Takigakure is one of Konohagakure's allies.
In fact, the ninja villages of the small countries surrounding the Land of Fire are all allies of Konohagakure, even if they also border other great nations.
The reason is simple. Konohagakure is strong enough. The Land of Fire is wealthy enough. They have little need to exploit small countries. In addition, the founding philosophy of the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, and the excellent reputation he left throughout the shinobi world make people more willing to trust Konohagakure.
After all, compared to the other Four Great Ninja Villages—who regularly act without restraint—Konohagakure at least cares about its reputation. It conducts affairs according to rules and does not engage in plunder or coercive seizure.
So whenever difficulties arise, everyone habitually turns to Konohagakure for help. Over time, this has formed a kind of path dependence.
After passing through several waterfalls and winding their way through twisting tunnels inside a mountain cavern, Hisen led Makoto and the other two to a building.
"Honored guests, thank you for your cooperation. You may remove your blindfolds."
The three removed them at his words, and their vision suddenly brightened.
The place lay surrounded by mountain ranges, with dense forests and deep valleys, green trees and clear waters. The environment was quite pleasant. Most importantly, the lighting was excellent—it did not feel dark at all.
Buildings of various sizes were scattered among the trees, and from time to time people could be seen entering and exiting.
It was like a secluded paradise far removed from the mundane world—a fine place for reclusion.
Hayate and Yūgao took a breath of the air. It seemed fresher than outside. This immediately gave them a high first impression.
The two squads of escort shinobi had already disappeared. Only Hisen remained at their side, accompanied by his disciple and his son.
However, that fellow Suien appeared extremely uneasy. His gaze shifted evasively, and he did not dare look directly at Makoto and the others.
Makoto paid him no mind and asked in a formal tone, "Chief Hisen, could you please explain the details of the mission?"
"Tomorrow, according to our intelligence, a group of missing-nin will launch an attack on the village. The number is unknown, but there will be at least more than twenty of them. Among them are ninja who originated from Konohagakure."
"Because we have more important matters to handle tomorrow, our defensive forces are somewhat insufficient. So when the time comes, we will have to trouble everyone from Konohagakure to lend their assistance."
"I understand. Rest assured, Chief Hisen. Leave it to us."
"Then I will entrust it to you. You may rest here today. I will have dinner sent over."
"Thank you for your consideration."
...
Inside the room, Hayate and Yūgao signaled their captain with their eyes.
Makoto understood and quietly extended his perception over the situation in Takigakure, then nodded to the two of them.
After that, the three carefully inspected the room. Only after confirming that there were no surveillance methods whatsoever did they feel at ease and remove their masks. The masks did not affect breathing, but no one liked keeping something fastened to their face at all times.
In a private room like this, they preferred to remove their masks while speaking. In any case, with Makoto present, they did not fear being spied upon.
Now they needed to discuss the specific intelligence for the mission.
Because Makoto's perception range was both vast and precise, Yūgao asked, "Captain, how strong is Takigakure?"
"Not bad. About twenty-seven people have chakra reserves that reach the jōnin level."
This referred only to chakra quantity. In reality, due to differences in various ninjutsu resources and education, even if someone had jōnin-tier chakra reserves, their actual combat power might be only about the same as a Konoha chūnin or tokubetsu jōnin.
That is just how enormous the gap is between small ninja villages and the Five Great Ninja Villages. Facing any one of them, they would have no ability to fight back—they would be crushed into slag outright.
This is the current state of the shinobi world's small ninja villages. At present, only Amegakure and Kusagakure are somewhat better off, but even they can only manage self-preservation. If they dared to bristle, the others would not mind fighting another war on their territory—while conveniently cleaning up the ones who dared to stick out.
As for using perception ninjutsu to probe an ally's strength?
That is simply how the shinobi world works. Even when they are allies, Konohagakure will always keep track of changes in their strength to prevent the other side from growing too powerful. This is also one of Makoto's squad's hidden tasks.
After learning Takigakure's strength, Yūgao asked curiously, "That force should be enough to handle a missing-nin assault, right? There aren't any strong ones among those guys. Besides, Takigakure's location is so secret—how are they supposed to get in?"
Hayate did not even need to think to know the answer. "There's definitely a traitor leading the way. The key point isn't the missing-nin—Chief Hisen just said they have important matters tomorrow. They must not be able to spare the manpower to resist, so they commissioned us to handle it."
"What could be more important than the village's safety?"
"I don't know."
Makoto stated the reason directly: "Changing the jinchūriki!"
The two immediately understood, and then they stopped discussing it—the matter was already clear.
In the past, they might not have understood what "jinchūriki" meant, or what a "tailed beast" was. But ever since they had seen the Four-Tails on the northern front, Kumomi had taken the opportunity to explain it to them.
Ever since they had become the Fourth Hokage's Shadow Guard Squad, yet were sent to protect Kushina, they naturally also knew that Konohagakure possessed the strongest of the tailed beasts—the Nine-Tails—and that the jinchūriki was the person they were protecting: Uzumaki Kushina.
No wonder Takigakure had specifically requested that Konohagakure send a sealing jutsu expert. It seemed that, besides commissioning Konohagakure to help them block the missing-nin, they also intended to prepare a backup plan.
A jinchūriki is each ninja village's most core secret. Naturally, they wanted to resolve it quietly themselves, and only let Konohagakure intervene if they truly could not hold on.
It seemed that Chief Hisen must have discussed this matter with the Fourth Hokage in his letter, and the Fourth Hokage then took the opportunity to agree to Makoto's request and dispatched their squad.
In other words, if Takigakure's jinchūriki change went wrong and required Makoto to act, then their squad could, on top of this A-rank mission, conveniently pick up an S-rank mission record as well.
Just thinking about it was a little exciting.
...
Perhaps because Takigakure's current jinchūriki had already reached the end of his life, the Seven-Tails, Chōmei, was extremely active.
The originally peaceful and picturesque Takigakure—filled with birdsong and flowers—now seemed shrouded in a layer of oppressive tension.
Fortunately, the night passed without incident.
The next day was also quiet and calm throughout, but that oppressive atmosphere grew increasingly intense. By nightfall, even the ordinary villagers sensed that something was wrong and stayed inside their homes.
The entire village instantly became a silent place devoid of people.
As shinobi from another village, and since the client had not requested their assistance, Makoto and the other two waited quietly inside their room, calmly observing how the situation would develop.
Around eight o'clock in the evening, that oppressive feeling reached its peak. Suddenly, the mountain valley where the entire village was located was flooded with a massive surge of violent chakra.
This kind of chakra did not even require Makoto's perception. If ordinary people stepped outside, they could see it with the naked eye alone.
It seemed that the jinchūriki replacement had already begun. However, the missing-nin mentioned in the intelligence had not arrived, nor had anyone from Takigakure come to request assistance from the Konohagakure shinobi.
Inside the room, Makoto silently took out a blank scroll. After spreading it open, he pressed his right hand directly onto it, forming a sealing formula.
The formula was centered on a circle, with complex symbols distributed around it.
Then Makoto formed hand seals with one hand. The Seven-Tails' chakra that hovered above their room was immediately drawn toward it and rushed into the sealing formula.
This slight fluctuation of chakra, compared to the massive scale currently permeating the entire village, would not attract anyone's attention.
Makoto did not need much. Once he felt that the sealed Seven-Tails chakra was sufficient, he stopped collecting it, changed the hand seal, and completed the sealing. Finally, within the blank space inside the circle of the formula, the character "Seven" automatically formed.
Only then did Hayate dare to ask, "Captain, are you collecting tailed beast chakra?"
"Isn't that obvious?"
"But… but isn't that inappropriate? Without permission…"
Makoto assured him confidently, "Relax. I asked. The other side did not refuse me. No refusal means tacit consent."
"That's not right. We've been in this room all day. Who did you ask?"
"I asked the chakra. They didn't object."
Hayate and Yūgao: "…"
What the hell is the point of asking chakra? It doesn't even have a mouth. If you've got the nerve, ask the Seven-Tails and see whether it agrees.
The two of them were traditional shinobi. Although they both followed Makoto's lead, they still felt somewhat uneasy inside. After all, this matter did not quite conform to proper rules.
Yūgao said, "What if Takigakure finds out? That would be hard to explain."
"They won't discover it. I'm not taking much—just enough for a hypothetical experiment. I have no intention of targeting the Seven-Tails." After explaining, he looked at the two of them and smiled. "We're a squad, after all. You wouldn't want sensei or Hokage-sama to find out about this, would you?"
"Understood. We won't say anything!" ×2
Damn it. The two of them felt as though they had boarded a pirate ship. But getting off was no longer possible. All they could do was follow their captain and muddle through.
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