"We can't go to Tiger Mountain Camp."
The group fell silent until one person spoke up. His voice was muffled as if something was covering his mouth.
And indeed, that was the case. The speaker was a tall man wearing a red helmet, red armor, and a red mask that covered his mouth, which caused his voice to sound muffled.
This man was none other than Han, the leader of this seven-man team from Iwagakure. He was an elite jonin, known as the "Steam Ninja," and also the Jinchuriki of the Five-Tails.
Hearing Han's words, another member of the group agreed, "Indeed, we can't go to Tiger Mountain Camp. Not only has it been occupied by Konoha ninjas, but going there will likely expose our location and cause unnecessary trouble. Besides, it's only a guess by the command center that they're heading there. If the Konoha ninjas aren't going to that camp, we'll have wasted our time."
"Then we should intercept them on the road. We know the direction they're heading, so we can take a shortcut and block them ahead of time," another person suggested.
After some thought, everyone nodded in agreement.
"One more thing…" another team member added, "We need to notify the search squads immediately and have them converge on our position. The seven of us alone can't stop all of them."
Hearing this, the Iwa-nin who had read the intel earlier nodded, "Yamae, you're right. We need to get them here as soon as possible!"
He quickly pulled out a small piece of paper, scribbled a series of numbers on it, rolled it up, and placed it into the message eagle's leg tube. After stroking the eagle's feathers, he raised his arm and said, "Go!"
With a flap of its wings, the message eagle shot into the sky like an arrow. It circled twice in the air before letting out a sharp screech and flying off into the distance.
After discussing a few more tactical details, the Iwagakure team adjusted their direction and continued forward.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
After parting ways with Hyuga Ringo, Seimei quickly made his way back to the main group and found Nara Shisui.
"Seimei, is something wrong?" Shisui asked when he saw Seimei approaching in a hurry.
"Not for now," Seimei replied, shaking his head.
However, Shisui didn't relax upon hearing this. Instead, he grew more serious. "What do you mean by 'not for now'? Did you notice something?"
"Yeah," Seimei nodded and began to explain his premonition and how he had occasionally sensed a prying gaze over the past few days.
Shisui fell into deep thought upon hearing this. He didn't dismiss it just because it was based on Seimei's intuition.
That kind of sixth sense was mysterious, often allowing a person to skip the process and directly perceive the outcome. Moreover, the stronger the shinobi, the more accurate that sense tended to be.
Was Seimei a powerful shinobi?
The answer was a definite yes.
Adding to that, Seimei had the fully matured Three-Tomoe Sharingan, making Shisui less likely to believe this was just a misconception.
If Seimei's perception was correct, it meant their movements had been under the watchful eye of an unknown enemy the whole time. If this enemy was from another village, that would be one thing—it would merely increase the risk.
But if the spy was an Iwagakure ninja, then it posed a much bigger problem.
In the past two days, they hadn't encountered any large-scale ambushes. At first glance, this might suggest Seimei's senses were mistaken, and that there was no hidden enemy at all.
But on second thought, it could also mean that the enemy was deliberately letting them wander through various blocked routes, lulling them into a false sense of security, only to strike a fatal blow when the time was right.
In that case, it would mean the enemy was now prepared and could attack them at any moment.
And two days were more than enough time for Iwagakure to complete their preparations.
In other words, today could very well be the day Iwagakure launched their attack.
This conclusion aligned with Seimei's instincts.
Various thoughts flashed through Shisui's mind in an instant, and within moments, he had a fairly clear picture of the situation.
As expected of a member of the Nara clan, with just a bit of information from Seimei, Shisui had pieced together the likely scenario.
Realizing this, Shisui broke into a cold sweat. Without delay, he called for a meeting with the other decision-makers among the jonin.
Once everyone was assembled, he wasted no time. He shared Seimei's premonition, the sensation of being watched by an unknown enemy, and his own deductions.
The gathered jonin frowned upon hearing this.
It wasn't that they didn't believe Seimei—there were too many strange jutsu and summoning creatures in the ninja world. It wasn't impossible for someone to hide nearby without being detected.
The issue was that if Seimei's sensing was correct and Shisui's deductions were accurate, it meant their situation was far from optimistic, and they would need to make immediate changes.
That was what caused their concern.
Finally, one of the jonin spoke up, "So, what do we do now? Should we stop and search for the hidden enemy?"
"No!"
"No way!"
Before he could finish, two Konoha jonin quickly rejected the idea.
One of them elaborated, "Seimei probably already checked for anything unusual when he sensed something, right?"
"Yeah," Seimei confirmed. "I did investigate a few times, but I didn't find anything."
"Exactly," the jonin continued. "Seimei's abilities are well-known, and with the Uchiha clan's Sharingan, if he couldn't find anything, it's unlikely we will either. It'd be a waste of time."
"Maybe Aoyama should give it a try," someone suggested.
Hyuga Aoyama shook his head. "That won't work. If there really is an enemy hiding, and they've managed to stay concealed this long, they probably know about our clan's Byakugan. They're likely only coming close briefly to gather information, and we can't just stay here waiting for them to show up. So even with my abilities, I wouldn't be able to find them."
"Then what if we change course? Avoid Tiger Mountain Camp and head somewhere else?"
"No."
Another jonin shook his head. "If we're really being watched, no matter where we go, Iwagakure will attack once they're ready. We can't afford to lose our nerve."
"So, what do we do? Do we keep heading for Tiger Mountain Camp?"
"…"
The group discussed various ideas, and in the end, they unanimously agreed to continue toward Tiger Mountain Camp. However, they decided to increase their pace and send out more scouts to survey the surroundings, staying alert for an Iwagakure ambush.
Additionally, they sent a message to the allied forces at Tiger Mountain Camp, asking them to move toward their location so they could link up more quickly.
Of course, they didn't give up on searching for the hidden enemy. Hyuga Aoyama and several other Hyuga clan members were assigned to patrol around the group, activating their Byakugan from time to time in hopes of spotting the lurking enemy.
With all these orders in place, Seimei noticed a significant change in the atmosphere within the group. The tension was palpable—everyone was on high alert now, and there was no trace of the earlier relaxation.
Seimei felt quite satisfied with that.
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