Before long, Kakashi boarded a Clay Bird Deidara had made for him and hurried toward the Land of Water.
Meanwhile, after the Five Kage Summit ended, Itachi immediately sent out a messenger ninja crow, informing Hyuga Kagami of the attack on Kirigakure and the village's rescue plan, then patiently waited for Hyuga Kagami's instructions.
At the training ground beside the Uchiha Compound.
Sasuke, who was receiving Shinichi's guidance on how to use the Mangekyō Sharingan, suddenly looked up at the sky.
Ever since he had challenged his brother Itachi and suffered a crushing defeat to Itachi's genjutsu, Sasuke had tempered some of his arrogance and begun studying the techniques of using the Mangekyō Sharingan under Shisui and Shinichi.
Pointing at the sky, Sasuke asked, "Is that one of the village's messenger hawks?"
"Yeah."
Shinichi glanced at it and nodded.
Sasuke was somewhat curious. "What's going on these past few days? Why have the messenger hawks been coming and going so frequently? Is something big about to happen?"
In the past, it was rare to see a messenger hawk even once every ten days or half a month. Yet over the last few days, hawk cries had rung through the village nonstop, and one only had to look up to see messenger hawks flying back and forth overhead. Even Sasuke, who normally paid little attention to such matters, had keenly sensed that something was wrong.
Shinichi did not explain further, merely urging, "Let's keep training. You don't have much time left!"
At the training ground on the other side of the village.
Haku did not disturb Naruto, who had created five Shadow Clones in the field to absorb natural energy simultaneously. Instead, he stood atop a tree crown, watching from afar as all kinds of messenger birds crisscrossed the skies above