In an instant, a flood of noisy voices crashed into Rasa's head.
The torrent of information was so overwhelming that he nearly felt dizzy. He took a while to steady himself before he gradually adapted.
A child by the roadside waved at him.
"Kazekage-sama!"
[Lord Kazekage is so cool. I want to become someone like him when I grow up.]
A woman turned her head and looked his way.
"My respects, Kazekage-sama."
[Kazekage-sama looked at me! Ahhh!]
Another woman nearby—
[Kazekage-sama was looking at me. He looked several times. Don't tell me he's fallen for me?]
The corner of Rasa's eye twitched.
A young man was buying food at a flatbread stall.
[Kazekage-sama is good in every way, except he's a little too lustful. He already has two beautiful wives, and he still went on secret dates with Uchiha Hanatsuki. If he weren't strong enough, he probably would've died at the hands of the Akayama Clan.
Truly a model for our generation.]
Rasa raised a brow and glanced at the young man. He had not expected that turn in the man's inner thoughts.
An elderly man stood nearby, looking kind and benevolent.
[Rasa, you little bastard—look at what you've done to our Kirigakure. I want to kill you so badly!]
Rasa did not move immediately. He simply memorized the old man's face.
"I knew I'd get results."
"No shinobi village is without spies from other villages."
"And no shinobi village fails to send out spies of its own."
"Sunagakure is no exception."
A middle-aged man pulling a cart stacked with goods spoke respectfully.
"Kazekage-sama!"
[When is this war ever going to end?]
The woman beside him—
[Is the Fourth Kazekage just like the Third? Kirigakure's army has already withdrawn from the Land of Wind, so why keep fighting? Why not just call everyone back and let us live peacefully?
Do we really have to keep fighting Kirigakure?]
Rasa cast her a sidelong glance.
"How shortsighted."
"Kirigakure's army withdraws from the Land of Wind, and you think Sunagakure should retreat at once?"
"You think that makes you someone who loves peace. In other people's eyes, it just makes you look weak and easy to bully."
"If I let someone like you run Sunagakure, the village would collapse within days."
"If you dislike this version of Sunagakure that much, then you'd be better off leaving."
Rasa remembered her as well.
She was not a spy now, but someone dissatisfied with the village could become one in the future. She warranted close attention.
Two teenage boys were eating flatbread by the roadside.
[Kazekage-sama is really strong. He crushed the Akayama Clan by himself and fought four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen alone. He's far stronger than the Third Kazekage, isn't he?]
The other boy thought—
[Kazekage-sama is strong, but a little too cruel. The Akayama Clan may have been guilty, but surely not every last one of them deserved to die.]
Rasa narrowed his eyes slightly.
"So Sunagakure has male saints too?"
He memorized that boy as well.
A person like that might spare an enemy on the battlefield and get his comrades killed.
A beautiful woman was wiping bottles inside a shop.
[I don't understand why the village would ally with Kirigakure. There's no benefit in it at all… Still, this Rasa does have some ability. I need to pass more intelligence back to the village.]
At that thought, Rasa immediately confirmed her identity.
A Konoha spy.
His pace through the village was neither fast nor slow.
He circled the entire village route.
An enormous number of inner voices flooded into his mind.
Hearing so many thoughts at once left him faintly uncomfortable.
But the harvest was enormous.
"Setting aside the discontented ones and the saints... I found a total of seven spies."
"Three from Kirigakure, one from Konoha, one from Kumogakure, and two from Iwagakure."
"Whether I kill them or use them to feed false intelligence outward, they can all be turned into assets for Sunagakure."
"I can study them carefully."
The existence of spies was harmful to Sunagakure.
But once Sunagakure knew who they were, while those spies remained unaware that they had been exposed, that knowledge could be used in many ways.
Of course, Rasa understood something clearly.
With only one One-Day Inner Voice Listening Card—and only twelve hours of duration—it was impossible to root out every single infiltrator hidden in Sunagakure.
Seeing that little time remained, Rasa raised a hand.
At once, an ANBU ninja appeared.
"Kazekage-sama."
"Send out notice. I am calling an emergency meeting. The heads of every major shinobi clan in the village, as well as the higher-ups and officers—I want all of them present. I have something important to discuss."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
The ANBU shinobi vanished at once.
Rasa turned and headed for the Kazekage Building.
Figures soon began speeding toward it from all directions.
Rasa sat quietly in the meeting room and waited.
Before long, the room was nearly full.
A great many people had come.
Once again, Rasa was surrounded by a chaotic sea of voices.
"Kazekage-sama, everyone is here."
Rasa swept his gaze across the room.
Among those currently in the village who met the qualifications to attend, everyone had come except Chiyo.
Not a single person was late.
"The main reason I called this meeting," Rasa said, "is to discuss one matter."
"Namely, at what point should the war between Sunagakure and Kirigakure come to an end?"
Discussion immediately broke out.
The more people there were, the more likely factions would emerge.
Sunagakure was no exception.
Some radicals believed they should not stop until they had invaded the Land of Water and destroyed Kirigakure entirely.
Others believed Sunagakure could already begin naming reparations terms now, and if Kirigakure accepted, Sunagakure could withdraw its army and end the war.
Others stood somewhere between those two positions. They believed Sunagakure should first inflict more damage on Kirigakure, then demand massive compensation before agreeing to stop.
But Rasa did not listen to a single word of the discussion.
Because at that moment, he was listening to their inner thoughts.
These were the village's higher-ups and officers.
If any of them harbored disloyalty, the damage they could inflict on the village would far exceed that of spies pretending to be civilians.
That was why Rasa listened especially carefully.
And the more he listened, the more problems he uncovered.
The state of Sunagakure's higher-ups and officers was worse than he had expected.
Rasa had originally believed that after the Akayama Clan incident, there were no longer any meaningful traitors among the upper ranks.
He had not expected that even after the Akayama Clan's fate, there would still be such "experts" hiding in the dark.
And the matter involved one elder and two shinobi clans.
Rasa narrowed his eyes, his gaze drifting lightly across those individuals.
"To betray the village is an unforgivable crime."
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