Soon, Root's renewed investigation into Kimimaro yielded fresh intelligence: he was being imprisoned by the Kaguya Clan at the center of their main camp in Kutsukizaki.
This matched Hyuga Yu's assessment. Though they discriminated against him, isolated him, imprisoned him, and even treated him as a tool, the Kaguya Clan clearly understood Kimimaro's value and kept him under strict guard.
At Kutsukizaki, the camp the Kaguya Clan had established on its own, there were no shortage of Jonin and elite Jonin. It was an exceptionally tough position to crack, even across the entire Kirigakure front.
Most of Root's personnel gathered at Grass Wave Coast belonged to its intelligence division. Asking them to storm the camp and seize someone in Hyuga Yu's stead was rather unrealistic.
At present, only Minato Namikaze or Hyuga Yu himself stood a chance of breaking into the camp, breaching the defenses of the entire Kaguya Clan, and bringing Kimimaro back.
But as the frontline commander, Minato Namikaze had spent the past several days locked in a bitter stalemate with the Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura. His attacks could not penetrate Yagura's defenses as a Jinchūriki, and Sealing Jutsu had limited effect on the Six-Tails, which could transform into a leech. Meanwhile, Yagura could not so much as touch Minato. Each could only rush into the enemy camp and instantly slaughter large numbers of ninja as a deterrent, forcing the other to refrain from acting rashly. Hyuga Yu, for his part, feared Ōtsutsuki Isshiki, who was hiding in Kirigakure's main camp, and could not carelessly reveal his whereabouts.
And so, under these circumstances, the situation settled into a peculiar stalemate.
On the narrow bay battlefield, Kirigakure invaded by day, while Konoha fought fiercely through the night to retake its lost positions. Both sides won and lost engagements, and