After the Land of Wind had completely withdrawn, the Agakure scouts responsible for monitoring them could no longer sit still.
In their expectations, the Suna would never be this patient.
The Land of Wind had always been the most warlike of nations — how could they possibly resist taking this chance to strike from the rear and attack both the Agakure and Konoha?
At this mont, Agakure and Konoha were fully locked in battle. Even their top fighters — Hanzō of the Salamander and Konoha's trio of Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya — were fighting fiercely, their clash having already lasted nearly two full days.
Under normal circumstances, the Suna would have attacked long ago.
To prevent a rear assault from the Suna, the A had buried large quantities of explosive tags and ninja tools along likely invasion routes.
The goal was simple: delay the Suna's advance long enough to buy ti for Hanzō.
As long as Hanzō could finish off Konoha's three elite jōnin, he would be free to turn around and deal with Konoha's main forces.
And under Hanzō's terrifying poison, no matter how elite Konoha's shinobi were, they would eventually fall.
After all, only Tsunade could neutralize Hanzō's toxins.
And since she had already been locked in battle with him for so long, her supply of antidotes was likely nearly exhausted. Once that happened, who would save Konoha's main army?
Besides, even whether Tsunade and the other two could survive Hanzō at all remained uncertain.
Because of this, the A shinobi had treated the Sunagakure as a top priority threat.
If the Suna attacked now, all their preparations would be wasted.
So no matter what, they had to stop the Land of Wind.
Yet the situation left them utterly confused.
The battle had already dragged on for two days — and still there was no movent from the Suna camp.
Did the Suna not know about the war?
Did they not realize that both Agakure and Konoha were nearing the final stage of battle — a situation likely to end in mutual destruction?
Why would they not strike now?
At that mont, one A shinobi suddenly pointed toward the Suna camp.
"Sir! A trap has been triggered over there!"
The leading jōnin imdiately looked.
Sure enough, behind the Suna encampnt, a trap had activated, releasing a cloud of mist into the air.
This was a unique A Village signaling thod.
Though not as obvious as signal flares, it was far cheaper and consud fewer resources.
A was not like wealthy Konoha, where even patrol units could afford expensive signal flares.
Their country was poor. This mist-based signal system was already an innovation developed by Hanzō — otherwise they would have had no such tools at all.
But the location of the signal was strange.
It was not on the route where the Suna would launch an assault.
Instead… it was placed along a withdrawal path.
Originally, the trap had been set just in case the Suna tried to take a long detour before attacking the front lines.
Now, unexpectedly, it had been triggered.
Could it be that the Suna had chosen to circle around and attack Konoha from behind?
But that made little sense.
A roundabout route would take at least a full day.
By the ti they arrived, the main battle would already be over.
They would gain nothing — wasting a perfect opportunity.
Even this A jōnin understood that.
He refused to believe that the famously intelligent Kazekage, Shamon, wouldn't understand it as well.
And if they were truly planning a detour, they should have moved the mont the war began — not two days later.
Did they possess so secret thod of rapid movent?
Sothing that could allow them to reach Konoha's rear in less than a day?
Of course, he had no way of knowing.
A's intelligence network was far slower than the Suna's.
They still knew nothing about Arata's rise, nor the full details of the battle at Uzushio Island.
All they could do was speculate.
Still, the experienced jōnin quickly made a decision.
"We'll move in and investigate. Whatever their goal is — whether they're circling around or planning sothing else — we need confirmation."
A shinobi possessed a strong sense of duty and deep reverence for Hanzo.
Even knowing the danger, none of them hesitated.
They all nodded imdiately.
Living between great powers, the A had survived through sheer resolve and fearlessness.
Without that spirit, the village might never have survived this long — let alone threaten Konoha so seriously in the Second Great Shinobi War.
Their strength ca from two things:
Their willingness to face death…
And Hanzō's overwhelming power.
Though in the future Hanzō would grow disillusioned — realizing the crushing dominance of the great nations and withdrawing from world affairs — at this mont he was still at the peak of his confidence.
Rising during the First Great War, he now stood at the height of his fa.
Even the Kage of the Five Great Nations treated him with respect.
That was why he dared to fight the Lands of Wind, Earth, and Fire alike.
But this dominance was built largely on his personal deterrence.
Once total war erupted, the truth would beco clear:
Great nations were great because of overwhelming advantages in every aspect.
Population alone guaranteed it.
No matter how strong A beca temporarily, it could never sustain prolonged warfare.
Eventually, it would decline into a third-rate nation.
And by then, when Hanzo grew old, who would restore A to its forr glory?
When the A scouts finally approached the Suna camp…
What greeted them was silence.
An empty camp.
Not a single person remained.
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