"Did you think you could escape us in our own territory, Senju Kenji?" Saburo called out, standing tall atop a high sand dune as the Suna shinobi systematically encircled the tattered group of Konoha ninja.
On paper, Konoha vastly outnumbered them. They had over a thousand shinobi remaining, but they were visibly exhausted, and more than half were severely injured. By contrast, the Suna detachment, though smaller at just four hundred and seventy-four men, were all relatively fresh and battle-ready. The Suna shinobi and puppeteers held their ground with absolute confidence.
Kenji narrowed his eyes, staring up at Saburo with an expressionless gaze. 'Saburo, a Suna jonin and commander of the Sunagakure home guard,' Kenji analyzed silently. 'He isn't the type of man who would break protocol or disobey Shamon's orders. So... did the Kazekage catch on to our plans? And how does he know who I am?'
Kenji glanced at Akimichi Torifu, who stood heavily bandaged at the front of the line. Torifu was the official commander of this vanguard force. Kenji, despite being highly renowned within Konoha's upper echelons as an ANBU Commander, was supposed to be a lesser-known operative outside the borders of the Land of Fire. Saburo naming him so easily meant Suna's intelligence network was far deeper than they had anticipated. Or something else was going on.
Kenji glanced up at the sky.
It was a standard, cloudless afternoon. Only a few eagles circled above, waiting to feast on the dead. And mixed into their ranks, a single falcon flew.
As he lowered his head, Kenji flashed a series of rapid hand signals. In response, a white-masked ANBU silently melted out of position.
Kenji then stepped forward calmly to the front.
"Kenji," Torifu muttered as Kenji passed him.
Kenji turned and gave Torifu's uninjured shoulder a reassuring pat.
"You've done your part and fulfilled your duty well so far, Torifu. What you need now is to rest and recover back in Konoha. Don't worry—this is not our end."
Kenji stepped past him and locked eyes with Saburo.
"Saburo, what brings you here? Isn't it your duty to hold down Konoha's main force?"
"Isn't that exactly what I'm doing?" Saburo mocked, flicking his wrist into the air.
Swish!
Kenji's eyes widened ever so slightly. The falcon plunged straight out of the sky, slamming dead onto the ground before him. He looked back up at Saburo, the pieces clicking together. "You?"
"Attack!" Saburo roared, charging down the dune. The desert erupted into chaos once more.
"Damn it!" Kenji swiftly formed a sequence of hand seals as he bolted from his position.
Phiuu!!!
A flare burst into the sky. Within moments, about two thousand Konoha ANBU rushed in from the surrounding dunes.
The Suna shinobi didn't notice the ambush at first, but panic quickly rippled through their ranks as they realized a massive wall of Konoha ANBU was now encircling their encirclement.
Yet, Saburo's face did not show an inch of concern. He carved through Konoha shinobi after shinobi, his invisible wind blades tearing through flesh and armor alike.
"Don't panic! Once we capture the Jinchuriki, they won't dare touch us!" Saburo bellowed, his voice carrying over the chaos of battle. "Charge, brave shinobi of Suna! Show them the ruthlessness of the desert!"
Suna's rising panic subsided as their morale surged. Saburo's fearless, bloody charge inspired them, setting their blood ablaze with the grim desire to inflict pain on Konoha.
Kenji rushed toward the unconscious Mito. No matter what, they needed to safeguard the Jinchuriki. However, because he had stepped to the very front of the lines to confront Saburo, reaching Mito's side across the chaotic battlefield was proving nearly impossible.
"I don't have a hobby of taking advantage of the elderly, so get lost, granny," Saburo mocked. He battered down continuously on Senju Ayame's spear shaft with a kunai heavily coated in wind chakra, forcing her down to one knee.
"I may be old, brat, but I've slain plenty of cocky fools like you," Ayame snarled. "Your jutsu is as sloppy as your character!"
With a powerful burst of physical momentum, Ayame launched herself into the air, swinging her spear to violently shove Saburo back. She released the weapon mid-air, her fingers blurring through a series of hand seals as she inhaled deeply and unleashed a highly pressurized jet of water from her mouth.
Suiton: Suidanha 水遁・水断波 (Water release : Water severing Wave)
The razor-thin beam of water sliced down onto the desert sand, tearing open the earth and throwing up massive dust screens as it traced Saburo's panicked retreat. However, her jutsu cut short as she instinctively sensed a lethal threat approaching from her flank. Hurriedly, she caught her falling spear and twirled it in front of her.
Cling! Clang! Clang!
Heavy dents and jagged blade marks scoring the metal shaft. Though she successfully deflected the invisible barrage of wind shurikens, the shockwaves ripped through her already battered armor and clothes, leaving her looking ragged and bloodied.
Cocking the spear behind her back, the grand elder closed her eyes for a split second. As if reclaiming the twilight of her youth, a massive, oppressive wave of chakra radiated from her body, blowing away the surrounding heat.
Her eyes snapped open. Moving with a speed and ferocity she hadn't displayed in years, she lunged forward. Her spearhead pierced cleanly through the dust cloud created by their previous clash.
The dust cleared to reveal Saburo, his eyes wide with genuine surprise as he desperately tried to twist his torso away.
Puchi!
But the spearhead was far too fast. It plunged deep, piercing directly through his heart.
Ayame let out a heavy, ragged sigh of relief, a small, triumphant smile finally returning to her weathered face.
"Don't ever underestimate the old," she breathed. "There is a reason we survived to this age."
She attempted to yank her spear free as she began to turn away, but it met firm, unyielding resistance. Saburo stood perfectly upright. He clamped his hand tightly around the metal shaft and deliberately pulled it even deeper into his chest.
"?!"
Ayame's face distorted into bewilderment and horror. Subaro's skin was changing—his arm was losing the color of living flesh, turning into a dry, earthy brown.
Swish!
A sharp, familiar whistling noise—unique to a highly specific, complex style of shurikenjutsu—echoed in her ears. Before she could process the sound, a volley of hidden blades struck from her blind spots, piercing through her hands, thighs, and shoulders.
Ayame didn't even get a chance to scream before a kunai coated in humming wind chakra drove cleanly through her heart from behind.
Coughing up blood, she looked at the figure holding the weapon behind her. "You... that's the Uchiha's shurikenjutsu... How? What are you...?"
'Saburo' offered no answers. With a cold, swift stroke, he beheaded her on the spot. He then picked up Ayame's spear and twirled it around as a test.
"As expected of the Senju clan, pouring such high-quality chakra metal into forging an outdated weapon," 'Saburo' mused. "How envious. A luxury we rarely get to spare. Don't you agree, Kenji?"
Just as he finished his monologue, Kenji landed close enough to overhear the comment. His eyes locked onto the decapitated body of the Senju Grand Elder, before shifting back to 'Saburo' and the spear in his hand.
"Who are you?" Kenji demanded with a rigid voice. "Saburo isn't this capable. If you truly were him, you wouldn't stand there so calmly while your home guard faces annihilation—and you especially wouldn't be so indifferent when Sakai is in danger like that."
The imposter perked his head up. Across the battlefield, the Suna home guards had been cut down to barely two hundred men, with the stubborn old man, Sakai, at the center desperately commanding their defense. 'Saburo' spared a completely indifferent glance at their peril before turning his focus back to the thousands of masked figures besieging them.
"You had so many ANBU escorting your forces, yet you didn't bother to aid the Uchiha?" 'Saburo' chuckled softly. "It seems the power struggle within Konoha following Tobirama's death is still ongoing. And for you to even know Saburo's exact role in this ambush... your ANBU intelligence network is quite impressive!"
Kenji's grip on his kunai tensed. Ever since he had accepted the role of Shadow Guard and received the tongue curse seal under Grand Elder Genshiro's suggestion, he had never felt his emotions fluctuate so violently. His instincts screamed at him that the creature before him was a threat he could not handle alone.
Kenji silently braced himself as a dense perimeter of ANBU converged around 'Saburo'. He watched closely as the imposter began to dance with the spear again.
'What is he doing?' Kenji thought, scanning the movements.
If Kenji had possessed the Sharingan, he would never have allowed the performance to continue. With the tip of the spear, 'Saburo' was tracing intricate chakra patterns in the air—the exact patterns normally formed through hand seals.
Finally, the ANBU completely sealed off the escape routes, and the wounded along with the unconscious Jinchuriki were successfully escorted away.
The 'Saburo's' spear dance came to a sudden halt.
"Well then," he said smoothly. "It was a pleasure to meet you all."
"Don't be in such a hurry to leave," Kenji cut in, stepping forward. "I would like to invite you to answer some questions for us."
"Well," 'Saburo' replied, lazily lowering the spear. "Good luck with that."
A blue, fluorescent light flashed brilliantly as the floating chakra patterns snapped into place. Instantly, a howling, swirling wind replaced the light, rapidly coalescing into a monstrous tornado.
"Argh!" "Ugh!" "Fall back!"
The ANBU scrambled away in a hurried panic as the vortex began to violently engulf the center of the clearing. A few operatives threw elemental jutsus and explosive tags to disperse the wind, but the kinetic energy only served to fuel and amplify the storm's growth.
"!"
Sensing danger, Kenji violently twisted his torso and raised his kunai, trying to redirect a blur of an object hurled straight at his chest. It was Ayame's spear.
Though Kenji's reflexes saved his life, the sheer force of the thrown weapon shattered his kunai upon impact. The spearhead punctured deep into his flank, tore clean through his side, and continued its trajectory—piercing through two ANBU standing directly behind him and launching them backward by at least ten meters.
Kenji collapsed to one knee, grasping his side desperately to hold back the blood and keep his intestines from spilling out. He scanned through the blinding dust for his assailant, but with the tornado spiraling entirely out of control, he had no choice.
"Evacuate!" Kenji roared through the pain. "Retreat from the area immediately!"
The massive tornado raged for an hour. By the time the winds finally subsided, the landscape had completely altered, leaving nothing but massive, barren sand dunes filling the area.
Kenji gritted his teeth, clutching his freshly bandaged stomach. They were still deep within the hostile Land of Wind; there was no time to thoroughly excavate the area or recover all the remains. Leaving a single squad of ANBU behind to salvage whatever they could from the sand, Kenji ordered the rest of the surviving forces to retreat back toward the Land of Fire as originally planned.