"Third... where is the Third Hokage? Does he know about the situation here?"
Orochimaru took a slight breath. A series of ominous thoughts flashed through his mind as he glanced at the half-written scroll in his hand, as well as the dark stains left by shattered droplets of sweat. His brow furrowed tightly.
"The outpost notified the Third Hokage before we did. The Third Hokage already knows about this."
The intelligence ninja hurriedly replied, cold sweat beading on his own forehead. As information couriers, they sometimes merely delivered classified intelligence scrolls and generally did not know what was inside.
But this time, the matter had been far too urgent. The summoned beast used by the outpost to relay the message had collapsed from exhaustion. There was quite some distance between them and the outpost, yet it had delivered the information in less than half an hour. That was only thanks to the summoned beast's speed. Under normal procedures, the message would have taken at least three hours to arrive, perhaps even longer. In an emergency, it could take a full day.
By the time the summoned beast reached him, it had been so exhausted that it could barely speak. Chizuru and Asakura at the outpost had likely feared something going wrong or the intelligence being intercepted, so they had not used a scroll. Instead, they had the summoned beast relay the message orally. That was why he knew about it. After barely managing to deliver the intelligence, the summoned beast returned to its own realm.
After all, this was the frontline battlefield. Enemy troops could emerge anywhere at any time. Moreover, the Border Army was currently fighting Iwa. If enemies suddenly appeared, they would surely be from Iwa. And if Iwa learned that Konoha had discovered their plan, those four