"Call the siblings here immediately!" Hearing Goza''s grave tone, the Anbu ninja, who had brought the scroll, flickered away immediately. The remaining council members had a bad feeling. They quickly grabbed the scroll and started reading. Every last one of them was shocked to their very core!

    Sajo muttered in shock, "How can this be? Orochimaru betrayed us and killed Rasa? He used us like puppets!"

    Ryusa muttered, "And, only 233 ninjas are returning with Baki. We sent 858 ninjas to Konoha! He doesn''t know whether the others survived or not!"

    Ikanago added, "The status of Kazekage-sama''s children is unknown too!"

    Joseki shivered fearfully. He glanced at the other council members and questioned, "Does this mean that we not only lost our leader but also lost over 600 of our Elite ninjas and possibly our Jinchuriki?"

    Silence engulfed the room as no one answered him. After a few seconds, Goza let out a sigh and said, "Don''t jump the gun and assume the worst-case scenario. Baki said that Gaara and his siblings escaped earlier. So, they might have gotten away. It''s just that we can''t contact them until they return or run into Baki.

    Similarly, Baki estimated the death toll to be only around 300. He just doesn''t know about the rest. Perhaps most of them have escaped as well. We can only hope for the best..."

    Tojuro immediately replied, "What do you mean by the best? Kazekage-sama is dead! We lost the war! It''s already the worst-case scenario!"

    Silence engulfed the room again. Unlike others, the Suna Council was very aware of the reason for the attack. Suna''s economy was in tatters. While they had never been an economic powerhouse, their situation had continuously worsened in the past decade.

    There were several reasons for this. For one, they experienced great losses in the Third Great Ninja War. They would have recovered with time as they did from the previous great wars, but there was one big issue.

    Due to their losses, they had to form an alliance with Konoha. While the alliance was beneficial for them initially, they realized a big issue. Due to their alliance with Konoha and the fact that the Wind Daimyo was upset with Suna''s leadership, Konoha began getting most of the missions that they would have gotten otherwise. Over time, as people realized how efficient Konoha was with the missions, this trend just got worse for Suna.

    As a result, Suna was deprived of an opportunity to recover completely. To make matters worse, ''Konoha'' secretly made a move to destabilize the western part of the Land of Wind and painted Rasa and Suna as the bad rulers.

    This further increased the differences between the Wind Daimyo and the Suna leadership while the common citizens of the Land of Wind also began viewing Suna with suspicion. Since Suna didn''t have any proof against Konoha along with the fact that Konoha had completed the missions efficiently, Suna couldn''t even blame Konoha. If they did, people would have been even more suspicious.

    As a result, Suna needed this surprise attack to go well to turn things around. As long as their surprise attack worked, they could use Konoha''s wealth to stabilize their economy. Even if they couldn''t do that, an attack on Konoha would tear their alliance. As a result, the people in the Land of Wind will be forced to give the missions to Suna instead of Konoha.

    Everyone agreed to his words and continued planning. Within a couple of hours, 700 squads were sent out of the village. They were responsible for setting traps throughout the desert to hinder any incoming army! Another 300 squads were deployed to secure important defensive positions, while 100 squads moved to the Western part of the country to prevent any more misinformation campaigns from Konoha. In addition, they started creating elite ambush units.

    Though the people in Sunagakure were unaware of what was happening, everyone became tense. They realized that something terrible was about to happen.

    While the Suna ninjas were being deployed, Suna received a few more messages. They were from the Suna spies in Konoha. The council immediately got together and went through the new scrolls.

    Immediately, relief appeared on the faces of several council members. Ryusa said, "Even though he isn''t dead, the Third Hokage is injured too! So is that snake! However, we still don''t know the scale of their injuries."

    Goza added, "Yeah, that is the important part. If the Third Hokage is critically injured, then Konoha won''t attack us recklessly. Even though Kumo took a lot of losses, the Raikage will jump on any opening Konoha provides them."

    Sajo agreed, "Yes. We need to create a communication line with Kumogakure. If Konoha attacks us, we can draw them deep into the desert and give Kumo an opportunity to attack Konoha. That will force Konoha to abandon their attack!"

    Suddenly, a snort was heard and everyone turned their eyes to Chiyo. Without glancing at everyone, she asked, "Aren''t you forgetting something?"

    ————

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