The wind and snow never ceased within the Land of Iron. The gray-white sky hung low, creating an oppressive feeling.
As the Search Team filed out of the crack in the mountain, everyone pulled their windproof cloaks tighter around themselves.
Behind them, fresh snow soon obscured the outline of the deep fissure, as though no one had ever discovered it.
The samurai of the Land of Iron naturally knew about Sasuke and the Search Team.
But since this mission had been decided at the Five Kage Summit, even the Land of Iron, with its somewhat hostile attitude toward ninja, had no grounds to stop them.
Their stance was simply to pretend they saw nothing.
Unless the Search Team truly went too far, they would continue to ignore Sasuke and the others.
This actually made things easier for the Search Team.
Without needing to deal with the samurai, carrying out their mission became simpler.
Sasuke walked at the head of the group, carrying a heavy scroll of rubbings over his shoulder, with several sealed specimen bags hanging from his waist.
He did not look back, merely slowing his pace a little so the team members behind him could keep up.
"Captain, are we really taking all this stuff... back to Konoha?" A young jonin wearing a Sunagakure forehead protector took a couple of steps closer and asked beside Sasuke.
"All of it."
Sasuke answered briefly, then paused before adding, "If Konoha's Analysis Team really discovers any useful leads, no one will stop you from sending the intelligence back to your villages."
He knew perfectly well what the Search Team's jonin were thinking.
Having finally found some intelligence connected to the Ōtsutsuki Clan, and even Kaguya, they naturally wanted to send such important leads back to their own villages.
That was perfectly