Bang!
The wooden door to the Kazekage's office was kicked open.
An Anbu wearing a Hidden Sand Village forehead protector stumbled and crawled inside, his face filled with apocalyptic terror.
"Kazekage-sama! Bad news! Something huge has happened!"
Even the Anbu's voice trembled, and the intelligence scroll in his hand shook like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind.
The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, who had been processing documents, looked up in displeasure.
His somewhat grim face, weathered by years in the desert, immediately furrowed into a deep scowl.
"Why are you panicking? Have you no decorum!"
Rasa snorted coldly, and the pressure of a Kage-level powerhouse instantly enveloped the entire office.
"Has the sky fallen?"
"It's worse than that, Kazekage-sama!"
The Anbu was nearly in tears as he dropped to his knees and prostrated himself on the floor.
"The Land of Earth has sent a top-level urgent intelligence report!"
"Sasori of the Red Sands... he... he has joined Iwagakure!"
"What?!"
Rasa shot to his feet, snapping the brush in his hand with a sharp crack.
Ink splattered across his face, but he did not even notice.
"Say that again?!"
Rasa's voice was filled with disbelief.
Sasori of the Red Sands—the S-rank missing-nin who had defected from the village over a clash of ideals more than a decade ago?
The peerless genius Hidden Sand Village had not seen in a century, one who had even surpassed Monzaemon, the founder of puppetry?
He had actually... gone to work for Iwagakure, their sworn enemy?!
It was more absurd than hearing that the sun had risen in the west!
This earth-shattering news was like a depth charge dropped into a calm lake.
It instantly threw the Hidden Sand Village's high-level conference room into an uproar.
Bang!
A short, wrinkled old woman smashed the table beside