A stretch of desert in the Land of Wind.
Sasori glanced at the note in his hand and said in his hoarse voice, "Hiruko, we're in luck. Our prey has left the cage."
"You mean Pakura?"
Hiruko immediately grew excited, then asked suspiciously, "You have an informant in Sunagakure? That makes sense. You're from Sunagakure yourself."
Sasori smiled. "That woman, Pakura, is too fast. If we want to capture her alive, we'll need to prepare in advance."
A fawning smile appeared on Hiruko's face. "I'm counting on you, Brother Sasori."
Meanwhile, Neji soon ran into Sunagakure's pursuit squad.
It was a four-man team led by a Chunin.
Neji didn't attack right away. Appearing in front of the Sunagakure squad, he pretended they had crossed paths by chance, then immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to sprint away.
A black cloak covered him from head to toe, and he wore a mask.
Even in the Shinobi World, such an outfit was unusual.
Naturally, it aroused the Sunagakure squad's suspicions.
The squad leader reacted quickly, firing a signal flare into the sky before leading the team after Neji.
Neji led the Sunagakure squad away from the route taken by the Rōran caravan.
He didn't strike then. Instead, he planned to lure in a large number of Sunagakure squads and kill them all.
Before long, six four-man squads had gathered around Neji.
Signal flares bloomed in the sky from time to time.
More and more pursuit squads rushed toward the area.
The Sunagakure squads realized Neji was leading them on, but he was the only suspicious person in the desert. They couldn't just let him go, so they willingly followed his lead.
A little while later, seventy or eighty people had gathered behind Neji.
Seeing this, Neji decided to kill them. He controlled