At least until noon that day, everything had been perfect.
Konoha's border patrol routes, the Outpost Defense Map, the Shift Change Schedule-Kumogakure had obtained and made perfect use of all this intelligence.
C had even personally led a team to wipe out three entire Konoha patrol squads.
According to the original plan, the follow-up troops would take care of all the cleanup.
All C needed to do was stay in camp and wait for news of victory.
But the perfect beginning had not led to a perfect ending.
"What on earth happened...?"
C muttered to himself, his right hand unconsciously tightening around the hilt of the Ninja Blade at his waist.
He knew very well that his Kumogakure comrades who had entered the Land of Fire could not all have defected.
Unlike other ninja villages.
Kumogakure rarely produced missing-nin.
Once all impossible explanations had been ruled out.
Only one answer remained-
Every Kumogakure ninja who had entered the Land of Fire was dead.
And they had been killed so swiftly and cleanly that they had not even had time to send a distress signal.
But how was that possible?
Kumogakure's ninja were not made of clay.
Even if they had been ambushed, there was absolutely no way they would have failed to send even a single distress signal.
Unless-
Unless those squads had been utterly overwhelmed the instant they encountered the enemy, with every last member wiped out.
But thinking about it that way.
C only found it even more absurd.
Even if the Yellow Flash of old had come back to life, he would still have had to kill them one at a time, wouldn't he?
"Just who... did Konoha send?"
Just then.
A sudden commotion arose in the camp.
C looked down.
A tall young woman with a