"Lord Chiba, your authorization has arrived. You may select any ninja you need. The Hokage has granted you authority over any ninja below Anbu rank who is idle or not assigned to an important mission."
Watching Chiba, who had already recovered his composure, the young female ninja behind the counter spoke with a rigid expression in a highly formal tone.
"Oh, could you show me the Jonin who are currently available? It would be best if you brought me the files for Special Jonin as well."
Having gathered all his thoughts and focused on selecting personnel, Chiba frowned slightly as he spoke.
At the moment, the only people he knew were characters from the original story. In this era, the people he knew who could handle such a task numbered only three. Kakashi was currently an Anbu captain, and according to the scope Minato Namikaze had set, he could not select Anbu personnel to accompany him.
Naturally, Chiba had no objections to the scope Minato Namikaze had given him. Foreign envoys would arrive in three days, and the village would certainly need to strengthen its defenses then. The people assigned to that task would undoubtedly be Anbu.
Therefore, the more Anbu available for the coming deployment, the better. It was perfectly normal that he was not allowed to mobilize them here.
However, this mission required investigating the actions of the envoys from the two countries along their route and eliminating hidden dangers. Since it involved foreign nations and such a sensitive matter as peace talks and alliances, it also needed a degree of secrecy.
So, he could not bring too many people.
Chiba estimated that two squads, eight people, would be about right. Including himself, that made nine.
Too many people would make them easy to expose. Too few, and