"What?!"
"You're saying quite a few ninja clans have betrayed the village and joined the Blazing Sun Country?"
"They're constantly recruiting villagers?"
Jiraiya repeatedly sought confirmation.
It was not that there was something wrong with his ears. The news was simply too unbelievable.
People from the Blazing Sun Country had appeared.
And they were secretly recruiting ninja clans and villagers. A huge number of people had already joined them—probably no fewer than ten thousand.
And now they were not even bothering to hide it. They were just short of sending people to seize them outright.
No wonder Jiraiya found such news hard to believe and kept asking whether he had heard wrong.
"Yes, Hokage. All of it is true!"
The Anbu confirmed once more that there had not been the slightest exaggeration in his report.
Even the Anbu had not dared believe this intelligence at first. Only after investigating did they discover just how severe the situation was.
If Konoha still existed as it once had, the Anbu would have noticed immediately if even several dozen members of a ninja clan had gone missing, let alone over ten thousand people.
But now that the village had been destroyed, the ninja clans were scattered everywhere, as were the villagers. That was why the Anbu had failed to react in time, allowing such an oversight to happen.
"Blazing Sun Country!!!"
Jiraiya nearly crushed his teeth.
He truly could not understand what deep-seated grudge they had against Konoha that made them so determined to poach its people.
They had already taken in countless villagers from Konoha before. Even quite a few talented youths with potential had defected to them.
Now, they were not even pretending anymore. They were outright snatching people away.
In Jiraiya's eyes, poaching Konoha when it had no spare