A squad like this, completely lost contact.
It was a full three days of radio silence. The Intelligence Division and Jonin Council repeatedly confirmed no messages were received and no traces of Darui or the others could be found before finally reporting the news. They couldn't believe the result themselves. After all, mission failure, personnel losses, or even Darui dying in battle wasn't completely impossible.
But total annihilation?
That was just absurd, right!?
However, that was the only deduction they could make. Otherwise, it made no sense for there to be absolutely no news. The situation was urgent, so they naturally had to report to the Raikage immediately.
Before arriving, they could already foresee the Raikage's furious reaction.
"Yes, Lord Fourth, it's been a full three days of lost contact. No regular reports, no intelligence relays, nothing. We've already dispatched the nearest team to investigate, but..."
The Cloud ninja reporting didn't finish the sentence.
But the Fourth Raikage, A, understood perfectly.
Beside him, Dodai's expression was also extremely grim.
This was a huge deviation from their initial estimates!
"Bastards! Search! Dig three feet into the ground if you have to! Even if they're really all dead, turn the entire Land of Spring upside down and find where Darui died! Find out exactly who did it, understand!?"
The Fourth Raikage, A, roared, glaring at the Cloud ninja with eyes that looked ready to devour someone, fierce to the extreme.
Darui!
That was the successor he personally selected and groomed for several years!
He was the next Raikage of their Hidden Cloud Village!
And he just died like that!
How could you expect the Fourth Raikage to be rational!?
How could he not be furious!?
Find them! Find the killer, and he would let them know the meaning of cruelty!
"Yes, sir!"
The Cloud ninja bowed his head sharply.
Whoosh!
He leaped away instantly, leaving to execute the Fourth Raikage's orders.
After that Cloud ninja left...
The entire office seemed to fall into a deathly silence.
After a long silence.
"Do you think the Hidden Mist did it?"
The Fourth Raikage, A, slowly sat back in his chair. His seemingly calm face betrayed him—the bulging veins on his arms and the fire still burning deep in his eyes proved that the Fourth Raikage was still at the peak of his anger.
He was just restraining it well.
"Current intelligence is unclear, so we can't make any judgments. But in my opinion, Lord Fourth, unless the Hidden Mist mobilized their entire force, it's impossible for them to leave Darui and the others with absolutely no chance of survival. And if the Hidden Mist did that, we wouldn't have received zero news!"
Dodai thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head.
Did the Hidden Mist have that capability?
The answer was yes!
Even someone as strong as the Third Raikage died under human wave tactics. Darui was still a bit behind the Fourth Raikage, A, so being killed wasn't an exaggeration—but the premise was that the Hidden Mist had to dispatch a corresponding force.
Either the Hidden Mist had a trump card the Cloud didn't know about.
Or the Hidden Mist sent a large army to encircle them.
The former required further intelligence to corroborate.
The latter? Unless the Cloud's scouts were all blind and deaf, they would definitely have received corresponding information in time.
Not to mention, based on previous intelligence, Dodai leaned towards other possibilities, not the Hidden Mist.
"So you're saying other forces are the most likely!?"
The Fourth Raikage's eyes instantly darkened, his voice ice-cold.
"If we have to speculate right now, the Leaf has the greatest suspicion. Only they have the strength to do this. Previous intelligence indicated that the famous Jiraiya appeared in countries near the Land of Spring. If the Leaf dispatched elite Anbu paired with Jiraiya, there is indeed a high probability they could completely keep Darui and the others there!"
Dodai hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath, and stated his judgment. Under the circumstances, this was indeed the most reasonable speculation.
It was also an easy conclusion to reach.
Who asked the Leaf to be the number one in the ninja world!?
And having just lost their Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, they certainly had the motive to capture the Six-Tails to fill the gap in Tailed Beasts!
So, this really couldn't be considered a wild guess by Dodai.
Moreover, the Leaf was indeed aiming for the Six-Tails from the start.
Whether it was the people Tsunade sent or Danzo's people.
The goal was the same.
Just different methods.
Currently, the Akatsuki organization hadn't fully emerged; in the ninja world, they were just an "illegal terrorist organization" taking commissions to earn money. Neither Obito nor Nagato had revealed themselves, and Orochimaru hadn't broadcasted the organization's info to the whole world. Even Danzo, a collaborator, only had a rudimentary understanding of the Akatsuki from the past.
Someone like Dodai from the Cloud would know even less.
"Of course, we can't rule out the Six-Tails Jinchuriki doing it himself. After all, he is a Jinchuriki. If he's a perfect Jinchuriki like Killer B, combined with his own unique abilities, it's not impossible."
Dodai paused slightly, then continued.
As for the more distant Stone and Sand ninja, they weren't in the suspicion sequence for now. The Stone was simply too far away; any action would leave traces and couldn't be hidden perfectly.
They might hide it at the start, but absolutely not leave zero traces afterward. Among the Five Great Ninja Villages, who didn't know who?
As for the Sand... well, Dodai just looked down on the current Hidden Sand Village. Did they have the ability to capture the Six-Tails? Did they have the ability to completely annihilate a Cloud team led by Darui?
No, they didn't!
If not for their sheer size and those two old fossils, Chiyo and Ebizo, holding it up, the Hidden Sand would struggle to even be called one of the Five Great Nations.
Asking Dodai to suspect the Hidden Sand?
He'd rather suspect Orochimaru.
At least Orochimaru's hard power was undeniable.
"The Leaf, huh!?"
The Fourth Raikage's eyes became incredibly gloomy, his whole body radiating a chilling aura.
This Fourth Raikage had always coveted the Leaf greatly.
The Leaf was simply too rich, too prosperous, too powerful.
Occupying the center of the world, gathering more than half of the world's wealth.
How could other nations and villages not be tempted!?
Otherwise, even though the Hidden Stone was the Cloud's biggest grievance from the Third Great Ninja War, and Ohnoki should be A's primary target for revenge...
Why were the Fourth Raikage's eyes mostly fixed on the Leaf!?
Take the classic Hyuga Hinata kidnapping case. What was the initial opportunity? It was the arrival of the Cloud delegation, right?
And what was the intent of the Cloud delegation's arrival?
Peace talks, right?
Under what circumstances are peace talks needed? Naturally, when both sides are in a state of war, right?
And judging from the original story, that wasn't a small-scale, short-term skirmish, but a relatively large-scale military collision that lasted a while.
That was why such high-profile peace talks were needed.
The Fourth Raikage, A, stared so tirelessly at the Leaf precisely because that village and the country it represented were too wealthy!
As long as he could successfully take a bite, it would be incredibly lucrative!
Years ago, when a common Cloud head ninja died, the Fourth Raikage dared to threaten total war. What about now!? The one who died was their Hidden Cloud's next-generation successor!
The Fourth Raikage wasn't just seizing an opportunity like last time.
He truly had a monstrous rage to vent.
"Immediately send someone to demand answers from the Leaf! Demand that the Leaf hand over the bodies of all our killed Cloud ninja, hand over the true culprit who killed my Cloud ninja, and compensate the Hidden Cloud for corresponding losses! Otherwise, the Hidden Leaf Village will bear all responsibility!!!"
The Fourth Raikage said coldly.
It wasn't certain that the mastermind was the Hidden Leaf, but that didn't stop the Fourth Raikage from doing this first. If it was the Leaf, he wasn't wrong. If not, he could take the opportunity to probe and pressure the Leaf. As for whether this would cause problems?
Joke!
Would a dignified Raikage be afraid of problems!?
The Fourth Raikage believed he had seen through the essence of those cowardly folks in the Leaf—a bunch of gutless people.
Regardless of the reason.
This Fourth Raikage was set on extorting the Leaf this time!
"Wouldn't it be better to wait a bit, Lord Raikage? At least wait for the initial intelligence feedback before deciding? The current situation isn't exactly calm."
Dodai belonged to the more cautious type. He became the Hidden Cloud's top strategist to balance the fiery tempers of the two Raikages, filling in gaps and checking for leaks in all aspects.
Otherwise, it would be easy for the train to go off the rails, speeding out of control.
Previous Raikages certainly weren't stupid, nor were they muscle-bound simpletons. If they were, they wouldn't be qualified to be Raikage—after all, they were the bosses of armed militant groups!
How could they be simple?
The Raikages, especially the Third and the current Fourth, simply had personality issues with rage.
Dodai existed as a braking mechanism.
To pull the handbrake at critical moments.
Like now—rashly pressuring the Leaf didn't feel right to Dodai. If all this was caused by other village forces, the conspiracy implications would be greater and more uncontrollable.