"So this is the Land of Wind? The deserts seem to have no end..." Hoka muttered as he gazed at the Land of Wind.

    Fujin asked, "Is it your first time here?"

    Hoka nodded, "Yeah. I visited the Land of Rivers a few times for missions, but never the Land of Wind. What about you?"

    Fujin casually replied, "A few times. It is pretty much the same throughout the country..."

    Hoka turned his gaze back to the desert and muttered, "Irrespective of how magnificent the deserts look, I didn''t expect Sunagakure to be such a disappointment. They didn''t even send an army to confront us. Instead, I only spotted 3 patrol squads, who are cowering in fear."

    Renjiro replied, "Don''t judge a book by its cover. If they face us in battle, they''ll obviously lose. The true terror of Sunagakure appears when someone invades this desert. We had tried it during the Second Great Ninja War, but our losses became too high to sustain the campaign. In the end, we had to retreat."

    Konomi, who was standing nearby, heard him and thought, ''Sure, their ambush units are deadly. However, considering what he did against Otogakure, will these ambush squads stand any chance against us? Even though we can''t use the exact tactic, I won''t be surprised if Fujin comes up with something new and equally crazy.

    Sigh, it''s a shame Commander ordered us not to attack. Otherwise, the infamy of Sunagakure''s deadly ambush units could have ended soon...''

    Illumi curiously asked, "What do we do now?"

    Fujin answered, "What can we do? The talks should be nearing the conclusion by now. Just have the army pretend to set up a camp until we are recalled."

    ——

    "Orochimaru!!! You can''t escape this time!" Manda shouted as he bit down at Orochimaru. As he said, Orochimaru didn''t have any route to escape. So, he didn''t bother doing so and instead jumped into Manda''s mouth, confusing him. Manda quickly clamped his mouth, but failed to harm Orochimaru with his deadly teeth!

    "You oaf! Spit him out! He''s wasting time inside your mouth!" Garaga yelled as Manda failed to kill or harm Orochimaru. Of course, Manda had no reason to follow a fellow snake''s command. Instead of spitting, he tried to swallow Orochimaru entirely. However, before he could do so, Orochimaru disappeared from his mouth.

    "He disappeared! It''s your fault!" Garaga hissed angrily. They had summoned Orochimaru 8 times continuously and had realized that his injuries were extremely severe and he was nowhere near his full strength. Yet, Orochimaru always found a way to slip away! No matter what tactic they used, they couldn''t harm him before he disappeared, causing the snakes to be very frustrated and even more humiliated.

    Manda hissed back, "What did you call m..."

    "Calm down, both of you!" The two gigantic snakes froze as the White Snake Sage roared angrily. He said, "Neither of you can harm him. This time, I''ll make a move myself!"

    While the snakes were angry, Jugo and other subordinates of Orochimaru were worried. Though no new wounds opened up on his body, they could sense that Orochimaru was extremely exhausted.

    Once again, Baki stunned the council. Ryusa asked, "Do you mean to say he came here alone as the vanguard?"

    Goza said, "That''s impossible. Konoha has no reason to risk his life in such a manner."

    However, Baki questioned, "Is it really a risk? As long as he stays away from our village, can anyone stop him? Our scattered units will just be easy pickings for him."

    This time, the council was left speechless by Baki''s question. After all, it was true. Who could stop Fujin if he entered the desert? Only Chiyo looked sharply at Baki and thought, ''What a shame... The loss in Konoha has mentally impacted him. I can feel his dread at the prospect of facing that boy again. With such a mentality, he can''t reach rank S in this lifetime...''

    She said, "We can''t blame every incident on Suzuki Fujin. Dispatch Anbu to find out what happened."

    ——

    "This is what?" In the main tent of the Konoha army, Hoka exclaimed in shock as he was looking at a map placed in front of him. He wasn''t the only one. Konomi, Illumi and Renjiro were in shock too. Unlike Hoka, they nervously glanced towards Fujin. Renjiro thought, ''Sorry, Shikaku. This is just too much. I don''t think I can stop him now. You''re on your own...''

    What none of them noticed was that Fujin''s left eye twitched slightly. He thought, ''Even though I put up an aggressive front, it was just because I was bored and didn''t want to spend another month in the Fire Capital. As good as the food was, I need to get back to training. I didn''t actually want to go to war and waste another few weeks or months bullying some weaklings. However...''

    Fujin glanced at the unfamiliar face in the tent and thought, ''What a strange chain of events. To think something like this would happen... Sigh, this is too much, even by my standards. It''s almost as if the Gods want Sunagakure annihilated through my hands for some reason...''

    ————————————

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