[Land of Lightning]
Killer B was leading the Hidden Cloud forces as they retreated toward the village.
Everyone from the Hidden Cloud had a gloomy and miserable expression. After all, they had set out with two thousand people, and barely more than a thousand were returning.
Hundreds were seriously injured.
The key issue was that their Two-Tails jinchuriki had died.
Rengoku alone had held off their two-thousand-man squad, and under layer after layer of encirclement, he still managed to kill their jinchuriki and escape.
There were twists and turns in the middle, but that was the final result.
Rengoku's clone had kept the entire force busy using Shadow Stealth, and even set two fires.
Fortunately, one was discovered by Killer B and the other by Sasori.
Otherwise many more people would have burned to death.
On the road, because they had no medicine, over a hundred people had already died from their worsening wounds.
Now everyone was jumpy, nerves stretched to the extreme.
Killer B's expression was dark as well, not even speaking in rap like usual.
They still needed three days before reaching the Hidden Cloud.
They had too many injured, which slowed their pace drastically.
There were noises in the forest ahead. The scouts returned and brought Killer B good news, "Lord Killer B, the people sent to meet us have arrived!"
Killer B's spirit immediately lifted.
"Hurry! Speed up the formation!"
Truth be told, Killer B was already physically and mentally exhausted. Rengoku's clone had been chasing him nonstop, keeping him on high alert the entire time.
The intel the Hidden Cloud received from them had only said their unit lacked supplies and medicine.
The village had sent one final message saying that someone was coming to meet them.
But just as they received that message, Killer B had been attacked again, and even the messenger bird burned in a burst of fire.
Thankfully, the reinforcements had now arrived.
After half an hour, Killer B finally saw Samui leading more than five hundred elite shinobi.
"Killer B, where is Yugito Nii? I brought excellent medicine and medical-nin," Samui looked around. Not seeing Yugito Nii, she immediately asked.
The team's gloomy atmosphere was already heavy enough, but even talkative, optimistic Killer B was completely silent and depressed.
"Yugito Nii is dead...", Killer B paused for a moment and then told her directly.
"What?", Samui staggered a step back, shocked.
"How? Wasn't she just injured before?"
Killer B's expression was dark, "Rengoku ambushed Yugito Nii with Shadow Stealth."
"I tried to take Yugito Nii away alone afterward, but her injuries were too severe."
"On the road, Rengoku attacked again and burned Yugito Nii to death with Fire Style."
Samui found it hard to accept, "Rengoku is that strong?"
Killer B nodded heavily, "Rengoku has been trailing us the entire way. His sensing ability is far above ours."
"We could only take the hits."
"More than a hundred brothers have already died because we had no medicine."
"Sasori of the Akatsuki escorted us, that's the only reason we made it this far."
A flash of surprise crossed Samui's face, "Rest for now. The situation in the village isn't good either."
Samui waved her hand, and the Hidden Cloud shinobi behind her quickly distributed medicine and supplies to treat the wounded.
She then began explaining the situation in the village to Killer B in detail.
———
[Iwagakure]
The village was surrounded on all sides by tall mountains.
To enter, one had to walk the single narrow path.
There was an exception, of course: if you could fly.
When Yagura and Rengoku reached the skies above, Rengoku instructed, "Just pretend you're a mirror clone. Don't talk."
"Sure, I'll leave it to you."
Yagura was happy not to think. As long as Rengoku handled things, there'd be no problem.
When the two descended from extremely high altitude, the Iwagakure shinobi noticed them instantly.
Every village had a large sensory barrier. Anything below several thousand meters would be detected.
The chakra signatures of jinchuriki were not small.
The wailing alarm rose through Iwagakure.
"Enemy attack! The target is Mizukage Yagura Karatachi!", The barrier unit immediately reported.
Yagura's mirror clone was now famous across the entire ninja world.
After all, it was a secret technique capable of copying jinchuriki.
And they had just caused chaos in the Hidden Cloud, making the Hidden Cloud look pathetic.
They hadn't killed many people, but the Hidden Cloud's pride and economic losses had been enormous.
"They're not attacking?", Onoki asked sternly.
The man below replied, "Not at the moment. They're just hovering in the air with no other movements. Should we evacuate the civilians?"
A thoughtful look passed across Onoki's face, "Stay on alert. Don't rush to evacuate the villagers. Call in Kurotsuchi and Han."
"Yes!"
———
Up in the sky, Rengoku and Yagura waited patiently.
Iwagakure reacted faster than the Hidden Cloud.
Perhaps because they had learned from the Cloud's disaster, in just a few minutes, ballistae were already set up on high platforms throughout the village.
They did not have a unified flying corps, so instead all sorts of summoning flying beasts took to the sky.
They didn't approach too closely.
After all, not just anyone could go a few rounds with a jinchuriki.
Of course, part of the reason was that Yagura wasn't attacking them.
"What brings the Mizukage here?"
A member of the scouting unit, riding a giant dragonfly, approached Yagura (Rengoku) with caution.
Yagura (Rengoku) beat his wings lightly, crossed his arms, and said, "Is Onoki here?"
The scout hesitated. That kind of information was classified, so he couldn't answer.
But then Onoki's voice rose from below, letting him breathe easier.
"To want to meet me and yet not use the front gate, Mizukage, what do you mean by this?", Onoki flew up with Kurotsuchi and Han.
Kurotsuchi was his personal guard, and Han was a jinchuriki. He wasn't afraid of Yagura.
As for why Roshi was never present, it was because he did not get along with Onoki, and lived outside the village on his own.
Under normal circumstances, he did not return to the village.
When Onoki and his people reached them, Yagura (Rengoku) finally spoke.
"There are too many ears here. Let's talk higher up," Saying that, Rengoku and Yagura flew upward.
Onoki glanced at Han and Kurotsuchi, then calmly followed.
Once they were nearly a thousand meters high, Rengoku stopped.
"Here's fine."
He flew toward Onoki.
About a dozen meters away, he slowly stopped and said, "Onoki, you must have received intel about my recent attack on the Hidden Cloud, right?"
Onoki's gaze swept between the two Yaguras, then he replied, "Mizukage, you may speak plainly."
He was naturally very curious about the mirror clone technique being able to copy a tailed beast, but judging from the chakra signatures, both were indeed Three-Tails.
He couldn't see any flaw, so he had no choice but to focus on Yagura's motive for coming.
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