They waited in the underbrush thirty meters from the Senju camp.
Muzan watched through gaps in the foliage. Twenty shinobi moved between lean-to shelters and supply crates. Most had gathered around a central fire, eating from bowls and talking in low voices. Three patrolled the perimeter in lazy circuits. These were reserves rotated back from the front for rest. They weren't expecting company this deep in their own territory.
Beside him, Sayuri's breathing was too fast. Her single tomoe spun in uneven bursts.
"Control your breathing," Muzan said under his breath.
She jerked, then nodded and worked to slow it down.
Amanai's hand rose in Muzan's peripheral vision and held for three seconds.
It dropped.
They moved.
Naroi reached the perimeter first. His tanto punched through a sentry's spine and he caught the body before it hit the ground, lowering it into the shadows without a sound.
Muzan moved toward a woman standing alone near a stack of supply crates with her back turned. He closed the distance in three steps and drove his kunai into the gap between her neck and shoulder blade. She stiffened. He clamped his free hand over her mouth before any sound escaped, twisted the blade, and felt her go limp. He lowered her to the dirt and pulled the kunai free.
Toshiro's hands were already forming seals. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
Small fireballs shot from his mouth and hit three Senju near the eastern edge of camp before any of them could react. Two went down immediately, clothes and hair burning bright. The third stumbled backward with flames consuming his chest.
Amanai's shuriken took him in the throat before he could scream.
From the north, Miyako's squad struck. Wire buried itself in a Senju's neck deep enough to hit bone. Another took a kunai through the eye socket and dropped without a sound.
Then someone saw it all.
"Enemy attack! Uchiha!"
The camp scattered.
A Senju woman spun toward Muzan with her hands already moving through seals. "Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!"
A compressed sphere of water hit him in the chest and sent him sliding back three meters through the dirt.
He came up and threw three shuriken. She deflected all of them and kept forming seals. "Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"
A torrent of water swept across the ground toward him.
Muzan pulled chakra to his lungs. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The fireball met the wave head-on and steam exploded outward in a dense white cloud that swallowed everything within ten meters.
Muzan used Body Flicker and moved through the steam. He came out behind her just as she turned. Her eyes went wide. His kunai found her kidney and tore through sideways. She folded forward and he pushed her down into the dirt.
Shurikens moved through the steam in every direction. Metal rang against metal. Fire and water jutsu flashed through the trees and left burning afterimages. The assault had collapsed into chaos.
Muzan turned. "Sayuri!"
No answer.
A Senju burst through the steam with a tanto raised. Their blades met with a hard ring. The man was strong and pushed down with his full weight. Muzan let the pressure build for one second, then released and dropped below the follow-up strike aimed at his throat. He came up with a second kunai and drove it into the armpit gap where the armor ended. The man screamed and staggered. Muzan's next strike opened his throat and he went down.
"Regroup!" Amanai's voice cut through the noise. "Don't get separated!"
Muzan pushed toward the sound. Amanai and Naroi materialized through the thinning steam.
"Sayuri?" Muzan called out.
"Lost her when the steam hit," Naroi said, already scanning for threats.
A figure stepped out of the smoke at the center of camp. Gray temples, cold eyes, hands moving through seals with the unhurried speed of someone who had done this for decades. His eyes never once met any of their Sharingan. He watched their shoulders and hips instead.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
The blast carved through their position. Muzan and Naroi split left. Amanai split right. Trees ignited where they had been standing. Two trunks exploded outright from the sudden heat.
The veteran landed between them with his katana drawn. His gaze swept across all three without ever locking onto their eyes. "You came deep into our territory to die, Uchiha."
Amanai's hands moved. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
The veteran's response was instant. "Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
Stone erupted from the ground and the fireballs scattered against it harmlessly. Then his voice came from behind the wall. "Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet!"
The wall reshaped itself. A dragon's head formed and spat fist-sized chunks of rock that whistled through the air.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
One chunk tore through Amanai's shoulder and opened a bloody gash through his jacket. He kept moving.
Naroi flanked wide to come in from the side. The veteran caught it without turning his head and pivoted smoothly. His katana came around in a horizontal sweep that drove Naroi backward with pure reach and weight.
Amanai pushed in close. "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The veteran leaped back and pulled water from the ground beneath him. "Water Style: Water Wall!"
The barrier absorbed the fireball in a burst of hissing steam and he came out of it already throwing water bullets from both hands. They separated to dodge and the projectiles shattered rock and bark where they landed.
He pursued Amanai and their blades clashed in a fast sequence that sent sparks across the dirt. Each of the veteran's strikes was angled precisely, no wasted movement, no openings. His eyes stayed on Amanai's collar and chest.
"Three tomoe at your age," the veteran said, his breathing still controlled. "The Uchiha breed them well for war." He pressed harder. "Pity it ends here."
Amanai feinted high, then swept low at the ankles.
The veteran hopped back and raised his hand to form the next seal.
Naroi came out of the dark behind him and drove his tanto up through the man's thigh. The blade went deep into the muscle and the veteran's concentration broke with a sharp gasp. Blood soaked through his pants instantly.
Amanai closed the gap and his kunai punched through the gap between the man's ribs into the lung beneath. The veteran's breath turned wet and blood came up between his lips. His katana dropped. He looked at Amanai with pure hatred, clear and undiluted.
"Damn Uchiha," he said, and meant every word of it.
He fell forward and didn't move again.
Amanai pulled his kunai free and turned back to the fight without a word.
Amanai stood over him for one second, then turned back to the fight.
The camp had become a slaughterhouse. Bodies lay among burning shelters and overturned crates. Blood darkened the dirt in wide patches. Somewhere to the west, someone was screaming.
Muzan ran toward it.
He found Sayuri backed against a tree with two Senju in front of her. One was broad with a scarred face and a katana. The other was younger. Her kunai was up but her hand shook and her single tomoe spun wildly.
"Little Uchiha girl wandered off," the broad one said and took a step forward.
The younger one slashed at her side. She stumbled back and the blade caught her jacket and the skin beneath.
Muzan hit the broad one from a full sprint. Four shuriken went out first. The man deflected three. The fourth buried itself in his shoulder and his sword arm dropped.
Their blades met. The veteran was good and his footwork was clean. The younger one came in from the left at the same moment.
Muzan pressed an explosive tag into the broad man's chest plate mid-exchange and stepped back.
The man looked down.
BOOM!
The blast opened his chest and threw what was left of him into the tree behind Sayuri. The concussive force flattened the surrounding brush in a circle.
The younger Senju froze for one second staring at the body.
Muzan used Body Flicker and appeared behind him. His kunai opened the man's neck and he dropped his katana and fell.
Muzan turned to Sayuri. "Are you hurt?"
She stared at the two bodies. Her kunai was still raised but pointing at nothing.
"Sayuri." His voice was firm. "Are you hurt?"
She looked down at her side. "Just a cut. I think."
He pulled the torn fabric aside. The blade had opened skin and muscle but hadn't gone deep enough to reach anything vital. He pressed a cloth strip against it. "Hold this. Apply pressure."
She took it with shaking hands. "I froze," she said quietly.
"You're alive," Muzan said. "Move."
He pulled her to her feet and they went back through the burning camp, stepping over bodies and around scattered weapons.
Amanai and the rest of the squad had formed up near the central fire. Toshiro was binding a wound on his own arm. Naroi cleaned his tanto without expression.
Amanai looked at Sayuri's side and then at Muzan. Muzan shook his head once. Amanai nodded and looked out across the camp.
Miyako's squad came in from the north. All five were present but two were hurt and Miyako had blood running down her face from a cut above her eyebrow. She walked like it wasn't there.
Kenozo's squad came from the south. Three members where there had been five. Kenozo himself was soaked in blood that wasn't his. His expression was exactly what it had been before the assault. Nothing had changed in his eyes because nothing was left to change.
"Casualties," Amanai said.
"Two dead," Miyako said. "We couldn't recover the bodies."
"Two dead," Kenozo said. He didn't elaborate.
Takeshi appeared from the smoke with blood across his armor. He opened his mouth to speak.
A leaf fell from the canopy above them.
It never reached the ground. It came apart mid-air without burning, sliced into dust by pressure that had no source.
Muzan's body responded before his mind caught up. "Scatter!"
He grabbed Sayuri and pulled her down as a wall of wind slammed into the camp from the eastern tree line.