In the northern part of the Land of Rice Fields, a large group of Hidden Cloud Ninja assembled together, with the Fourth Raikage, A, standing in front of everyone as the commander.
"No matter what problem you encounter, you must reach the border of the Land of Fire within the planned time!" The Fourth Raikage, A, said with a serious expression.
This time, the Hidden Cloud dispatched a ninja squad consisting of a total of twelve hundred ninjas.
A ninja squad this numerous marching rapidly through such a small country like the Land of Rice Fields could easily attract attention.
In order to remain undetected, they were divided into twelve teams to act successively.
The Land of Rice Fields borders the Land of Hot Water. If they were exposed too early, Orochimaru's troops could arrive quickly, rendering all previous preparations useless.
"We must complete the mission!" The captains of various teams responded in unison.
"Set off!" The Fourth Raikage, A, nodded with satisfaction and ordered.
With the order from the Fourth Raikage, A, the advance teams quickly moved in different directions.
On the other side, a small squad of Hidden Cloud Ninjas in the Land of Hot Water also began their actions.
Not only did they not conceal their movements, but they actively appeared near towns in the Land of Hot Water, launching aggressive assassinations against Konoha Ninjas, with the stance of clearing all Konoha Ninjas from the Land of Hot Water.
The Konoha Ninjas in the Land of Hot Water rapidly made various battle preparations, as this was not the first time Hidden Cloud acted like this; every time they were about to launch a large-scale attack, it always appeared this way.
"Increase the patrol teams, focus on monitoring the border between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Rice Fields." This was Orochimaru's response to Hidden Cloud's movements.
Not only is intelligence crucial in battles between ninjas, but war intelligence for ninja squads is equally important.
Before scouting the intelligence of the Hidden Cloud Ninja squad, he couldn't act rashly.
...
Land of Fire, Konoha.
To supplement the strength of the Root, Sarutobi Hiruzen issued a task to Mokgetsu, requiring him to quickly establish an Anbu squad capable of being effective in war.
Undoubtedly, this was a very challenging task, more difficult than any previous teaching task.
However, fortunately, Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't merely giving orders and letting Mokgetsu struggle on his own.
Sarutobi Hiruzen gathered ninjas who had previously withdrawn from the Anbu, allowing those willing to return to Anbu to join the training team as Mokgetsu's subordinates.
This group of ninjas basically didn't require much worry from Mokgetsu; with some time in rehabilitation, they would become qualified Anbu Ninjas.
Then there were the promising future members, whom Sarutobi Hiruzen personally found from various ninja clans, selecting some ninjas from their families to enter the training team.
Although ordinary ninjas are not necessarily worse than Ninja Clan ninjas, due to a comprehensive training system, most Ninja Clans are superior to ordinary ninjas.
After all the preparations for the training team were completed, Shisui also received notification from Mokgetsu.
To make a good impression on his colleagues, before heading there, Shisui carefully checked his appearance to ensure there were no issues before setting out.
Perhaps because he was too young, almost every passing Anbu member glanced at Shisui as he walked to the Equipment Department.
Fortunately, Mokgetsu had already greeted some Anbu members in advance, preventing the incident of a ninja mocking, "whose child is this" and then kicking Shisui out of the base.
"This is your complete set of equipment; if damaged, you can return here to receive new equipment." An Anbu member from the Equipment Department handed over a long box to Shisui and said.
"Thank you." Shisui accepted the box with both hands and nodded in gratitude.
Immediately after, Shisui followed the memory in his mind to the room designated for changing clothes.
When Mokgetsu notified him, he showed him a map of the Root Base, which Shisui memorized entirely—every room's function and location.
In the changing room, Shisui opened the box and found only three items inside: a fox mask, a longsword, and at the bottom was a standard Anbu combat uniform.
The training team is a specially constituted Anbu, essentially still Anbu, so the equipment is consistent with Anbu.
Shisui quickly donned the Anbu combat uniform and mask, then locked his clothes in a locker.
After changing into the uniform, Shisui went to the training team captain's office.
Knock, knock.
Shisui gently knocked on the wooden door of the office.
"Enter."
The voice that Shisui was extremely familiar with reached his ears.
Shisui pushed open the wooden door and entered the office.
"Teacher Mokgetsu." Shisui looked at Mokgetsu sitting in the office chair and blurted out, quickly correcting himself: "Captain Mokgetsu."
He was reporting to the training team, and Shisui thought it would be better to be more solemn at this moment.
"There's no need for that; you can be normal in the absence of others." Mokgetsu said with a smile.
Listening to Mokgetsu's words, Shisui relaxed a little.
Due to the lack of time, the training team base was essentially consistent with the previous Root Base, giving an overall impression of darkness and oppression. Plus, with Anbu's unknown dark side, it inevitably causes some tension.
"Generally, Anbu will have their own code names and call each other by these during missions. You can choose a code name for yourself." Mokgetsu pulled out a small notebook and said.
"For instance, my code name is Yo."
Yo was Mokgetsu's code name in the Root, and he didn't plan to change it. After all, such things as code names bore little significance to him.
The ordinary Anbu choose code names to hide information, but Mokgetsu's fame is too great; once he takes action, no code name or mask is useful.