After an entire night of emergency relief and damage control, Kumogakure finally restored relative order to its streets by the time dawn broke.
However, the village was left looking like a total shambles. The charred scars and craters left by the fires and explosions punctuated the landscape, casting a bleak, desolate atmosphere over the area.
Within the Raikage's office, its windows still waiting to be repaired, the Fourth Raikage, A, sat with an expression of unbridled fury. He glared at the subordinate standing before him and demanded, "What's the status? Have they all been rounded up?"
To be completely fair, if the village had only been subjected to standard explosions and fires, a powerhouse of Kumogakure's scale would never have required an entire night to clean up the mess. Two or three hours would have sufficed. After all, they were one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
The critical issue was that Kabuto had played entirely dirty. He had launched a full-scale assault on Kumogakure's maximum-security prison and actually succeeded in breaching the perimeter.
The breach triggered absolute chaos within the facility. Hundreds of hardened convicts locked away by Kumogakure seized the opportunity to break out. Furthermore, because the village had immediately activated its emergency lockdown protocols, Jūzō and Kakuzu were forced to blast their way straight through the main gates. Kabuto, on the other hand, had engineered a secure extraction route long in advance.
Left with no viable escape routes, the fleeing heavy convicts ran rampant through the village—looting, committing arson, and launching frantic assaults against the security forces. This variable generated far greater upheaval than the initial attack.
Ultimately, it required the personal intervention of the Fourth Raikage and his main force to systematically suppress the riots. This was the sole reason it had taken Kumogakure an entire night to finally bring the chaos under control.
"Last night, three hundred and seventy-six convicts escaped from the maximum-security prison," the Kumogakure shinobi reported rapidly. "Following a night of intense combat, our forces executed two hundred and twenty-six on the spot and recaptured one hundred and forty-four. Six individuals remain at large, and we have yet to determine whether they have managed to slip past the village perimeter."
"Only six?" The Fourth Raikage pondered the numbers briefly. "That is within tolerable limits. Issue international wanted posters for those six immediately."
Allowing only six to slip away was still a considerable blow to their pride, but given the sheer scale of the crisis, it was a relatively acceptable outcome.
"Continue," the Fourth Raikage ordered after a brief pause.
The shinobi then proceeded to itemize the damages sustained over the night. He rattled off the exact number of detonation sites, the volume of civilian casualties, the projected economic fallout, and the total operational losses among their own active-duty shinobi.
Listening to the breakdown, the Fourth Raikage's temper flared exponentially. Son of a bitch, he raged internally. We are the proud Hidden Cloud, one of the legendary Five Great Shinobi Villages, yet we just let someone stomp all over our faces like this. This is an absolute international embarrassment! Which of the other Great Nations has ever suffered a humiliation of this scale?!
It is absolutely monstrous...
Wait.
Hold on a minute.
That's not entirely true. Come to think of it, didn't Konoha suffer an even worse drubbing back in the day?
An intruder had unleashed the Nine-Tails right in the middle of their village in the dead of night, laying waste to their entire infrastructure and ultimately killing the Fourth Hokage.
But look at us now, I'm still drawing breath! Our village might have taken a massive slap to the face, but I survived the encounter!
Analyzing the situation through that lens, the Fourth Raikage felt his internal equilibrium restore itself substantially. While their current predicament was undeniably disastrous, realizing that someone else had suffered an even more catastrophic failure made the pill far easier to swallow. If Kumogakure had been the sole village to endure such a public humiliation, it would have been truly unendurable.
"Hold on. What did you just say?" the Fourth Raikage suddenly interrupted, tuning back into the report. "The Secretariat?"
The Kumogakure shinobi nodded quickly. "Yes, Lord Fourth. Immediately following the onset of the initial chaos, the Secretariat came under a sustained, heavy assault. A total of sixty-two security personnel were stationed there to defend the archive. Forty-three were killed in action on the spot, nine sustained severe injuries, and eight suffered minor wounds. Only two individuals emerged entirely unscathed."
The Fourth Raikage's expression turned incredibly dark. He demanded, "The Secretariat houses a vast repository of our administrative and logistical intelligence. What is the extent of the data breach?"
Deploying a contingent of sixty-two shinobi to guard a single administrative facility underscored just how heavily the village prioritized the sector. Operating on a standard four-man squad paradigm, that equated to fifteen full squads, supplemented by a primary and secondary commander. For all intents and purposes, it was a self-contained, mid-tier combat unit.
What exactly were these forces mobilized to protect?
They certainly weren't there to safeguard the clerical staff; their sole mandate was to secure the administrative archives stored within. This included the exact type of operational logbook that Jūzō had carelessly discarded during his retreat.
If an expert intelligence analyst were to dissect those records, they could map out Kumogakure's entire foundational metrics, elements that, while not classified as high-level military secrets, included critical data like population demographics, financial liquidity, and grain reserves.
Naturally, the Fourth Raikage viewed this variable with extreme gravity. Information that appeared decoupled from tactical operations could allow an external adversary to accurately gauge Kumogakure's raw sustainability and overall thresholds. More critically, it revealed their long-term military mobilization capacity.
A heavy weight settled into his chest. Could an external faction have engineered this entire operation to map our infrastructure in preparation for a declaration of war? Who could it be? Is it that miserable old bastard Ōnoki?
It was entirely natural for the Raikage to suspect Ōnoki first; after all, the historical bad blood between Kumogakure and Iwagakure spanned decades. Both villages had long operated under the firm conviction that they were superior to the other, viewing themselves as the true superpower second only to Konoha. Furthermore, that old fossil Ōnoki was a notoriously unyielding and aggressive figure. The probability of him initiating a full-scale war was vastly higher than that of Konoha's Hiruzen.
In a single instant, a torrent of geopolitical variables flooded the Raikage's mind, giving him a massive headache.
However, the reporting shinobi broke his train of thought with a slightly sheepish look. "Sir, following the raid on the Secretariat, our secondary security details secured the perimeter and initiated a comprehensive audit. After a full night of cross-referencing the archives, we confirmed that none of our administrative or logistical intelligence files were compromised. Contrarily... the enemy made off with the scroll for the Heavenly Transfer Technique."
The Fourth Raikage blinked, utterly bewildered. "What? They stole what?"
"The scroll for the Heavenly Transfer Technique," the shinobi repeated clearly.
The Fourth Raikage's brow furrowed tightly, his features hardening into an intensely solemn expression.
Seeing this, the reporting shinobi felt his stomach drop. What's happening? Why does Lord Fourth look so incredibly grave? Is the Heavenly Transfer Technique an asset of such critical strategic importance?
Just as the shinobi began to sweat from pure anxiety, the Fourth Raikage scratched his head, asking with a highly embarrassed expression, "Uh... remind me again... what kind of jutsu is the Heavenly Transfer Technique? What does it actually do?"
The Kumogakure shinobi stared at him blankly. So you looked that serious just because you completely forgot what the technique was?!
Though a torrent of complaints swirled through his mind, the shinobi had fortunately performed thorough background research on the asset before delivering his briefing. When presenting an operational summary to executive leadership, one had to fully master the material.
The shinobi rapidly explained, "The Heavenly Transfer Technique is an object-transportation ninjutsu. It possesses the capability to transmit physical matter from one specific coordinates to another at absolute high speeds. In our village's history..."
"Ah, right, right, right!" The Fourth Raikage raised a hand, cutting the man off mid-sentence. "I remember now! That technique was used to transport my old man back in the day."
The shinobi felt a phantom ache in his teeth, completely at a loss for how to navigate that particular statement. Am I supposed to ask if your late father qualifies as an 'object' or a piece of cargo? Will I get executed on the spot if I do?
Fortunately, the Fourth Raikage had no intention of waiting for a response. Rubbing his chin, his brow furrowed deeper as he muttered, "That makes no sense. They bypassed an entire vault of vital intelligence scrolls and chose to steal nothing but the Heavenly Transfer Technique instead? Is there some hidden, extraordinary utility to that jutsu that I'm unaware of?"
The shinobi shook his head. "No, sir. Under standard operational parameters, we primarily utilize it to rapidly distribute administrative documents and edicts. That is precisely why the scroll was archived within the Secretariat. Historically, successive generations of the Chief Secretary have mastered this technique to ensure the operational mandates of the reigning Raikage could be instantly transmitted to various external divisions."
The Fourth Raikage found himself even more profoundly perplexed. This is completely ridiculous... Are you telling me our adversaries orchestrated a catastrophic security breach just because they wanted a more efficient document-delivery system? Would anyone launch an operation of this magnitude over a novelty like that? It's just a damn ninjutsu scroll!
Indeed, while the concept behind the Heavenly Transfer Technique sounded highly impressive on paper, its practical application was heavily restricted, rendering it functionally useless for standard military operations. Otherwise, Kumogakure would have locked it away in their deepest classified vaults long ago rather than casually leaving it in a standard administrative office.
"Did you discover any other anomalies?" the Raikage pressed.
The shinobi shook his head. "No, sir. The Secretariat confirmed that the scroll was the solitary item unaccounted for."
The Fourth Raikage lapsed into a heavy silence. What kind of ghost story is this?
If the enemy's singular strategic objective had truly been the acquisition of the Heavenly Transfer Technique, there was absolutely no operational necessity to trigger a massive security crisis. They could have simply placed a lucrative bounty on the underground black market, or dispatched an official diplomatic delegation to negotiate a transfer under the guise of an exchange program. For the right price, Kumogakure would have happily liquidated the asset.
After all, the technique simply didn't possess any profound strategic value. Yet, because of this solitary scroll, Kumogakure had been turned completely upside down over the course of a single night.
Brushing the bizarre sequence of events from his mind, the Raikage deepened his voice and shifted to his primary concern. "Alright, let's address the most critical variable. Have we definitively established the identities of the infiltrators? What intelligence did the survivors at the Secretariat provide?"
"The mastermind behind the assault on the maximum-security prison has been fully identified," the shinobi answered promptly. "The operation utilized a merchant caravan originating from the Land of Tea as a front. The vast majority of the merchants had no structural awareness of who their primary contractor was; they were clearly low-level, external assets deployed as expendable layers. However, multiple eyewitnesses confirmed that during their journey to the village, they entered the perimeter alongside prominent operatives from the Yorozuya. Specifically, the former member of Kirigakure's Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Biwa Jūzō, and the S-rank rogue ninja from Taki, Kakuzu."
Pausing briefly to let the information sink in, the shinobi continued, "Furthermore, those two were the exact individuals who executed the raid on the Secretariat. Our gate sentries also confirmed that Biwa Jūzō and Kakuzu subsequently launched a brute-force assault through the primary checkpoint and broke past the perimeter into the surrounding wilderness. Nii Yugito-sama immediately initiated a hot-pursuit operation to intercept them."
"What?!" The Fourth Raikage let out a furious roar, slamming his hands onto his desk as he surged to his feet. "Has Yugito returned to the perimeter?!"
"Regrettably... not yet," the shinobi replied, his expression turning equally grim.
"That miserable Yorozuya!" The Fourth Raikage slammed his fist against the wood, his voice tight with absolute fury. "Do they expect me to believe they slipped into Kumogakure just to steal a document-delivery jutsu? That's impossible! This entire sequence of events is a massive smokescreen. Their true strategic objective from the very beginning has always been the Tailed Beasts. They were targeting Nii Yugito!!!"
The Raikage's mind rapidly connected the dots. A sequence of highly chaotic, localized operations designed to thoroughly splinter and disorient their command structure, leaving them completely blind to the enemy's true operational trajectory. And while the village was burning, those bastards from the Yorozuya would capitalize on the chaos to bait Yugito into an isolated pursuit, drawing her away from safety.
The moment she crossed the boundary line of Kumogakure's immediate defensive umbrella, she would walk straight into a lethal counter-ambush.
The Raikage knew she possessed immense raw destructive power, but he was equally cognizant of her lack of battlefield experience. Due to her highly controlled upbringing as a Jinchūriki, her live-combat exposure against elite, top-tier international killers was dangerously low. If she allowed herself to be mentally dismantled and ambushed by two ancient, battle-hardened veterans of the Yorozuya...
Damn it! Our village stands on the precipice of losing a Tailed Beast!
At that thought, the Fourth Raikage's fury breached its containment entirely. He bellowed at the top of his lungs, hammering the desk with enough force to splinter the wood. "Deploy every available tracking unit! Locate Yugito immediately! Dig up every shred of operational intelligence regarding the Yorozuya! I am going to tear those bastards apart piece by piece! I will—"
Knock, knock, knock.
A sudden, rhythmic knock echoed from the doorframe. Before the Raikage could even bark an order to enter, Killer B casually pushed the door open, stepping into the room.
Standing directly beside B was Nii Yugito.
The Fourth Raikage, his face still contorted in absolute rage, found himself staring directly into the eyes of the young woman he had just assumed was captured.
The entire office plunged into an intensely awkward, dead silence.
The Fourth Raikage stood frozen. ...What?
Aren't you supposed to be locked in a cage somewhere, currently being transported to a Yorozuya stronghold?!
You showing up out of nowhere completely transforms my entire high-level tactical deduction into an absolute joke!
Do I not get to keep a single shred of executive dignity around here?
"Ahem... Lord Fourth," Yugito murmured, scratching the back of her head with a highly sheepish, guilty look. "I happened to hear that you were looking for me?"