While Araki led the six outstanding genin he had personally selected through separate field exercises, about a week passed, and spies dispatched by the major shinobi villages to the Land of Water and the Land of Fire finally sent back more detailed intelligence.
Iwagakure.
A spacious, brightly lit hall of stone slabs stood lined with towering stone pillars beneath a broad stone dome.
This was Iwagakure's high-level conference room, located on the top floor of the Tsuchikage Building.
Its architectural style was magnificent and grand, broad and imposing, perfectly suited to Iwagakure's character.
At the center of the hall stood a long table crafted from light-brown stone, with gray, high-backed stone chairs placed at the head and along both sides. The backs of the chairs were engraved with Iwagakure's forehead protector emblem.
Now, those chairs were filled with men and women, young and old, dressed in red shinobi uniforms.
At the head sat a short old man with white hair and beard, clad in the robes of the Tsuchikage.
He was the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki of Both Scales!
He rubbed his bulbous red nose, then pushed a stack of intelligence reports toward Higashishini, the jonin seated on his right. "This is the detailed account of Konoha and Kirigakure's clash, compiled from the latest intelligence. Take a look first."
Higashishini was a shinobi with a blue-gray headscarf wrapped around his head. He did not look particularly old, only around his twenties, but both his strength and intellect ranked among Iwagakure's best. He was especially skilled at commanding large-scale forces in battle.
Along with Kitsuchi, he could be considered Ōnoki's right-hand man.
As Higashishini passed the duplicate documents farther down the table, he opened the report before him.
"This is..."
The picture on the first page of the report stunned him. It