"Do you think," Haseo asked after a long silence, "that Kiri's goal is merely reconnaissance and harassment, or are they truly preparing to capture the Two-Tails? Or maybe, like us, they're just waiting for an opportunity to act—if one arises—and otherwise taking it easy... Keep in mind that if they really wanted to keep the Two-Tails in their possession, they'd have to prepare for a large-scale conflict with Kumo. Is that even possible?"
At dawn, Team Konoha stood guard on an unnamed hillside. From this position, the distant figure of the Two-Tails was clearly visible to the naked eye.
This proved that the intelligence they had previously obtained and the tracking they had just completed were both correct—the tailed beast that had died years ago due to Haseo was indeed hiding right here.
Haseo's question seemed difficult to answer. At this point, it was unclear just how determined Kiri was about obtaining the Two-Tails.
Even for Konoha—a ninja village with particularly ambitious research goals regarding tailed beasts—it would be a loss-making endeavor to provoke total conflict with a powerful village like Kumo over a single tailed beast. Let alone for Kiri to attempt such a thing.
Kumo possessed formidable strength, but even more importantly, they were known for their resolute and uncompromising nature. Taking anything from them could prove extremely dangerous.
"Probably much like what we're doing," Shikou said. "Kiri will probably just wait for an opening. And even if they did manage to seize the Two-Tails, I can hardly imagine them keeping it permanently."
She believed Kiri's approach was purely wait-and-see—grabbing the opportunity if it came up, otherwise just watching from a distance.
At this point in time, there was no way Kiri could've prepared itself mentally or materially for full-scale war against Kumo. That's why she was convinced Kiri wouldn't risk making overly provocative moves.
However, Shikou's assumption contained a clear logical inconsistency when compared to Kiri's current actions.
"If their intentions were truly so limited," Haseo questioned again, "then why does Kiri's operation team include so many elite shinobi?"
The Seven Swords of the Bloody Mist, along with Hozuki and Kaguya, were all top-tier fighters. If Kiri's only goal was opportunistic theft, then the current squad's combat strength seemed overly "abundant"... A ninja village's high-level forces are inherently limited. Without clear objectives, Kiri would never dispatch so many elite ninja at once.
Was it because Kiri's upper echelon had too much free time? Haseo didn't believe that was plausible at all.
"..."
Shikou appeared momentarily unable to provide a counter-explanation.
"By the way," Haseo suddenly added, "hasn't the Third Mizukage and Kazekage already been formally confirmed by now?"
As he said this, he thought back to what Konoha did when he first arrived during the early days of the Third Hokage's reign—when new leaders come into power, they often need to take decisive actions to establish and cement their authority.
As fate would have it, all the Second Generation Kage across the ninja world died under highly suspicious circumstances, leaving the newly appointed Third Generation in precarious positions.
Though the Second Hokage and Raikage were exceptions, the Second Kazekage fell on the battlefield at the hands of Third Hokage, while the Second Mizukage recklessly sacrificed himself fighting the Second Tsuchikage. As a result, all of the Third Kages rose to power hastily, each facing internal turmoil and opposition within their own villages.
Such dissent was even sufficient to persuade someone as stubborn as the Third Raikage to accept a "shadowy scheme"—faking reports of him personally killing the rogue ninja Kinkaku and Ginkaku in collaboration with Konoha...
Speaking tangentially, Konoha can no longer use past conspiracies to blackmail Kumo.
Because for Kumo, every explanation from Konoha is merely "sophistry." They trust only the Third Raikage's account. Enough time has passed since the incident; by now, if the Third Raikage insisted he killed Kinkaku and Ginkaku, that would be the official truth accepted by Kumo.
Even if the genjutsu left behind by Kagami Uchiha back then could be unraveled, nothing would change.
The hidden details of this affair will only be recorded in Konoha's most secret archives and left to gather dust in the deepest vaults—neither side will speak of it openly again.
"Yes, everyone already knows what happened in Sunagakure. As for Kirigakure, although the news was very confidential, they've already chosen a new Mizukage," Shikou said.
When the Third Kazekage was selected, it caused quite an uproar.
Although Hiruzen Sarutobi was young when he became Hokage, he was at least in his twenties. Yet this new Kazekage hadn't even reached twenty, which naturally sparked controversy...
Firstly, people began suspecting whether Sunagakure was experiencing a leadership crisis—a shortage of capable candidates—to choose a child as their Kazekage. Secondly, the other Kage undoubtedly felt displeased. The title of "Kage" was supposed to represent the highest honor among ninja. Placing such power in the hands of someone so young undoubtedly lowered its prestige.
However, Haseo didn't find this particularly strange. Although unaware of Sunagakure's reasoning, from his memory, this mysterious village did have a history of placing children in leadership positions.
As for the current situation with the Third Mizukage, intelligence received so far remained extremely limited. At this point, Haseo suspected that the new Mizukage might be deliberately stirring unrest specifically to consolidate personal authority... From both possibility and rationality, such a theory made sense.
In peacetime, opportunities to make a bold statement were rare, but stealing a Tailed Beast definitely counted. Shouldn't the Mizukage seize such an opportunity?
Stealing Cloud's Tailed Beast and humiliating the Raikage simultaneously—that was essentially enhancing the Mizukage's reputation.
After reaching this suspicion, Haseo stopped overthinking Kirigakure's motives and simply started seeing them as competitors.
"Looking at it now, the ideal scenario of stealing the Tailed Beast unnoticed and retreating quietly no longer exists. Next, we'll need to take action opportunistically," Haseo said.
But honestly, there was little worth lamenting here—the initial plan had been practically impossible from the beginning... Sneaking away a Tailed Beast under Kumo's nose? That kind of feat could only be accomplished if the First returned through some forbidden technique.
Fortunately, Konoha had already pinpointed the movements of their enemies. The Kumo ninja were the first to locate the Two-Tails, after all, this tailed beast originally belonged to Kumo, and perhaps they had a special method for tracking it down.
In fact, Kumo had already begun their attempt to recover the Tailed Beast, which explained the earlier flare-up of chakra activity.
Coming in slightly later was the Mist squad, who had arrived before Konoha but now found themselves stuck between Konoha, Kumo, and the Two-Tails—an unfortunate position.
In contrast, Konoha held a rather advantageous spot on the battlefield, allowing them to observe everything unfolding around them.
"Let's hold off for now and see what Kumo and Mist do," Haseo said again. "Then we can set up traps right here. When the timing is right, I'll lure the Tailed Beast over."
"Lure the Tailed Beast? How are we supposed to do that?" Shikou asked.
"I've got something like a cat teaser—it's exactly the kind that would attract the Two-Tails."
Seeing the confused looks on everyone's faces and wanting to clear things up quickly, Haseo immediately added, "I mean, I myself will act as the cat teaser."
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