Although the situation in the ninja world kept on eroding and there's was already frictions between the countries, the Third Great Ninja War had not yet erupted, and even the local wars had not started between the villages. Therefore, the Land of Rain seemed calm and everywhere around was just a peaceful weather.
At this time, on a trail in the Land of Rain, a large silhouette, and three small ones, were moving in the rain.
A group of four people, could be easily recognized as a ninja team, even if they're dressed up otherwise, as long as someone had a little experience of meeting with ninjas, they could be distinguished. So if they wanted to explore information, they could not act together.
The four stopped in front of a small town, Ueno waved to them, and whispered, "Information shows that there are some signs of ninja activity in this town, although this town is still away from the Land of Wind, it is relatively close compared to many others, so it cannot be completely ruled out that there are sand ninjas who might be around this area."
"[Byakugan]!"
As soon as Ueno's tone fell, Keita opened his Byakugan. This was the first time Asahi had seen an activated Byakugan, he saw that the veins around Keita's eyes burst out, becoming way more defined and his eyes a bit more hazy than in the manga or anime.
"There are chakra fluctuations in seven places" Keita whispered.
Ueno hearing this, took out a pen and paper and drew a simple map of the small town, then asked Keita to mark the approximate location of chakra fluctuations.
After drawing, Ueno instructed three people, "Chakra appeared in these seven positions, Asahi and Shinohara each are responsible for exploring one target, Keita is responsible for exploring two targets, and the other three will be given to me. Your mission is to know what country they work for, and as for their plans and missions, wait for us to gather here at 5 p.m. before making any further arrangements."
"Yes!" The three people replied at the same time.
This arrangement was quite reasonable, after all, Asahi and Shinohara were not the kind of ninjas who were good at gathering information. Even just exploring a target might be difficult for them to complete without making mistakes.
After the duties for each of them were arranged, Ueno signaled the three people with a hand seal, and then everyone disappeared into the woods.
Although the area of this small town was understandably small, it was quite prosperous. There were many shops on the streets and there were many pedestrians along the shops.
The Land of Rain was located at the junction of three great nations. During the war, it naturally became a battlefield between the villages. However, in peacetime, this was the only path for the three nations' merchants to travel to other countries.
A large number of merchants pass by here, which also makes the business here very prosperous.
After entering the small town, Asahi took a closer look all around, and walked towards his mission goal without leaving any trace.
After looking around in the small town for a while, Asahi finally found his objective. It's a small caravan. Four ninjas were accompanying it to protect it. The leader was unscrupulously wearing the ninja uniform of Sunagakure. It does not seem that he had fear about revealing which ninja village they came from.
In fact, this was also normal. If you are a ninja on a mission outside, if you wear the uniform of one of the Five Great Villages, it would have a deterrent effect on some small country ninjas and some rogue-ninjas. After all, these ninjas dare not offend those big ninja villages.
From the outside, it seemed that this was just a normal Sunagakure ninja with a mission, not anything else.
However, if this was reported as it is, Asahi's ability might be immediately questioned.
Coincidentally, the group was having lunch in a restaurant. Asahi simply fixed his clothes and stepped in.
"Five rice balls, plus a bowl of bean soup, thank you." He said while pretending to be cute and told the boss in the store.
Asahi wasn't sure if there were any sensory ninjas in this group of Sunagakure ninjas, so he didn't dare to use a Transformation Jutsu, fearing that once he used chakra, he would immediately be exposed. So Asahi could only use his identity as a child and simply ask for some food like a normal little kid.
The group of Sunagakure ninjas were very vigilant and didn't talk too much while eating. They did not reveal any information at all. But what surprised Asahi was that the merchants didn't talk too much to each other either, which was obviously not in accordance to common sense.
"I'm done eating, thank you for the food!" Asahi finished the food, paid, and left the restaurant directly, not at all looking at those people any more, and he didn't try to stay any longer.
In order to ensure that he was not under surveillance, Asahi also deliberately walked around this small town after eating in the small restaurant and ate some street food. After about an hour, he left the small town and went to the meeting place.
At 5 p.m., the four people of their group gathered again for the information summary.
"Just a few rogue-ninja, not anything special." Shinohara said first.
Keita then said, "Of the two target places I probed, one of them was a ninja of Amegakure, there was only one person, and the other was about three people. They were ninjas of Sunagakure. I observed using my Byakugan, one of these three people is probably a Jonin."
"Jonin?" Ueno heard this and narrowed his eyes.
Jonins are village's elite battle strength, they must have a special mission when they leave their country. It's like Ueno, he is a Jonin of Konoha. He came to Land of Rain to inquire about other villages' information and determine whether they had the idea of provoking war or not.
"What about you? What information did you find?" After analyzing the information that Keita had explored, Ueno asked Asahi.
"A group of Sunagakure escorts escorting a caravan should be led by a chunin and the other three people are probably genin. But one thing seems very strange. As far as I know, businessmen are more talkative, because when they do business, it's necessary to communicate with people, but the merchants in that group rarely talked to each other and stayed very vigilant. I analyze there are probably two possibilities, first, it may be that their products this time are very precious, and the second possibility is that they are disguised ninjas... and also when I left, according to my observation, they did not seemed to be any hurry at all, which also seems very unreasonable. "
Asahi simply said the information he discovered.
"The three targets I probed were all ninjas from the Amegakure, not our main target." Ueno indifferently said, "Now it is worth noting that in the two targets probed by Keita and Asahi, in total seven Sunagakure ninjas appeared in Land of Rain, there must be some kind of conspiracy."
His eyes glanced over his three students and then he instructed, "Tonight, Keita and I will enter the town to explore the information of these specific targets, and Asahi and Shinohara will be in charge of this target. The mission this time has exceeded our current strength. I will send a request to the village for help, until then we don't have to fight with them. Do you understand?"
"Yes!"
*****
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