At noon, the Crane Moon Izakaya had very few customers.
Qiao Yi sat forlornly behind the counter, haphazardly flipping through the ledger in front of her.
Where had he been these past few days? Why hadn't he come to find her?
Recalling his increasingly swift actions from a few nights prior, her pretty face suddenly flushed.
She had witnessed his strengthening, both in Ninja power and in masculine vigor—he had grown stronger.
Perhaps he had taken on a mission and left the Village.
Two merchants entered the Izagaya.
"Boss, a bottle of sake, please."
Qiao Yi heard the voice first, and her heart suddenly tightened.
That voice…
She slowly looked up and saw a girl, a girl younger than her.
Sister?
A look of shock flashed across her eyes.
Qiao Yi worked as a Spy for the Village, while her more talented younger sister worked as a Ninja in Iwagakure.
All rewards and compensation issued by Iwagakure to Qiao Yi were directly given to her younger sister, Mi Yi.
Why was her sister here?
Was her sister the contact person? Coming to Konoha to be the contact?
Why would the Village do this? She had already done so much for the Village?
Qiao Yi had just received extremely important intelligence: Uzumaki Mito's funeral would be held in five days.
When Senju Hashirama, the First Hokage, was alive, he did not conceal the identity of the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki.
With Senju Hashirama's strength, the mere Nine-Tailed was not something that needed to be kept as the Village's top secret.
Uzumaki Mito being the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki was public knowledge.
Qiao Yi knew the Village would attach great importance to this intelligence, but she didn't expect the Village to send Mi Yi to find her.
With Mi Yi's appearance, Qiao Yi had no choice but to go all out, risking her life to confirm the authenticity of the intelligence.
This was the Village's final order to a Spy.
Either the intelligence gathering succeeded, and the Spy would be recalled to the Village to become a Ninja in the sunlight.
Or the intelligence gathering failed, resulting in death. Along with everything the Spy cherished most, it would all vanish.
Mi Yi disguised herself as a merchant who came to Konoha Village to commission a mission, making her identity extremely easy to expose.
"Coming! Our sake comes in three grades: medium, high, and special. What price range would you like?"
"Special grade! Let us taste the good sake from a large Village like Konoha!"
The secret code matched.
Qiao Yi's last shred of hope was shattered; Mi Yi had not come to Konoha by chance.
Choosing a bottle of sake, Qiao Yi handed it to Mi Yi.
Mi Yi was also very excited; she hadn't seen her sister in three years.
It was a pity they couldn't acknowledge each other and had to pretend not to know each other.
Mi Yi picked up the sake bottle, examined it carefully, and found the special mark.
Two days later, this bottle would appear in a nearby trash can, containing the intelligence Qiao Yi had finally confirmed.
The Village absolutely had to know the most accurate intelligence about Uzumaki Mito.
Qiao Yi went into the backyard and entered her room.
She took out all her money, preparing to act within these two days to confirm the intelligence.
While tidying the room, Qiao Yi saw the razor.
It was his razor.
She wondered if he had found another little temptress.
A small portion of the funds for her final mission had been given by him.
Every time he came, he ordered a lot of expensive beef and drank sake with the fewest impurities.
If she were truly a Konoha Village resident, she might have found a way to be with him.
After knowing him for so long, he had told her a name, but Qiao Yi knew it was a false name.
He said his name was Mi Qu, which was too perfunctory; it was just an ingredient name on a sake bottle.
He had a stable temperament, which was a huge advantage among Ninja.
Many Ninja suffered from mental illnesses; they appeared normal but were terrifying when they went mad.
Some Ninja, while drinking in an Izagaya, would suddenly recall something from a past mission and smash things like madmen.
Perhaps they had killed the wrong person, or killed too many people, or been tortured by enemies, or been suspected by the Village.
Fortunately, it was close to the Uchiha Police Force, and Uchiha Ninja would come to deal with the mad Ninja.
Qiao Yi went to the largest sake distribution store in Konoha Village.
"Boss, my Izagaya's performance has been declining recently. I'm planning a promotion tomorrow. How much special-grade sake do you still have?"
"How much special-grade sake can one store consume?"
"At least 20 cases of special-grade sake prepared daily, for five days."
While chatting with the boss, Qiao Yi made a gesture to a salesperson.
The salesperson understood Qiao Yi's meaning and quickly stepped forward, taking the boss away under the pretext of an important client arriving.
The boss asked Qiao Yi to wait in the office, saying he would return shortly.
That salesperson was her subordinate whom she had developed; he had never been of much use, but now he proved useful.
Qiao Yi went to the boss's office, closed the door, and took out a key.
This was a key she had secretly duplicated long ago.
Carefully opening the safe, Qiao Yi saw the boss's ledger.
The Senju Clan had stopped purchasing alcohol?
Qiao Yi looked at the date; starting yesterday, the Senju Clan had stopped ordering sake.
She continued to read and saw the most exciting piece of news.
The Uchiha Clan had ordered many more cases of sake!
The Uchiha Clan and the Senju Clan had an extremely poor relationship and had always been the biggest rivals within the Village.
Especially after Uchiha Kagami's death, the Uchiha Clan's bridge for external communication was broken.
The Senju Clan stopping their sake orders proved they knew something bad might happen to their family.
However, the Uchiha Clan ordering many more cases of sake proved they believed something good was about to happen.
Corroborating these two points, Qiao Yi believed the intelligence given to her by her Spy teammate was true: something major and bad was indeed about to happen to the Senju Clan.
This event could only be the death of the long-lived Uzumaki Mito.
Leaving the sake distribution store, Qiao Yi headed to the next location to look for other evidence.
Within Konoha Village, Ninja from Iwagakure, acting as Spy, rushed around, secretly investigating.
At the same time, on the border of the Land of Grass, a middle-aged man hovered in the air.
The Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, looked in the direction of Konoha.
Behind him were 5 Iwagakure Ninja brigades.
Han, the Five-Tailed Jinchuriki and Steam Ninja, came to Ōnoki's side.
"Tsuchikage-sama, the troops are assembled."
Han looked at the Tsuchikage and noticed that the Tsuchikage's hovering in the air was quite unsteady, indicating that the Tsuchikage was also somewhat uneasy.
Leading an elite force to raid Konoha Village, taking advantage of the Nine-Tailed Jinchuriki's succession and Uzumaki Mito's death, to severely strike Konoha and thus gain an advantage for Iwagakure in the Ninja World War.
This was a risky gamble; if successful, the gains would be immense, but if it failed, these more than three hundred elites might all die.
Ōnoki said:
"The more critical the period, the less we can be impatient."
"We are massive, hard rocks; either we don't move, or we move like a mudslide, destroying everything below the mountain."
"Once the Spy finally confirm the intelligence, we will launch a thousand-mile surprise attack on Konoha!"
This was the most precious opportunity given to Iwagakure by heaven.
The legendary Nine-Tailed, with its volatile temperament, a collection of resentment, sealed by Uzumaki Mito for so many years, must hate Uzumaki Mito and Konoha to death.
With the help of the Nine-Tailed, Konoha would surely be severely damaged.
In an alley in Konoha Village.
Mi Yi picked a sake bottle out of a trash can.
There were several etched lines on the bottle, which were the secret codes of the Iwagakure Spy.
The intelligence was true!
After confirming the information, Mi Yi quickly left.
She had completed her mission disguised as a merchant and was about to leave Konoha Village.
Taking one last look in the direction of Qiao Yi's Izagaya, Mi Yi thought to herself that her sister could finally return to the Village, and they, as sisters, would no longer be separated.
In the Land of Grass, Ōnoki, who had received the intelligence, waved his hand in mid-air.
He would personally lead the team to raid Konoha and severely damage Konoha!