Sōsuke Assassination Unit

"Since that's the case, Ninshu is actually more difficult to deal with than we imagined," Yashamaru said.

He seemed to understand why Iwagakure had acted so strangely before.

They were only willing to provide money, but the moment manpower was mentioned, negotiations were off.

Looking at it now, Iwagakure might have already obtained intelligence at the time. They wanted to eliminate Ninshu, but feared Sōsuke's retaliation, so they chose this approach.

"That's right. If we want to strike at Ninshu, we must find a way to kill Sōsuke first. Otherwise, the consequences will be endless," Retsuishi said with a nod.

For Iwagakure, destroying Ninshu was imperative. The stronger Sōsuke was, the more urgently they needed to wipe out Ninshu.

Right now, Sōsuke was the only one holding up Ninshu's banner. If they failed to seize this opportunity and allowed Ninshu to continue growing, it might become the next Konoha—except a Konoha with Hashirama Senju.

That was something Iwagakure could not tolerate. The Land of Rain bordered the Land of Earth.

"The question is, how do we kill Sōsuke? How much intelligence on him does Iwagakure have?" Dodai continued after giving it some thought.

A ninja's battle began before the battle itself. The difference between having intelligence and having none was enormous.

If they had no intelligence at all, Dodai believed that going after Sōsuke would be suicide.

If they had sufficient intelligence and gathered the strong fighters of several major ninja villages for thorough preparations, Dodai believed they had a decent chance of succeeding.

The exact odds depended on how comprehensive the intelligence was and what, specifically, it contained.

"This is all the intelligence Iwagakure currently possesses on Sōsuke." Retsuishi took out two identical scrolls and handed one each to Dodai and Yashamaru.

"Among the five elemental releases, confirmed intelligence