Intelligence

At noon, there were few customers at Tsurutsuki Izakaya.

Kyouko sat behind the counter gloomily, idly flipping through the ledger before her.

Where had he gone these past few days? Why had he not come to see her?

Thinking of how his movements had grown faster and faster over the past few nights, her pretty face suddenly flushed.

She had witnessed him grow stronger, both in ninja strength and masculine vigor.

Maybe he had accepted some mission and left the village.

Two merchant clients entered the izakaya.

"Madam, bring us a bottle of sake."

Kyouko heard the voice first, and her heart suddenly tightened.

That voice...

She slowly raised her head and saw a girl, one younger than herself.

Her little sister?

The shock in her eyes vanished in an instant.

Kyouko had become a spy for the village, while her more talented younger sister had become a ninja in Iwagakure.

All the pay and rewards Iwagakure issued to Kyouko were handed directly to her younger sister, Mei.

Why was her sister here?

Could Mei be the contact? Had she come to Konoha as the contact?

Why would the village do this? Had Kyouko not already done so much for it?

Kyouko had just obtained extremely important intelligence: Uzumaki Mito's funeral would be held in five days.

When Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, had been alive, he had not concealed the identity of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.

With Hashirama Senju's strength, the mere Nine-Tails had not needed to be guarded as the village's highest secret.

That Uzumaki Mito was the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was public intelligence.

Kyouko knew the village would place great importance on this intelligence. She had not expected it to send Mei to find her.

With Mei appearing, Kyouko had no choice but to stake her life on fully verifying the intelligence.

This was the village's final order to its spies.

Either the intelligence-gathering succeeded, and the spy would be recalled to the village to become a ninja living in the light.

Or the intelligence-gathering failed, and the spy would die. Everything the spy treasured in the end would vanish along with her.

Mei had disguised herself as a merchant client who had come to Konoha to commission a mission, an identity that was extremely easy to expose.

"Coming right up! Our sake comes in three grades: mid-range, premium, and special reserve. Which price range would you like?"

"Special reserve. Let us taste the fine sake of a great village like Konoha!"

The code matched.

Kyouko's last shred of hope shattered. Mei had not come to Konoha by chance.

Selecting a bottle, Kyouko brought the sake to Mei.

Mei was also excited. She had not seen her older sister for three years.

Unfortunately, they could not acknowledge each other. They had to pretend they were strangers.

Mei lifted her wine cup and examined it carefully, finding the special mark.

Two days later, this bottle would appear in a nearby trash bin, concealing the intelligence Kyouko had verified at the cost of everything.

The village had to know the most accurate information about Uzumaki Mito.

Kyouko entered the backyard and went to her room.

She took out all her money, preparing to act over the next two days and verify the intelligence.

While tidying the room, Kyouko saw a razor.

This was his razor.

She wondered if he had found some other little vixen.

Nearly half the funds for her final operation had been given to her by him.

Whenever he came, he ordered plenty of expensive beef and drank sake with the fewest impurities.

If she truly had been a resident of Konoha, perhaps she would have found a way to be with him.

After knowing him for so long, he had told her one name, but Kyouko knew it was false.

He said his name was Miqu. It was far too perfunctory; it was merely the name of an ingredient listed on a sake bottle.

His temperament was steady, a tremendous virtue among ninja.

Many ninja suffered from mental illness. They looked normal, but when they went mad, they were especially terrifying.

Some ninja drank at the izakaya, suddenly remembered something from a past mission, and smashed things about like lunatics.

Maybe they had killed the wrong people. Maybe they had killed too many. Maybe enemies had tortured them. Maybe their village had suspected them.

Fortunately, this place was very close to the Uchiha Security Force, and Uchiha ninja would come deal with ninja who went mad.

Kyouko arrived at Konoha's largest sake distributor.

"Boss, business at my izakaya has been declining lately. I plan to run a promotion tomorrow. How much special reserve sake do you have left?"

"How much special reserve sake can a single shop like yours take?"

"I need at least twenty cases of special reserve sake stocked every day for five days."

As Kyouko chatted with the boss, she gave a signal to one of the sales clerks.

The clerk understood Kyouko's meaning and hurried forward, leading the boss away on the pretext that an important client had arrived.

The boss told Kyouko to wait in the office, saying he would return shortly.

That sales clerk was an underling she had cultivated. He had never been of much use, but now he came in handy.

Kyouko entered the boss's office, shut the door, and took out a key.

It was a key she had secretly copied long ago.

Carefully opening the safe, Kyouko saw the boss's ledger.

The Senju Clan had suspended its purchases of alcohol?

Kyouko checked the dates. Beginning yesterday, the Senju Clan had stopped ordering sake.

She continued reading and saw the entry that excited her most.

The Uchiha Clan had ordered many additional cases of alcohol!

The Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan had an exceptionally poor relationship and had always been the village's greatest rivals.

Especially after Kagami Uchiha's death, the Uchiha Clan's bridge for external communication had been severed.

The Senju Clan's halt in alcohol orders proved that they knew something bad might happen to their clan.

Yet the Uchiha Clan had ordered many additional cases of alcohol, proving that they believed something good was about to happen.

Taken together, Kyouko believed the intelligence her fellow spies had given her was true. Something terrible really was going to happen to the Senju Clan.

The only thing it could be was the death of the elderly Uzumaki Mito.

After leaving the sake distributor, Kyouko headed to the next location in search of further evidence.

Within Konoha, Iwagakure spies hurried everywhere, secretly investigating.

At the same time, on the border of the Land of Grass, a middle-aged man floated in the air.

The Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki gazed in Konoha's direction.

Behind him stood five Stone Ninja battalions.

The Five-Tails Jinchuriki Steam Ninja Han came to Ōnoki's side.

"Lord Tsuchikage, the troops have assembled."

Han looked toward the Tsuchikage and noticed that his bobbing in the air was somewhat pronounced, proving that the Tsuchikage was uneasy as well.

They would lead elite forces in a surprise attack on Konoha, strike hard while the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was being replaced and Uzumaki Mito was dead, and thereby give Iwagakure an advantage in the Shinobi World War.

It was a gamble. If they succeeded, the gains would be enormous. If they failed, more than three hundred elites might all die.

Ōnoki said:

"The more critical the moment, the less we can afford to be rash.

We are vast, unyielding mountains. Either we do not move, or we move like a mudslide and destroy everything beneath the mountain.

Once the spies have verified the intelligence, we will launch a thousand-mile surprise attack on Konoha!"

This was the most precious opportunity Heaven had given Iwagakure.

The legendary Nine-Tails was violent by nature, an embodiment of hatred. Having been sealed by Uzumaki Mito for so many years, it must hate Uzumaki Mito and Konoha to the bone.

With the Nine-Tails' help, they would surely be able to deal Konoha a devastating blow.

In an alley somewhere in Konoha.

Mei retrieved a sake bottle from a trash bin.

There were several graduation marks on the bottle, the secret code of Iwagakure spies.

The intelligence was true!

After confirming the information, Mei swiftly departed.

Having finished commissioning her mission while posing as a merchant client, she was about to leave Konoha.

She looked one last time toward Kyouko's izakaya and thought, Elder Sister can finally return to the village. We sisters will no longer have to be separated.

In the Land of Grass, Ōnoki received the intelligence and waved his hand from midair.

He would personally lead the troops in a surprise attack on Konoha and deal Konoha a devastating blow!