After discussing a few more potential scenarios in which this incident could escalate into war, Shikaku left the Hokage's office and headed straight to his room.
Upon arrival, he immediately set the process in motion—ordering a subordinate to fetch a messenger hawk while he carefully wrote a cryptic message that only Kakashi would be able to decipher.
Fifteen minutes after leaving the Hokage's office, the message was sent. Letting out a small sigh of relief, Shikaku instantly reverted to his usual lazy demeanor, as if the previous focused person was not him but a Yamanaka ninja possessing him.
The daimyo's caravan was finally moving from their resting spot in the town. Jiraiya and Shisui's clone were still maintaining their form without any problems at all, though they still left all of the work to Kakashi for obvious reasons.
Kakashi, who was coordinating with the samurai responsible for the daimyo's security, suddenly heard a screech echo in the surroundings. He looked up to find a messenger hawk rotating in the air above the caravan.
Seeing that it was from Konoha, he brought out the special meat from his storage seal, prompting the hawk to swiftly land on his shoulders.
As the hawk was busy with the food, Kakashi retrieved the message—a small paper which would not be visible from the ground in any case. As soon as he took the letter, the hawk took flight once again, heading back to Konoha as its mission was completed. Kakashi then opened the letter.
"What is it, Kakashi-san?" the leader of the samurai asked, as such messages were not normally used for casual reasons at all.
"It is a message from the village. They got various reports of some jonin-level rogue ninja in our route and asked us to be prepared for an ambush. Though chances are low, we don't want to take any chances with the safety of Lord Daimyo," Kakashi lied through his teeth as if he was breathing.
The original content of the letter was to just initialize plan B, as due to some complications, Jiraiya would not be able to reach the location in time.
"If that is the case, should we stop traveling for some time until the problem is resolved?" the samurai captain asked.
"No need. The location of the movement is still quite far away. If we went there to eliminate the threat and come back, it would not only waste Lord Daimyo's time but also make his security lacking during that time. Though it is not that I am doubting your strength, it's just that..."
"There is no need to sugarcoat your words, Kakashi-san. I am not some youngling anymore who doesn't know reality. Even if all of us here combined attack you, we would lose, let alone against Master Jiraiya and Shisui-san," he said with a smile.
"I will then discuss this with Lord Jiraiya," Kakashi said with a nod before going toward the carriage at the last of the caravan.
The clones of Jiraiya and Shisui were sitting there, enjoying their journey while the rest worked hard in their stead. Though they occasionally went out to make sure everything was alright, it was mostly a show for the daimyo and his guards.
As Kakashi entered the caravan, Jiraiya and Shisui were almost about to fall back to sleep, as if they were on some leisure trip.
"Aren't you guys taking it too easy?" Kakashi asked.
"Just trying to maintain ourselves, but why are you here?" Jiraiya's shadow clone asked. Even though Kakashi knew it was nonsense and Jiraiya's clone had more than enough chakra to maintain itself for another day, even after a little exertion, he didn't say anything.
It was better for them to conserve their chakra for any unforeseen situation than waste it on mundane tasks.
Shaking off any excess thoughts from his mind, he went to Jiraiya's clone, presenting the letter to him.
"I expected better from myself. So I assume I now have to talk with the Fire Daimyo?" Jiraiya's shadow clone said.
"Any time now." As if his words were a cue, a knock came from outside.
"Come in, Kenshiro-san," Jiraiya's clone said as the atmosphere in the carriage shifted. Rather than the laid-back attitude, when Kenshiro, the samurai guard captain of the daimyo, entered the carriage, he saw Jiraiya sitting straight while Shisui and Kakashi stood in front of him.
All three of them were analyzing the map before them, which showed the places during their journey. Kenshiro could see various red markings on the map along with circles and potential alternate paths for their travel, though all of them passed through one red dot or another.
"Is everything fine, Jiraiya-sama?" Kenshiro asked.
"Hahaha, more than fine, Kenshiro-san. There are just some rogue jonin in our way. We will handle them when we encounter them. Don't worry—Lord Daimyo will not even feel any inconvenience during that," Jiraiya said.
"About that, Lord Daimyo wants to meet you. I assume you could spare a few moments?" Kenshiro asked.
"For sure. Shisui, Kakashi, inform all of the jonin about the decision for now. Increase the patrolling twofold—I will handle the safety of the carriages for now," Jiraiya said before following the guard captain.
Everything from the time Kenshiro had entered had been an act—an act so perfect that one could say every ninja with something to their name could have had the brightest careers in the movie industry if being a ninja wasn't better.
What followed was more acting while making the Daimyo believe that the non-existent danger they had been reporting was perfectly safe and they would handle everything just fine.
And to confirm this, there was even a time when a bandit crew actually attacked the caravan—completely random, but enough to remove the worries of the nobles when they were handled easily by just the ANBU. The S-rank ninja didn't even have to make a move.
While the Fire Daimyo was continuously moving toward their next stop, Shisui finally returned to the village with Renjiro and two Iwa medical ninja following like ducklings following their mother duck.
On their way, Shisui had already completed the report he had to submit to the Hokage's office. Apparently, moving at a speed where chunin could follow him easily was enough to do multiple things, one of them being writing the report of the mission.
As they entered the village, they made a beeline toward the Hokage's office without stopping at any other place. The Iwa ninja were wearing ANBU uniforms just to hide their identity, as for now they were also "dead" with all of the ninja of the Iwa outpost.
"Then, I will be working on my report, Shisui-san. You go ahead and explain your... decision to Lord Third."