Land of Wind, Sunagakure.
Fourth Kazekage Rasa looked over the intelligence, his eyes flickering.
The heavy blow Kumogakure had suffered was not necessarily a bad thing for Sunagakure. At least the pressure from the north would ease considerably.
"Dragon Release Village... Azure Dragon... perhaps I could try making contact?"
He weighed his options.
After all, the weakest village in the shinobi world at present was neither the troubled Kirigakure nor Kumogakure, which had lost the Third Raikage, but Sunagakure.
Land of Fire, Konoha.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at the urgent intelligence delivered by the ANBU, speechless for a long time. Even his tobacco had lost its appeal.
After the incident at the Valley of the End, he had already placed Lin Ze's strength extremely high.
But he had never expected Lin Ze to defeat and kill even the Third Raikage and his two jinchūriki in a head-on confrontation!
That strength far surpassed what Danzo and the other two had possessed back then!
"Sigh..."
He glanced at the Hokage Office next door and gave an order:
"Pass the order down. Strengthen border patrols, especially along the eastern coast. Classify all intelligence concerning Dragon Release Village and Azure Dragon as S-rank secrets. Its dissemination is strictly forbidden."
"Yes!"
Undercurrents stirred throughout the shinobi world because of the battle between Azure Dragon Lin Ze and the Third Raikage.
Land of Rain, Amegakure.
Inside the Tower, Deva Path Pain stood quietly by the window, his purple Rinnegan gazing down without emotion.
Konan stood silently behind him, as cool and aloof as a paper butterfly.
"Azure Dragon, Lin Ze."
Deva Path Pain spoke coldly, breaking the silence. "The intelligence 'Madara' provided differs greatly from the strength he has displayed."
When Obito had previously described Lin Ze to Nagato, he had stressed the threat of