Kageyama Kokugetsu temporarily handed command to his vice captain, Sparrow, and went himself to reconnoiter the Kumogakure camp, planning to hit the enemy hard.
Sparrow was the ANBU who, during Pain's invasion of Konoha, used Wind Cutter against the Animal Path's summons.
Ten minutes later, three thousand meters above the Kumo encampment, Kageyama Kokugetsu stood on the back of a golden eagle and looked down.
Behind him the sky was a clear blue, warm sunlight blazing. A cold gale howled. His high black ponytail, threaded with a red ribbon, streamed in the wind, and his sand-colored coat snapped and fluttered.
His gaze drew outward, easily taking in the camp hidden in the forest below.
"Heh. The Cloud came well prepared. They even set a barrier in the camp's center to block the Byakugan's sight.
"Looks like the Raikage's side has most of the intel on me. They're guarding specifically against me.
"But is it really flawless?"
Shadow Clone Technique.
Kageyama Kokugetsu pressed his hands together and a shadow clone appeared at his side.
"You keep watch for me. I'll rest in Daikokuten. Tell me as soon as you spot a gap."
"Understood."
This was how he did things. Anything Shadow Clones or image-transfer could handle, he would not do in person.
Time was frozen inside Daikokuten. Anyone and anything that entered was like being sealed in ice. Only Kageyama Kokugetsu could move freely.
He beckoned and a table flew to him, already laden with prepared dishes, juice, and wine.
Since a fight might be coming and alcohol's scent could give him away, he skipped the wine, ate, and drank juice.
Sated, he lay down to sleep atop a black-and-red cube with a bed, pillow, and quilt set upon it.
Over three hours later, his clone entered Daikokuten to wake him.
"They change shifts every four hours. Will the barrier drop briefly then?"
"I got it. Wake me before the next change."
He shut his eyes and went right back to sleep.
Since coming to this world, he had become fast at falling asleep and sleeping well.
On the battlefield, shinobi who could not sleep quickly and recover were often the first to die.
Tempered by war, most who survived had learned this skill.
At three hours fifty-five minutes, the clone woke him right on time.
Kageyama Kokugetsu dispelled the clone to reclaim the remaining chakra, stepped out of Daikokuten, ended the summoning, and hovered in midair.
Light and shadow shifted. As he dropped, his figure vanished.
Timing it to the shift of the Kumo barrier team, he infiltrated the camp's central sector. The Byakugan swept over everything and took it all in.
"Huh. Commander Dodai isn't in his tent?" He frowned, displeased.
He had hoped to stage a decapitation strike and give both Konoha and Kumo a shock.
Dodai's fate simply wasn't to die today. He had narrowly escaped.
Worried that Kageyama Kokugetsu would target logistics and burn supplies, Dodai had personally taken men to fortify them.
On Dodai's orders, the Kumo depots were not only heavily guarded by shinobi but wrapped outside with tight meshes of sharp steel wire.
Unless one could use space–time ninjutsu, there was no way to slip in without a sound.
"Tch. What dog's luck."
Kageyama Kokugetsu snorted to himself, then chose a tent and slipped toward it.
He did not pick at random. He prioritized tents with only one occupant, leaving multi-person tents for later as needed.
Inside, a Kumo jōnin in his thirties sat on his bedroll staring at a photograph.
It was a family portrait of four: husband and wife, a son and a daughter, all smiling, the picture of happiness.
"So happy," Kageyama Kokugetsu said.
"Yeah," the jōnin answered reflexively. As he started to look up to see which comrade had come in, a hand clamped over his mouth and a searing pain lanced through his heart.
"If you're happy, stay in Kumogakure and be happy. Why start wars?"
Staring at the ANBU mask that appeared before him, the Kumo jōnin's eyes bulged, filled with terror and despair.
"My parents died in a war your Cloud started. I'm here today."
He had not been in this world long, but the parents of this body had not treated him badly. He felt something for them.
During the Third Great Ninja War he had fought Iwa, Suna, and Kiri shinobi, but never the Cloud.
This was his chance.
Killing more Kumo shinobi would be vengeance for his parents.
He did not believe in love and peace. He believed in the Gongyang school's creed.
Can a feud of nine generations still be avenged?
Even after a hundred generations, yes.
Kageyama Kokugetsu drew his ninjatō and gently laid the jōnin's corpse, eyes still open, back on the bedroll.
He took two steps, then turned back. Facing the bleeding wound over the left chest, he raised his right palm and stirred his power.
Universal Pull.
A gush of blood jetted from the wound, and under the chakra gathering in his palm it formed a crimson sphere.
"Heh. Time for some psychological warfare."
Blood dripped from his palm into large scarlet characters.
He set the family portrait in the middle of those words and left, satisfied.
It would hasten his exposure, but he did not care.
Killing a few fewer Cloud shinobi would not change the war's course. Kumo had ample reserves to reinforce. Psychological warfare would have greater effect.
Even if it fell short, it did not matter. At least he would be satisfied and make Kumo sick to its stomach.
One after another, elite and regular jōnin of Kumo died without a sound under his blade.
Among them was a shinobi who looked familiar to him, seemingly the Magnet Release user Toroi.
That man's kekkei genkai let him directly, or via tools, imbue enemies with magnetic chakra so that thrown weapons of opposite charge would curve and hit unerringly.
In the central zone of the Kumo camp, every chakra signature was stronger than a chūnin's. They were all mid to upper command.
When Kageyama Kokugetsu killed the twelfth Kumo shinobi, a visiting comrade discovered a corpse and sounded the alarm.
Seeing he had been exposed, Kageyama Kokugetsu smiled faintly, used Sukunahikona to shrink himself, and stepped into a minuscule black-and-red space–time vortex, vanishing.
As corpse after corpse was found, cries of shock, furious curses, and wails spread through the Kumo camp.
The rest quickly went on high alert.
Unclear about the method of assassination, they eyed even their comrades warily, afraid any face might be an impostor.
The matter was so grave that Dodai received word and hurried back.
In a newly raised tent, twelve bodies lay in two rows beneath white shrouds, bloody over the chest.
The deputy commander from the elders' faction, face like still water, reported in detail at Dodai's side.
Seven tokubetsu jōnin and five jōnin lost, including Toroi.
Beside them, seven bloody characters and an exclamation mark read: Dog Kumo, die.
Dodai finally lost control.
His chest surged with hot blood. His face flushed as red as a monkey's backside. His eyes seemed to spit fire. His fists cracked as he clenched them. His words ground out between his teeth.
"Night… mare… Shade… Hunt, Ka… geyama Ko… kugetsu. I, Dodai, will never forgive you."
He did not know he had already brushed past the gates of hell. If not for that dog's luck, he would have been the first to die.
Had he been able to take the enemy commander's head, Kageyama Kokugetsu would have gladly killed no one else.
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