Mitokado Homura sat down and smoothed out the map with his forearm, then beckoned Jiuming and the others over.
When Uzumaki Kuming approached, Homura pointed to several spots circled in red on the map and said, "These are the places where our reconnaissance teams went missing. When we investigated afterward, we found no signs of fighting."
"But all these places have one thing in common: they're covered in yellow sand."
The spots Homura pointed out were all inside the Land of Rivers, near the border with the Land of Wind. Though close to the Land of Wind, geographically they should have been mostly mountainous and forested. There was no need to guess who was behind the strange covering of yellow sand: it had to be the Sand Shinobi.
After Jiuming had fought Rasa and the others, Konoha's higher-ups had learned that the Sand Shinobi had a Kekkei Genkai user who could manipulate yellow sand. Homura had used that information to determine which places the teams had been attacked.
"Covered in yellow sand? Was it Karura of the Sand Shinobi?"
"If it was her, then there really aren't many people in Konoha who could face her in a fight."
Jiuming had immediately thought of Karura of the Sand Shinobi when he heard Homura's report. Her jutsu was simply too distinctive. It would be impossible for anyone else to imitate that Kekkei Genkai.
"She was probably with the attacking team, but we don't know exactly how many there were."
"Your mission's minimum objective is to determine how many people are in the squad that's been killing our reconnaissance teams."
"You must accomplish this, no matter what."
"If you confirm their numbers, I want you to identify them and learn the characteristics of their jutsu."
"Finally, once you've accomplished those two things, if