Who Is the Bait?

At Jingū Kiraku's command, the Amegakure Ninjas instinctively lit the cannons.

Round Poison Gas Bombs shot from the barrels, tearing through the silent rainy night and hurtling toward the valley at incredible speed.

Only then did the Konoha squad come sprinting out of the valley.

It was as if they had deliberately run straight into the shells.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A chain of explosions rang out, and billowing poison gas instantly filled the entire valley.

Wherever the purple gas spread, grass and trees rapidly withered, all life utterly stripped away.

Faced with such precise, perfectly timed attacks, the Konoha squad was wiped out with almost no struggle.

Only now did Erika realize why Jingū Kiraku had told her to move five meters to the left and adjust the angle—

Without that final bit of "fine control," the shells' trajectory would likely have been blocked by a protrusion along the edge of the valley, given the Konoha squad's route.

Though the poison gas produced by the explosions could still inflict casualties, it would have easily left the enemy a chance to strike back.

Once she understood, Erika could not help but marvel inwardly:

Meticulous!

Lord Jingū is far too meticulous!

Of course, beyond his meticulousness, the range of Sensing Ninjutsu Jingū Kiraku displayed also gave Erika quite a fright.

In the ninja world, even the famed "divine reconnaissance technique," the Byakugan, had a detection range of only one kilometer.

No matter how intensely one trained it, four or five kilometers was already the absolute limit.

Yet Jingū Kiraku's sensing range stretched dozens, even hundreds of kilometers.

And it even allowed real-time communication!

The two simply were not on the same level...

The same sentiment arose in the hearts of every Amegakure Ninja carrying out the Eternal Night mission.

After witnessing Jingū Kiraku's miracle, no one was not deeply awed by his immense power.

As for the name Eternal Night, it had been chosen by Jingū Kiraku.

It meant blinding all of Konoha's "eyes" and plunging them into everlasting darkness.

Elsewhere, Jiraiya, who had just completed the rescue operation at Graystone Town, was urgently awakened in the middle of the night.

"Lord Jiraiya, this is bad!!"

"Hidden Rain Village has launched fierce attacks against the reconnaissance squads we sent out."

"Nearly half of the reconnaissance squads have already lost contact!"

The communications ninja delivering the report spoke with a trembling voice and a panicked tone.

Those three brief sentences instantly swept the sleepiness from Jiraiya's face.

In its place came intense shock and seething fury.

"What exactly is going on?"

His tone immediately turned grave, and a sharp glint flashed in his eyes.

These reconnaissance squads were their most important eyes. If anything happened to them, the entire Konoha force would be unable to move an inch!

"According to the ninjas who escaped from the front lines, Hidden Rain Village suddenly launched fierce attacks against our reconnaissance forces."

"These are the locations from the squads' final reports before they lost contact!"

The communications ninja reporting to him lowered his voice as much as possible to avoid causing panic.

He then handed an intelligence scroll to Jiraiya.

At that moment, Tsunade had clearly received the news as well and hurried into Jiraiya's tent.

Her hair was somewhat disheveled, and her face was equally filled with concern.

"How is the situation?"

Tsunade asked anxiously.

The ambush Hidden Rain Village had planned at Graystone Town had already cost them dearly.

If something went wrong with the reconnaissance forces as well, Konoha's morale would surely plummet.

At her words, Jiraiya pressed the scroll against the table, his voice sounding unexpectedly hoarse.

"The situation is bad. Nearly half the reconnaissance squads are gone."

His hands gripped the table tightly as he gritted his teeth.

"How the hell did that bastard do it?!"

Generally speaking, large-scale battles rarely broke out between reconnaissance squads.

After all, they excelled at sensing and disguise. Even when they encountered enemies, they would avoid battle whenever possible, prioritizing the retrieval of intelligence.

Under such circumstances, Hidden Rain Village had somehow eliminated so many reconnaissance squads in one stroke. Jiraiya simply could not make sense of it, much less understand it.

Tsunade also furrowed her brows tightly, unable to comprehend it.

"Unless..."

"Hidden Rain Village possesses some kind of extremely large-scale sensing technique capable of exposing the locations of every squad on the front lines!"

After a long silence, Tsunade suddenly voiced a conjecture that left everyone dumbfounded.

Even the experienced Jiraiya was stunned by such an outlandish idea.

He swallowed before speaking in a low voice.

"If it really is as you say, then the range of that technique would probably be enough to cover more than half the Land of Rain."

"That's far too absurd..."

Jiraiya shook his head, clearly not believing that the new leader could accomplish something on that scale.

But soon, he froze where he stood.

He suddenly realized that, if he analyzed the situation according to Tsunade's theory, Hidden Rain Village's actions over the past few days seemed to have a reasonable explanation—

First, they used the Poison Cavalry, which Konoha had never seen before, to force them to scatter.

Then, they dealt Konoha a heavy blow through the ambush at Graystone Town, forcing them to send a large number of reconnaissance squads to patrol the front lines.

After that, they relied on terrifying Sensing Ninjutsu to precisely locate every reconnaissance squad on the front lines and dispatched elites to slaughter them!

Step by step, link by link, it all seemed to be within that Amegakure Leader's grasp.

He and every Konoha ninja were like puppets, manipulated at another's whim!!

At that thought, Jiraiya suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"Was all of this really under your control?"

"Jingū Kiraku..."

Jiraiya muttered.

When he voiced his conjecture, Tsunade likewise fell into a long silence.

A chill continued to spread from their hearts...

No one knew how long that state lasted before Tsunade finally broke it.

"Pull yourself together, Jiraiya!"

"Whether your guess is right or wrong, we can't keep letting him lead us around by the nose."

"Since he's too afraid to show himself, we'll take the initiative."

A startling aura suddenly erupted from Tsunade.

"Doesn't he want to use this chance to hunt our reconnaissance squads?"

"Then we'll turn the tables and use those squads as bait to lure him out!"

"I'd like to see who the bait really is, and who the fisherman is!!"

Jiraiya was taken aback, but he quickly understood what Tsunade meant.

He immediately nodded heavily, brought his fists together before his chest, and said with renewed vigor:

"I understand. But to avoid any sensing technique the enemy might possess, we need to do a little..."

"Disguising."