For reasons unknown, Pakura, despite acting alone, made her incursion into the Land of Rain remarkably conspicuous. After being surrounded by Hidden Rain ninja, she not only refused to retreat, but instead fought back tenaciously.
No one knew her reasoning. By common sense, no matter how powerful a ninja was, invading another country with such aggressive intent was practically courting death. And Pakura wasn't strong enough to justify that level of recklessness—was she?
Unless… her mission was to draw the attention of Amegakure as much as possible.
Regardless, her intrusion objectively made Hagoromo Squad's escape from the Land of Rain far easier.
Along the way, the Hidden Rain's scattered reconnaissance teams had already converged, rapidly advancing toward the site where the battle had erupted.
Pakura's actions, combined with Akatsuki's movements, plunged the Rain–Fire border region into utter chaos overnight.
But none of that had much to do with Hagoromo's team anymore. The battlefield had long since been left behind. No matter how hard the four strained their eyes or ears, they could no longer perceive any disturbance from that direction.
Under cover of night, the Split Hound ran like a massive carnivorous canine—well, because that's exactly what it was—carrying the four swiftly onward.
The likelihood of Hagoromo's team encountering enemy units organized in four-man cells had dropped sharply. The Hidden Rain ninja had shifted from a dispersed net to concentrated formations, which greatly reduced their effective control area. This worked in Hagoromo's favor as they fled the Land of Rain.
Even so, Hagoromo remained cautious, wary of charging headlong into a medium-sized enemy force formed by those converging units.
Still, after sprinting at full speed for several hours, the squad had completely exited Amegakure's core control zone. From here on out, the chances of encountering danger were almost nonexistent.
The Land of Fire was right ahead.
"Judging by the original reconnaissance objectives, our squad has completed this mission perfectly," Hagoromo said, patting his chest, where the intelligence map was hidden.
In truth, even losing the map wouldn't have mattered—most of the information was already etched into his memory.
"And the cost was within acceptable limits…"
That remark earned a roll of the eyes from the half-crippled Asuma, who happened to be the one paying that "acceptable" price.
Kurenai Yūhi and Yamashiro Aoba nodded in agreement. They shared Hagoromo's assessment.
Initially, the infiltration mission had been classified as B-rank. If everything had gone smoothly—with no enemy contact—then B-rank would have been accurate.
But in reality, the squad had encountered the Fūma Clan, then Pakura herself. As for Akatsuki—since no actual battle had taken place, they were temporarily excluded from the evaluation. Even so, the mission realistically qualified as A-rank.
From that perspective, completing the mission at the cost of one member suffering some external injuries and a few broken bones was still a good deal.
At the very least, for their first major mission, no one in Hagoromo Squad had died.
"As for Pakura's objective… we have no way of knowing now. In the mission report, we'll just submit intelligence confirming her appearance along the Rain–Fire border."
Hagoromo couldn't—and shouldn't—offer his own conclusions about Pakura's goal.
Without concrete evidence, a ninja was not permitted to speculate. Determining Pakura's true objective was a matter for higher-ups with access to broader intelligence.
In fact, Hagoromo no longer cared much about Pakura for a more pressing reason—he suspected she had already been dealt with by Nagato and the others, assuming she had overestimated herself and attacked the so-called pacifists head-on.
As for their encounter with Akatsuki, Hagoromo could only report the surface-level facts. Any deeper intelligence was impossible to explain—simply because he couldn't justify its source.
If he reported those details, questions would arise immediately. After just a brief encounter, how did he know so much? For example, no one had even mentioned the name Akatsuki. How did he know it?
What—because he glanced at them once in the crowd and never forgot their faces?
Say that to Konoha's Intelligence Division?
They were in the middle of a world war—who was joking with whom? One careless step, and Hagoromo himself might be labeled a spy and disposed of.
So what could be said—and what absolutely could not—had to be carefully considered.
That said, judging by the squad's casual conversation, it was clear the surroundings were no longer particularly dangerous.
Moreover, Hagoromo was still maintaining vigilance. In theory, if danger appeared, he would sense it in advance.
In theory…
The sky had begun to brighten. Light filtered through gaps in the forest ahead.
"Attention. We'll be leaving the forest's cover next, and within a few minutes we'll exit the Land of Rain and cross the border back into the Land of Fi—"
Before Hagoromo could finish, the Split Hound came to an abrupt halt, then was violently flung away as if out of control.
The forest echoed with furious roars from all three of its heads.
A silvery weapon—shaped like a whip, yet resembling a segmented, jointed creature—lashed out in an instant, binding the Split Hound mid-sprint.
The massive summon was seized as though by an even larger hand, gripped tightly, and then hurled aside.
The four riders were thrown as well.
Relying on his reflexes, Hagoromo was able to look after himself. Faced with the sudden ambush, he leapt into the air, tucked his body, adjusted his posture, and landed safely.
Even as he touched down, he had already identified the direction of the attack—and locked his gaze onto it.
As for the other three, at worst they had simply taken a hard fall. Asuma would likely suffer secondary injuries. The enemy's primary target had clearly been the Split Hound itself, and the fact that a summon driven by primal instincts hadn't even managed to react spoke volumes about the attacker's speed.
A short figure emerged slowly from the forest shadows, step by step, entering Hagoromo's field of vision.
In that instant, Hagoromo finally understood why a ninja like Pakura had abandoned the main battlefield and come to the Land of Rain during the conflict.
Naturally, it had been for a mission.
And now, her mission target stood right in front of him.
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