Konoha
Konoha's outer wall loomed ahead through the tree line, still scarred in places from the invasion, though repair crews had patched most of the worst breaches by now.
"Weren't we supposed to be quiet about this?" Kisame asked, hefting Samehada over his shoulder as they crouched at the tree line. "Feels strange, doesn't it? Walking straight for a village at war."
"That's exactly why it works," Itachi said, eyes scanning the patrol patterns along the wall. "Their attention is on the front. Internal security is thinner than it's ever been."
"And here I thought we'd need to fight our way in." Kisame grinned, all teeth. "Disappointing."
"We're not here to fight. We're here for information." Itachi's tone left no room for argument. "Confirm the One-Tail's location, his guard rotation, anything about his current condition. Nothing more."
"Boring, might as well take the brat while we're at it." Kisame muttered, though he fell into step regardless.
"That depends on whether we really could using without making the entire village jump on us."
They slipped past the outer patrols with practiced ease, Itachi's genjutsu smoothing over the gaps where a sharper eye might have caught movement. Konoha, even wounded, was not an easy village to walk through unnoticed. But an Uchiha with the Mangekyō and a partner who understood the value of patience made it manageable.
It didn't take long before they found what they needed — whispers among off-duty shinobi, careless words about the "The war hostages" being held under guard near the hospital wing, and rest could be find out by both of them by themselves.
Itachi's eyes narrowed slightly at that detail. He filed it away without comment.
"Guard rotation's light," Kisame observed quietly, watching from a rooftop overlooking the hospital district. "Two, maybe three shinobi at a time. Wartime really does thin things out."
"Noted." Itachi turned away from the ledge. "We have what we came for. We move."
"Just like that? No taking him now, while it's this easy?"
"Right now is not the right time." Itachi's gaze lingered a moment longer on the hospital below. "We move when there are less eyes in here."
Kisame sighed, disappointed, but said nothing further as the two melted back into the tree line, gone as quietly as they'd come.
-x-
Main Kumo Camp
The war tent buzzed with restrained fury, elite jōnin packed shoulder to shoulder, all eyes on Yugito at the head of the table.
"An all-out assault is suicide," one of the older commanders argued. "We don't have the numbers yet to match Konoha head-on in their main camp, not to mention if we move out our man power, they would leanr about it before we could even move our own camp."
"I'm not proposing an all-out assault," Yugito said, voice level despite the heat behind her eyes. "I'm proposing a strike. Fast. In, cause as much damage as possible to their main camp, and out before they can properly respond. Guerrilla tactics, not open war."
"A raid," Darui said slowly, arms still crossed, though his expression had shifted from outright refusal to consideration.
"Those Konoha Bastard could do it, why can't we?" Yugito confirmed. "Small elite team, myself included. We hit their main camp hard, kill as many of their command staff and strong shinobi as we can reach, and retreat before a counter-response can organize. It's the same tactic they used on our outpost. I intend to return the favor."
Murmurs rippled through the tent. A few nods. A few frowns.
"Konoha targeted a small camp on our side, you're instead talking about their main camp, there is a difference here Yugito."
"They didn't had a Jinchuriki with them either. I can hold back majority of their forces myself if it comes to that."
"You want revenge," one commander said flatly.
"I want results," Yugito corrected, though the fire in her eyes betrayed it wasn't entirely untrue. "Two hundred eighty of our people died without landing a single blow in return. I won't let that stand unanswered while we wait for the front lines to properly form."
Darui studied her for a long moment. Then, finally, he exhaled. "Fine. But it's a strike, not a war. You hit, you leave. No prolonged engagement, no chasing glory. Am I understood?"
"Understood."
By nightfall, Yugito had her team assembled — six of Kumo's sharpest, chosen not for rank but for speed, precision, and the discipline to pull back the moment the mission called for it. They moved out under cover of darkness, cutting through the forest toward the Konoha lines with the kind of silence only elite shinobi could manage.
-x-
Sukuna felt it before he heard it — a shift in the air, negative energy moving with too much coordination to be a patrol.
They have been at it for a long time, searching for what's going on with the with the Kumo idiot.
They have been checking on the increased activity of the Kumo main camp but something inside him felt that there was something he was missing. And now he felt it.
A mass source of negative energy, surely a Jinchurki, was moving out of the main camp. It most likely wouldn't be Killer Bee so this person has to be Yugito Nee.
"Neji…use your Byakugan and check out east side."
"Something's off ?" Neji murmured, Byakugan already active, veins bulging faintly at his temples. His eyes squinted at seeing a small squad moving extremely fast out of the Kumo Camp.
"20 shinobi. Moving fast. Too fast for scouts."
"Direction?" Sukuna asked.
"Heading straight for the main camp."
Kiyomi's grin sharpened immediately. "Well well, seems like they are planning something big huh…"
"We were technically only supposed to be scouting," Sukuna said, though even he could hear how little conviction was behind it.
"We are scouting," Kiyomi said sweetly. "Just… very aggressively."
Sukuna didn't bother arguing further. Jinchuriki or not, he wasn't planning on letting a single one of those fuckers reach Konoha main camp anyways.
They could always do what scouts do, inform their superiors, but there wasn't any time to, not with six enemy signatures closing the distance toward camp at a pace that suggested they had no intention of being subtle about their arrival.
And let be honest, even if he tell the main camp, let say he teleport himself directly there, what would that accomplish. Hearing a Jinchuriki was on its way, the main camp wouldn't have anything to block her off, not until someone as strong as Jiraiya is deployed this section of the frontline.
"Let go…"
"Hehe… it would be fun." Kiyomi grinned.
"Just don't slow us down." Neji said cockily only to earning an glare from her.
So, they intercepted the group in a shallow ravine half a mile out from the perimeter, and the moment of recognition was mutual and immediate.
Yugito's eyes narrowed the instant she spotted the three Konoha shinobi blocking the path forward, chakra flaring hot around her hands. "Kill them."
"Funny," Sukuna said, tilting his head slightly, red eyes unreadable. "I was about to say the same thing."
"Twenty against three," Neji noted quietly, Byakugan scanning each of them in turn, weighing chakra reserves, technique signatures, subtle tells in posture. "Not terrible odds."
"For us," Kiyomi added, already summoning liquid metal into the air around her fingertips, weapon shapes forming and dissolving in idle, restless motion.
Yugito's claws lengthened, chakra shroud beginning to flicker faintly around her frame — not full transformation, not yet, but enough to signal she wasn't planning on holding back.
"No," Sukuna said simply.
"Huh…" Kiyomi Blinked.
"I'll take care of them."
"Alone ?"
"Yeah, you had your fun last time didn't you. Its my turn."
xXx
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