At 11:35 a.m., a letter attached to an arrow was shot into the wall of the Konohagakure Hokage office.
The demand on it was identical to the one the passengers on the Tobishachimaru had been forced to listen to five minutes earlier. The letter also clarified exactly how the attackers had snuck onto the ship.
In the Hokage office, Tsunade immediately moved to get confirmation of the situation—she contacted the Land of Waves with the wireless that had been introduced after the Fourth Great Ninja War and asked them to investigate the area noted in the letter.
There, twelve people were found stripped naked, hands and feet bound—the people originally invited to ride on the Tobishachimaru. They had been locked up in a small hut quite close to the plaza where the sightseeing flight ceremony had been held.
By the time all of this had been sorted out, they were down to twenty minutes before noon.
“In other words, the letter is not a joke,” Tsunade announced to Shikamaru at Hozuki Castle after having Shizune align the frequencies. “Dammit! What are we supposed to do here?”
“Are we going to release Garyo?” Shikamaru asked forcefully over the wireless. “I don’t know anything about this armed alliance or whatever it is, but if you give in to the demands of guys like this once, more people trying the same trick’ll come out of the woodwork.”
“Then what do you propose we do about the lives of the fifty-seven passengers on board?”
“Also, the other villages are not going to take it lying down if we go ahead and set a prisoner free because of our own problems.”
“This is not the time for such talk!”
“P-p-please calm down, Lady Tsunade. At any rate, please make sure that Naruto at least does not find out about this. That idiot’ll just charge in there by himself without thinking of anything past the end of his nose.”
“Yes, I know.”
Another voice came through Tsunade’s wireless.
“Um, excuse me? Lady Tsunade? It’s Lee.”
“What is it, Lee?”
“Umm. The truth is, well…”
“What? If you have something to say, then simply say it!”
“Right. The truth is, Master Guy and Master Kakashi are on board the Tobishachimaru.”
“What did you say?”
“Master Guy said he really wanted to ride on the ship. So I brought him there in secret today. Master Kakashi went after him… I’m sorry!”
“That Guy!” Tsunade’s voice shook with anger. “I will murder him.”
“You… Are you serious, Lee?” Shikamaru’s gaze flew over to Ino. “Then that means—”
“Yup.” Ino nodded. “I’ll try contacting them via Mind Transmission.”
Tsunade closed her eyes. Only the rustling sound of static emitted by the wireless broke the silence.
“Shizune.” Tsunade opened her eyes and ordered, “Get everyone in the village—everyone besides Naruto—together immediately.”