On the other side.
More than a hundred miles southwest of Konoha.
Six figures raced along at high speed. They were none other than Kazekage Chiyo and her party, who had used the pretext of pursuing the enemy to make a safe retreat from Konoha.
They had been gone from Konoha for nearly half an hour.
They had raced along the whole way, constantly picking up speed, with no intention of pursuing the enemy at all. This had left several elite Sand Ninja confused.
"Lord Kazekage, what are we—?"
"Returning to the village!"
"Huh? We're not pursuing the enemy anymore? What about the Rinnegan...?"
"Don't worry. The Rinnegan I handed over was fake."
"What?!"
The Sand Ninja were startled, then overjoyed.
"Lord Kazekage, you foresaw this and prepared a replica in advance?"
"Mm."
"Brilliant! As expected of Lord Kazekage! Turning the tables on them like that was ingenious! You fooled so many people—it's incredible!"
The Sand Ninja praised her one after another.
They had previously been quite unhappy with their Kazekage for trading the precious Rinnegan for a male lover, and had secretly lamented the decision.
But now, all their dissatisfaction vanished, replaced by deep admiration and praise.
"Long live Lord Kazekage!"
"Hahaha! So Konoha and all those opportunists were tricked?"
"That must be it!"
"What a bunch of fools!"
"But it seems we have a few stragglers following us."
"They're just ninjas from insignificant little villages. They probably haven't given up yet, but they're no threat..."
These elite Sand Ninja were quite capable, so they could naturally sense that people were still following them from behind.
But they figured they were mostly opportunists who refused to give up.
Besides, most of them were relatively weak and couldn't keep up with their speed anyway.
As far as Chiyo and the