Our Ninja Went Missing at the Land of Fire Border

Time rewound to a week earlier.

It had been more than five days since the Raikage lost contact with Chloe Squad.

For the Raikage, this was anything but good news—

According to standard mission regulations, losing contact for more than five days basically meant the mission team could be declared to have collectively defected or died in service.

Chloe was one of the Raikage's direct subordinates.

The Raikage had even taught him a secret technique like the Lightning Release: Thunder God Armor, the Lightning Release Chakra Mode. In a sense, Chloe was A's senior brother—one half of this generation's A-B brothers.

He could not possibly have defected.

With the possibility of collective defection ruled out, collective death in service was the only option left.

Wiped out to the last man?

The Raikage could not accept that answer.

Those were three elite teams. They included not only two veteran Jōnin and Elite Jōnin Chloe, but also more than a dozen Chunin and Genin. For this mission, he had even deployed Shinnō, a death soldier originally intended to be sent to Konoha to assassinate Toji Zenin.

Shinnō's secret technique-enhanced strength made him difficult to detect, and he was especially suited for assassination. Sending him out early this time to deal with three Konoha Jōnin had also been meant to test his capabilities.

With such a luxurious lineup and such an overwhelming gap in strength, how could they possibly have all been wiped out?!

The last intelligence Chloe Squad had sent back came from within Kusagakure.

After the incident, the Raikage immediately mobilized the Cloud Ninja teams stationed there to investigate the matter thoroughly. It was now the second day of the investigation.

Kusagakure was neither particularly large nor particularly small. If all went smoothly, a few days should have been enough to