While Iwagakure's camp had been completely emptied, Sunagakure's side wasn't doing much better.
As the village that dealt with Konoha most frequently, and the one Konoha guarded against the most, Suna still had a fair number of intelligence agents infiltrated within the Land of Fire.
These agents weren't capable of causing internal unrest, but gathering frontline intelligence posed no problem.
When Arata and Madara fought, Suna naturally had spies who rushed to the scene as well. Their strength might not have matched Iwa's Fujisaki—who was at elite jōnin level—but they were still among the best of the jōnin.
Among the many spies who appeared at the battlefield after Arata departed that day, one was from Sunagakure.
And as a Suna agent, his information relay speed was impressive. Not long after Fujisaki returned to Iwa's camp, this jōnin-level spy had already made it back to the Suna encampnt near the border with the Land of Rain.
This was largely thanks to the shorter distance between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire, making intelligence transmission much easier.
While Iwagakure was holding its eting, Sunagakure was not idle either. The current Second Kazekage, Shamon, imdiately summoned all high-ranking officials to urgently discuss Arata.
The impact of this matter was far too significant for Shamon alone to decide. It required a collective decision.
Moreover, Sunagakure was known among the ninja villages for being rigid and warlike. Convincing its shinobi to withdraw was far harder than it was in Iwa.
For example, Sunagakure's First Kazekage, Reto, was the man who directly talked back to the God of Shinobi at the first Five Kage Summit. His stubbornness nearly caused the summit to collapse and helped spark the First Shinobi World War.
The First Kazekage was extrely powerful—around early Super-Kage level—and had a fiercely resolute personality. Combined with the harsh conditions of the Land of Wind, he had always coveted the Land of Fire's territory.
That was why the Land of Wind always acted aggressively in every great war. Even if they didn't want war, they had to fight—otherwise the nation would never develop. They needed war to seize resources and to reduce the manpower of larger nations.
This strategy was originally devised by the First Kazekage.
It was even said that Shukaku, the One-Tail, had been personally captured by him. In an era when other nations didn't yet possess Tailed Beasts, Sunagakure had already taken the lead.
Even if Shukaku was the weakest among the nine beasts, it still showed Reto's foresight and strength.
As for the current Second Kazekage, Shamon, while not as overwhelming as the First, he was a master of puppet techniques. Although the Monzaemon family's puppet arts were considered Suna's strongest, before Sasori of the Red Sand appeared, Shamon was still regarded as Suna's foremost puppet innovator.
At the sa ti, he also developed the sand manipulation arts that would later have far-reaching influence. Many later fans even speculated that the Third and Fourth Kazekage were his descendants, since Kazekage positions in the Land of Wind often passed down lineages.
Outside the Kazekage line, almost no one else in Suna used advanced sand manipulation.
Later generations in the Land of Wind rated Shamon extrely highly—no less than the First Kazekage. He was even called the "Restorer of the Wind."
Inside the tent now sat the bald-headed, blue-dragon–tattooed Second Kazekage Shamon, along with more than a dozen Suna elites.
Several of them would later appear in the original Naruto story.
To Shamon's left sat the two leaders of the puppet masters, Chiyo and Ebizō. At this ti, both siblings were at the peak of their ninja careers, each possessing mid-Kage-level strength.
Chiyo's combat ability wasn't limited to chakra. She was the first person besides Tsunade to decipher Hanzō's poison, even calculating the cooldown between his poison sac releases. This showed that the old woman was far more formidable than she looked.
Her brother was also a master of puppet arts, second only to the Second Kazekage himself—already a renowned powerhouse in the Land of Wind.
Both would appear later in Shippuden, though Chiyo had more screen ti, ultimately ending her own grandson Sasori's life.
Even in her seventies or eighties, she didn't fall behind in her battle with Sasori. Their victory was narrow, and many suspected Sasori had let himself die rather than being truly defeated by Chiyo and Sakura.
But none of that diminished her strength.
To Shamon's right sat a 15- or 16-year-old boy with short dark-blue hair. He radiated a cold aura and sat silently with his eyes closed, as if the eting had nothing to do with him.
For soone so young to attend such a high-level eting, he clearly possessed extraordinary ability. His chakra had already reached elite jōnin level, and the chilling presence around him suggested he had taken many lives.
Being seated at nearly the sa level as Chiyo indicated his high status in Sunagakure.
This youth was Saro, Shamon's son. While he hadn't inherited his father's puppet mastery, he had surpassed him in sand manipulation and even invented a unique Iron Sand technique, granting far greater sharpness and penetration than normal sand.
Once using Iron Sand, his defenses were several tis stronger than ordinary sand. He was also the first Suna shinobi capable of true flight.
Saro's rise to fa ca from battling Ōnoki, the future Third Tsuchikage. Fearless as a young calf, he challenged Ōnoki in aerial combat. Relying on his speed, he neutralized Dust Style attacks and harassed Ōnoki with Iron Sand.
From then on, he beca the top talent of Suna's younger generation, even overshadowing peers like Zōshirō.
He would later beco the Third Kazekage, proving his talent translated into real combat power. If nothing unexpected happened, he was destined to be a ninja no weaker than his father.
These four elites present were among the most representative of the Land of Wind's top combat forces.
This ti, Suna had deployed nearly all its elites, leaving behind only a few elite jōnin and the One-Tail jinchūriki to guard the village, while the rest of their best forces were sent to the battlefield.
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