Mitokado Homura's voice trembled with barely restrained anger and anxiety as he slammed his palm onto the table.
"Orochimaru! You're the supreme commander! You personally reviewed the border defenses! Now that there's been a failure this serious, you owe the village an explanation!"
Orochimaru slowly opened his eyes and swept an icy gaze over Mitokado Homura.
"Advisor Homura, isn't it a little early to assign blame? Our priority is to find out what happened and how to respond."
"Respond? How are we supposed to respond? All intelligence has been cut off! We don't even know how many enemies there are, where they're coming from, or what their exact objective is!"
Mitokado Homura's fingers shook with anger.
"This has to be a large-scale invasion by Kumogakure! That bastard Danzo-his Root was responsible for foreign intelligence, and now that no one knows whether he's dead or alive, the entire intelligence network is full of holes! This is the mess he left behind!"
Once again, he instinctively tried to shift the blame onto the missing Danzo.
"There's no point discussing that now," Minato Namikaze said, his gentle voice carrying a compelling authority.
"Judging by the extent and speed of the communications blackout, Kumogakure has deployed elite forces and acted decisively. Their aim is to catch us off guard and blind us on the front lines. They may already be pushing rapidly into our rear, or preparing something even bigger."
Shikaku Nara folded his arms, his brow deeply furrowed as his mind raced to piece together the scattered fragments of intelligence.
"The locations we've lost contact with are concentrated in the north. Kumogakure excels at frontal assaults and mobile surprise attacks. Their commander is A. He's aggressive, but he isn't stupid. If I were him, after gaining an initial intelligence advantage, my next move