you'd better behave yourself and not try any tricks. We'll take you to see Lord Tsuchikage."
Someone who came purely to deliver a message – seizing or killing them outright would be unreasonable. Even body searches were best avoided, as word getting out would invite ridicule. "Everyone, rest assured, I truly am only here to deliver an intelligence scroll. I am not a combatant of my village."
Seeing that the Stone ninja had no intention of making a move, the Leaf intelligence courier finally breathed a sigh of relief. If there was any alternative, who would willingly court death? To be killed while delivering a piece of intelligence – anyone caught in such a fate would die feeling utterly wronged. Fortunately, although the stares directed at him could practically kill, they had restrained themselves from taking action.
"You'd better be telling the truth." The captain of the Stone Village squad waved his hand and led his men, keeping the Leaf ninja under constant surveillance all the way back to the camp.
"Lord Tsuchikage, we intercepted a Leaf Village ninja outside. He claims not to be a combatant, but rather a representative sent by the Leaf's Hokage Advisor to deliver an important piece of intelligence."
"Sent by Uchiha Kazuki?" Onoki furrowed his brow slightly and muttered to himself, "What intelligence could that boy be sending? Bring the intelligence scroll here and let him depart." Even in the heat of war, envoys were not to be executed – let alone one who had come solely to deliver information. As long as it was confirmed he wasn't attempting any deception and was genuinely there to deliver intelligence, he would be guaranteed safe departure.
"Yes, sir." The Tsuchikage's guard hastily ran out from the command post and soon returned with a scroll that had been inspected and deemed harmless. The fact that the scroll could be brought directly before Onoki signified that it had already been checked and contained no danger; it could be read immediately. Onoki unfurled the scroll and began to read, curious to see exactly what intelligence Kazuki had sent him.
"Hmm?"
"HMM?!!!" After scanning a few lines of the intelligence scroll, Onoki's eyes narrowed sharply. In the next instant, the old man practically leaped into the air, his eyes bulging as wide as a bull's. He couldn't stop himself from blurting out a coarse exclamation: "What the hell... the Mizukage has been controlled by the Akatsuki?!" Was this some kind of joke?! No – Kazuki wouldn't joke about a matter like this. It had to be true. The source of the information was also reliable. Hoshigaki Kisame, the S-rank rogue ninja from the Mist Village, had genuinely defected to the Leaf Village and spilled every secret he knew. Good heavens!! Onoki could only exclaim "good heavens" in sheer shock. The wars between the villages had all started under bafflingly murky circumstances to begin with, especially the conflict between the Mist and the Sand. A single inexplicable assassination had directly triggered a full-scale war, setting off a chain reaction of consequences that ultimately caused the Stone Village's own hidden problems to detonate, forcing them into war as well. Connecting all these causes and effects, Onoki ground his teeth in seething fury.
"The Akatsuki!!!" If not for their shadowy machinations, the Stone Village would never have been forced onto this path. Their daily circumstances might not have been comfortable, but at least they could get by. The village's forces were strong, and no one dared to provoke them lightly. Yet because of the war between the Mist and the Sand, the balance had been shattered, causing the village's internal powder keg to explode. To make matters even more outrageous, the Akatsuki had added fuel to the fire with the Four-Tails Night incident, directly causing the Stone Village to blow up entirely and leaving them with no choice but to march down the road of external war. Those accursed sewer rats.
Trembling from head to toe with rage, Onoki slammed the scroll down onto the table and began cursing furiously like a marketplace shrew, the intensity of his outburst revealing the inferno of fury blazing in his heart. It was quite a while before Onoki paused, panting heavily. Having vented for some time, the rage in his heart had dissipated somewhat. Staring at the scroll on the table, Onoki mused darkly, "It seems the war between the Mist and the Sand will be brought to a close by this piece of intelligence. So what of our own village?"
Both the Mist Village and the Sand Village had nearly emptied their coffers and exhausted their foundations due to this war. Once this intelligence was thrown out into the open, the conflict between those two villages could be halted, or at least paused. Even if it didn't stop completely, their offensive momentum would undoubtedly slow. The Sand Village would be affected in this way. As for the Mist Village... at a time like this, who still had the leisure to care about some war? Cleaning house and rooting out corruption from within would be their top priority. And the Mist Village would come to detest the Akatsuki even more fiercely than the other villages. Of course, their own faces would also be utterly covered in shame. To think that the illustrious Fourth Mizukage had been manipulated by the Akatsuki – what a disgrace!
There was room for maneuver to stop the war between the Mist and Sand, and the same applied to the conflict between the Stone and the Leaf. But ending the war with the Cloud Village would be considerably more difficult. Both sides had already drawn genuine blood in their fury. The Raikage, a bellyful of fire with nowhere else to vent it, could only redirect all his rage squarely onto the Stone Village's head. The two sides fought with ever-increasing ferocity. Stopping this wouldn't be easy. Unless an external balancing force intervened – for instance, if the Leaf, the Sand, and the Mist jointly convened a Five Kage Summit and demanded a cessation of hostilities – only then might there be hope of bringing the war to a halt.
The Cloud Village had suffered immense losses, but the Stone Village's situation was even more miserable. Onoki was already riding a tiger he couldn't dismount. If the war dragged on, his hope of victory was far too slim. And what was most frustrating was that he couldn't simply stop the war just because he wanted to. He still had to see what attitude the Cloud Village would take.
"Damn that Akatsuki!!" The more Onoki thought about it, the angrier he became, and he once again launched into a tirade. It seemed that ever since his son Kitsuchi's death, Onoki's episodes of furiously cursing the Akatsuki had grown more and more frequent, each time barely able to control his emotions. The Stone Village ninja had long since grown accustomed to their Tsuchikage's behavior. In fact, they heartily agreed with him – the Akatsuki truly deserved every curse.
The day after Onoki received the intelligence, two identical scrolls were delivered into the hands of Rasa and Mei Terumi.
"Sent from the Leaf Village?" Although relations between her village and the Leaf were strained, Mei Terumi herself held no personal enmity toward Kazuki.