Chapter 72: Wait and See
“Sakumo san, have you succeeded?”
“Well, we just took down the entirety of the Sand’s Perceptual System!”
Hearing Sakumo’s reply, Jiraya was excited. When two armies are almost equal in terms of power, information become the most important key to victory.
The most effective way to obtain information on the battlefield is through the Sensor Ninjas, making them the eyes and ears of a Ninja army. Without their perception, their companions lose all initiative and prediction on the battlefield.
Jiraya didn’t realize that what Ryo and Sakumo have done by this was rewriting the whole war.
“Sakumo san, are we going to prepare for battle against the Sand right now?” Konoha finally was in a position to take the initiative, and Jiraya was eager to augment their advantage.
“Before that, let’s wait. For the few upcoming days, we should do nothing. Ryo has some new ideas.”
“Do nothing? Now that they have lost their Sensor Ninjas, why should we give up on such a good opportunity?”
“Jiraya san, I deliberately left Konoha’s headband at the Sand Camp. Knowing Chiyo, what do you think they’re going to do?”
Ryo’s words made Jiraya’s eyes bright. He was obviously trying to make the Sand suspicious.
“Kid, what do you want to do?”
“Nothing, we let the camp run as usual. Just get the Hyuga and Aburame clans to pay more attention to the Sand.”
“Kid, you’re trying to make them think that we have no idea that their Sensor Ninjas have been assassinated, so that they seize what they would think is their last chance to take the initiative against us?”
Jiraya read Ryo’s mind. Indeed, if they receive the Sand with an ambush, it should be better than provoking them themselves.
Thinking of the matter from that perspective, Jiraya also agreed with Ryo. After the three had a unified opinion, they immediately moved to arranging patrolling to the following few days.
At the Sand Camp, in the early morning, 5 Elite Jonins, 2 Quasi Kage, and Chiyo were summoned by Rasa to his tent.
“Everyone, there was a terrible incident last night. Someone infiltrated our camp yesterday, and assassinated all of our Sensor Ninjas. As for the patrolling squadrons with them, they suffered heavy losses as well. The only clue we have is that one of the victims was found holding Konoha’s Headband tightly in his hand.”
When they heard Rasa, everyone’s faces turned gloomy really fast. They didn’t hear any movement last night, yet this kind of thing happened behind their backs.
“Kazekage Sama, did you just say that the one killed had Konoha’s headband is his hands?” asked Hugo.
“Yes, that’s the only thing they left behind besides corpses.”
“Then it’s their doing! And we have the evidence, those damn Konoha Ninjas!”
“Hugo, calm down! I don’t think that this was committed by Konoha.” Shalun interrupted him.
“Shalun, what are you talking about? We have the evidence!” asked Hugo, unconvinced.
“Kazekage Sama, I’ve seen some of these corpses before I came here. They were clearly all cut by sharp blades. But here’s what more significant, they all had their throats cut. The ones I saw all had something in common then: they were all killed in one hit!”
His words finished the ideas floating around Chiyo’s mind, and she said to everyone: “Shalun is right, this is not Konoha’s doing.
Chiyo’s opinion is highly valued by all those who were present in the conference. Although she was inferior in strength to Rasa, she was much older than him, with much greater experience in dealing with such issues. That’s why he’s always respected her.
“How do you see this matter Chiyo ba-san?” Asked Rasa.
“As I said, this can’t be done by Konoha’s Ninjas. Shalun said the victims were all one hit, with no chance to resist. How did that one alone get the Headband? I’m afraid that someone left that behind purposely to confuse us.”
Chiyo words got everyone’s approval except for Pakura, who knew well that it was Ryo’s doing.
Her reason was very simple. There are Sensor Ninjas we’re talking about, and they all died in their sleep! In other words, none of them found out about the intruder.
The only way she could think of for that to happen was the hiding technique she and Ryo are able to use. So he was the object of her suspicion naturally.
“Pakura, you’ve had your head down ever since we started, do you know something?” Rasa noticed her abnormal behavior and asked her casually.
“Nothing, I just thought that there could be people who are likely to deliberately leave such clues to confuse us.” She was not intending to talk about the secret Hiding technique.
“Indeed, Pakura is right. It’s unlikely from Konoha to do such a thing. Shalun, for now, use your Sand eyes to monitor Konoha’s movements, if they’re as usual for whole two days, we can basically rule out the possibility that they did this to us.” Said Chiyo to Shalun.
He nodded and went on to replace the Ninjas who were assassinated. Only He and the Kazekages can use the Sand eyes. It was a really suitable ability to monitor Konoha’s camp.
“If Konoha hasn’t changed, who else would they be Chiyo ba-san?” Asked Rasa.
“This should be the Rock’s doing. But I don’t know how they slipped through the Sensor Ninjas!” Said Chiyo helplessly.”
“Their discussion only ended by noon. And with the exception of Pakura, everyone believed that Konoha shouldn’t be responsible for this.
In Chiyo’s opinion, if Konoha had a way to evade the Sensor ninja’s monitoring, they would have used it earlier, and not after losing over a 1000 men.
Over the two following days, Shalun used the Sand eye to keep a close eye on Konoha’s camp, but he didn’t know that he was discovered by the Aburame Ninjas who were waiting for him in advance.
Everything he did was in line with Ryo’s plan, and Konoha’s camp was able to pull up a good act.
After he returned to his camp, he told Chiyo and the 4th about what he saw.
“It seems that it wasn’t Konoha, it was that damn hidden Rock!” Rasa had deep contempt to the Hidden Rock.
“Oh well, now is no time to complain. Rasa, we can’t wait anymore, we should attack Konoha’s camp before they realize that we no longer have any Sensor Ninjas. Let’s go to battle!” Chiyo said.
“Kazekage sama, I also agree with Chiyo ba san. If we let Konoha know of this new weakness of ours, we will be on our heels throughout the whole war!” Shalun also wanted to go to the battlefield.
They both agreed, and Rasa also didn’t hesitate: He decided to go to battle once again!