Leather foam padding was applied to the ears.
First came a faint hissing sound.
It feels like dry leaves rubbing against sandpaper. It's a bit abrasive.
A few seconds later, the noise subsided.
An old, rough voice, accompanied by heavy breathing, pierced directly into my ears.
" Raikage!"
The voice of Ōnoki.
His voice was hoarse and slightly raspy, clearly indicating his exasperation. He slammed his fist on the table with a deafening thud, followed by the crisp sound of a teacup lid clattering.
"Those iron birds from Konoha are too arrogant. Yesterday they bombed Sunagakure, today they're leaving exhaust fumes in the desert."
Ōnoki was panting heavily. His old lungs made a gurgling sound.
"If we don't fight back, our Land of Earth will be bombed tomorrow!"
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the earpiece.
A rough voice rang out. It was Kumogakure, the acting Raikage of Dodai.
" Lord Tsuchikage."
Dodai coughed twice, his voice sounding tired.
" The Third Raikage's body is barely cold. Kumogakure doesn't even have decent anti-aircraft weapons. Are we going to use human lives to pay for it?"
"You coward!"
Ōnoki cursed, and the "plop plop" sound of his spittle hitting the microphone was very clear.
"I'm not asking you to confront them head-on! I'm asking you to launch a sneak attack!"
Shu Shiraishi leaned back in his leather chair.
He picked up a red and blue pencil from the table. He didn't draw anything; he just twirled it between his fingers.
He turned his head and glanced at the Yamanaka Fūshin in the wooden cubicle.
Fūshin clutched the large metal earpiece on his head tightly, sweating profusely, barely daring to breathe.
Through the earphones, Ōnoki was still scheming in a low voice.
" Konoha has such a large operation; its logistics network is extremely extensive."
"Tomorrow night at midnight, you send out two hundred Lightning Release experts, and I'll send out three hundred Explosion Corps."
Ōnoki paused for a moment and took a sip of water.
"Go through the border of the Land of Hot Water. That's a desolate, unmanaged mining area."
"The magnetic field is chaotic. Konoha's Byakugan and sensory units can't reach the bottom."
"The target is Supply Line Two. Burn their Chakra batteries and food."
"The code is two short attacks followed by one long Lightning Release. Once you've finished, retreat; never linger."
Shu Shiraishi listened.
He let out a short, mocking laugh through his nose.
It sounded like listening to two furry kids plotting how to steal sweet potatoes.
The route, number of people, time, and even the retreat signal were all clearly stated.
These two top figures in the Shinobi World were scheming about how to navigate the mine like rats hiding in the light.
Even the most intimate conversations are rendered meaningless by this surveillance network.
Their underwear had been pulled down and hung on the flagpole, yet these two still thought they were in complete control.
Shu Shiraishi threw the red and blue pencils on the table.
The pencil rolled twice and came to rest beside the ink bottle.
He didn't even get up. He leaned back, and the leather chair creaked.
He grabbed the rough manganese steel mobile phone from the corner of the table with his left hand.
He tossed the three-pound iron brick in his hand.
Press the brass switch on the side with your thumb.
The internal gears are turning. The red light is flashing.
"Sizzle--"
After a faint electromagnetic beep, the call was connected.
" Lord Hokage."
The voice of the Uchiha team 'Jonin leader rang out.
The background noise was filled with the roar of diesel engines idling and the "crunching" sound of metal tracks crushing gravel.
"Where are you with your men right now?" Shu Shiraishi asked.
"We're stationed ten kilometers from the border of the Land of Hot Water," the Jonin replied quickly.
"Deploy three hundred heavily armored mechs."
Shu Shiraishi looked at the chandelier on the ceiling.
"Go outside Supply Line 2 and find an abandoned mine area."
"Before midnight tomorrow, mount the heavy machine guns and railguns at all exits."
Only the roar of an engine could be heard on the other end of the phone. No one dared to interrupt.
"Five hundred enemy soldiers."
Shu Shiraishi tapped his fingers on the table. A clanging sound followed.
"Start your attack when you see two short and one long Lightning Release. No need to ask for the command."
"Switch to high-explosive armor-piercing rounds. Blow up the mine."
"Buried alive."
There was a half-second pause on the other end of the phone.
"Yes! The Jōkan Border Team understands!"
The Jonin's voice, laced with bloodthirsty fanaticism, blasted out through the loudspeaker.
Shu Shiraishi cut off the switch.
The brass button bounced back.
With just those few words, five hundred elite soldiers from the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning have lost their lives.
They may still Kunai, still writing their wills to their families.
Little did they know, a phone call in the Hokage's office had already chosen their burial plots.
This information asymmetry leads to one-sided domination.
It's more satisfying than cutting off a hundred heads on the battlefield.
Shu Shiraishi pulled the leather earphones off his head.
He casually tossed it onto the table. The leather cushion hit the wood grain and slid half a foot away.
He picked up the black iron brick.
" Fūshin."
Shu Shiraishi looked towards the wooden partition.
" Orochimaru's assembly line is working overtime. Tomorrow, all commanders at the battalion level and above on the front lines will be equipped with..."
He hadn't finished speaking.
A sharp, high-frequency whistling sound burst from the wooden cubicle.
"Sizzle--!"
The sound was extremely loud, like iron nails scraping against glass, piercing the eardrums with pain.
Yamanaka Fūshin shuddered violently.
He sprang up from the backless wooden stool.
He moved too quickly and his knee slammed hard against the partition below the control panel.
"Bang."
The wooden plank cracked open. Fūshin let out a muffled groan.
He ignored the pain in his leg.
His hands were pressed firmly on the row of densely packed buttons on the monitoring console.
I strained all ten fingers until the knuckles turned completely white.
Fingernails were digging into the hard plastic keycaps.
Fūshin's face was deathly pale, as white as a newly pasted window paper.
Large beads of sweat trickled down his forehead, landing on the computer case's ventilation holes.
With a "sizzle," it turned into white steam.
"Wait a minute! Lord Hokage!"
The Fūshin whistled, its sound punctuated by heavy breathing.
He stared intently at the palm-sized cathode ray tube screen in front of him.
The originally smooth green wavy lines on the screen have gone mad.
It bounced violently up and down, with the crests hitting the top and bottom edges of the screen.
It created a blinding red light upon impact.
"Our radar..."
Fūshin swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.
He ripped the heavy metal headphones off his head.
The headphones landed on the table, pinning down a bunch of messy wires.
"Just now, inside Konoha!"
Fūshin turned his head and looked at Shu Shiraishi.
"A Chakra fluctuation has been detected!"
Shu Shiraishi's fingers, which were gripping the iron brick, stopped.
internal?
The Chakra of Konoha has been uniformly recorded into a frequency band.
Unregistered high-intensity fluctuations mean that rats have entered the village.
"Investigate," Shu Shiraishi uttered a single word.
Fūshin turned around and frantically typed on the keyboard.
"Clap clap clap."
Several vacuum tubes flashed red light. The chassis emitted a rumbling sound as if it were about to collapse under the strain.
Fūshin gritted his teeth, staring intently at the ever-shrinking coordinate grid on the screen.
"This fluctuation..." Fūshin's voice trembled.
"Extremely cold and damp. It smells like death."
"It was extremely well hidden. If Ōnoki hadn't hung up the call just now, and the base station hadn't switched back to scan the blind spot, we wouldn't have been able to detect this leak at all!"
The red dot at the coordinates finally froze on the screen, then began flashing wildly.
Fūshin looked at that spot.
He gasped. The cold air rushed into his throat, making him cough.
He looked up at Shu Shiraishi.
His eye twitched violently twice.
"Location locked. On the edge of the village."
Fūshin's face was as pale as paper.
"This fluctuation... is coming from the cesspool in the sewer!"