Noon at the Tsurugetsu Izakaya, which had few customers.
Kyōi sat dejectedly behind the counter, idly fiddling with the account book in front of her.
Where had he been these past few days? Why hadn't he come to see her?
Remembering how his movements had gotten faster and faster the previous few nights, her pretty face suddenly flushed.
She had witnessed him grow stronger, both in ninja prowess and in masculine vigor.
Perhaps he had taken on some mission and left the village.
Two merchants entered the izakaya.
"Proprietress, a bottle of sake, please."
Kyōi heard the voice first, and her heart suddenly tightened.
That voice...
She slowly looked up and saw a girl, a girl younger than her.
Little sister?
A flash of shock passed through her eyes.
Kyōi worked as a spy for her village, while her more talented younger sister, Mei, served as a ninja in Iwagakure.
All the rewards and payments Iwagakure gave Kyōi were delivered directly into her sister Mei's hands.
Why was her sister here?
Could Mei be the contact? Coming to Konoha as the contact?
Why would the village do this? Hadn't she already done so much for the village?
Kyōi had just obtained extremely important intelligence: Uzumaki Mito's funeral would be held in five days.
When the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, was alive, he hadn't concealed the identity of the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki.
With Hashirama's power, the Nine-Tails was nothing special; there was no need to treat it as the village's highest secret.
That Uzumaki Mito was the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki was public knowledge.
Kyōi knew the village would value this intelligence highly, but she never expected the village to send Mei to find her.
With Mei's appearance, Kyōi had to go all out, risking her life to verify the intelligence.
This was the village's final command to the spy.
Either succeed in gathering the intelligence, be recalled to the village, and become a ninja living in the open.
Or fail in gathering the intelligence, and die. Along with everything the spy finally held dear, vanish completely.
Mei was disguised as a merchant coming to Konoha to commission a task, an identity easily exposed.
"Coming! Our sake comes in mid-grade, high-grade, and premium. Which price range would you prefer?"
"Premium! Let us taste the good liquor of a major village like Konoha!"
The code phrase matched.
Kyōi's last shred of hope vanished. Mei hadn't come to Konoha by chance.
Selecting a bottle of sake, Kyōi served it to Mei.
Mei was also excited. She hadn't seen her older sister for three years.
It was a pity they couldn't acknowledge each other and had to pretend to be strangers.
Mei picked up the sake cup, scrutinized it, and found the special mark.
Two days later, this sake bottle would appear in a nearby trash can, containing Kyōi's final confirmed intelligence.
The village needed to know the most accurate information about Uzumaki Mito.
Kyōi walked into the backyard, entering her room.
She took out all her money, preparing to act within these two days to verify the intelligence.
While tidying the room, Kyōi saw a razor.
It was his razor.
I wonder if he's found some other little vixen.
A small portion of the funds for her final operation had come from him.
Every time he came, he ordered lots of expensive beef and drank the sake with the least impurities.
If she were truly a citizen of Konoha, she might have tried to be with him.
Having known him for so long, he had told her a name, but Kyōi knew it was fake.
He said his name was Kōji. So perfunctory—it was just the name of an ingredient listed on a sake bottle.
He had a stable temperament, a great virtue among ninja.
Many ninja had mental illnesses. They seemed normal but could be terrifying when they went crazy.
Some ninja drank at the izakaya, suddenly remembered something from a mission, and went on a rampage, smashing things.
Perhaps they had killed the wrong person, or killed too many people, or been tortured by the enemy, or suspected by the village.
Fortunately, this place was close to the Uchiha Police Force; Uchiha ninja would come to deal with the crazed ninja.
Kyōi went to the largest sake distributor in Konoha.
"Boss, business at my izakaya has been slow lately. I'm planning a promotion tomorrow. How much premium sake do you have left?"
"How much premium sake can your single shop handle?"
"At least 20 cases of premium sake per day, for five days straight."
While chatting with the boss, Kyōi gestured to a salesperson.
The salesperson understood Kyōi's meaning and quickly approached, using the pretext of an important client's arrival to lead the boss away.
The boss asked Kyōi to wait in his office; he would return shortly.
That salesperson was one of her recruited subordinates, never very useful until now, when he finally served a purpose.
Kyōi went to the boss's office, closed the door, and took out a key.
This was a key she had secretly duplicated long ago.
Carefully opening the safe, Kyōi saw the boss's ledger.
The Senju clan had suspended their alcohol purchases?
Kyōi checked the date; starting yesterday, the Senju clan stopped ordering alcohol.
She continued looking and saw the piece of information that excited her the most.
The Uchiha clan had placed additional orders for many cases of alcohol!
The relationship between the Uchiha and Senju clans was extremely poor; they had always been the biggest rivals within the village.
Especially after Uchiha Kagami's death, the Uchiha clan's bridge to the outside was broken.
The Senju clan halting their alcohol orders proved they knew something bad might happen to their clan.
The Uchiha clan, however, ordering many extra cases of alcohol, proved they believed something good was happening.
Cross-referencing this, Kyōi believed the intelligence from her spy comrades was true: something truly major and bad was about to happen to the Senju clan.
That thing could only be the death of the elderly Uzumaki Mito.
Leaving the sake distributor, Kyōi headed to the next location to find other evidence.
Within Konoha, Iwagakure spies were running around, secretly investigating.
Meanwhile, at the border of the Land of Grass, a middle-aged man floated in the air.
The Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, looked towards Konoha's direction.
Behind him were 5 Iwa-nin Battalions.
The Five-Tails Jinchūriki, the Steam Ninja, Han, came to Ōnoki's side.
"Tsuchikage-sama, the troops are assembled."
Han looked at the Tsuchikage and noticed his floating was somewhat unstable, proof that even the Tsuchikage felt somewhat uneasy.
Leading elites in a surprise attack on Konoha, taking advantage of the Nine-Tails Jinchūriki transition, taking advantage of Uzumaki Mito's death, to strike a heavy blow against Konoha, thereby giving Iwagakure an advantage in the Great Shinobi War.
It was a gambler's risk. Success promised immense rewards; failure could mean the death of all 300-plus elites.
Ōnoki said:
"The more critical the period, the more we must not be hasty.
We are massive, hard mountain rocks. We either don't move, or we move like a mudslide, destroying everything below the mountain.
Wait for the spies to confirm the intelligence finally, then we will launch a thousand-mile surprise attack on Konoha!"
This was the most precious opportunity given to Iwagakure by the heavens.
Legend said the Nine-Tails had a violent temper, was a collection of hatred, and having been sealed by Uzumaki Mito for so many years, it must utterly despise Uzumaki Mito and Konoha.
Using the Nine-Tails, they could definitely inflict heavy damage on Konoha.
In an alleyway in Konoha.
Mei picked a sake bottle out of a trash can.
There were several scale lines on the bottle, the code of the Iwagakure spies.
The intelligence was true!
After confirming the information, Mei quickly left.
Disguised as a merchant who had commissioned a task, she was about to leave Konoha.
Taking one last look in the direction of Kyōi's izakaya, Mei thought, Sister can finally return to the village. We sisters won't have to be separated anymore.
In the Land of Grass, Ōnoki, having received the intelligence, waved his hand from mid-air.
He would personally lead the team to launch a surprise attack on Konoha and deal it a heavy blow!
(End of Chapter)