"Boss Lin Qing, don't attack—it's us!"
Just as the White Snake's palm was about to come down, the two mercenaries hurriedly shouted. With two poof sounds, they released the Substitution Technique, revealing two vaguely familiar faces.
Lin Qing remembered their names:
Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki.
The two were members of Ibiki Morino's interrogation division. Ibiki was also good friends with Inoichi Yamanaka. When Lin Qing had been training in Konoha during the Lesson-2 phase of Golden Spin, he had met them a few times and exchanged greetings. They could be considered acquaintances.
"What are you doing here?" Lin Qing asked.
"It's a secret mission from Lady Tsunade."
Konoha had publicly declared that it would not participate in the war, but Tsunade was not the Third Hokage. She understood clearly that some matters allowed one to stay out of them and preserve oneself wisely, while others did not.
Not participating was itself a declaration of allegiance. It meant she was no longer obedient to the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.
Since she had already chosen a side, anyone who did not act would be a fool.
Almost immediately after the Land of Fire's envoy, Watanabe, had left, Tsunade issued more than a dozen missions in succession. When signing the operation documents, she had even used Watanabe's expensive fountain pen.
It had to be said, expensive pens really did feel different to write with. The sheer satisfaction of signing was greatly enhanced. Tsunade enjoyed it so much that she sat in her office a while longer and came up with several new missions.
One of them was the mission assigned to the brothers Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki:
Infiltrate the Land of Fire's border, gather intelligence on the marching plans, and obstruct them when appropriate.
Even before the warships set