Chapter 117 — Reactions from All Sides
"What did you say? The diplomatic delegation has gone missing?!"
The outpost commander felt as if his head were about to explode. How could this happen? Was the heavens mocking him?
As a jōnin, he knew better than most how much effort the village had poured into forging an alliance with Iwagakure. And yet—at this most critical juncture—the delegation had vanished without a trace.
It felt as though the sky itself were collapsing.
"Tell me everything. Every detail. Slowly."
The commander suppressed his fury with great effort. Each word was forced through clenched teeth, his jaw grinding audibly.
"Because a patrol unit from a nearby outpost went missing yesterday, Lord Rōsa feared an ambush. He ordered us to disguise ourselves as the delegation and scout ahead—"
The returning shinobi carefully retraced the events, reporting everything he knew.
"—We waited at the agreed location, but even after nearly half an hour, the delegation never arrived. That's when we rushed back to report."
After hearing the account, the commander no longer had any doubts.
The delegation was truly in trouble.
He dared not delay. Orders were issued immediately—messages sent back to the village at top speed. At the same time, he personally led a team toward the point where the scouts and the delegation had separated, hoping to uncover any clues.
---
They didn't have to search long.
The massive traces of ninjutsu use were impossible to miss.
When the commander arrived at the scene, his expression darkened instantly.
The terrain had clearly been cleaned, then further altered by large-scale Earth Release. A deep sense of humiliation surged through him.
How arrogant were these attackers?
Not only had they assassinated the delegation, they'd even taken the time to erase the battlefield this thoroughly.
His fists clenched so tightly that his nails bit into his palms.
"Dig. Everything. I want this place turned upside down!"
The Sand shinobi moved at once—but to his growing frustration, nothing of real value was uncovered.
The attackers had relied primarily on taijutsu. The one glaring anomaly—the vitrified ground left by fire—had already been sunk deep underground, shattered, and thoroughly mixed into the surrounding soil.
In the end, all they found were scattered puppet fragments and poison-coated kunai—enough to confirm that this was indeed where the delegation had perished, but nothing more.
Heavy-hearted, the commander returned to the outpost and sent an updated report to the village. He also ordered all nearby posts to heighten their alert levels.
The alliance had clearly failed. Whatever changes would follow between the Wind and Earth Countries, vigilance was now essential.
---
While Sakumo's team was withdrawing through the Land of Birds, and the Sand outpost commander was desperately investigating—
On the other side of the country, Huangtu, the Iwagakure envoy, was rapidly losing patience.
What was supposed to be a formal alliance meeting had turned into a one-sided farce.
Do they think people from the Land of Earth are all stone-headed fools with no temper at all?
"Still no sign of the Sand Village delegation?" Huangtu asked coldly.
"No traces yet, Lord Huangtu."
So something had clearly gone wrong on Sunagakure's side. Whether it was a sudden change of heart or something more serious—either way, the old man back home was going to have a headache.
Thinking of the Tsuchikage's inevitable fury actually made Huangtu feel a little better.
"Scout fifty more kilometers ahead," he ordered.
"If they still don't show, we return."
"Yes!"
But no matter how thoroughly Iwagakure searched, the Sand delegation was never going to arrive.
With no results, the Iwa envoy finally turned back. Before leaving, Huangtu glanced once more toward the Wind Country.
A strange premonition surfaced unbidden.
Next time we come… it won't be with just this many people.
---
One day after the assassination of the Sand delegation, news finally reached Sunagakure itself.
The village erupted like a school of fish struck by a depth charge.
Every high-ranking official present in the village was summoned immediately—no excuses allowed. A full emergency meeting was called to determine how to respond.
Enormous resources had been invested in the alliance with Iwagakure. Controlled materials had even been sold to them at cost.
Now, all of that stood on the brink of becoming a complete loss.
The atmosphere was tense.
The massive conference chamber quickly filled—department heads, elders, and even Chiyo and Ebizo, both already semi-retired, were present.
Before the meeting officially began, the room buzzed with unrestrained discussion. Groups clustered together, voices overlapping as everyone debated what should be done next.
The only two who remained outwardly calm were Chiyo and Ebizo.
They sat quietly with eyes closed, seemingly at ease—but the constant twitch of their brows betrayed their inner turmoil.
Just as the noise reached a peak, the doors were flung open.
The room fell silent instantly.
Wearing the Kazekage hat, the Third Kazekage entered at an unhurried pace. All eyes followed him until he took his seat at the head of the chamber.
Only then did complete silence descend.
"The matter of the delegation," the Kazekage said calmly,
"I trust you've all heard by now. Speak. What are your views?"
Murmurs returned—then gradually escalated into heated arguments, tempers rising with every exchange.
Suddenly, a hardline elder slammed his palm on the table and stood.
"This is clearly Iwagakure's betrayal! They took our resources, then stabbed us in the back!"
He jabbed a finger toward the Earth Country, cursing openly.
"Ōnoki that bastard! He's even willing to hire bounty ninja—what wouldn't he do? He has no dignity as the leader of a great nation! And besides—who else could bypass every single outpost so precisely?"
"Absurd," the intelligence chief shot back immediately.
"If Iwagakure intended to break the alliance, they could have done so openly. There was no need to destroy their own reputation."
He continued coldly,
"In my view, this has Konoha's fingerprints all over it. Don't forget—Iwagakure recently reported capturing and injuring Konoha spies. It's entirely possible that our alliance plans were exposed back then."
"And who's to say Iwagakure's information was real?" the militant elder retorted.
"Maybe they leaked it deliberately—to lure Konoha into acting."
"Enough."
Chiyo's aged voice cut through the chamber like a blade, carrying unquestionable authority.
"I dislike Konoha as much as anyone here," she said slowly.
"But have you considered Kumogakure?"
Her eyes opened.
"The Raikage is a reckless brute—but he's always been wary of Iwagakure. Do you really think he'd sit back and watch Earth and Wind form an alliance, freeing up forces to threaten him?"
The room fell silent once more...
Ebizō, seated beside Chiyo, gave a slight nod and added calmly,
"Don't forget—Kumogakure has never been idle these past few years. If there's any village constantly stirring up trouble in the shinobi world, it's them. Not long ago, didn't they even disguise themselves as Iwagakure shinobi to ambush us?"
Rather than pushing a particular stance, Chiyo and Ebizō were simply laying out every possible angle. After speaking, the two elders closed their eyes once more, withdrawing from the discussion entirely.
Their words plunged the conference room into a brief silence—before an even fiercer round of arguments erupted.
Gradually, several factions began to form.
The moderates argued for maintaining the status quo: abandon the alliance with Iwagakure altogether. It brought no real benefit and only invited further trouble.
The hardliners insisted that an external force must be responsible and demanded retaliation at all costs. Even among them, however, opinions diverged—some suspected Iwagakure, others Konoha, and still others Kumogakure. Each side clung stubbornly to its own theory.
Watching the endless bickering drag on without a single concrete proposal emerging, the Kazekage felt his temples throb violently. His fingers tapped unconsciously against the tabletop—faster, heavier, more impatient with every second.
"Enough!"
The Kazekage abruptly stopped tapping. Cold light flashed in his eyes, and the conference room fell instantly silent.
"Sabaku," he said, turning to the intelligence chief, "you will personally lead a team to Iwagakure and confirm their stance."
His gaze swept across the room, his voice as cold as iron sand.
"Notify all border units to enter a state of combat readiness. Be prepared for a possible Iwagakure assault at any time.
"And dispatch professional investigators to the battlefield again. See if anything more can be uncovered. I want to know exactly who did this."
Although the Kazekage ordered renewed contact with Iwagakure while simultaneously raising defenses against them, anyone with insight could tell—
He still hoped to salvage the alliance.
The proof lay in his choice of envoy: the intelligence chief himself, a hardliner known for favoring cooperation with Iwagakure.
With that, the arguing subsided. Those whose interests aligned felt quietly pleased; those who hadn't achieved their aims withdrew in silence, gathering strength for later.
Under this single command, the vast war machine of Sunagakure began turning faster—quietly, inexorably.
---
Compared to Iwagakure's frustration and Sunagakure's turmoil, Sakumo's Konoha squad was in excellent spirits.
They had completed their mission flawlessly, successfully sabotaging the Wind–Earth alliance. Every step of the operation had gone according to plan.
Guided by the Byakugan, their return journey was smooth and uneventful.
Two days later, the four-man squad finally returned to Konohagakure after many days away.
Gazing at the village's peaceful, harmonious streets—and recalling the constant danger they had faced deep in foreign lands—Taichi gained a new realization:
Without others carrying the burden forward, how could there be peace and prosperity today?
And now, he himself had become one of those who bore that burden.
And it was worth it.
"Let's disband here," Sakumo said once they entered the village.
"Everyone go home and rest well. You all performed excellently on this mission."
The squad had been assembled temporarily for this task. With the mission complete, everyone would return to their original duties.
No one objected. Shinobi came together and parted ways for missions all the time. After brief farewells, each of them headed home.
As squad leader, Hatake Sakumo instead went straight to the Hokage Tower. S-rank missions like this one were always reported in person.
---
Hokage's Office
Upon hearing that Sakumo's squad had returned successfully, the Konoha High Council—the familiar four—gathered once again to hear the report.
"—That concludes the mission, Hokage-sama."
The Hokage reviewed the two scrolls Sakumo presented.
One contained the detailed mission report.
The other was a storage scroll—holding the mission's spoils: the bodies of Rōsa along with numerous destroyed puppets.
Aside from the mission itself, this was the greatest gain.
A jōnin's corpse—especially that of a high-ranking Sunagakure figure—was a treasure trove of intelligence. Even if critical memories were sealed, analysts could still extract invaluable insights from mundane details: mission frequency, equipment quality, economic indicators.
The shattered puppets were even more significant.
Rōsa had been among Sunagakure's top-tier puppet masters. His creations represented the latest and best of Sand technology. Studying their strengths and weaknesses would greatly aid Konoha in future conflicts.
Beyond the spoils, however, the council's true focus lay on the performance of the squad members.
Sakumo appeared restrained and steady—but in truth, he had been the backbone of the entire operation. Without him tying down so many puppets, the others could not have achieved such a clean victory.
Minato's Flying Thunder God, though newly learned, had already proven combat-viable. His potential was immense.
Hyūga Hizashi, despite being from the branch family, had seen his Byakugan evolve under pressure. His detection range now surpassed that of most main-branch members—a terrifying advantage in future wars.
And then there was Taichi.
As both a medical-nin and a combatant, he had already reached a level of true mastery. In ninjutsu alone, he was practically an all-rounder.
Given time, his achievements would surely surpass even Tsunade's.
At Taichi's age, Tsunade herself had been nowhere near this level.
Hiruzen Sarutobi turned to the other three elders.
"What do you think? What moves will Sunagakure and Iwagakure make next?"
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado exchanged glances and shook their heads.
They had done all they could. What happened next was beyond their control.
Danzo, however, remained deep in thought. After a moment, a faint, unsettling smile crept across his face.
"I believe Sunagakure and Iwagakure have already missed their chance," he said.
"They won't get another opportunity to form that alliance."
"Oh?" Homura asked curiously. "Do you have new information?"
"Just received it this morning," Danzo replied.
"Kumogakure dispatched a force of one hundred shinobi toward the Land of Earth two days ago."
"A hundred?" Koharu frowned.
"That number seems meaningless for border deployment."
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed slightly.
"You're saying… this was a warning."
"Exactly," Danzo said, clearly pleased.
"At first, I didn't understand Kumogakure's intent. But combined with the failure of the Wind–Earth alliance, it makes perfect sense.
"They're signaling that they know what Iwagakure and Sunagakure were planning. A hundred shinobi isn't enough to provoke a reaction—but it's enough to send a message.
"If Iwagakure continues, next time it won't be just a hundred."
After careful consideration, Koharu and Homura realized Danzo might be right.
If so, the crisis posed by the failed alliance had effectively been neutralized.
"Even so," Hiruzen said slowly,
"this incident has exposed weaknesses in our current strength. From now on, I intend to intensify the training and development of our shinobi—especially those who have already demonstrated exceptional talent. They will receive greater resource support."
At that moment, Danzo's face darkened completely.
You shameless old fox, he thought.
Why not just say you're giving Taichi more resources?
To Danzo, this was blatant favoritism—openly funneling assets to Hiruzen's chosen protégés.
From that moment on, Danzo's resentment toward Taichi deepened even further.
And as the meeting drew to a close, a dark plan quietly began to take shape in the shadows of his mind.