The sensory unit Jiraiya had requested resolved the Iwagakure assassination issue.
However, it was not the sensory unit cooperating with Minato Namikaze to kill the assassins. Rather, Iwagakure's assassin squad vanished without a trace and never attacked again.
Jiraiya believed it might have been a minor intelligence error that allowed the assassin squad to learn of the news beforehand, causing them to abandon the assassination.
Although the process differed from what he had imagined, the problem had more or less been resolved, so Jiraiya did not pay much attention to it.
The final outcome on the battlefield would still be decided by a major battle. Small-scale harassment could not play a decisive role.
However, what happened next exceeded Jiraiya's expectations somewhat.
Iwagakure demonstrated extraordinarily powerful intelligence-gathering capabilities. Even with the support of Kusagakure, a local ninja force, Konoha's ninja troops fell into a disadvantage in the intelligence war.
They could not detect the movements of the enemy ninja forces, while their own operations were repeatedly exposed and ended in failure.
The losses were so bad that Jiraiya suspected the intelligence department had an Iwagakure spy in a fairly high position.
But that seemed unlikely as well, since anyone with a questionable record could not attain such a position.
There couldn't possibly be a spy within the Anbu, could there?
After suffering repeated defeats, Jiraiya chose to shift from offense to defense, reducing the area in which Konoha's ninja operated and minimizing casualties as much as possible.
He had no choice. Their defeat in the intelligence war had cost them the initiative. Under such circumstances, stubbornly forcing the issue would only allow Iwagakure to keep expanding its advantage.
However, what Jiraiya had not expected was that just as he was preparing to enter a full defensive posture, Iwagakure somehow learned the