Hidden Sound Village

Their strength... was a little formidable.

Even Kakashi Hatake could not help but break into a slight sweat. It was his first time seeing someone evaluate Jiraiya like that.

Sasuke Uchiha looked up at Jiraiya, nodded to himself, and said, "A ninja even Naruto considers strong?"

Jiraiya shot him a sidelong glance. "..."

Kid, your standards for judgment are flawed. At the very least, you should be using your Jonin instructor, Kakashi Hatake, as the benchmark, right?

With Jiraiya's arrival, Team Seven felt somewhat more secure.

Once Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno's injuries had mostly healed and they had replenished all their supplies and Ninja Tools, they prepared to return to Konoha.

According to Kakashi Hatake's judgment, in order to avoid encountering enemies, Team Seven would enter the Land of Fire from the border between the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Hot Water, then head south from the north toward Konoha.

Shimura Danzō could not command all of ANBU. He could only order the Root ninja who had once been loyal to him. To ensure enough combat power to encircle Team Seven, he would most likely still set up his encirclement in eastern Konoha. He could not possibly expect Team Seven to enter from the north.

By conventional logic, Kakashi's guess was correct.

After Team Seven reached the border of the Land of Rice Fields, Kakashi Hatake was still teaching geography. "The Land of Rice Fields borders both the Land of Fire and the Land of Hot Water. It is also a prosperous small country, so it often suffers attacks from wandering ninja."

"However, last year, the Daimyo of the Land of Rice Fields recruited some ninja and established a ninja village, Hidden Sound Village, which specializes in launching attacks through sound."

"After Hidden Sound Village was founded, in order to avoid invasions from Takigakure and Kusagakure, it reached a friendly agreement with Konoha and placed itself under Konoha's protection."

Sakura Haruno rested her chin on her hand and smiled. "It sounds like Hidden Sound Village should be a very friendly village to us!"

"Yes, you could say that."

Kakashi Hatake nodded and said softly, "Kusagakure, Takigakure, and Hidden Sound Village around the Land of Fire are all allies of Konoha. They should also send people to participate in this joint Chunin Exams."

The Chunin Exams were, on another level, an arms race.

After the Ninja World War ended, ninja villages in small countries could only promote their military strength through the Chunin Exams to win the confidence of clients and obtain more missions.

Hidden Sound Village had been established too recently. If it wanted to survive its struggles against other small countries, it had to display its strength. The Chunin Exams were undoubtedly an important means of doing so.

Just as Team Seven left this area, a white snake suddenly poked its head out from the grass. After watching Team Seven depart, it quickly slithered toward the interior of the Land of Rice Fields.

Land of Rice Fields, Hidden Sound Village.

Inside a room at the center of the village, a man with long black hair was feeling through the documents in his hands when he suddenly saw a white snake crawl onto his desk and flick its tongue at him with a rustle. "Hiss, hiss, hiss..."

"A ninja team led by Kakashi Hatake... and... Jiraiya."

The man seemed to understand the white snake's words. He lowered his head and smiled darkly. "It's getting more and more lively!"

After speaking, he bent down and took out a scroll, swiftly wrote several lines on it, placed it before the white snake, and watched as it swallowed the scroll in one gulp.

The man lowered his gaze. "Take this intelligence back to Konoha and give it to Kabuto. He knows what he should do."

"Hiss, hiss, hiss..."

The white snake flicked its tongue and swiftly slithered away.

A ninja standing outside the door walked in and reported in a low voice, "Lord Orochimaru, news has arrived from Sunagakure. The Fourth Kazekage has agreed to our terms, but he has requested to meet you."

"Oh?"

The man let out a disdainful laugh and nodded. "Then tell him we will meet in the Land of Fire during the Chunin Exams!"

"Yes!"

Meanwhile.

Inside Konoha.

Thanks to Maruboshi Kosuke's caution, he had fooled those Root ninja. After returning to Konoha under the pretense of a mission in the Land of Waves, he immediately reported Team Seven's attack to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Kakashi also asked me to pass a message to Lord Hokage."

Maruboshi Kosuke looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi, scratched his head, and said, "Tenzo. He said the enemy's intelligence was in those words."

"Tenzo?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes darkened. Tenzo was the code name of an ANBU ninja, and also the survivor of Orochimaru and Shimura Danzō's human experiments who had successfully awakened the Wood Release bloodline limit.

Years ago, he had personally taken that Wood Release ninja from Danzo's hands and placed him in ANBU under the code name Tenzo.

Hiruzen Sarutobi tapped his pipe, opened a top-secret mission ledger, and found Tenzo's itinerary. He suddenly looked up. "That child only returned to the village not long ago, and I even summoned him personally..."

As Hokage, he understood very well what the Wood Release bloodline limit represented. Hiruzen Sarutobi's attention to the growth of a Wood Release ninja was no less than Shimura Danzō's.

Whenever Tenzo returned from a mission, Hiruzen Sarutobi would visit him during his spare time. Even Tenzo's teammates were his trusted subordinates, allowing him to monitor Tenzo's every move at any time.

If Tenzo had truly made any unusual move, Hiruzen Sarutobi would definitely have received word earlier.

"Kosuke, you may leave first!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi waved his hand irritably. After picking up Maruboshi Kosuke's mission report, his expression froze slightly, and he said in a low voice, "Wait. Although you only completed a C-rank Mission, judging from this report, its difficulty was no lower than an S-rank mission!"

"Was it?"

Maruboshi Kosuke replied with a smile.

Hiruzen Sarutobi put down the mission report and held his pipe between his teeth. "Though you have always been limited to low-level missions because of your Genin status, you actually wanted to do more for the village, didn't you?"

Maruboshi Kosuke shook his arm and continued smiling. "I was only stretching my muscles. I only just realized that I've grown old..."

"Kosuke."

The Third Hokage lowered his head and said softly, "You saw those children too, didn't you? The young buds on the branches are growing. A new era is about to arrive. Will you still stubbornly hold to the oath you made back then?"

This year, the Ninja Academy had trained many outstanding ninja. The new generation of geniuses from the major Ninja Clans had all graduated. It was precisely the time for Konoha to flourish anew.

Yet Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a hidden concern. The current Konoha was at its most vulnerable. Before those young people grew up and inherited their fathers' responsibilities, someone had to shelter them and provide them with an environment in which they could grow up healthy.

"Lord Hokage."

Maruboshi Kosuke turned to leave the Hokage's Office. Upon hearing Hiruzen Sarutobi's words, he gripped the doorknob tightly, his expression gradually turning solemn. "Isn't that exactly what I'm doing now?"

After saying that, Kosuke pushed open the door and left the Hokage's Office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi watched his back disappear and softly ordered, "Bring me the mission ledgers of every ANBU ninja since Team Seven left Konoha."

"Yes, Lord Hokage!"

"Wait. Bring those mission ledgers..." Hiruzen Sarutobi pondered for a moment, tapped out his pipe, and said, "Come out with me."

Kakashi had always known where to draw the line. Since he knew the ugliness between ANBU and Root could not be noticed by ordinary ninja in the village, then his words must have carried another meaning.

If Tenzo's code name did not directly refer to Tenzo, then it referred to those former Root ninja who had joined ANBU.

Whom they truly served was self-evident.

First update.

"You may say, 'Mr. Orochimaru, I need a commission, a mission.' Yes, as you say, the money from commissions is indeed extremely important."

"But I must tell you that there is something in this world more important than money. That is freedom! That is dignity!"

"As long as forehead protectors bearing that spiral symbol still roam within the Land of Fire, our dignity does not exist! As long as those Konoha ninja still run rampant across our land, our dignity does not exist!"

"As long as, on the map of the ninja world, we small countries can only occupy tiny scraps of land, our dignity does not exist!"

"As long as ninja from the great countries let out a contemptuous laugh whenever they mention the name Hidden Sound Village in conversation, our dignity does not exist!"

"What we need is not a commission! It is room to survive! Room for Sound Ninja to survive! This living space will not be won through begging and protest. It must be won through chakra and ninjutsu!"

—Excerpt from "Orochimaru's Speech"