Because they had confirmed that this assassination incident involved Konoha's rogue shinobi organization, Root, after returning to Sunagakure, Nagato brought together the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, and Shisui Uchiha, who was acting as Fourth Mizukage Rei Kaguya's representative. Together, they sent another official document to Konoha.
In the document, they detailed all the intelligence and information they currently possessed, and expressed their hope that Konoha would dispatch a shinobi with sufficient strength and status to handle the matter.
Originally, they thought that after Konoha received the document, they would have the newly dispatched shinobi link up with the investigation team sent earlier. Then, under the witness of the Land of Wind daimyo, the two sides would exchange intelligence regarding the assassination incident launched by Root.
But when Konoha's envoy finally appeared, Nagato and Shisui Uchiha both felt their hearts sink.
"That is roughly what happened."
Jiraiya let out a long sigh and spoke to Nagato, who had fallen into deep thought with a frown.
"Including me, this is already the third investigation team Konoha has sent to look into this assassination incident. The first investigation team encountered an enemy ambush in the desert on the border between the Land of Fire and the former Land of Roran. After forcing themselves to send out intelligence, the entire team died."
"As for the second team, they also lost contact soon after leaving the Land of Fire. If your intelligence is correct, then they have probably already died in an enemy ambush as well."
"No wonder…"
Shisui Uchiha narrowed his eyes.
"When exchanging intelligence with Sunagakure, I felt something was strange. Konoha was clearly attacked earlier than Kirigakure, yet during the intelligence-gathering process, I never saw any Konoha investigation team appear…"
"Looking at it this way, perhaps Root's main objective in creating this assassination incident was not to take revenge against Kirigakure and the Fourth Mizukage. Konoha may have been their true target all along…"
Nagato rapidly went through every piece of intelligence he knew in his mind.
He rearranged the scattered fragments in chronological order, searching bit by bit for connections between these events.
The information Jiraiya had provided filled an important blank in the middle, allowing the entire incident to be linked together successfully.
"If their goal was to target Konoha, then why did they drag Kirigakure's Kekkei Genkai shinobi into it too?"
Shisui Uchiha lightly tapped the table in front of him. Thoughtful light flickered in his eyes.
"If Hozuki Aoba had not gone missing, Kirigakure would never have paid this much attention to the matter."
"Sasori of the Red Sand acting on his own?"
The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, spoke with a dark expression.
"That man is an arrogant lunatic who even dared to assassinate the Third Kazekage. If he discovered traces of other Kekkei Genkai shinobi, there is a chance he would decide to act on his own…"
"No. Although he was the one who made the move, Hozuki Aoba's whereabouts were information passed by Root's Zetsu to his subordinate, Matt. So pulling Kirigakure into this matter must have been a decision that Root had already reached internally."
Shisui Uchiha decisively denied Rasa's speculation.
At the same time, his gaze shifted toward Jiraiya, whose eyes had been drifting toward Nagato the entire time.
"Lord Jiraiya, do you have any thoughts on this matter?"
"Most likely, they wanted to damage the relationship between Kirigakure and Sunagakure."
After being called on, Jiraiya spread his hands and spoke in a somewhat helpless tone.
"Although you are a reasonable shinobi, kid, if the person handling this matter had been another Mist shinobi, they probably would not have been able to sit down and properly exchange information like this with Sunagakure, who was highly suspected of being the mastermind, with the leader of Akatsuki, who inserted himself into the matter without invitation, and with me, a Konoha shinobi."
"And as long as they insisted on investigating the assassination incident on their own, they would definitely follow the clues and point their blades at Sunagakure. With Sunagakure's usual style, they would also never communicate openly and honestly with Kirigakure's investigators."
"After going back and forth like that, even if the Fourth Mizukage himself judged that Sunagakure was not the true culprit, the relationship between Kirigakure and Sunagakure would inevitably worsen."
"Add in the continuous assassination incidents against Konoha shinobi around the Land of Wind, and Sunagakure would become enemies with Konoha and Kirigakure at the same time. If they then used Sasori of the Red Sand's abilities to exert some influence on Sunagakure, the formal outbreak of war would not be far away."
Sitting at the side as a witness, the Land of Wind daimyo listened to the conversation between Jiraiya and the others, then nervously wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
He had no confidence at all in Sunagakure's current ability to wage war.
Otherwise, he would never have developed the idea of cutting Sunagakure's funding in the first place.
Now that he heard this incident had nearly dragged the Land of Wind into war, and against Konoha and Kirigakure, the two strongest shinobi villages at present, even someone with the daimyo's exalted and special status could not help feeling a considerable degree of fear.
"But assuming Kirigakure was indeed only an additional target dragged into the scheme, then what was Root trying to achieve by targeting Konoha?"
Nagato took over from Jiraiya and raised a new question to everyone present.
"If Root deliberately allowed the first Konoha investigation team to send out intelligence after attacking them, then their goal should have been to make Konoha continue sending new investigation teams. In that case, why did the second investigation team go completely silent and disappear as a whole?"
"If they wanted to keep bleeding Konoha, there would be no reason to wipe out the second investigation team completely, right?"
"There are two possibilities."
Shisui Uchiha thought for a moment, then raised two fingers and spoke in a low voice.
"One possibility is that they did not obtain what they wanted, but no longer believed they could continue the operation, so they temporarily stopped."
"The other is that they have already obtained what they wanted, so there is no need to continue carrying out more operations that might expose them."
"But regardless of which possibility it is, there is one thing we cannot ignore…"
"That is, among the investigation teams Konoha sent, there may have been someone Root wanted to obtain."
"Indeed."
After thinking briefly, Nagato nodded in agreement, then looked toward Jiraiya, who had also shown a surprised expression.
"Jiraiya-sensei, I will have to trouble you to communicate with the Fourth Hokage. Check whether there were any special individuals among the members and candidates of the two investigation teams before and after this. If we can find that person, we may be able to take precautions against Root's next movements in advance."
"Leave it to me."
Jiraiya nodded.
Then, with a gaze that was half admiration and half regret, he looked toward Shisui Uchiha, who had just made a brilliant analysis, and sighed emotionally.
"After Rei Kaguya became the Fourth Mizukage and began reforming all of Kirigakure, the village really has produced quite a few incredible young newcomers like him…"
"This is the first time I've seen a child as young as you become one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, elites even among jonin across the entire shinobi world… Can you tell me your name?"
"Uh… well…"
Hearing Jiraiya ask for his name, Shisui Uchiha somewhat awkwardly rubbed his nose.
Then, embarrassed, he lowered his voice and answered quietly.
"Shisui Uchiha. My name is Shisui Uchiha, Lord Jiraiya."
"Hm. Shisui Uchiha, huh? No wonder… hm?"
Jiraiya casually picked up the conversation, intending to first get closer to him and see if he could obtain some valuable personal intelligence from this overly young boy.
But when he suddenly registered what that name and surname represented, his mouth, which had just opened, immediately lost the ability to close.
It opened wider.
And wider.
And then, unsurprisingly, Jiraiya's jaw dislocated just like that.