Preparing the Stage

Night was the perfect cover. Namikaze Yoru held his breath, blending into the shadows like a real rock.

The Mind's Eye of the Kagura spread outward like a spiderweb, firmly locking onto the rapidly moving source of chakra.

As the distance closed and he made out the figure's silhouette and chakra signature, Namikaze Yoru's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.

"So it's him!"

The newcomer was a fellow clan member of Aburame Shibi: Aburame Shikuroo.

An Aburame appearing within the Land of Water was no coincidence. Yoru immediately suspected this was one of the channels through which Konoha and Mist Village's internal spies exchanged intelligence.

For safety's sake, undercover operatives often didn't meet their contacts face-to-face. Instead, they communicated through specific methods.

For example, they might use a Summoning Beast to deliver intelligence to a predetermined location, where a designated ninja would secretly retrieve it.

All spies communicated through single, separate channels and didn't know one another. This minimized the risk of exposure.

As for the intelligence contact he was supposedly assigned to? He hadn't even considered reaching out. If the contact belonged to Root, he might as well be walking straight into a trap.

The scene before him confirmed his guess. Aburame Shikuroo was clearly carrying out just such a mission.

He moved cautiously, with countless Kikaichū scattered around him within a radius of several meters to keep watch. Meanwhile, he quickly searched among the crevices in the rocks.

Soon, he retrieved a small ball of mud from a crack. He gently pinched it open between his fingertips, revealing a tiny scroll no bigger than a fingernail.

He swiftly tucked the scroll into his clothes. With the mission complete, he wasted no time and turned to leave.

Thoughts raced through Namikaze Yoru's mind. News of his "death" should have reached Konoha by now.

Showing himself rashly could cause unnecessary trouble, or even disrupt his plans going forward.

But this was also an excellent opportunity. Though he couldn't reveal himself, he could use any means necessary to let someone know he might still be "alive."

No sooner had he decided than Aburame Shikuroo was about to leave.

"Whoosh!"

Namikaze Yoru flicked his wrist. An ordinary standard-issue Kunai, with a crumpled-looking Explosive Tag tied tightly to its end, whistled softly through the air and struck the tree trunk beside Aburame Shikuroo with pinpoint accuracy.

"What?"

The highly alert Aburame Shikuroo sensed it before the Kunai had even finished flying. He swiftly gathered his Kikaichū, and his body seemed about to turn into a cloud of black smoke. It looked like a Bug Clone.

But he keenly realized that the Kunai wasn't headed for him, and his body abruptly stopped.

After the Kunai lodged in the tree, the forest fell silent again. Apart from the Kunai that had suddenly appeared, nothing else seemed out of place.

There was no follow-up attack, and he couldn't sense the other party's presence. Based on his experience, Aburame Shikuroo judged that the Kunai had been thrown from a great distance.

He stood on guard for several seconds, then took one last long look at the Kunai before leaving at top speed, vanishing into the Dense Forest.

Whoever the other party was, and whatever their intentions, his priority was to get the intelligence back. He would leave the strange interruption to the Kage Building to analyze and assess.

Several days later, at the Hokage's Office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the intelligence scroll Aburame Shikuroo had brought back, along with the attached mission report, and fell into thought.

"While you were exchanging intelligence, a featureless standard-issue Kunai suddenly came flying in, with an Explosive Tag tied to it? But the other party didn't do anything afterward?"

Unable to make sense of their intentions, Hiruzen Sarutobi asked Aburame Shibi to confirm the details once more.

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

", Shikuroo replied calmly. "Judging by the force and direction of the throw, it must have come from a great distance.

"The other party seemed to be warning us or conveying some kind of message, rather than attacking."

Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned, pondering the matter. For the moment, he couldn't grasp what it meant.

Was it a warning meant to convey intelligence, or a threat from a faction within Mist Village?

Aburame Shikuroo was about to take his leave when the office door suddenly swung open without warning.

Tsunade walked in. Though she seemed to have returned to normal, a trace of fatigue still showed in her eyes.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had been at a loss and had been about to summon the Council of Elders to discuss the matter.

Seeing Tsunade walk in just then, he decided to tell her about the unexpected incident during the mission and ask her to help analyze it.

When Tsunade learned that Aburame Shikuroo had been attacked by a Kunai carrying an Explosive Tag, her expression shifted as if she'd thought of something. She hurriedly asked:

"Shikuroo, describe that Kunai and Explosive Tag again."

After thinking carefully, Aburame Shikuroo replied:

"I was worried the Kunai might have some hidden trap left by the other party, so I didn't go over to retrieve it, but I did examine it closely.

"The Kunai was a standard-issue one, without any distinguishing features. The Explosive Tag was a little unusual, though. It looked as if it had been casually crumpled and was a bit wrinkled."

Tsunade fell silent for a moment. Her suspicions had been confirmed, and a flicker of barely perceptible joy passed through her eyes.

Only after Aburame Shikuroo had left did she tell Hiruzen Sarutobi what she was thinking.

"Old man, I'm not sure either... It might have been that boy from the Namikaze family."

She told Hiruzen Sarutobi about the "fake Explosive Tags" that had appeared on two previous occasions. A gleam appeared in his eyes as he listened.

"Are you saying Namikaze Yoru isn't dead, and is still hiding in Mist Village?"

After voicing the possibility, Hiruzen Sarutobi paused again. "Then why hasn't he returned to the village, or even shown himself? Does he not trust the village?"

"Based on the intelligence we've received, there is something suspicious about how he was exposed," Tsunade replied calmly.

Meanwhile, in the Land of Water, outside the Kaguya Clan Compound.

Namikaze Yoru had already returned quietly using the Flying Thunder God. Whether Konoha would react or not, he'd planted the seed. The rest was up to fate.

Yoru observed as Kaguya Naoto, swept along by the resentment of his clansmen, once again headed to the Mizukage Building.

They seemed to have had a heated argument. Even after leaving the Mizukage Building, Kaguya Naoto still looked displeased.

But Yoru noticed that the Mist Village Anbu who had been monitoring the Kaguya Clan Compound were gradually withdrawing.

It seemed Kaguya Naoto's hardline stance had worked. The Mizukage didn't want to fall out with the Kaguya Clan completely, so he had chosen to compromise.

But Yoru couldn't just let him have his way. If things cooled down now, wouldn't all the effort he'd invested earlier and the schemes he'd been carrying out in secret these past few days have gone to waste?

If the Anbu members were pulling out, then it was time for the prominent Mist Village clan, the Mizunuki, to take their place.

Like a ghost, he moved silently through the woods and along the streams near the Kaguya Clan Compound.

Once he had chosen a spot, he stopped and reached out, lightly touching a tree trunk or a rock.

Where he touched, a small patch of frost remained, or a mark left by a blade of ice.

If someone noticed in time, they could still detect the traces of Ice Release chakra within it.

Namikaze Yoru was extremely careful, leaving only a tiny mark each time and scattering them around the Kaguya Clan Compound in every direction.

It was as if he were weaving an invisible web, ready to drive the Kaguya Clan onto the stage he had prepared.