The next morning, when the ninjas of Sunagakure changed shifts, they discovered a huge, shocking event.
The gold was stolen!
The news was delivered at the fastest speed to the ears of the village's highest decision-makers, Chiyo and Ebizo, the two advisors.
They almost had a brain hemorrhage when they heard it.
They rushed to the vault entrance at top speed, and as the two of them looked at the empty vault, their heads buzzed.
"Bastard! Which bastard did this?!" Chiyo's sharp voice made everyone's ears ring.
Ebizo cautiously soothed Chiyo. "Sister, calm down. You're so old, don't always get angry, it'll make you die early."
"Get lost!"
Chiyo gritted her teeth and asked, "Where are yesterday's guards? Call them over!"
The two guards knelt with a thud before Chiyo, their faces pale with fright. They knew that losing the gold dust right under their noses probably meant they wouldn't keep their lives.
Moreover, Chiyo was also skilled in poisons, and they worried she might poison them in a fit of rage, leaving them unable to live or die.
Pure torture.
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
Just then, Chiyo took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to execute the two useless men on the spot.
She asked, "What happened last night? Tell me everything, exactly as it occurred."
One guard stammered, "Chiyo-sama, he was too fast... I didn't see his face clearly, I only remember he was wearing a black robe, just like Kakuzu's."
He tremblingly pulled out a palm-sized piece of black cloth from his arms, holding it high above his head with both hands.
"This is what I tore from his clothes."
Chiyo took it and saw the faint red clouds on it.
"Black robe, red clouds..."
A thought suddenly popped into her head.
"Go, search every inch inside. Don't miss any clue."
Chiyo hurried to the front, searching every corner for a long time.
—
After an unknown amount of time, she finally found what she was looking for.
Chiyo bent down and picked up the snake skin, a flash of killing intent in her eyes.
"Orochimaru, and that masked man, this is all their doing."
Chiyo believed she had clarified her thoughts. All the clues instantly connected in her mind, forming a clear and terrifying conclusion.
While Rasa led the village's elite main force to invade the Land of Rain, leaving the rear undefended, these two guys stealthily snuck in.
How could they grasp the timing so precisely?
There was only one answer: someone inside the Land of Rain was assisting them.
No, not just assisting. The Land of Rain was probably the long-established nest of that organization.
Before she could feel excited about her cleverness, Chiyo's heart sank.
She asked, "The Kazekage has been in the Land of Rain for so long, is there no news at all?"
"No. The last contact was when he just entered the Land of Rain's border. After that, he completely lost contact."
Chiyo suddenly had a bad premonition.
"This is bad!"
Chiyo and Ebizo exchanged glances, a terrible thought uncontrollably emerging.
Rasa, could he already be...
Ebizo carefully calculated the combat power. He found it impossible to calculate. They knew too little about this organization.
Ebizo let out a long sigh. The more critical the moment, the calmer he needed to be.
He said, "Investigate again and report back. Also, the vault theft must not be leaked."
"Understood."
A week passed in a flash.
Chiyo and Ebizo had no choice but to take on the temporary management of all affairs of Sunagakure in this crisis.
Having not heard from the Kazekage for a long time, the villagers didn't take it to heart. After all, for Rasa, as a diligent miner, not returning to the village for ten days to half a month was quite normal.
However, the villagers soon noticed something was wrong. The village was now advocating for increasing revenue and cutting expenses to overcome the difficulties.
The expense cutting was implemented to the extreme, but there was no sign of increasing revenue.
Material supplies were noticeably tightening, and there were even rumors of budget cuts for the Ninja Academy's training equipment.
Life was getting tighter by the day.
This forced Ebizo to write another letter to Konoha for help, which fell on deaf ears.
This wasn't the most troubling issue.
Being poor was fine, the village had been used to it for many years.
The most critical thing was that Sunagakure had sent out five small teams, and not one returned alive. This made the two elders even more uneasy.
Something bad has probably happened.
Sunagakure had barely recovered a little strength from the wounds of the Third Great Ninja War.
If they lost the Fourth Kazekage and a group of elites again, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Panic slowly spread.
As time passed, the villagers gradually noticed that something was amiss.
It had been so long. If the person didn't return, at least the money should be sent back.
Then, more and more rumors reached the villagers' ears.
"I heard the Kazekage led a large army to attack the Land of Rain and ended up getting ambushed."
"Alas. I also heard the entire army was wiped out with not even a single survivor."
"Shhh, lower your voice. If a ninja hears you, you'll be beheaded."
These rumors, as if on wings, quickly flew into the ears of every Sunagakure resident.
Anyone with a bit of sense knew what was going on as soon as they heard it. If there's no movement, you're either captured or dead.
For a time, this land was filled with an anxious atmosphere.
Chiyo had already lost count of how many bowls she had smashed.
She had tried her best to blockade the news of the vault theft.
Why did the rumors of the Kazekage's dangerous situation spread like wildfire, impossible to extinguish?
Behind this, there was definitely a malicious black hand pushing it. This hand wanted to completely destroy the Land of Wind, to destroy Sunagakure.
—
"Achoo."
In a hidden base, Satoshi sneezed and stroked Kuro's black fur.
"Well done." He said, throwing a piece of meat.
Between his fingers was a secret letter that had just been intercepted.
Sunagakure's ninja beast, tasked with seeking help from Konoha, was gnawed by Kuro before it could even fly out of the Land of Wind's territory.
He knew that once this letter fell into Hiruzen's hands, according to his character, he would spare no effort to help Sunagakure, even if it meant making Konoha's villagers suffer.
Wasn't this pure foolishness?
This village would be his in the future. Would he let Hiruzen spend his money like this without his permission?
As for the rumors within the Land of Wind about Rasa's grim fate and Sunagakure's defeat?
They were naturally his doing.
Manipulating public opinion and spreading panic were always important steps.
Although this matter was expensive, fortunately, he had worked very hard not long ago to "borrow" a considerable sum of gold dust from Sunagakure's vault. It solved an urgent need.
Now, not only was the Land of Wind in chaos, but they also knew that Rasa had been harmed by that mysterious organization.
A person's life or death didn't matter to them. But if Rasa died, who would solve their food problem?
Sunagakure, which had originally been watching from the sidelines, now probably wanted to tear the masked nan apart.
At the same time, the major news of a large-scale war breaking out in the Land of Rain and Kazekage Rasa's mysterious disappearance reached Konoha.