Despite it being a couple of hours past midnight, a loud banging sound could be heard. The man in the house grumpily woke up and walked to the door while muttering, "I should have made the door out of gold and created spikes on the surface. At least then no one would bang so loudly!"
He opened the door to see a messenger. The messenger quickly said, "Lord Kazekage, there is an extremely important matter."
Without giving Rasa any opportunity to speak or respond, he handed him a scroll. Rasa opened the scroll and his eyes widened. However, soon a look of tiredness appeared on his face. He let out a sigh and said, "Ask the council to meet tomorrow morning."
The messenger nodded and left. Rasa ignored Temari and Kankuro, who were woken up by the loud banging, and walked back while reading the scroll again. He thought, 'Another loss against Konoha. The base was compromised. The status and the number of the ninjas in the base are still not known. We need to revamp our plans in the Land of Fire.'
Rasa had grown sick of the recent incidents with Konoha. Ever since the day Fujin had stepped into the Land of Wind, he kept receiving one bad news after another! No matter how much he analyzed, calculated and planned, he was completely helpless in every instance. He even took action himself but never found an opponent to crush.
Not wanting to ruin his sleep, he kept the matter aside and went back to bed.
The next morning, every Council member gathered in the Council Meeting room. Goza asked, "What's this meeting about, Lord Kazekage?"
Rosa put forth 2 scrolls on the table and said, "I received these two scrolls. The first one is an emergency message sent from the secret base we established in The Land of Fire saying that the base was discovered by Konoha."
The expressions of everyone in the room became grim. They all understood what getting exposed so deep within enemy territory would mean.
Joseki gritted his teeth and asked, "How did Konoha find out so quickly?"
Ryusa added, "Yeah, we took so many measures while building that base. It shouldn't have been exposed so quickly."
Rasa said, "It's due to Hideyoshi's squad that went missing."
Rasa pointed at the other scroll and said, "I received this scroll a few hours later. It was sent by Takara Osamu. He said that Konoha ninjas disguised as Hideyoshi's squad and entered the base. They knew all the three codes and could imitate the chakra signatures well enough for Yosuke to not be suspicious."
His words stunned the room once again.
Ryusa asked, "How is that possible?"
Goza had a grim expression. He asked, "Could Hideyoshi have betrayed us? There is no way Konoha would be able to pull something like this off without his assistance!"
Tojuro shook his head and said, "But why would he betray us? Even if he wanted to for some reason, his subordinates wouldn't want to. And they were strong enough to stop him."
Gazo replied, "If he didn't betray us, then that would mean that they ran into someone strong enough to not only kill them but also replicate their chakra signatures and prevent them from destroying their neural network."
Unfortunately, he realized that Konoha had a few such ninjas. He grumbled, "Did they run into one of the Sannins?"
He looked at Rasa and asked, "What happened to the base?"
Rasa replied, "Before Osamu escaped, 24 of our ninjas had died and another self-destructed his puppet. He believes that everyone other than him might have died. As for Konoha, they attacked with just 6 ninjas. That is why he was able to run away. But, he gathered two important pieces of intel."
Rasa's face became very ugly as he said, "Hatake Kakashi was one of the attackers and was probably the leader of the group."
The eyes of the Council members widened. For the past couple of months, they absolutely hated that name! Not only did he kill dozens of their ninjas, but he hid so well that even a thousand ninjas searching for him had to return empty-handed! And due to the volatile situation in the country, they couldn't even call those ninjas back to the village. This strained their already tight finances.
Rasa continued, "And, the one who impersonated Hideyoshi could use Vacuum jutsus. He caught everyone off guard and killed 15 of the 28 ninjas in the base with his first attack."
The council members were shocked again. Tojuro asked, "Did that bastard Danzo participate in this matter despite his old age?"
Rasa shook his head and replied, "Probably not. Baki ended his meeting in the Land of Birds yesterday. Though nothing significant was achieved and the meeting had a lot of outside interference, Iwa gave him a piece of intel on the last day."
Rasa opened a page on the Bingo book and placed it on the table. The council members looked at it and had a peculiar look on their faces. Rasa noticed their confusion and said, "He is Suzuki Fujin. Two years ago, just before we began mining in the Land of Hot Water, Kumo placed a bounty on this boy and stated that he could use Vacuum jutsus. But he hasn't been seen outside Konoha since then. I guess he joined the Anbu.
Right now he should be 14 years old. Iwagakure ninjas encountered him during a mission and they gave his information to Baki. They are sure that his strength is at Elite Jounin level and is very lethal. And, he is extremely skilled at Wind jutsus and Wind Vacuum Technique. Onoki believed that he might have a hand to play in incidents that happened in our country earlier."
The Council wasn't surprised that Onoki knew about the incidents that had happened. But all were shocked to know that a 14-year-old Konoha ninja not only knew Wind Vacuum Technique but was so good with it that his strength was considered to be at the Elite Jounin level.
As for Fujin's identity, Kitsuchi looked into all available information on Konoha ninjas. His first suspect was Sarutobi Asuma, but he didn't find any evidence of him using swords or Vacuum jutsus. Though that could be hidden, Asuma had been sighted when the Spectral Swordsman was killing his targets. So Kitsuchi stopped suspecting him.
After days of looking into thousands of ninjas, he didn't have any luck. But when he decided to check the Bingo book, he was surprised to see a 12-year-old with a 20 million Ryo bounty! On seeing that he could use Vacuum jutsus, Fujin became the prime suspect in the identity of The Spectral Swordsman. Kitsuchi became even more suspicious when he found out that Fujin hadn't been on any mission after receiving the bounty.
He shared his thoughts with Onoki who agreed with him despite not being 100% confident. Onoki thought, 'Regardless of whether he is the Spectral Swordsman or not, he is a young talent. He must have done something big for that brat Ay to be so pissed. But, taking action will be difficult for now. I need to find someone else who will do the job for me.'
Onoki had heard that the issues in the Land of Wind were caused by a Wind affinity ninja. So he passed the information to Suna to let them make the first move. After all, it didn't matter to him who killed Konoha's ninja as long as he was dead.
In the Sunagakure Council room, Ryusa sighed and said, "I had seen his bounty earlier. But I thought that Kumo was lying about his skills and he did something to offend them."
Tojuro cursed, "Not only did those bastards steal Lord Second's jutsus, but they are now the only ones to have ninjas that can use the Vacuum technique!"
Gazo thought for a bit and said, "In addition, no information about him has leaked in the open apart from that vague information in the bounty. Having such power at merely 14 years means that he is sure to reach S rank when he matures. As expected of Konoha. Not only did they hype up the Copy Ninja to be the leader of the next generation, but they are also raising another in secret.
That said, the culprit of the previous incident should still be the Copy Ninja. After all, from the reports, he was in a clutch. If it was this kid, then he would have used Vacuum jutsus to deter or eliminate our ninjas. At the very least, he could have tried to eliminate our Jinchuriki. But he didn't."
Rasa nodded and said, "I have the same opinion. But we need to keep an eye on him. In a war, an Elite Jounin that is an expert in Wind Release will be far more lethal when considering the vast number of Fire affinity ninjas in Konoha.
We were already concerned about Hokage's younger son, but even before he could reach his peak, Konoha already has someone else who is younger and probably stronger."
