"Bakayaro! Konoyaro!"
"Three! Two! One!"
"Ready, go!"
"Yo! The sun is shining so bright today! Oh yeah!"
"Yo, yo! Everybody come out and take a bath! Yaro! Hehe!"
"Achoo!"
"Bubbles everywhere! Check it out!"
"Everyone else bathes with two hands! Hahaha!"
"But I've got an octopus with eight tentacles!"
"And my Seven Swords Style!"
"I wash faster than anyone! Baka, look over here!"
"This is my short time!"
"Baka, baka!"
The Kumogakure encampment was unexpectedly lively.
Unlike the camps of most armies, which tended to remain quiet and orderly, someone here had actually erected a stage.
And on top of that stage stood a dark-skinned man wearing sunglasses, twisting his body wildly as he enthusiastically rapped at the top of his lungs.
If not for the fact that there was absolutely no audience below him, aside from several miserable souls tied to chairs with tears streaming down their faces, anyone judging solely from his overwhelming stage presence might have mistaken him for some kind of superstar.
Well...
His appearance might have been a little questionable, but talent and looks had never necessarily gone hand in hand.
The sunglasses-wearing man continued rapping with tremendous enthusiasm, completely unaware of the flash of lightning approaching from the distance.
Within that streak of lightning, a fist as large as a cooking pot came crashing straight into his puckered lips.
Bang!
Two streams of blood immediately sprayed from the rapper's nose as he was sent flying.
"Bee!"
"Even if you're going to cause trouble, learn to choose the right time and place!"
"This is our main camp! There are countless wounded shinobi resting here!"
"Stop making so much noise! Do you understand?!"
The lightning faded.
A large, muscular, dark-skinned man with a small patch of beard beneath his chin walked toward the fallen rapper.
He grabbed the man he called Bee by the collar and lifted him up.
His voice lowered.
"The situation on the battlefield hasn't been good lately."
"The group we sent to infiltrate Konoha's side hasn't reported back at all. They may already have..."
He paused briefly.
"Father is furious right now. So behave yourself and don't give him another reason to lose his temper. Understand?"
At the mention of their father being angry, Bee visibly stiffened.
He immediately became much more obedient.
"Yeah, yeah! Got it, Big Bro! Yo!"
The two spoke for another moment before a man wearing an eyepatch over one eye approached them.
"Bee. A."
"Lord Raikage is looking for you. He has a mission."
The two paused, then immediately answered.
"Understood, Lord Dodai. We'll go right away."
They soon entered the tent belonging to the Third Raikage.
Inside stood a massive man.
Although already getting on in years, the Third Raikage still radiated an oppressive and domineering aura.
A and Bee greeted him respectfully.
The Third Raikage did not waste time with pleasantries.
That simply wasn't his personality.
He preferred getting straight to the point.
"We previously dispatched a squad to investigate Konoha's encampment."
"Until now, we haven't received a single report from them."
"I want you to take several men and investigate."
"Their identities may already have been exposed, but you still need to examine the area and determine exactly what happened."
"Were they captured?"
"Were they completely annihilated?"
"Are there any survivors?"
His gaze shifted toward A.
"A, I'm assigning this mission to you."
"Take Bee along as well. It'll keep him from making noise around here."
Then his eyes landed on Bee.
"Bee."
"You need to familiarize yourself with the battlefield as soon as possible."
"If I hear about you causing another ridiculous disturbance..."
"I'll personally teach you a lesson."
Bee immediately nodded.
A followed suit.
Seeing that they understood, the Third Raikage waved his hand and dismissed them.
And so...
Sometimes fate truly had a strange sense of humor.
One squad was following the enemy's infiltration route in order to conduct counter-reconnaissance.
Meanwhile, another squad was traveling along the route previously taken by their missing comrades in order to investigate what had happened to them.
The result was almost inevitable.
...
Within the forest, Uchiha Fugaku's squad moved cautiously through the trees, leaping from branch to branch.
"Clan Leader, I've got a question!"
Uchiha Shū looked toward Fugaku while moving.
"Why did they send us to scout?"
"Wouldn't it be much easier to just send one of those white-eyed Hyūga guys?"
Fugaku answered without slowing down.
"The Hyūga shinobi stationed on the Land of Lightning front were transferred here from the Land of Earth."
"There aren't many of them."
"Their current numbers are only barely enough to handle defensive surveillance and reconnaissance around our own encampment."
"If we sent them deep into enemy territory, gaps would inevitably appear in our defensive network."
He continued explaining patiently.
"Furthermore, the Hyūga specialize primarily in their clan's taijutsu."
"Their abilities in ninjutsu and genjutsu are comparatively limited."
"Their offensive and defensive methods are somewhat one-dimensional."
"When infiltrating deep into enemy territory, all kinds of unpredictable situations can occur."
"They might encounter circumstances they aren't equipped to handle."
"And without a properly coordinated team capable of compensating for their weaknesses, sending them would carry too much risk."
After hearing Fugaku's explanation, Uchiha Shū nodded in realization.
Then he puffed out his chest proudly.
"Sure enough, the Uchiha Clan is still the most versatile and powerful!"
Fugaku glanced at him.
Good.
He bought it.
What Fugaku naturally had no intention of telling them was that Orochimaru's real reason for choosing their squad was entirely different.
Whether it was Fugaku's Chidori or Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique, both possessed exceptional speed and explosive offensive power.
They were ideal for sudden assaults.
And assassination.
In other words...
Orochimaru had selected them precisely because they possessed the tools necessary to kill Kumogakure's living weapon of war.
The Eight-Tails' jinchūriki.
Fortunately, the assassination portion of the mission was not mandatory.
Fugaku had absolutely no intention of fighting the Eight-Tails head-on.
Against something that terrifying, Fugaku genuinely believed that defeating it would probably require him to nearly blind himself in the process.
And his Mangekyō Sharingan possessed limited ocular power.
There was no way he intended to waste it here.
Thus, Fugaku had deliberately kept the assassination objective hidden from his teammates.
All he had told them was that they were investigating Kumogakure's forces and deployment.
In fact, if he had not been worried that Orochimaru might later question him about specific details, Fugaku would have preferred to simply wander around the forest with his squad for a while and then return.
After all, having watched the original story, Fugaku already knew perfectly well that the Eight-Tails' jinchūriki, Killer Bee, had arrived on this battlefield.
Unfortunately...
There was an old saying.
The more you fear something, the more likely it is to happen.
And that saying perfectly described Fugaku's current situation.
Because his squad had run directly into...
The Eight-Tails' jinchūriki.
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