This Hada Ichiba...
Just who was he?
Watanabe Kensei lowered his head to look at the scroll in his hand. Standing in the shadows half a street away from the Kusagakure guesthouse, he stopped in his tracks. The scene from an hour ago, when he had received this scroll, surfaced in his mind again, and a thought involuntarily crossed his heart.
It was hard to imagine that one man's idea was actually better than any of the three plans devised by Konoha's Defense Force, intelligence division, and related departments.
Did he already know... no, had he already guessed which three plans Konoha would come up with, which was why he thought this way? Or had he guessed every plan Konoha could possibly devise? Was that why he had formulated an even better plan? As soon as that thought arose, another followed, and an uncontrollable look of astonishment spread across his face.
Was this Hada Ichiba really not Lord Chiba? Then, the handwriting and signature on that letter, now burned to ashes, surfaced in his mind, and his face darkened with profound suspicion.
If not for the message brought by that suddenly arriving white dove, he would almost have believed that Hada Ichiba was his Lord Chiba. Hada Ichiba's plan—the one written on the scroll in his hand—was simply far too similar in style to Lord Chiba's.
If not for the letter brought by that white dove, he would definitely have believed that this Hada Ichiba was Lord Chiba.
After all, this letter, this letter proposing revisions to the alliance treaty, had been sent by Lord Chiba himself.
And Hada Ichiba had not displayed any abnormal Chakra fluctuations at the time. It was impossible for him to have remotely manipulated anything. Yet the ink on the letter was still fresh.
There