'Ring ring ring...'
The alarm clock kept ringing, disturbing Hinata's peaceful sleep. Hinata stretched out a hand from under the covers and slammed the alarm off, half-asleep, ready to go back to sleep.
A wave of drowsiness washed over me.
"..."
Half asleep and half awake, Hinata suddenly remembered that she seemed to still be in Sunagakure.
"Ah--"
Hinata, stubbornly crawled out of bed, scratched her head, and stretched to loosen her muscles.
"Comfortable!"
Hinata still has some sense of shame.
Hinata could be forgiven for being lazy and slacking off in Konoha, but now that she's in someone else's village, she doesn't want the people of Sunagakure to mistake her for a lazybones.
Get up, wash up, eat.
Kakashi got up very early today, as he was about to return to Konoha. He didn't want the title of "King of Lateness" to spread throughout Sunagakure as well.
Two proud individuals packed their bags, and around 8 a. m., the group of four, led by Baki, arrived at the Skyline Gorge of Sunagakure.
There were four people from Konoha, twelve from the Sunagakure study group, and four Jonin escorting them, making a total of twenty people who set off from Sunagakure and headed towards the Land of Rivers.
Baki was also in the escort team. As evening approached, Baki came to Kakashi's side and said calmly, "The last town on the border of the Land of Wind is just ahead. We'll rest in the town for the night, and tomorrow morning we'll escort you to the border of the Land of Wind."
Kakashi nodded slightly.
The Sunagakure originally intended to escort Hinata and the others to the border of the Land of Fire, but Kakashi himself suggested that the Sand Ninja did not need to escort them on the section of the road through the Land of Rivers.
Baki glanced at Kakashi and frowned, saying, "Although I don't know what you're thinking, the people in the village have already sent a message to Konoha through the Ninja Hawk... which means that if you encounter trouble in the Land of Rivers, it has nothing to do with our Sunagakure."
Baki wasn't entirely unreasonable. Although he was hostile to Konoha, he knew that Sunagakure could only survive this most difficult period by forming an alliance with Konoha.
What truly disgusted Baki was the enormous amount of war reparations that the Sunagakure leadership was paying to Konoha.
Originally, Sunagakure should not have had to pay so much in compensation.
As long as the higher-ups are willing to persuade Chiyo and Ebizo to step down and take charge, and then quickly select the Fifth Kazekage, even if it's just an acting Kazekage, Sunagakure will have enough confidence to refuse Konoha.
The internal power struggles within the village and the compromises among its leaders are the root causes of Sunagakure's decline.
The voices of Sunagakure could not be unified, and the higher-ups were vying for power and unwilling to lose their own strength.
Let alone war, even for slightly dangerous missions, the higher-ups would pass the buck to each other, hoping to send the other side's people to carry them out.
With Sunagakure in such a state, how could it possibly have the courage to refuse Konoha?
Kakashi was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "Although our goal is the same—to go to Konoha —our missions are different from yours."
"Our mission is to escort the war reparations, while your mission is to go to Konoha to learn about its advanced systems and enhance the friendship between Konoha and Sand Village."
"In that case... we, Konoha, and you, Sand Village, can split into separate teams."
Baki looked at Kakashi with a strange expression and asked in a deep voice, "Are you serious?"
Kakashi said calmly, "If there is danger ahead, this is the only way to minimize casualties!"
Baki gave Kakashi a deep look, and said with a hint of admiration, "You Konoha Ninja are indeed very interesting."
The fact that the Konoha and Sand Village teams were together meant that the danger to the Sand Village study group had been minimized.
If someone is lying in ambush in the Land of Rivers, their goal must be war reparations, not to ambush the Sand Village's study group.
Kakashi's suggestion to split into teams not only reduced the danger to the Sunagakure study group, but also put himself in danger.
Although Kakashi refused the escort from Sunagakure, Baki will definitely bring people to secretly protect Temari and Kankuro's safety.
The fact that the four from Konoha were split up... meant that the four from Sunagakure would no longer receive support from the Sunagakure.
Hinata glanced at Kakashi with some confusion, but Kakashi ignored Hinata and continued speaking to Baki, "If you have no objections, then let's part ways here!"
After saying that, Kakashi called to Hinata and said calmly, "Hinata, let's go!"
Hinata waved her hand, signaling the Wind God and Thunder God to follow.
Once they were some distance from the Sand Village group, Hinata finally couldn't help but ask, "Teacher Kakashi, didn't you say last night that we wouldn't split into teams? And that if we were to travel with the Sunagakure people, we could use them as cannon fodder if we encountered the enemy..."
Kakashi rolled his dead fish eyes and explained weakly, "What you said is true. Even if all the study groups in Sunagakure are wiped out, they can still send people to Konoha to study... And if we act together with the Sand Village team, Sunagakure might even send people to protect us in secret."
"That's what I originally thought too."
"But... do you know why I suddenly suggested splitting into teams?"
Hinata asked curiously, "Why?"
Kakashi said calmly, "Because someone in the group from Sunagakure betrayed our information... That person was one of the four Jonin in the Sand Village escort team."
"I had Pakkun take a stroll around Sunagakure last night, and he happened to see this scene."
After a pause, Kakashi said mysteriously, "The enemy's traitor is now being monitored by Baki, so he can no longer transmit intelligence to the outside world... This means that the enemy can only know 'our' whereabouts through the traitor."
Hinata instantly understood Kakashi's meaning, gave Kakashi a reproachful look, and couldn't help but complain, "Teacher Kakashi, you're so mean!"
Kakashi originally only had Baki and the others escort them to the border of the Land of Wind, but now that Konoha and Sand Village teams, Baki will definitely escort Temari and Kankuro's group safely to the border of the Land of Fire.
The enemy may have used some kind of technique to track down the Sand Village spies, and then used Hinata spies to track down Sand Village and the others.
Now that the two sides are in separate teams, the Sand Village spies are no longer able to transmit intelligence to the outside world under the watchful eyes of everyone.
Kakashi said calmly, "If the enemy's goal is the war reparations, they wouldn't have ambushed the Sunagakure and done something as foolish as revealing their whereabouts."
"But..."
"I was only considering one possibility. If the enemy has other means of monitoring us, then the squad could actually cause us to lose the support of the Sand Village."
"Byakugan!"
Hinata her Byakugan and looked around thoroughly, both in front, behind, left, right, in the air, and on the ground, not even missing the small animals hiding in the cracks of rocks.
"No Chakra reaction..."
However, considering that some monitoring methods could be fooled by the Byakugan, Hinata used her Natural Sensing again, but still found nothing.
Hinata was still a little worried...
In fact, besides the Byakugan and Natural Sensing, Hinata has a third type of sensory ability.
The Malice Perception!
The power that Kurama (the Nine-Tails) passed on to Hinata was not a massive amount of Chakra, but a seed, a seed that represented Nine-Tails's power.
The seed's power is very weak; it contains only a tiny fraction of the Nine-Tails' power.
However, the power of a seed does not disappear once it is used up; rather, it is a power that can be infinitely regenerated.
Taking into account the White Zetsu's abilities, Hinata used the Nine-Tails' power for the first time, attempting to sense her surroundings again using the method of Malice Perception.