- Danzo-sama, communication with the second special group has been interrupted," the elderly shinobi hesitated for a moment at the appearance of a faceless, masked subordinate.
- Circumstances? - His voice didn't waver, though the unpleasant feeling of impending trouble that settled in his chest made him frown slightly.
Well-trained shinobi don't just disobey orders like that, so it was either trouble on the way to Konoha or worse.
- The couriers with the loot didn't show up at the appointed time, and the messenger pigeons are returning with a sealed message or no message at all," Anbu reported.
- Send a scouting team to find out what happened in the capital.
- Yes," the shinobi disappeared into the shunshin.
It was clear that the scouts would not find anyone alive, or else the survivors would have reported the failure of the mission to Danzo. And that was... very bad news.
After the war, Anbu He's manpower had shrunk considerably, and the loss of three dozen fighters would hurt the current mission, especially since two more task forces of the same size were busy mining finances elsewhere and four dozen or so were training the new generation.
It would take a year for the trained reinforcements to get up to speed, but fifty medium-sized chunins would have little effect on the situation.
Looking at the children in training, who had already awakened their chakra and accepted the necessity of strict discipline (rather, imposed by their mentors), Danzo turned and went back to his room - the mood to watch the forging of future blades was gone, and he had to think about how to offset the losses in manpower and financially.
Try to recruit clan fighters? It was unlikely - on the contrary, many shinobi had returned to the regular forces due to the current distrust of the clans to the top of the village power, only the most loyal remained. And the money will not be able to pull because of the reduced funding from Konoha and the still unstable, alternative channel. It's more about preventing the loss of two more groups that have so much hope.
- Send another team to the capital, but as regular Konoha shinobi on a simple mission," Shimura suddenly ordered, "to look for signs of our forces, but in the open, as well as anyone else involved.
One of the shinobi who had accompanied him disappeared to see to it that the order was carried out, and the head of Anbu He was once again deep in thought.
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