"Kid, do you find yourself plagued by questions?"
As the Sunagakure ninjas launched their surprise assault, only to be met by a group of shinobi wearing Hidden Mist headbands, their collective mental state could best be described by that exact lyric.
Where were the Konoha elites they were supposed to be flanking?
These guys certainly looked elite, but why had the Konoha leaf-swirl symbol suddenly morphed into the curved raindrops of the Hidden Mist?
Was this some kind of deliberate deception by Konoha to hide their identity?
But if that were the case, those raindrop carvings looked a bit too authentic. Besides, shouldn't they know the difference between the single raindrop of the Rain and the four-line mist of the Hidden Mist? Had Konoha become so incompetent that they couldn't even fake a headband correctly?
"Damn it! How did these bastards playing in the sandbox get here so fast?!"
In contrast to the bewildered Suna ninjas, the Kirigakure shinobi didn't waste a second. The moment they saw the Sand headbands, they began cursing under their breaths and leaped into action.
"Hiramekarei: Release!"
Bimoku, the wielder of the twin-headed sword, was the first to move. The chakra discharged from Hiramekarei manifested into a massive blade of energy several meters long, sweeping toward the nearby Suna ninjas.
"Damn it, it's the Seven Ninja Swordsmen!"
Toranosuke, a seasoned Jonin, instantly recognized the seven figures wielding bizarre weapons at the front of the Mist group. He cried out in alarm, his hands blurring into a sequence of seals. A defensive puppet resembling a tanuki—clearly modeled after the One-Tails—instantly positioned itself to shield him.
As a puppet master, such a reaction was pure instinct.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed through the night as his tanuki puppet, designed to mimic the defenses of Shukaku, was sent flying by the chakra shockwave.
Bimoku, however, was even more surprised. Aside from the arm that had taken the brunt of the chakra blade being snapped off, the main body of the tanuki puppet remained remarkably intact. His eyes widened with newfound interest, and he prepared to launch a follow-up strike.
But Suikazan Fuguki, leading the group, was not about to let him engage in a prolonged duel.
"Go all out! Wipe them out quickly."
Suna's numbers weren't the issue; the Seven Ninja Swordsmen alone could handle the majority of them, including their Jonin. The problem was time. They had already fought a skirmish with the Suna logistics unit earlier and had done their best to kill everyone and destroy the evidence to keep their presence a secret. Yet, Suna had still caught up to them.
This meant there had been a leak or an oversight somewhere.
Fuguki was certain that this was only Suna's vanguard. The main army was likely close behind and would arrive at any moment. They had to break this encirclement and enter the Land of Rain immediately.
With Hanzo of the Salamander still ruling the Rain, and given the deep-seated animosity between Suna and Amegakure, the Sand might not dare to pursue them across the border.
Clearly, news of Hanzo's death had not yet spread. To most shinobi, the Hidden Rain was still a force to be reckoned with, and very few were willing to provoke the "Salamander."
Of course, once the world realized Hanzo was dead, the Land of Rain would likely fall into the same state of chaos as the Land of Grass.
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen struck in unison.
Samehada shredded through chakra and flesh; the blunt sword Kabutowari crushed every defense; the blast sword Shibuki sowed explosive chaos; and the Kubikiribocho harvested lives like wheat in a field.
From the shadows, the longsword Nuibari delivered lethal, unexpected pierces, while Hiramekarei and the lightning blades Kiba provided ranged harassment, pinning down the ninjutsu specialists and targeting the fragile bodies of the puppet masters.
Under the perfect coordination of the seven blades, the Suna forces—despite outnumbering the Mist several times over—quickly fell into a desperate disadvantage.
However, outside of the slaughter zone maintained by the Swordsmen, the Suna ninjas' numbers began to tell. In the periphery of the chaotic battlefield, Suna held the upper hand. Flesh and bone were ground into the dirt, and shattered puppet parts flew through the air like shrapnel.
Watching from the sidelines, Hatani—flickering in and out of invisibility with his Shadow Blade—was having the time of his life.
There was something profoundly satisfying about watching a "dog-eat-dog" fight. Even if the spectator gained nothing, the sheer spectacle was enough to lift one's spirits.
Furthermore, Hatani wasn't just watching. He would occasionally slip in behind a distracted ninja and deliver a lethal strike with his Shadow Blade, raking in gold coins. It was a state of "double happiness."
Unfortunately, the fun didn't last long.
Against the combined might of the Seven Swordsmen, the Suna ninjas had no answer. Even the battalion commander, Toranosuke, lasted only a few minutes. Harassed by the needles of the Nuibari, he left an opening that Akebino Jinin exploited. The blunt hammer of Kabutowari shattered his tanuki puppet into splinters, followed immediately by the axe blade which disemboweled him. His end was grisly and immediate.
With their commander dead, the Suna ninjas lost all will to fight. After leaving behind another hundred corpses, the remaining two Jonin led a panicked retreat.
Suikazan Fuguki, wary of the Suna main army, barked an order to stop the pursuit, reining in the bloodthirsty duo of Jinin and Kushimaru, as well as Raiga. Without even pausing to count their losses, the Mist team accelerated their pace toward the Land of Rain.
However, Biwa Juzo, the ambitious wielder of the Kubikiribocho, was already losing faith in the mission.
They were already short-staffed to begin with, and after this clash, they had lost at least a third of their men. Even if they reached the Five-Tails first, it was doubtful they had enough manpower to suppress and seal it.
The biggest blow? Most of the casualties were from their Sealing Corps.
This was the part that Suikazan Fuguki couldn't wrap his head around. Knowing how vital the sealing team was, he had placed them at the very rear under heavy protection. Logically, they should have suffered the least.
Even more baffling was the state of the fallen sealers. Their bodies looked like they had been thoroughly looted; many were missing their incredibly expensive Sealing Scrolls.
Fortunately, the precious artifact intended to temporarily house the Tailed Beast was kept on Fuguki's person. Had that been stolen, the mission would have been an official failure.
The plight of the Mist sealing ninjas was, of course, Hatani's handiwork.
Fuelled by his resentment over his "stolen" kills, Hatani had quickly identified the Sealing Corps at the back of the formation once the fight started. By carefully baiting Suna ninjas to attack that position and using the resulting chaos as cover, he had used his Shadow Blade to assassinate several sealers and strip their bodies.
You never know until you try.
He had assumed his dream house had vanished when the Mist stole his kills, but after looting just a few of these elite sealing ninjas, his "house" was not only back on the table—it looked bigger and more luxurious than before.
After forcing himself to suppress his glee, Hatani began to analyze the Mist's composition. A team led by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen accompanied by a massive sealing detail could only mean one thing.
He thought back to the "horse-faced" underbite beast that had escaped the battlefield earlier.
"So that's it," he muttered to himself, the realization dawning on him. "They're after the Five-Tails."