In a secret cave near the Land of Grass–Land of Rain border, Dada waited for another group of guests.
By his calculations, Hanzo of the Salamander should have already dealt with the trouble in Amegakure and be heading this way.
"My lord, the traces have been prepared," a ninja reported after returning from outside.
Dada nodded, idly toying with a Healing Tag in his hand. This tag had been developed half a year ago, a product born from the Uzumaki Fuinjutsu Kumogakure had collected over the years and Old Man Jishi's Medical Ninjutsu.
The batch in his hand was the first-generation semi-finished product and had fatal flaws. Not only could they not be transported in Sealing Scrolls, but two tags placed too close together would interfere with each other.
They had originally been meant for destruction, but they were perfect as bait. Their inability to be stacked and stored made it impossible for anyone to hide an entire box of them away.
Moreover, they had all been encrypted, so there was no need to fear anyone cracking their method of production.
Sunagakure had discovered Hanzo's departure from Amegakure on its own, and choosing to launch a surprise attack on the Rain Ninja had been the most likely outcome after their conflicts had accumulated to a certain point. Of course, if Sunagakure had not acted, Dada had a backup plan. As agreed, he would hand these cartloads of books and Healing Tags to Hanzo and let him slowly transport them back. But that would have been another script entirely.
Everything had gone according to the best possible arrangement.
The weather here truly was unbearable. The sparse drizzle had not stopped, like a case of diarrhea that just would not end.
After an unknown amount of time, Karui stepped forward and said,