Something had happened!
Last night, Konoha had been too busy evacuating to count the villagers.
But by morning, once the hidden danger had been dealt with and the villagers were allowed to return, the problem naturally came to light.
Several thousand people were missing!
Although only around two thousand of them were ninja, this set a terrible precedent.
Especially when Konoha was so weakened, losing so many ninja made Asuma want to kill someone.
If he had known last night, he would have acted to keep Tsunade behind even if it meant tearing all pretense apart.
One had to understand that Asuma did not consider their combat strength indispensable. Rather, only with these Konoha ninja could he better control the ninja army.
For example, there were now several thousand ninja from other villages within the village. That number was still manageable.
But once it exceeded ten thousand, nearly double the number of the village's own ninja, controlling them would become extremely difficult.
Only the more Konoha ninja he had, the better he could keep those allied ninja forces under control.
Now, Tsunade had taken so many people in one stroke, greatly reducing the village's ninja population and naturally weakening his control over Konoha.
Sending Kakashi after them had never carried much hope.
Judging by Blazing Sun Country's methods, those people had certainly been taken away long ago. There was no point in chasing them now.
At this point, he finally understood why so much had happened last night.
One side had targeted the Nara Clan, a ninja clan they held a grudge against, while the other had covered the escape of those ninja.
Unfortunately, even after learning the truth, there was nothing he could do now.
Although he knew it would achieve little, he still sent Kakashi in pursuit solely