Two minutes later, an angry Jiraiya returned.
"That was definitely a guy!" he shouted.
Nawaki blinked innocently, "Was it? Maybe I saw it wrong. But... was his skin really fair?"
"Of course, it was..."
And then the awkward silence descended. The command center fell into a hush, everyone staring at Jiraiya in stunned disbelief.
Would he really even spy on a guy bathing?
Pervert!
"What fair skin? I was grabbing intel for you guys!" Jiraiya huffed, trying to salvage his reputation.
To his credit, he did pull out a stack of documents and threw them on the table, disappointing Nawaki, who had been waiting to see a spectacle.
"These are reports I've gathered from infiltrating the surrounding islands recently. Go ahead and take a look."
With a cough, Jiraiya turned serious. The sleazy look he had moments ago was gone, replaced by a solemn demeanor.
His acting skills had definitely improved-Xin thought that if Jiraiya pursued a career in acting, he could easily win an Oscar.
Though often unreliable, Jiraiya could indeed be counted on in critical moments.
Xin carefully examined the intel in his hand.
He had to admit, Jiraiya was quite skilled at intelligence gathering.
After everyone had reviewed the information, Jiraiya began to speak.
"Now that everyone's here at the Uzumaki camp, I'm sure you understand the weight of the mission ahead of us," He said.
"The upcoming mission may take us into dangerous territory, but I have confidence that we can complete it."
Kirigakure had been relying on surprise attacks, skirmishing all over the place, refusing to engage in a direct battle. Orochimaru was anxious; Jiraiya was anxious too.
But being anxious was useless-the enemy held the initiative.
If we don't have the leverage, we'll create it.
As long as Konoha could break through Kirigakure's chain of islands, it would be Kirigakure
that became desperate. Then, they would have no choice but to engage Konoha head-on.
As Jiraiya elaborated on the mission, the atmosphere in the command center grew heavy. Even Nawaki, who was usually carefree, wore a serious expression.
Twenty Jonin, with Jiraiya leading them-such a force could easily wipe out smaller villages, barring places like Amegakure with someone like Hanzō the Salamander.
But even with such overwhelming power, this mission was still incredibly risky.
As soon as they approached the islands controlled by Kirigakure, they could be surrounded by their forces at any moment. Not to mention, they needed to destroy military installations on those islands while under enemy encirclement.
They also had to hold their position until reinforcements arrived.
Before the reinforcements came, the pressure on them was immense-even for someone like Jiraiya, an elite Jonin.
Among all of them, the only one who seemed truly relaxed was Xin.
Sure, if you look at it in a certain way, a lot of ants can bring down an elephant-consider how the Third Raikage was taken down by thousands of Iwagakure ninjas in the original story. But for ants to take down an elephant, they also needed to pick their elephant carefully. A dwarf elephant, an Asian elephant, an African elephant-or even a mammoth