Fortunately, the intelligence that arrived today was good news. Rōshi, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, had suddenly appeared in the Iwagakure camp.
Aside from some mental trauma, Rōshi had no other injuries. The Four-Tails within him had merely suffered a major Chakra drain and would recover after a few days.
No one knew exactly what had happened. Rōshi himself only knew that someone seemed to have rescued him, then extracted a great deal of the Four-Tails' Chakra. It had caused him intense pain and harm, but the person who extracted the Chakra had also healed him afterward.
Ōnoki felt that Konoha Village was the most likely culprit. However, he did not investigate further. No matter what, the safe return of the Four-Tails Jinchuriki was already an immense stroke of luck. Having Chakra extracted and being used for experiments was hardly worth mentioning compared to the debt of saving his life.
Especially at such a critical time for Iwagakure, recovering the Four-Tails Jinchuriki was simply tremendous news.
After taking a breath, Ōnoki carefully reviewed the intelligence again. Iwagakure and the Sand Shinobi had not fought a large-scale war for a long time, and the northern front had now fallen into a stalemate.
Even so, clashes between ninja squads were a common sight. Every day saw casualties ranging from a dozen to several dozen ninjas. Both sides had fallen into a state of slow bloodletting.
Only when one side could no longer endure would the final battle begin.
This was the true mode of warfare in the Shinobi World. Konoha had previously relied mostly on overwhelming, one-sided force.
Of course, such fighting might not look like much, but in truth, it was a genuine meat grinder. A dozen or several dozen ninja casualties a day might seem insignificant, but over one or two years,