Three Sides

This is a forest that seems out of place with its surroundings. In fact, there is no shortage of tall trees in the wetland, and even some reeds and other plants are unusually robust, almost as tall as a person.

Therefore, the relatively short, pale white trees in front of them are easy to notice, not to mention a ninja with excellent eyesight, even an ordinary person could easily spot them.

"This is... the Seven Star Tree!"

Sunagakure Wendou carefully lay prone in the overgrown mud, holding a small telescope in one hand, his gaze focused through the cracks in the withered leaves ahead.

The sudden, unusual image made his eyes widen involuntarily, and his chakra became slightly disordered.

Fortunately, there shouldn't be any ninjas nearby, since it's quite a distance from that precious forest.

"No wonder the frequency of Kirigakure's attacks has changed so drastically; they've discovered this resource." Wendou decided not to delve any further.

This message must be conveyed to the village leadership as soon as possible. The Sunagakure Village's situation has become increasingly difficult in recent years; how could they not fight for such a huge benefit...?

He put away his binoculars, slowly straightened up, moved back a little to a crouching position, and prepared to sneak away.

What did you see? Can you tell me?

A soft, unfamiliar voice suddenly rang out beside Wendou, nearly scaring him half to death, who was preoccupied with important matters.

As Special Jonin with reconnaissance abilities, his senses are extremely sharp, yet he was completely unaware that someone had gotten so close. How is that possible!

He was about to shout out loud when he quickly realized he couldn't, otherwise the Kirigakure Village would definitely notice the commotion.

Since the unknown intruders didn't act openly, it's highly likely they weren't from the Kirigakure faction. Therefore...

Before Wendou could finish processing all the thoughts in his mind, a figure flashed close beside him, a hand precisely and forcefully grabbing his neck and lifting him up.

The wrist was like a pair of pliers, gripping Wendou so tightly that he could barely breathe, his throat felt like it was about to burst, and his face instantly turned red and then purple.

"Uh... uh..."

With his last ounce of strength, Wendou reached for his ninja tool pouch and immediately drew Kunai, thrusting it horizontally. However, a strong, silent electric current surged through his opponent's arm first, neutralizing his final struggle.

Shuichi the Sunagakure moving, Shuichi calmly put it down.

Ten minutes ago, he had successfully located the Seven Star Tree Forest and used his powerful perception to figure out the defensive setup of the Kirigakure.

This area is partially surrounded by mountains, with three major military units patrolling in circles around it, interspersed with numerous lone ninjas stationed at fixed points.

Two main forces of the Kirigakure Army were positioned to the west, while there was a clear gap on the east side of the mountain. The remaining force was lingering in that area, and all of them were quite numerous.

"The Sunagakure's outposts have already found this place, so it's only a matter of time before they discover the existence of the Seven Star Tree." Shuichi assessed this neither good nor bad news in his mind.

His Sage Mode doesn't last very long, but thanks to his extremely wide sensory range,

Soon after arriving, he discovered a "small dot" that was outside the Kirigakure system.

This Sunagakure scout is indeed calm and cautious; even in a crisis, he managed to restrain himself from revealing his identity. Saving his life might yield important intelligence.

However, Shuichi's Genjutsu abilities are not as powerful as the Sharingan's, and his interrogation speed is much slower than Shisui's. The current situation is too complex to allow for a slow and deliberate approach.

After searching the corpse, Shuichi found a long, thin bamboo tube in his hand.

If I'm not mistaken, this should be Signal flare from the Sunagakure troops.

Judging from its design, it resembles a smokescreen that shoots into the sky. Once launched, it's likely to be visible to everyone and probably make things even more chaotic.

"What a pity, this thing isn't very useful."

After carefully inspecting the bamboo tube, Shuichi put it into his bag and kept it as a backup plan.

He then took out Scroll from his vest, unfurled it, dipped his brush in ink, and began to draw birds using the remaining Senjutsu Chakra.

Before long, a half-human-sized Ink Bird burst from the paper and flew into the distance. The chakra contained his memories and intelligence, and it could skillfully bypass the guards of the Kirigakure to deliver messages to the team members.

After doing all this, Shuichi took out several fake blood bags filled with red dye and tied them to his limbs.

Comparing himself to Wendou's appearance, he transformed into Wen Dou's form, and there was no discernible difference. Then, Body Flicker Technique teleported away in a more distant direction.

Meanwhile, Akiha, Shisui, and Itachi had just arrived not far from the Seven Star Tree area, their pace initially fast but slowing down along the way.

The chances of encountering Sunagakure are increasing, and I've only managed to avoid them by intermittently using my Byakugan.

"Ninja squads have appeared at the 11 o'clock and 2 o'clock directions, about 1 kilometer away!" Akiha said to the two. "Judging from their routes, they are very likely the vanguard of the Sunagakure."

"We don't know what's going on with Captain Shuichi. Could you pass this message on?"

The Sunagakure will soon find this place; they'll definitely continue searching eastward soon, and they'll probably find...

Itachi understood what she meant and was about to take out the Summoning Scroll he had prepared beforehand, but was suddenly interrupted by Akiha.

Puzzled, he followed her gaze to the sky and saw the unusual birds circling overhead, then suddenly realized what was going on and immediately unfolded the blank Scroll to wait.

Upon seeing this, the large bird swooped down without hesitation, crashing into the white paper and transforming into patterns and a large amount of text, with extremely detailed information annotations.

The three formed a circle and discovered that Shuichi had already completed all the intelligence gathering.

It contains detailed coordinates of the Seven Star Tree Forest, a strategic terrain map of the surrounding area, the patrol distribution of the Kirigakure faction, and even his action suggestions.

Itachi pondered for a moment before speaking first, "Even our teacher has noticed signs of activity from Sunagakure. It seems we can't stop them from discovering the Seven Star Tree. Let's find a way to provoke a conflict between Kirigakure and Sunagakure."

Shisui and Akiha agreed with this assessment, but doing it flawlessly would be quite difficult.

Shuichi had mentioned the state of the Shinobi World to them, and saying "The world has suffered under Konoha too long" might be an overstatement.

If the Wind and Water Countries discovers that a lone Konoha Squad is involved in the struggle for power, they will most likely join forces to deal with the leader of the Shinobi World first, so their position is actually quite dangerous.

"Let me go! I'm the fastest here. As long as I don't get surrounded, I can shake off the enemy at any time," Shisui stepped forward.

The other two had no objections. Akiha swallowed Soldier Pill and rallied her spirits, "I'll use my Byakugan to coordinate with your actions."

Moreover, this place isn't far from either side, so it's best to find a suitable hiding spot first, and then figure out a way to make them fight...

Itachi silently recorded the action plan, then used one of his few disposable Summoning Scrolls to summon a small Aoda, wrapped the note in it, and put it into the snake's mouth to send it to Shuichi.

After agreeing on their plan, the three immediately began their work. Akiha and Itachi found a relatively soft, overgrown area and quickly dug several holes.

Simultaneously, through radio communication and real-time communication with Shisui, he directed him, transformed into Mist Ninja, to approach the Sunagakure Squad, posing as normal reconnaissance personnel to guard the surrounding area.

"A group of people is coming, about 30 degrees to your right, about 500 meters away." Akiha poked half her head out of the hole, her eyes fixed on the distance, unmoving.

"There are four people in total. There should be one Sensory Ninja in the team. Their overall movement speed isn't very fast."

Shisui memorized the information, constantly calculating the angle at which the enemy was approaching, and carefully ran through the complex terrain.