The snakes' intel was direct: a three-man scouting team, forty meters out.
He moved without a sound, slipping through the terrain until he found them. One sensor-nin had his eyes closed, deep in concentration. The other two stood guard nearby.
"Iijima, anything?"
"Yeah. But it's weird."
"Weird? How?"
"I sense roughly over two hundred Leaf shinobi ahead. But… about half of them feel off somehow."
A sharp hiss. "Two hundred?! How many reinforcements did the Leaf send to Hot Water Country?!"
"Looks like they're planning a counter-offensive. Jiraiya's here, and so is Orochimaru—the other Sannin."
"We should retreat and report."
"Hold on. Let me focus. That hundred or so… they're really strange—"
"Look out!" Iijima, the sensor, suddenly yelled. "Someone's close!"
"Took you long enough."
Qianyu's voice came from behind them. His hands were already weaving seals. "Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!"
Snakes shot from his sleeves. Fangs sank into three necks. Venom pulsed. The Cloud-nin stiffened, muscles locking.
Qianyu's kunai flashed. One. Two. Three. Clean cuts. Throats opened.
Silence.
The Leaf force continued its advance. Occasional attacks peppered their flanks.
Orochimaru and Jiraiya's summoned creatures handled them. Brutally. Efficiently.
Any that slipped through? Orochimaru or Jiraiya dealt with them personally, long before the Cloud could realize something was wrong.
And Qianyu? He was a ghost in the periphery. Moving. Hunting. Relaying every scrap of intel back to Orochimaru through the snakes.
Orochimaru even let a few Cloud scouts escape on purpose. Let them carry the message back.
The front line pushed deeper. Cloud reconnaissance and harassment grew more frequent. But the pattern held. The Cloud was probing, testing, not engaging. Two hundred Leaf ninja advancing in a solid mass was no small threat. To fight that, the Cloud would need to muster at least three hundred of their own.
A battle of that scale was practically a small war. The Cloud wasn't ready for a full-blown conflict with the Leaf, not yet. So they played it cautious. Scout. Harass. Gather intel.
The land the Leaf was retaking? The Cloud didn't care. They'd beaten back Jiraiya's force of a hundred and fifty before, forcing them to hole up on the border. They were confident they could do it again to these two hundred.
Their logic was simple: once the Leaf finished their advance, they'd have to disperse. Split into smaller units to hold the territory. They couldn't stay clumped together forever.
And when the Leaf forces spread out… that's when the Cloud would strike.
The Leaf advance, though slowing with distance, was steady. Unstoppable.
Dusk settled.
Qianyu had just finished eliminating another scouting team when a snake from Ryūchi Cave found him.
"Lord Qianyu. Lord Orochimaru orders you to rejoin the main force."
"Understood."
The snake dissolved into smoke, returning to the summoning realm.
Qianyu wiped his blade clean on a dead man's shirt, sheathing it. If Orochimaru was calling him back, it meant the objective was reached. Ten kilometers.
He turned and sped back.
When Qianyu rejoined the group, Orochimaru gave him a slight nod. The smooth advance owed much to Qianyu's relentless scouting, clearing paths and feeding information that allowed the main force to bypass enemy concentrations.
Orochimaru addressed the 'two hundred-plus' ninja before him. "Half of you, maintain your shadow clones and other duplicates. The other half, dispel them. Rest. Recover your chakra and stamina. We swap in two hours."
His golden eyes swept over them. "Those who dispel, come to me or Jiraiya. You will each receive a summoning scroll containing wire traps and explosive tags. You will use them to fortify our perimeter. Set traps. Everywhere."
Half the ninja dissolved into puffs of smoke as clones vanished. They collected scrolls from the two Sannin and immediately began weaving a deadly web of traps around the camp.
Qianyu collected a scroll too—three, actually, after a quiet word from Orochimaru. Each held a hundred explosive tags. Three hundred total. His personal stock was running low. He didn't join the trap-laying detail, though. His mission had been solo reconnaissance and elimination since the push began; this was someone else's job. He found a tree at the edge of the camp and sat, leaning against the trunk.
Orochimaru approached. "You've done well."
Qianyu glanced up. "It was manageable. Their scouts weren't particularly strong. The plan is proceeding smoothly."
"It should remain manageable for a while longer," Orochimaru agreed. "The Cloud will realize something is amiss eventually. They will muster a force to attack. But until they are certain of our true numbers, they will hesitate to engage directly. From here, it becomes a game of traps and controlled retreats until the main Leaf reinforcements arrive. Stay with the main group now. Get some proper rest."
"Understood, Sensei."
"Rest well. We may be here for several days."
Orochimaru left to confer with Jiraiya on the next phase of the deployment.
Once the traps were set, the ninja erected dozens of tents. The show had to be convincing. Two hundred men wouldn't sleep under just a few canvas roofs. The longer the Cloud remained uncertain, the better.
Qianyu picked a tent and went inside, sitting on the ground and leaning back against a support pole. He closed his eyes, conserving his energy, waiting for dawn.