While Shisui and team were going towards the village, Jiraiya had finally analyzed the array completely. Kumogakure had invested way too much effort in the arrays of this outpost, so much that even Konoha didn't have a better protected outpost than this one.
The inner array was hidden by various concealment seals and had various seals with no function other than confusing the enemy who somehow discovered the second array.
That's why even Jiraiya, one of the top fuinjutsu grandmasters of Konoha, had to spend hours on the array, but the benefit was that the array was now fully decoded in his mind.
'To be this good in fuinjutsu, Kumo is really making some rapid progress in this field,' Jiraiya thought as he completed his notes, then retreated from the immediate vicinity of the outpost. To get the better view of the inner array, he had slowly moved deep inside the enemy territory, even crossing the boundary of the outer array.
Though with his expertise, he knew which areas would be safe to enter, saving himself from the embarrassment of getting caught by the Kumo ninja due to his overconfidence.
After reaching a safe distance, he summoned a toad, small and stealthy enough to be considered as a normal frog even if someone found him.
"Keep a watch around the outpost. If you find any noticeable presence approaching the base, notify me," Jiraiya said. Even though this preparation was totally unnecessary, he still did it as no one could be extra prepared in such scenarios.
After leaving the toad behind, Jiraiya went back to the temporary base his team had created. Since it was already created, there was no need to build a new one just to save a few more minutes.
As he reached there, he sensed all of his teammates were completely ready for the mission, just waiting for his return before they march toward the enemy.
"At ease guys, we are not going to attack in the morning," Jiraiya said, entering the room and taking the seat in the frugal chair in the room.
The team nodded, visibly relieved by the command. None of the ninja present there were hot-blooded genin, just out of the village and ready to take on the world. No, they were the jonin and elite jonin of Konoha, having tons of experience under their names.
They understood the implication of attacking in the nighttime. With the cover of night, they could reach the outpost near enough to still have the advantage of the surprise attack, and either eliminate some of the ninja or destroy the array before a barrier could be formed.
But in daytime, this would be nothing but going to a direct fight against 200-plus ninja with just 30 of their own. During the daytime, there would be no way to hide the presence of 31 shinobi on the move with completely alert guards scanning every direction of the outpost all of the time.
Not to mention Kumo had gone ahead with their preparation and removed any and all potential hiding spots in the area of 2 km radius around the outpost.
This area would be hard to cross even in the nighttime, let alone in the day, so the orders of Jiraiya were almost completely confirmed to come, but the jonins were still ready to move in case he had come up with some other plan.
"The array was much more complex than I initially thought. It took too much time analyzing that," Jiraiya said, notifying his teammates for the time he was out, while he began writing something on the paper before summoning a frog once again, but this one was not just some random spy frog.
"Oh, Jiraiya boy, how are you?" Kousuke, the old messenger toad of Mount Myoboku, came to the temporary base of the Konoha.
"I am fine, Kousuke-san, on a mission. Can you please deliver this message to sensei?" Jiraiya asked, giving the paper to Kousuke.
"Sure thing, take care, Boy," Kousuke said, more than smart enough to not waste time of Jiraiya during a mission.
After sending the toad away, Jiraiya began analyzing the array once again. With the working of the array in front of him, the only thing left was to find out how to destroy it in the shortest time possible.
While Jiraiya was busy with the array, Hiruzen was busy with various reports submitted to him. There were many which needed his attention, but his main focus was given to the report of the various compiled information presented by the spies all around the ninja world.
Yeah, all around the world - they had activated all of the spies Konoha had, in preparation for a scenario in which the two giants lost all reasoning and actually started a great ninja war now.
Poof
Suddenly, smoke emerged in front of Hiruzen's desk. Normally the ANBU hiding in the room would have been alerted at this point, but they were more than familiar with the scene unfolding in front of him.
"How are you doing, boy?" Kousuke said, jumping on Hiruzen's desk.
"Just grinding my old bones for the village, but other than that, fine. I assume Jiraiya sent something for me?" Hiruzen asked.
"Yeah, was busy with the mission so I didn't ask much, though he was in Land of Lightning," Kousuke said, giving away Jiraiya's location with the letter he was asked to give, as it had become a procedure at this point, with how many times Jiraiya ran away to take a break to work on his next project.
"Thanks for the help, Kousuke-san," Hiruzen said, taking the letter.
"Just doing my job. Take care, boy," Kousuke said and went back to Mount Myoboku, his home. As soon as he left, Hiruzen opened the letter, giving it a quick read.
"Call Shikaku," he gave the order before he started working on the reports once again. After half an hour, a grumbling Nara entered the office.
"I already did overtime yesterday, Lord Third, and now you called me this early. It is not even 5 at this point," Shikaku said.
"I have not even gone home for past three days, Shikaku, and you are grumbling about getting less sleep in your comfy bed. Maybe I should shift your desk here; we can share our work together then."
"I will never even dare to grumble to be at your service, Lord Third. I was just about to thank you for giving me a chance to work for my village," Shikaku, fully alert at this point, reported like an over-excited soldier reporting to the general.
"Fine, fine. This was sent by Jiraiya half an hour earlier," Hiruzen said, giving the letter to Shikaku.
Shikaku, understanding the meaning of the letter, quickly dropped any reservation and focused on the letter. After a read and few seconds to think, he said, "This does complicate things but nothing we are not ready for. I will send a message to Kakashi to initiate Plan B.
As for the difficulty increase... there is nothing we could do except trust our ninjas," Shikaku said, as according to the letter, Jiraiya had assessed the array to be too complex to give a chance for perfect ambush, and the chance of casualties was high with current numbers.
Sadly, Konoha had already stretched itself thin by sending away 60 jonin at the same time while also making sure not to make it obvious. They could not spare any more ninja at this point.