At noon, in a small fishing village within the Land of Hot Water.
The village lay between two mountains, with a small stretch of flat land. However, the nearby waters were too shallow and the beach area too limited to serve as a trading port. Fishermen had gathered here and formed a village, making their living by fishing.
But today, they had lost the fishing boats they depended on for survival.
All boats—large and small—had been gathered together and burned to ashes in a single blaze.
The villagers clustered together, watching the fire, not daring to resist in the slightest. In the children's eyes, as they looked toward the four—Makoto and his companions—there was a clear mixture of fear and envy.
Civilians could never stand against ninja. Not to mention that there were only a little over a hundred of them— even if there were ten times that number, any attempt at resistance would still end in slaughter.
Even arming them would be useless. The gap between ninja and ordinary people was simply that vast.
Yūgao worked in silence, not daring to meet the fishermen's eyes. At that moment, she felt that in their eyes, she was probably nothing less than a terrifying female demon.
But there was no helping it. The order they had received was to destroy all boats along the coast—all of them—which naturally included fishing boats.
Fortunately, among the five great ninja villages, Konohagakure still possessed some measure of restraint and basic decency.
Kumomi was negotiating with the elderly village chief. After settling the accounts, he handed over a sum of money and warned him, "This is compensation for you. Remember—do not purchase materials to build new boats in the near future. If they get seized, Konohagakure will not take responsibility."
The old village chief nodded repeatedly. "We understand, ninja-sama. Don't worry. Everyone will wait until this war is over before buying them again. It's always been like this—we know the rules."
His familiarity with the situation was enough to make one sigh.
The fishermen's gazes shifted away from the flames and all focused on the banknotes in the old village chief's hands. That money was their guarantee of survival for the coming period of time.
Once the four completed their task, they left.
On the road, the young girl let out a sigh of relief. "At least there was compensation. Otherwise, we really would've become the bad guys."
Makoto quietly followed up, "Honestly, in the eyes of ordinary people, we ninja have never been good people to begin with. Yūgao— you don't seriously think being a ninja is a righteous profession, do you?"
"Maybe not righteous," she replied, "but it can't possibly be evil, right?"
"Didn't you see the fishermen's eyes? Fear mixed with disgust. It didn't change even after we gave them compensation."
Hayate said, "But I also saw envy. Not just from the children—many of the adults as well."
Makoto smiled. "Of course. That's not contradictory at all. After all, ninja represent power—if they had the chance, they'd naturally want to become people with power too. Who wouldn't? Especially those kids—their eyes never left us."
At this moment, he was rather glad he had been reborn in Konohagakure, and that both of his parents were ninja—he was a ninja trainee by birth.
If he had been reborn in that fishing village, it would've been a huge problem. Forget learning ninjutsu—he might even have been treated like roadside trash by Kumo ninja passing by in defeat and casually wiped out.
Among the three of them, no one paid any attention to that sum of money.
Because it hadn't come out of their own pockets. Later, they could reimburse it through the village, and the village would send the bill to the Daimyō of the Land of Hot Water.
As for whether the Daimyō of the Land of Hot Water would raise taxes to make up for his losses, that had nothing to do with them.
After they got some distance from the fishing village, Kumomi stopped, took out a map, and spread it on the ground. After confirming it once, he said to the three, "Our squad's assigned area has been cleared. Next, head to the rendezvous point and link up with the others."
"Yes!"
In a mountain hollow forest to the east of Yugakure, the four of them spent some time reaching the designated location.
Dozens of Konohagakure ninja were already stationed here. They weren't the squads scattered out to sabotage coastal boats, but the team that had arrived ahead of time to scout the area.
After the two sides briefly verified signals and the cipher for this operation, they continued hiding in the forest.
The light in the dense woods was much dimmer than outside. The four sat in the trees eating dry rations, recovering chakra, and making preparations for battle.
This place wasn't too far from the alert line Kumo ninja had set up east of Yugakure, so it was impossible to light a fire and cook—otherwise it would be easy to expose themselves and cause the operation to fail.
At the same time, this distance was also far beyond the sensing range of Kumogakure ninja.
All five great ninja villages trained their own sensory ninja, but most were ordinary, and it was extremely difficult for top-tier experts like Kirigakure's Chūkichi and Higashino Makoto to emerge.
After that, squads carrying out the same mission as Makoto's kept gathering here, one after another. But everyone did the same—hiding in the forest, resting in silence, and recovering chakra.
No one spoke. For ninja, infiltration was a basic skill.
As time passed little by little, around five in the afternoon, the agreed time for the attack arrived.
All the ninja gathered here opened their eyes. They organized their ninja tools, murderous intent surging, then split up and advanced toward Yugakure.
On the way, as they rushed forward, Yūgao suddenly asked, "Sensei, what if we run into Yugakure ninja?"
Kumomi answered directly, "Before the battle is over, kill every enemy you can see. Remember—never trust Yugakure ninja who surrender."
This was a lesson the seniors had learned with blood.
The two sides quickly met at the defensive line on the outskirts of the village, and the battle erupted instantly.
Makoto led his three-man squad toward a defensive strongpoint he had sensed. Four ninja charged out from inside as well.
Judging from their forehead protectors, three were Yugakure ninja, and only one was a Kumo ninja.
But when the three Yugakure ninja saw the Konoha ninja, there was no trace of gratitude on their faces—only hostility as they raised their weapons and charged.
It was completely upside down. The relationship between Konohagakure and Yugakure had always been quite good, yet now they looked ferocious, as if the Kumo ninja were their half-brothers from different parents.
This was normal. Small ninja villages like this were always divided internally over which great power to align with. With Kumo using Yugakure as a command base to attack Konoha, it was natural that some opposed it while others welcomed it. Those who welcomed it might even be fantasizing about earning merit and joining Kumogakure to become ninja of one of the five great villages.
Those willing to stay here and defend alongside Kumo had clearly made up their minds to side with the Land of Lightning.
In that case, they couldn't blame Konoha for being ruthless.
Makoto's body leapt into the air, drifting and twisting like a feather. After dodging the incoming kunai, a wind blade split another kunai—one wrapped with an explosive tag—cleanly in half.
Then, without any leverage in midair, he suddenly accelerated, swept past the Yugakure ninja, and his short blade had already cut open the man's throat.
At the same time, Kumomi also dealt with the Yugakure ninja in front of him.
The last one, facing both Hayate and Yūgao, had his vision thrown into disarray by Yūgao's genjutsu sword-light, and was finished off by a single strike from Hayate.
As for the quality of ninja from small villages—though they were said to be chūnin, they were really only about on par with Konoha genin.
Seeing his subordinates defeated so quickly, the last Kumo ninja cursed Yugakure under his breath as a bunch of useless trash, then turned and ran.
It wasn't that he was afraid of death—he needed to carry the intelligence about Konoha's attack back.
With fighting breaking out everywhere, he wasn't stupid. He naturally understood what was happening.
But by then, Makoto had already closed in behind him. The Kumo ninja could only respond in haste. After the two exchanged a couple of blows, he was cut down—blade and body together.
Makoto's group wiped out their opponents here, but there were always a few lucky ones who managed to escape. The news of the attack couldn't be stopped, but it didn't matter. The encirclement was already complete. From here on, it would depend on how much damage the Kumo ninja could inflict on Konoha before dying.
...
Inside Yugakure, the Kumo commander Teoshi had already received the report.
He was a middle-aged ninja with fair skin and blond hair. He asked the Kumo ninja who had returned with the report, "Are you sure those Konoha bastards are attacking from the south?"
"Yes, Teoshi-sama. The defensive line has already been breached. What should we do next?"
Before he could answer, another Kumo ninja rushed in to report that Konoha ninja were attacking from the north.
Then the ninja returning from the eastern defensive line reported the same situation.
Teoshi froze. They had been surrounded by Konoha. It seemed that yesterday's plan to seize Konoha's Byakugan had not only failed, but had instead made the other side decide to wipe them out.
At the side, Troy—although the strongest here—had always had nothing on his mind but fighting and disliked thinking about tactics.
He said, "Teoshi, there's not much time left. Do we fight, or do we leave?"
"Leave. Otherwise, we'll all die here. We have to bring back as many comrades as possible."
"Break out? To the west? That seems to be the only direction where we haven't run into Konoha ninja."
Teoshi was a bit speechless. "That's the direction of the Land of Fire. Breaking out that way—is that going to send us to our deaths?"
"That's true. Then which direction do you say we go?"
"Konoha definitely has heavy forces to the north to block us from linking up with headquarters. The south is likely dominated by the Hyūga clan—escaping under the Byakugan won't be easy."
After briefly analyzing the situation, Teoshi made his decision. "Pass the order. Assemble immediately. Our objective—break out to the east."
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