Chapter 249: Prelude to the Smoke of War
"What's the use of being in a panic? Calm down!" The elder whose words had been interrupted reprimanded with a frown. "What happened?"
"It's a scroll transmitted by Konoha's fastest ninja hawk. It has the latest intelligence on the Akatsuki!" The person who had come in panted heavily, holding a scroll in both hands and carefully placing it on the table.
"Let me see," Ebizō said, taking the scroll and unrolling it. After a short while, his old face drooped even more.
"Ebizō, what does it say?" Chiyo asked with a frown.
"Old sister, Konoha didn't lie to us before. 'Sasori' is indeed in that organization," Ebizō said with a sigh, handing the scroll to Chiyo. "In their recent operation, they captured one of 'Sasori's' subordinates, confirming this intelligence."
Chiyo took the scroll, her brows furrowed even tighter.
"During a previous investigation mission in the Land of Wind, our side discovered a suspicious person," she read as she looked at it. "After interrogation and verification, it was confirmed that he is a subordinate of 'Sasori of the Red Sand'..."
"Through secret interrogation techniques and known intelligence, our side has confirmed that 'Sasori' has joined the 'Akatsuki' organization and has planted a large number of spies and hidden agents in your country..."
"Sasori is a rogue-nin from your side and is also an important member of the Akatsuki. Therefore, in order to express our sincerity and to promote the cooperation between our two sides in jointly fighting the Akatsuki, we are now providing an extract of all the intelligence obtained from the interrogation. Please be informed..."
She read the words on the scroll, sentence by sentence. Her face became more and more unsightly.
Handing the scroll to the next elder, Chiyo said in a heavy tone, "You said before that Konoha's intelligence mentioned that Sasori had joined the Akatsuki. I had thought that that was just a trick you were using, borrowing the name of that slug woman, to lure us out of retirement. I never thought... it would actually be true."
"I really never thought that my lovable grandson would actually join such an evil organization and associate with such evil people... It's truly... disheartening!"
"Old sister..." Ebizō looked at Chiyo with a complicated expression, wanting to say something but stopping himself.
"Alright, there's no need to comfort this old woman who is already at death's door! At my age, there's nothing I can't let go of..." Chiyo said indifferently, turning her gaze to the other high-ranking Sand officials. "The most important thing now is to discuss what our next move should be."
"Since such important intelligence has been discovered, we should order Konoha to withdraw their people back to the Land of Fire, and we will send our own people to investigate the matter clearly!" Baki said forcefully.
"That won't work," an elder sitting next to Chiyo, who was flipping through the intelligence scroll, said, shaking his head repeatedly and flatly denying it. "Let's not even talk about whether Konoha will agree to such a reversal. Even if they agree to withdraw their Anbu, by the time we go to gather intelligence, it will already be too late..."
"Konoha alerted the enemy when they were gathering intelligence," Baki's political acumen was indeed close to zero. Chiyo sighed secretly and picked up the thread, explaining, "Now Sasori and the Akatsuki already know that some of their peripheral organizations have been discovered by us. The next step will definitely be to quickly transfer personnel and destroy evidence. In that case, by the time we've finished negotiating with Konoha, those strongholds of Sasori's will definitely have been long since emptied."
"Then what should we do?" the young high-ranking official named Yura asked.
"Of course we can't just ignore it. Konoha is Konoha, we are us. We can't naively think that they will share all their intelligence with us, nor can we leave everything to our ally to do..." Chiyo said coldly. "The best way is to send our own elite squad, in the name of support, to follow them and ensure that we are not deliberately kept in the dark about important intelligence."
"An elite support team?" Yura said composedly. "How about we just let Gaara's squad complete this mission? It just so happens that we can also test Gaara's performance by the way!"
"Seconded" xN.
A certain city in the Land of Wind.
In the stronghold of Sasori's subordinates, disguised as an izakaya.
"Why... you clearly drank the poisoned tea and sake, yet you don't show any signs of being poisoned?" the spy who was hanging in mid-air by the water jutsu asked.
He had a very obvious boot print on his chest, and his body was clearly caved in. It was the mark left after taking a heavy kick from Shino. This one kick from the Anbu captain had almost kicked half the life out of the spy.
Sakura's hands glowed with the blue light of medical ninjutsu. She gave a cursory treatment to a few of the most seriously injured spies, lest they die before they could be interrogated.
When she walked in front of this dying spy, she heard his question and sneered.
Her laughter carried a faint mockery.
They had known in advance that there was a problem with this shop. Of course, they wouldn't really eat or drink the food they served.
Sakura had seemed to drink two cups of tea, but in fact, she had long since used Water Style to hold the tea in her mouth and had not swallowed it.
And even if she had really drunk it, as a medical ninja, she also had ways to treat herself.
However, there was no need to tell them these behind-the-scenes things.
She just smiled faintly, treating his internal injuries as she spoke, "We were prepared long ago. Of course we wouldn't fall into your trap... Stop wasting your breath. If you want to live, then honestly answer our questions!"
Under the threat of death and the induction of Terumi Yūzuki's genjutsu, they quickly obtained the latest intelligence.
"Lord Sasori ordered us to send a new order to the spy hidden in Orochimaru's base. The content of the order is to require him to report on Orochimaru's recent whereabouts, so that the Akatsuki organization can continue to hunt him..."
Confused by Yūzuki's genjutsu, the person in charge of this stronghold sat in a chair, his eyes rolled back, saliva dripping from his mouth, mechanically answering the questions posed by Squad 14.
They were very lucky. This person in charge had not had his head blown off for leaking intelligence.
It seemed that only those who truly knew the secrets of the Akatsuki and Sasori were placed under the special sealing jutsu. A small fry like him, who was only responsible for passing on intelligence, was completely irrelevant...
Shino glanced at Yūzuki and gave her a look. The latter understood and nodded, continuing to ask.
"The time and place of the report? Who will be going?"
"The time is tomorrow at noon. The place is a location called the Yin-Yang Bridge in the Land of Rivers. The specific location is marked on the map in the intelligence letter. Also, only Lord Sasori will be going to this meeting. No one else is required to accompany him..." the person in charge said in a stiff tone.
Shino, Sakura, and Yūzuki looked at each other.
Their expressions gradually became grave.
It seemed that on this trip, they would at least be able to find a trace of the Akatsuki or Orochimaru...
Shino walked over and knocked out the spies.
"We'll leave these people for the other squads to deal with," he said, taking out a signal flare and firing it into the sky. "The location of the Yin-Yang Bridge is also marked on our map. It's not close... From now on, we'll have to travel at full speed!"
"The main purpose of this mission is to gather intelligence. We must try to avoid combat! But if a battle really does occur..."
Shino turned his head and gave Sakura a deep look.
"...We'll probably have to rely on you, Sakura!"
If they were to face Orochimaru or Sasori of the Red Sand... he and Terumi would be of no help. They could only rely on Haruno Sakura!
"I understand, Captain."
Haruno Sakura replied solemnly.
She felt a heavy weight on her shoulders.
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