Meanwhile

Touma's upper body re-formed out of the mist. He alternated his hands through the necessary signs and fired more than a dozen Divine Wind Swords at Ibuse beneath the boat.

Although the Divine Wind Swords slowed considerably after entering the swamp, their wind-natured blades still possessed such extreme cutting power that they sliced through Ibuse's tough skin.

Blue flesh showed through the purplish-red hide. The searing pain sent Ibuse thrashing wildly in the muddy water.

The ship on Ibuse's back couldn't withstand its tremendous strength, either. Within a few breaths, black cracks had spread across the gunwale. At this rate, the hull would break apart any second.

Taking advantage of the cracks, Touma slipped into the cabin. As soon as he appeared, he formed Hand Seals and used the Ten Thousand Snake Array.

The Ten Thousand Snake Array was essentially a variation of the Summoning Technique. It summoned enough snakes and pythons from the sacred grounds of Ryūchi Cave to overwhelm a target. However, this jutsu wasn't part of Orochimaru's style of ninjutsu; it was one of the techniques passed down by Ryūchi Cave.

After signing the Summoning Contract with Ryūchi Cave, this was the first jutsu Touma had learned. The main reason was that it had an additional use: he could summon a large number of snakes and pythons, then use a "Coordinated Reverse Summoning" to transport bulky objects to Ryūchi Cave.

Thankfully, Touma's compatibility with Ryūchi Cave's native snakes wasn't too bad. The snakes he summoned with the Ten Thousand Snake Array didn't turn on him, and, as instructed, they each found the three children of the Lin Clan and the merchants traveling with the caravan.

Touma then swallowed two Chakra Pills and formed the seals in reverse to dismiss the summoned snakes. Carrying their assigned targets, they returned to Ryūchi Cave through a Coordinated Summoning.

To be honest, using the Ten Thousand Snake Array repeatedly and then dismissing it consumed a frightening amount of chakra. He was forced to leave the Heavenly Storm Sky Dance state.

Just as he exited his elemental state, Ibuse began spraying poisonous mist onto the ship. Caught off guard, Touma inhaled a huge lungful.

That single breath of poison left him unable to sense the chakra in his body. Then it felt as though his internal organs were being eaten away, and an indescribable burning sensation spread through him.

Fortunately, Touma was still clear-headed. He hurriedly pulled a small breathing mask from his ninja tool pouch, attached the miniature oxygen tube, and leaped into the swamp.

Meanwhile, Shibi and Zhao were waiting on the outskirts of Hidden Leaf Hill to meet Touma, but he still hadn't shown up. They went straight to Teacher Shinku.

After repeated attempts to contact him with a Ninja Hawk and track him with a Tracking Bug failed, they had no choice but to report the situation to the Hokage's office.

Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't take the news lightly. He dispatched Anbu along the route Touma had reported for his mission. They eventually found signs of a battle and the bodies of Zhe Hidden Village's rogue ninja in Lost Butterfly Forest, outside the capital.

The Anbu were highly experienced. In less than an hour, they had reconstructed the battle and uncovered the fact that Touma had fallen for a diversion.

However, because the corpses of the Zhe Hidden Village ninja were all missing their heads, the Anbu couldn't see the slashed Forehead Protectors and didn't realize the men were rogue ninja.

After receiving the Anbu's report, Sarutobi Hiruzen immediately summoned the Land of Woods ambassador, who was staying in the Land of Fire's capital. In an unusually forceful tone, he demanded to know why ninja from the Land of Woods had secretly entered the Land of Fire and attacked a local caravan, causing it to disappear.

Normally, Sarutobi Hiruzen, a proponent of conciliation, would never have used such hardline diplomatic language. But when Touma was involved, he couldn't keep his temper in check.

After all, Touma's relationship with Orochimaru was no secret among the village's leadership, and Orochimaru was Sarutobi Hiruzen's most treasured student.

In his mind, Orochimaru was his preferred candidate for Fourth Hokage. And judging by the talent Touma had shown so far, he would also be a strong contender for the Fifth Hokage.

In other words, anything involving Touma was tied to the succession of the Hokage of Konoha. By muddying the waters over this incident, the Land of Woods was undermining Konoha at its foundations.

The Great Nations might have had room to explain themselves to one another, but a small country like the Land of Woods, which depended entirely on the Land of Fire, had no excuse that anyone would believe.

The Land of Woods ambassador rushed from the Land of Fire's capital to Konoha, then, without even stopping for a drink of water, set off straight back to the Land of Woods with his guards.

He spent the entire journey complaining.

After all, he'd just poured his heart into negotiating a decent aid deal with the Land of Fire's new daimyo. The Land of Woods was counting on that aid to revive its economy!

The ambassador seethed. I'm working myself to the bone, while the Zhe Hidden Village, which is supposed to defend the country's borders, is secretly sabotaging me. When I get back, I'll ask the daimyo to cut your budget for next year. Let that bunch of corpse-peddlers rot in their graveyard!

The Land of Woods daimyo's residence reacted quickly. As soon as the ambassador reported what had happened, it halted the funds being distributed to the Zhe Hidden Village for the second half of the year. The village chief was left completely baffled.

The ambassador deliberately kept the Zhe Hidden Village chief waiting until the normally haughty man had no choice but to visit the capital in person.

After hearing the whole story, the Zhe Hidden Village chief had a good idea what had happened. The crime in the Land of Fire was probably the work of the rogue ninja who had defected two years earlier.

The village had gone to great lengths to train those men. It had poured resources into building the Dead Men Corps, only for them to defect en masse over a paltry mission fee. But the chief hadn't reported their defection to the daimyo's residence, hoping that if he kept quiet long enough, everyone in the village would eventually forget about it.

As far as he knew, though, those men had been recruited by the Land of Swamps and disguised themselves as Secret Ninja from the Hidden Secret Village. Now they were using their old identities again, clearly trying to pin the blame on the Land of Woods.

As for why the Zhe Hidden Village hadn't pursued the rogue ninja, it wasn't because they didn't want to. It was because the chief was the only ninja in the village strong enough to stand a chance. The others couldn't possibly defeat those rogues.

And even the chief probably couldn't take on several opponents at once. He was happy enough to accept the village's usual praise, but he wasn't so conceited as to overestimate himself.

Besides, the rogue ninja had been recruited by the Land of Swamps not long after defecting. Even the Five Great Nations couldn't do anything about the Land of Swamps, so there was even less a small, insignificant country like the Land of Woods could do.

The only option would be to send the Land of Woods' royal guards to wipe out the Land of Swamps. But the Land of Woods' general probably wouldn't risk his own forces just to test the Land of Swamps' strength over a few unrelated rogue ninja from the Zhe Hidden Village.

Of course, Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't believe the Land of Woods or the Zhe Hidden Village had the nerve to pull something like this. His hardline diplomatic language had two purposes: to pressure the ambassador into quickly finding out who was behind the rogue ninja, and to vent some of the frustration weighing on him.

These past few days, things had been going fairly well on the front lines at Sunny City and Kikyo City. But back in the village, the Konoha High Command had been at each other's throats over petty scraps.

The worst of them was Shimura Danzō, who had just returned to his post after a period of reflection. He wouldn't listen to reason and insisted on sending Root to Sunny City to take over Jiraiya's duties. He actually believed Jiraiya had committed a grave offense by handling the spoils of war on his own, and wanted him brought back to the village to face punishment!

What a ridiculous joke!