He grew excited and shook his older brother's wrist. "Brother, look! Those Kumogakure ninja really left! The Land of Whirlpools is out of danger."
"This is wonderful!"
"Mm!" His older brother nodded lightly, his face brimming with joy. "Lady Mito was right after all. Come on, let's get closer to the island."
"Let's scout again and see whether any ninja are still lingering there."
"Yes, yes!" His excitement subsided a little. The red-haired ninja composed himself, then nodded. "All right. This time, we'll make sure to scout thoroughly. If there are any ninja left on the rocky island, we'll deal with them if there are only a few. If there are too many, we'll go back and report it."
The two said no more. One watched ahead while the other steered, and by the time darkness had settled over the sea, they finally reached a point one nautical mile from the rocky island.
"Stop here, little brother!" the older brother called back. He held two fingers together in front of him and closed his eyes, sensing carefully. "I'll use the Mind's Eye of the Kagura to gather some information."
Seeing this, the red-haired ninja dropped the anchor as instructed, bringing the small sailboat to a halt on the sea.
An unknown amount of time passed, and the sky had grown dark when the older brother opened his calm eyes.
He sighed. "Ah, this is going to be difficult. The main force has left, but more than a hundred and twenty ninja are still on the island. That's far more than we can handle."
"More than a hundred ninja are still there?" The red-haired ninja sighed helplessly. "Let's go, brother. We can't handle that many. We'd better report this to the village chief!"
"They were probably left behind to stand guard.