At the border of the Land of Lightning—
A three-person squad was quickly crossing the national boundary.
They were coming from the direction of the Land of Fire.
Actually, in every country, the borderlines are very long, so if only a small group crosses, they usually won't be discovered.
Even if traces of infiltration are found later, no one knows where they've already gone.
But this squad seemed to be a little different.
After crossing the border, they didn't immediately continue sneaking further inward.
Instead, they went straight toward a Cloud Village patrol point.
The people stationed at the Cloud patrol point were stunned. Invading their Land of Lightning so openly?
This was a first.
"Who goes there?"
The patrol point was a small outpost with about thirty people.
Two teams were currently out, leaving about twenty people behind, and they immediately surrounded the three intruders.
The three didn't show the slightest panic, only saying calmly, "We're from the Land of Fire, here to discuss a cooperation with the Raikage."
The Cloud shinobi were utterly shocked, 'Land of Fire, that means Konoha?'
'Coming to the Land of Lightning to talk cooperation with the Raikage?'
They glanced at each other a few times, then looked toward the one standing in the middle, a woman whose chest thundered as greatly as Tsunade's.
It was Samui, who had only recently been promoted to jonin.
Samui was one of Killer B's swordsmanship disciples. Now, at 23 years old, she happened to be leading a team over to switch shifts and was inspecting the border post on the way.
Facing such a situation, everyone naturally waited for Samui to decide what to do.
Samui was cautious and composed by nature. Hearing that, she calmly asked, "How can you prove your identity?"
The people from the Land of Fire sized Samui up and down, and finally their eyes stopped on her massive chest.
"You're Samui?"
Samui didn't mind being recognized that way. After all, that was just how she was born.
"I am."
One of them took out a scroll from his body and placed it on the ground, then stepped back a few paces.
The Cloud shinobi carefully picked up the scroll, checked that it was fine, and handed it to Samui.
Samui opened it and unrolled it to take a look.
After only a glance at the contents, a look of great astonishment appeared on her face.
"Please, follow me," Samui said with a wave of her hand, and the Cloud shinobi immediately surrounded the three.
The three didn't resist, letting the Cloud shinobi escort them away.
———
Compared to the border outposts of the Land of Lightning, which had so many people, the Land of Fire's borderlines were all guarded by shinobi as well.
However, Konoha Village was now extremely short on manpower, and all border outposts had been reduced in size.
Even the Uchiha clan only stationed people on the most frequently used routes, leaving the border defenses quite thin.
The Sand shinobi had circled around some distance and entered the Land of Fire from another direction.
But they weren't here to cause trouble for Konoha Village.
They directly went after the team led by Sarutobi Hiruzen.
At the start, Hiruzen's team consisted of both shinobi and civilians traveling together in a mixed formation.
But after nearly ten days without any danger, the teams gradually split up.
The shinobi and the civilians formed two separate groups.
Aside from a few scouts and intelligence operatives, no one dared attack such a large convoy.
So among the civilians, there were only a few shinobi patrolling the outer perimeter to maintain order.
This time, the Sand Village had sent four small squads, twelve people in total, led by Maki's friend, Yura.
In the original timeline, he was brainwashed by Sasori's jutsu and made into Sasori's spy.
But here, he hadn't been controlled; he was working for Rasa.
He'd already arrived for some time, but his team had been focused on gathering intel, trying to figure out where to start their attack.
But they didn't know that while they were collecting information on Hiruzen's convoy, someone had already discovered them.
A pale figure hid stealthily in the trees, observed the Sand shinobi for a while, then sank back into the ground.
After moving stealthily for some time, he reached a gathering point.
"The Sand have already arrived, but the Cloud and Stone only sent scouting personnel," said Tobi, restless for chaos, "Should we act right now?"
Zetsu turned his head toward Hiruko. Hiruko had made a trip to Mount Sumeru and brought back three of his subordinates.
These three weren't ordinary people, they were results of Hiruko's Chimera experiments.
Each could merge with his own summoning beast.
They each had a clearly visible number on their faces, and their names were Snake One, Dog Two, and Bird Three, corresponding to their summoning beasts.
Back when Hiruko conducted human experiments in Konoha, he'd been discovered and hunted by Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Now, seeing Hiruzen being driven out of Konoha in such a sorry state, he couldn't be happier.
Though he hadn't beaten Rengoku before, Hiruko believed that was only because he wasn't yet used to his abilities.
Now, naturally, he planned to use Hiruzen as a test subject.
Zetsu knew the Stone and Cloud were still just observing, but that didn't matter to him.
Having a fighter on hand, why not use him?
"Sarutobi Hiruzen and Jiraiya aren't weak," Zetsu said in a mockingly concerned tone, "Are you sure you can handle them?"
It sounded like he was being considerate, but in reality, he was goading him.
Hiruko smiled confidently, "They've got so many burdens with them. Let's see how they plan to defend against us."
———
Just as Yura and his men were deciding where to strike, the sky gradually darkened, and massive clouds began to gather.
"Is it going to rain?", Yura looked up doubtfully at the sky.
Their Sand Village was located in the desert, it rarely rained.
But when he looked up and saw the dense, heavy clouds not far away, he felt that didn't look like natural weather.
If Yura and his men could tell, then Sarutobi Hiruzen naturally could too. When the dark clouds appeared, he immediately ordered Jiraiya to investigate and told the other shinobi to prepare for battle.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Massive explosions echoed, mixed with screams and cries.
Above the formation of the civilian convoy, a gigantic bird-type summoning beast appeared in the sky.
With a flap of its wings, it shot down a rain of enormous feathers.
Each feather was half the height of a man, and as they struck the ground, they began to glow, then violently exploded.
Though the shinobi quickly organized a counterattack, the bird-type beast was too fast.
Bird Three stood atop the beast, continuously giving commands, and the creature kept raining down feathers from above.
"Summoning Technique!"
Dog Two took a deep breath and summoned three canine beasts, which began breathing fire toward the civilian convoy.
Their goal was to scatter the defenders' focus.
Snake One's summoning beast was the least noticeable, but the deadliest.
Because his snake beast could continuously divide itself and carried venom.
Countless snakes surged forward like a tide, slithering straight into the civilian group.
"Ahhh!"
"Help!"
"No!"
In just a short time, hundreds were dead or injured. The entire scene was chaos.
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