"Clack! Clack!"...
Footsteps hurried through the distant forest.
Jiraiya and Tsunade tensed and looked in that direction.
When they saw who was coming, they relaxed and called out to them.
"O, Zhiren, it's you two."
The newcomers were naturally Inuzuka O and Aburame Zhiren, who had hurried to this outpost afterward.
The two were also very glad to see Jiraiya and Tsunade. Inuzuka O said happily,
"Jialong caught your scents just a moment ago, so Zhiren and I came this way."
"Jiraiya, what have you been doing? Why are you soaking wet?"
Jiraiya answered naturally,
"It's nothing. I just got back from a small mission. What about you? Why did you take so long to get here?"
Tsunade also asked,
"That's right. The people who arrived earlier said you two stayed at the border and discovered something. What happened?"
At her words, Inuzuka O and Aburame Zhiren's expressions changed slightly.
The two exchanged a glance, then looked at Tsunade and Jiraiya and replied gravely,
"We did discover some important information."
Zhiren said solemnly,
"O and I found some Konoha Ninja who had been killed there."
At his words, Jiraiya and Tsunade's expressions changed as well. They asked,
"Konoha Ninja? Did the Rain Ninja do it? Could they have been the troops stationed at the border?"
Aburame Zhiren thought for a moment, then said gravely,
"Actually... they didn't have any Konoha insignia on them. But their clothing was unlikely to belong to ninja from another village, and... judging from the signs of fighting around them, they were most likely Konoha Ninja!"
Tsunade furrowed her brow at that.
"No insignia? Could they have been Anbu?"
Inuzuka O gave a bitter smile and said,
"We all know what Anbu wear, so they definitely weren't Anbu. We've never seen outfits like those before, and...