Conflict

The Konoha waystation provided lodging for passing merchant caravans and storage for their pack animals.

But with livestock penned up nearby, the smell was hard to describe.

The air was thick with a rustic aroma.

By then, Ye Rong, Ye Feng, and the others had finally finished their preliminary intelligence gathering and regrouped in a modest dormitory room. It was rather cramped.

Konoha had been stockpiling all kinds of supplies lately, and merchant caravans from across the Land of Fire were constantly coming and going. This was the only room they could get.

The beds were long enough for ten people to lie side by side.

They had spent the past few days making a full circuit of Konoha and had learned quite a lot.

They now had a rough outline for what to do next.

"Trading vaccines for sealing scrolls is perfectly feasible. And that Danzō we met is probably extremely powerful—far stronger than us. I suspect he's at Boundary Breaker level."

Ye Rong sighed.

He looked like an ordinary old man and didn't give off any particularly oppressive aura, but simply talking to him had made her feel tense.

"And there's something dark about him. The two Anbu who follow him around feel strange, too."

Ye Feng had felt much the same.

"It's not just us. I think the villagers are a little afraid of him, too. He's probably pretty well known, and he seems to have some unusual authority—like that Konoha Military Police Force."

Thomas was only an Intermediate Partner, but his specialty was reconnaissance, so he could observe far more than most.

He could multitask, controlling several hovering drones along with his electronic eyes. From what he could tell, Danzō's group was even more unpopular than the Konoha Military Police Force.

"But if we hadn't come