Shinobi World No. 1, on the outskirts of Sunagakure.
The night was black as ink, and yellow sand filled the air.
Jiraiya raced through the windblown sand like a phantom. He wore dark clothes for moving at night, his white hair tied up and his face covered by a black mask, leaving only a pair of keen eyes exposed. He suppressed his presence to the utmost, his chakra fluctuations almost nonexistent, as though he had merged with the boundless desert.
Sunagakure... just ahead.
The thought passed through his mind, and he kept moving.
Danzo had personally assigned him this mission: gather intelligence on Sunagakure, especially on the young man named Sasori-reportedly its de facto ruler and the creator of its new equipment and army.
Sasori of the Red Sands...
Jiraiya silently repeated the name.
He had heard some rumors about Sasori. A genius puppeteer, Chiyo's grandson, whose parents had died at the hands of Konoha's White Fang. He should have become an S-rank Missing-nin from Sunagakure, but in this world, he had taken a different path.
He's dangerous.
He reminded himself.
But what he did not know was that something even more dangerous lay ahead.
Beneath Sunagakure, in the central laboratory.
Sasori stood before a massive monitoring screen, his Golden Serpent Eyes narrowing slightly. On the screen, a faint, rapidly moving chakra signal resembled a firefly flickering in the night sky.
"Someone is approaching Sunagakure."
His voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable certainty.
"Coming from the direction of the Land of Fire. Very fast, and extremely well concealed."
"Not an ordinary scout."
Yahiko stood and walked over to the screen, watching the moving point of light. His brows furrowed slightly.
"They're here to gather intelligence!"
There was a trace of cold killing intent in his voice.
"I'll go