Chapter 317: Infiltration

Three days later, Fujin was summoned to Hiruzen's office. He quickly went to his office in his regular ninja outfit. After entering, he noticed that there were 4 other ninjas there. Yugao looked at Fujin and gave a small nod in acknowledgement. Fujin gave a small nod back.

The other faces were familiar as well. They were Genma, Yamanaka Ken and the head of the T&I department, Ibiki. Ken recognized Fujin instantly. After all, Fujin had left quite an impact on him during the mission where Fujin acted as the bait against the Bounty Hunters. Ibiki and Genma looked at Fujin for a few seconds before recalling who he was.

Ibiki was the first one to recognize him. He said, "Suzuki Fujin. I didn't expect you to be assigned missions with us so soon."

Genma nodded. Just like Ibiki, he recalled judging Fujin during the last round of the Chunin Exams.

He thought, 'I didn't expect him to become capable enough to be deployed on the same mission as us. Did he train his Wind jutsus to such an extent that he can aid Jounins? Or did he develop some other speciality?'

Fujin nodded and replied, "It's good to see you as well."

He looked at Hiruzen and asked, "So, what's the secret mission?"

Hiruzen looked at the door and said, "Wait for some time. There is still one ninja yet to arrive."

Fujin nodded and waited patiently. After a couple of minutes, everyone looked at the door.



Kakashi walked in and said in an unapologetic tone, "Sorry for being late. I was on my way here when I saw a black cat cross my path, so I had to take a different route."

Yugao, Ibiki, Ken and Genma gave Kakashi a deadpan look. Meanwhile, Fujin was confused. He wondered, 'I know that he tends to be late by a few hours. So why is he apologizing for being late by just a couple of minutes?'

Hiruzen replied, "It's fine. You are here after all. Close the door."

He thought, 'That is why I asked you to come 3 hours before everyone else.'

He looked at a corner of the room and said, "Leave and activate the privacy seals."

The four Anbu guards, hiding in the room, immediately left the room. All windows were shut close and seals were activated. Realizing the importance, everyone in the room became serious.

Hiruzen said, "Recently, there have been sightings of some Suna ninjas sneaking into the Land of Fire. Their activity is especially high around the Fire Capital."



Seeing their appearances, the Suna ninjas sighed in relief. However, they were still vigilant. One of them transformed into his real appearance and said, "It's good to see that you are safe, Hideyoshi-sama. The council was worried about you since we haven't heard from you for over a month. They were even wondering if they should cancel the entire operation."

Fujin walked ahead and said, "Yosuke, we were ambushed by that damned Copy Ninja. We were fooled. Somehow, that Copy Ninja had already escaped through all the perimeters we established. We fought several rounds with his squad and had to go into hiding."

Yosuke was surprised. He asked, "You encountered the copy ninja? Doesn't that mean..."

Fujin nodded and continued, "Yes, reindeer. We have to ask Lord Kazekage to stop wasting manpower there and focus here."

Hearing the word 'reindeer', the Suna ninjas sighed in relief. In order to prevent anyone from infiltrating their secret base, the Suna ninjas were made to follow a certain protocol. The first was to show their real face. The second was to call the name of the ninja who talked with them accurately. And the third was to call him reindeer.

Since the conditions were satisfied, Yosuke said, "Welcome back Hideyoshi-sama. Please exert your chakra so that I can confirm your identity."

While the above means were good enough in most circumstances, they weren't good enough in the Land of Fire. Konoha had the Yamanaka clan that could read memories. That is why Suna had placed a capable sensor in charge of the secret base. He remembered the chakra signatures of the important ninjas so that he could cross-identify them.

Fujin exerted his chakra. The amount of chakra he exerted was just higher than the amount of chakra Hideyoshi had used against Choza.

Yosuke observed him and nodded, 'Similar chakra signature, just more than the amount I saw last time and shows off his affinity to wind. Just like I remember. Looks like there shouldn't be any issue.'

He also asked Kaname and Naomasa to show their chakra and identified both their chakras as well. As for the other three, he didn't remember. He said, "Come..."

However, Fujin interrupted him and said, "Enough wasting time, let's go to the base. I have important information to report to Lord Kazekage. If we don't report this, then we will suffer during the next war."

Yosuke nodded and quickly welcomed him to the base while thinking, 'His arrogance is still the same.'

Suna's plan was almost foolproof. While some ninjas could replicate the chakra signatures as well, such ninjas were very rare. They would either be very capable sensors or experienced jounins. More importantly, reading memories from a dead ninja wouldn't allow a Yamanaka to copy their chakra signature. The ninja had to see and observe it properly, only then they could do so.

Unfortunately, Hideyoshi's squad ran into Hiruzen of all people. That encounter sealed the fate of all ninjas in the secret base.

He was able to memorize the chakra signatures of all 6 ninjas at a glance and could replicate them well enough for all of Kakashi's team to copy it. Even Fujin had forgotten Hideyoshi's chakra signature and only managed to replicate it with Hiruzen's help.

The Konoha ninjas walked into the base along with the Suna ninjas.