The moon hung high in the night sky, casting its silver glow over the forest terrain as Jiraiya crossed the border into the Land of Lightning after crossing the entire Fire Country and Land of Hot Water.
The journey had been long, but he moved with practiced ease and swiftness, his presence masked by layers of expertly controlled chakra suppression technique as he couldn't be spotted by anyone since he was supposed to be with the Fire Daimyo at the moment.
The Land of Hot Water had provided little resistance—he had passed through it swiftly. Now, as he approached the rendezvous point where his team had set up camp, his sharp eyes scanned the surroundings for any signs of movement.
The base created by Konoha ninja was well-hidden, nestled between jagged cliffs and dense foliage, but was far enough from the Kumogakure outpost to avoid detection.
They had no choice but to establish their operations at a distance far more than the team in Iwagakure—without their Fūinjutsu grandmaster, they couldn't risk building their base too close. If a single patrol unit had found them before they were ready, the entire mission would have been compromised.
Jiraiya dropped down into the clearing where several figures were gathered around. After confirming his identity with the preset code, he was guided to a cave clearly man-made, which held a makeshift table, various ninja standing around it, examining maps and notes by the dim glow of a chakra-infused lantern.
As he stepped forward, the shinobi immediately noticed his arrival, straightening up with expressions of relief and respect.
"Took you long enough, captain," the team leader and second in command of the army said, a veteran Jonin with a deep scar running down his cheek. "We've been waiting."
Jiraiya smirked. "What can I say? I like to make an entrance. Now, give me the full report."
The Jonin nodded, stepping aside to reveal the map laid out before them. "Unlike most outposts we dealt with before, this one is structured more like a fortress. It's built almost entirely above ground, though there should be some structure below the ground as well.
Though we couldn't clarify it till now, also it's heavily fortified, with an estimated two hundred-plus ninja stationed inside. The entire structure is surrounded by a complex array of defensive seals and detection barriers, making infiltration significantly more difficult."
Jiraiya's expression grew serious as he studied the markings on the map. "Did you guys make any study of the array till now?"
"Yes captain, but it is not enough," the captain admitted. "That's the problem. We've identified a few nodes where chakra signatures fluctuate, which could be key points in the barrier network, but we need someone who understands high-level Fūinjutsu to confirm our suspicions," the Jonin said, admitting the progress or lack of it till now.
Jiraiya exhaled, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Then it's a good thing you didn't make any movements till now, but we need to have a better idea of the base. Since it's already past midnight, this is the perfect time to gather more intel without too many eyes watching. I'll go in myself and get a better look at their array."
The younger shinobi exchanged glances, impressed but unsurprised. This was Jiraiya, after all—one of the Legendary Sannin.
"Should we accompany you captain?" one of the Jonin asked.
"No need," Jiraiya interrupted with a grin, though his eyes remained sharp. "I am more than enough for this. In the meantime, prepare for the attack. As soon as I analyze the array, we will start the attack. We can't let this drag on for the morning."
"We will be ready to move on a moment's notice, captain," the Jonin said.
"Okay," Jiraiya nodded, before forming a hand seal. With a soft puff, a small toad appeared on his shoulder.
"Keep an eye on my back, will ya?" Jiraiya whispered to the summon. The toad croaked in response before blending into the shadows, ready to assist if necessary.
Without another word, Jiraiya vanished into the night, moving toward the outpost while other ninja started preparing for what was about to come next.
...
In the rugged terrain of the Land of Lightning lay a fortress, grandness and power emanating from it. Though since it was close to the Land of Hot Water, there was also some semblance of greenery in the surroundings, but the immediate area next to the fortress was bare without any tree or shrub at all, most likely done by the Kumo ninjas to stop anyone from having any chance of appearing undetected near the outpost.
Around the outpost there were also multiple natural mountains, ever present in the Land of Lightning. They not only gave the Kumo ninja better vantage points to keep watch around the area but also provided hindrance to any attacker during wartime. That's why Kumo was the most defendable country in the world.
And true to their use, the mountain near the base was also being used for surveillance as well. Many watchtowers were created on the top of the tower in all cardinal directions as well as corners to create a complete circle of surveillance around the outpost.
But even with all this preparation, a white-haired ninja was able to enter the range of the surveillance circle and was even able to enter enough to have full view of the array, that too without being noticed by a single sentry at all.
'Kumo is the worst place for such missions, they are always over-prepared for any military-related operation to the fullest,' Jiraiya thought, looking toward the several small arrays surrounding the watchtower.
If a normal Jonin tried to enter the outpost undetected, they would have surely been noticed by the array for sure. Even Jiraiya had to spend considerable time trying to find a loophole in the array.
After initial infiltration, he began reading the array of the outpost. Just like the initial assessment of his team, he was able to find various weak points in the array, but there was something else in that as well—all of them were joined to a dormant array which was smaller than the active one just surrounding the immediate vicinity of the outpost.
'These fuckers just had to increase my workload,' Jiraiya thought, since the array was dormant he had to spend much more time on it in deciphering the intricacies of the array. Unlike the first one, this one was more robust and well-built, most likely the effort of multiple grandmasters went into building the array.
'Looks like we will not be able to complete the mission today at all,' Jiraiya thought, seeing the sky and structure of the stars. He could guess the sun was about to emerge in just a couple of hours, and he would need at least that much time more to be sure he was not missing something.
Because if given a chance, it was not difficult for 2-3 ninja to run if 200 ninja tried to make sure they run away successfully.
'It's good that Shikaku had made backup plans for such a scenario,' Jiraiya thought, and then with a shrug of his shoulders, he went back to completing the analysis of the dormant array.