An intelligence officer entered the tent. "We've received the Cloud shinobi's exact position and the number of ninja they have left."
A letter was handed to Jiraiya. He opened it and found a marked map inside.
Jiraiya passed the letter to Fugaku, who glanced at it before passing it along. "The Cloud shinobi still have more than seven hundred ninja. We have enough people to defeat them.
"But I think we should send a team to cut off their escape route first."
Jiraiya nodded.
Tsunade hurried in. Her eyes were red; she had clearly been crying.
"Don't mind me. Keep going."
"We're discussing who should lead a team to intercept their ships at the Land of Fire coastline," Jiraiya said.
Tsunade nodded. "You handle the Cloud shinobi. I'll cut off their retreat.
"If they dared to land in the Land of Fire, they shouldn't expect to go home. Losing three thousand ninja will hurt Kumogakure for a while."
"Kumogakure is dealing with Iwagakure to the north, still needs ninja stationed in the village, and has a large force tied down in the Land of the Moon.
"Those three places already account for much of its strength. At their peaks, the Five Great Ninja Villages don't differ much in ninja numbers.
"Including staff in every department, each village has around thirteen thousand people.
"According to our intelligence, the three thousand Cloud shinobi sent here were elite fighters, not children who hadn't even graduated.
"Orochimaru's intelligence shows that Kumogakure is heavily defended, with plenty of regular ninja and ANBU—at least two thousand in all.
"The Raikage could only have drawn troops from those three places. He must have pulled at least a thousand ninja from the Land of the Moon.
"We should write to the Hokage. Once Danzo and Orochimaru reach the