Escape from Konoha.

The Hokage's direct subordinates, the Anbu, are taught in a dedicated course at the Ninja Academy. The main reason for this is to prevent future ninjas from mistaking their village's Anbu for enemies. To avoid such an awkward situation, all Konoha ninjas have some understanding of this organization.

The ninjas who can join the Anbu are all highly skilled. The main Anbu consists of seventy people, divided into four squads, each of which has four platoons, for a total of sixteen platoon leaders.

Each squad leader is at least at the top-tier level.

They are used to protect the Hokage and carry out various highly dangerous and secret missions; they can be said to be ninjas who protect Konoha in the dark.

However, Shiraishi had never heard of the 'Root' ANBU, so he became suspicious of the identities of those ninjas.

Ayane shook her head as well. The affairs of the Anbu were classified. Most ninjas knew that such an organization existed, as well as its composition and number of personnel.

As for who joined them, and what each of the ANBU ninjas was good at, these are all classified information.

Ruri frowned slightly, crossed her arms, and remained silent for a while before speaking: "I've heard elders in the clan talk about the 'Root' ANBU before. It's said to be the direct subordinate unit of another high-ranking member of the Senju faction. This unit is more secretive than ordinary ANBU, and the missions they undertake are even more clandestine. They adhere to the strategy of 'better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free,' silently protecting Konoha in the shadows."

"Adhering to a policy of 'better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free'? Would the Hokage condone such a thing?"

Shiraishi was puzzled by this.

If this were to be exposed, it would deal a huge blow to the reputation of the Hokage and other high-ranking officials.

Even after the secret service captures someone, they still need to conduct an interrogation to determine whether the person is friend or foe.

However, members of the 'Root' faction in the dark do not need to do this. As long as they are subjectively judged as enemies, they can be directly eliminated.

If such an organization is mismanaged, it can easily cause huge damage to the prestige of the ruling authorities, leading to their forced resignation.

"This matter must have been tacitly approved. Without tacit approval, Root would not have been able to grow with the help of the Anbu. The ninjas of this organization have no names, no emotions, no past, and no future; they only have the missions that must be completed in their hearts."

After listening to Ruri's account, Shiraishi and Ayane recalled the mission: the 'Root' members of the Anbu were planning to use themselves to create human bombs to sabotage the Sand Village ninja's supply points, which indeed fell into the category of machines.

Their sole purpose is to complete their mission.

As for the methods and sacrifices, those are things to consider after the mission is completed, or perhaps not even necessary to think about.

"What a terrible bunch of guys."

Bai Shi sighed.

No matter the time, people who don't even care about their own lives for a certain goal will always make people feel scared from the bottom of their hearts.

Without the abyss-like darkness, there would be no beautiful, tranquil lake surface.

Every era needs these people who work silently in the dark.

"So, getting back to the main topic, what are your thoughts on this mission?"

Ruri spread out the map that the 'Root' ninjas had given them on the ground. It was a detailed map of the Land of Rivers, with every place recorded on it without missing a single one, and with distance and environmental information marked on it.

Ruri pointed to a region in the heart of the Land of Rivers, where Sunagakure's supply depot was located, and also the location of Shiraishi and his group's attack.

Shiraishi looked at the map slowly and said, "The supply point is very close to the Sand Village's camp. Judging from the distance marked on it, reinforcements can arrive in just ten minutes. In other words, we only have ten minutes to move from the moment we launch a feint attack to cause a large-scale disturbance until we safely leave the battlefield. It's too much for the three of us."

The division of labor was very clear: Shiraishi and the other two were responsible for a feint attack to cause as much chaos as possible, then quickly leaving the battlefield, switching in Root ninjas to self-destruct, destroying all the supplies at the Sunagakure supply point, and completing the mission.

The difficulty of the mission lies in how to quickly and effectively cause a large-scale disturbance within ten minutes, attract the attention of the Sand Village ninjas, create a reliable attack environment for the 'Root' ninjas, and then how to withdraw from the battlefield in time to avoid being affected by the explosive tags of their own people.

"No matter how you look at it, ten minutes is far too short."

Ayane nodded, agreeing with Shiraishi's statement.

The number of Sand Village ninjas guarding the supply points in the Land of Rivers is certainly not small, not to mention Jonin-level ninjas. In such an important area, it would not be excessive to station more than ten Jonin-level ninjas.

In addition to Jonin, there would be a significant number of Chunin as well. To complete a feint attack mission under the siege of so many Jonin and Chunin within ten minutes is theoretically an almost impossible task.

“If we cause a disturbance, I can use a large-scale Fire Release technique. And because there are important supplies there, the Sand Village ninjas won't use large-scale ninjutsu attacks, so this is more advantageous for us. But breaking out of the Sand Village's encirclement won't be an easy task. I remember you made a lot of very useful gadgets before we came out this time.”

Ruri glanced at Shiraishi.

"I didn't expect it to come in handy so soon."

Shiraishi sighed helplessly, took out a scroll from his ninja tool bag, spread it on the ground, and then released the sealing technique on it. A bunch of things appeared along with white smoke.

"These are..."

Ayane picked up a projectile that looked like a smoke bomb, her expression showing curiosity.

"The smoke bombs contain highly toxic substances, and their range and duration of effect are longer than those of ordinary smoke bombs. There is also an antidote."

"But what if the enemy uses Wind Release to spread their attacks..."

"It's alright. I'll use Fire Release then. If the enemy uses Wind Release to attack, it will strengthen my Fire Release and expand its range."

In this way, the enemy's wind-escape technique cannot be used easily, and the three of them can use the poisonous fog to launch a feint attack and cause a ruckus there.

However, after that, they will face a large number of Sand Village ninjas pursuing them. They will need to carefully plan how to escape.

By this time, it was already dark, and the valley region bordering the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers was shrouded in darkness, with gusts of cold wind blowing.

"Let's discuss the retreat plan on the way. We need to get to the mission location by midnight, and we only have less than six hours left. Time is very tight."

This was a surprise attack, so there wasn't much time to think about countermeasures. We had to destroy the supply point before it was moved.

Otherwise, once the intelligence is no longer timely, it will not be so easy to find out the location of Sunagakure's supply points again.

◎

In the dead of night, the Konoha camp on the border of the Land of Fire was so quiet that not even the chirping of insects could be heard.

Inside a tent, the simple electric light was dim, with only the center of the tent lit up, while the edges remained shrouded in darkness.

Tsunade stood in front of a table, organizing a piece of intelligence.

Because this intelligence is of utmost importance, it needs to be examined very carefully.

Just then, a white-haired ninja came in from outside.

"Tsunade, are you still working? It's already this late."

The newcomer was Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin alongside Tsunade. He smiled and greeted Tsunade as soon as he entered.

"It's you, Jiraiya. What's the matter?"

Tsunade glanced up at Jiraiya, then lowered her head again to carefully examine the information.

It's clear she's not in the mood to talk to anyone right now.

Seeing Tsunade like this, Jiraiya sighed softly and said, "I'm so sorry about Nawaki. If I had been there at that time..."

If he had been able to return as soon as possible when the battle between Sunagakure and Konoha began, and helped Orochimaru take care of things, perhaps the tragedy of Nawaki could have been avoided.

However, this matter is in the past, and the dead cannot be brought back to life. Seeing that Tsunade's smile was much less than before, Jiraiya felt both worried and guilty.

"This is none of your business!"

Tsunade's tone was very cold and hard.

Hearing Jiraiya mention Nawaki caused Tsunade a pang of pain, but she quickly rallied and didn't let it defeat her.

She now carries the lives of countless Konoha ninja on her shoulders, and she absolutely cannot show weakness at this time, lest she be looked down upon.

"..."

Jiraiya stood silently to the side, offering no rebuttal to Tsunade's words.

"Now that you're back, just get back to your work. Don't get in my way."

Tsunade's tone softened somewhat, but her intention to send him away was clear.

Jiraiya didn't say anything, but a look of disappointment was on his face.

"and many more!"

Tsunade suddenly called out to him.

"what's up?"

Jiraiya found it strange.

"The mission to raid the Sunagakure supply point was carried out by Sakumo's squad, right?"

Tsunade suddenly asked a question that was unrelated to the present moment.

"It's Sakumo's squad. Because this mission is very important, and only Sakumo is suitable to complete it, the higher-ups assigned this mission to his squad."

This mission to cut off the Sand Village's supply point is crucial to the future course of the battle.

If the mission is completed perfectly, the Sand Village will collapse due to insufficient supplies, and Konoha will achieve the greatest results with minimal sacrifice.

At that point, the two sides will enter into peace talks, bringing an end to the war that has lasted for more than two years.

If they fail, it means the war will continue to drag on, which is not a good outcome for Konoha and the Land of Fire.

The best outcome would be a swift end to the war, with both sides entering into peace talks to conclude the conflict through negotiation.

Jiraiya had great trust in Sakumo's abilities, and consequently, he had great confidence in this mission as well.

It's probably not just him; the village itself has likely already started drafting peace talks between Konoha and Sunagakure.

Seeing Tsunade's increasingly strange expression, Jiraiya's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly asked, "What happened?"

"The information here conflicts with the plan Orochimaru and I devised. And this isn't the kind of rendezvous signal the Anbu typically uses..."

Tsunade took one of the many documents out of the list.

Upon hearing this, Jiraiya's expression changed.

"Jiraiya, when you received the information from the Anbu in the village, are you sure it wasn't switched?"

Tsunade frowned as she looked at Jiraiya.

Because of the gravity of the matter, the intelligence transmitted from Konoha was delivered to Jiraiya by the Anbu, and then personally escorted to the front lines by Jiraiya, one of the Legendary Sannin, to ensure its absolute safety.

"Impossible! I've been traveling with Sakumo's squad the whole way; there's no way someone could have tampered with this intelligence!"

Jiraiya snatched the intelligence report from Tsunade and read it carefully from beginning to end.

His complexion was getting worse and worse.

"W-What's going on? The contents here are different from what Sarutobi-sensei told us!"

Jiraiya's shoulders began to tremble as he looked at the information displayed above in disbelief.

"It seems you've been tricked. Since nothing unexpected happened on the way, there's only one possibility: you're in the Anbu who's meeting with people in Konoha, not Sarutobi-sensei's subordinate."

Tsunade's words were like a bolt from the blue, leaving Jiraiya stiff and cold sweat pouring down his face.

This is completely terrible!