Spies were an unavoidable reality for all the major ninja villages. They were far more detested than enemies on the frontline battlefield because their job strictly involved stabbing people in the back.
Captured spies inevitably suffered the most miserable and gruesome fates imaginable.
But no matter how much they hated and stressed over it, completely defending against spies was impossible.
Therefore, while conducting strict background checks to root out infiltrators, each nation simultaneously engaged in a much more effective defensive strategy: planting even more of their own spies in enemy countries.
The best defense is a good offense, after all. If you stab me once, and I stab you twice, then I win.
Did the Hidden Stone have Hidden Cloud spies within its walls? Undoubtedly. How could they not?
Because of this, it was impossible for the Cloud to be completely blind to the Stone's upcoming military offensive. Even if their spies couldn't secure the exact operational details, they certainly weren't blind.
However, absolutely no one could have predicted that the Third Tsuchikage would go all-in like this. The Hidden Stone was practically emptying its entire village.
Ten thousand ninjas mobilized simultaneously... Kamishiro Hagoromo's first thought was that his mission was officially doomed. With the Stone fielding this many troops, the Cloud couldn't possibly ignore the threat. The total scale of the resulting war could easily exceed fifteen thousand combatants.
In the ninja world, this would classify as peak of the Great War. Battles involving this many ninjas clashing simultaneously could be counted on one hand.
To repel this many enemies, the Cloud would have to deploy at least 5,000 ninjas, right? Using a strategy of half-strength to strike full-strength was already terrifying and incredibly bold. As for Jiraiya's previous assessment that the Cloud would only deploy an elite strike force—unimaginable. That was likely completely unfeasible now.
His second thought was that if the Stone deployed a force of this magnitude, their home defenses would be hollowed out. Because of this, the Third Tsuchikage would highly likely stay behind to guard the village rather than marching to the battlefield.
This meant the overall command of the Hidden Stone's army wasn't in the hands of the Tsuchikage.
Then who was it? Was it really Kitsuchi? Kamishiro had no way of knowing.
Ten thousand Hidden Stone ninjas marched out in full force. Logically speaking, as the size of an army increases, its marching speed should drastically decrease. But reality defied logic. The Hidden Stone ninjas moved like a sweeping gale.
They set out from the Hidden Stone at dawn, and within two days, they reached the Land of Waterfalls. It was practically faster than a ninja traveling solo!
Well, to be fair, an army of this size didn't have to worry about getting ambushed, so they didn't need to move with extreme caution.
No matter what stood in their way, they could just bulldoze right through it.
Who had the capability to ambush 10,000 ninjas? By all means, come and try.
At the very least, none of the small nations bordering the Land of Earth had that capability.
In fact, when the ten thousand Hidden Stone ninjas arrived in the Land of Waterfalls, the entire country practically pissed itself in terror. Fortunately, the Stone ninjas completely ignored them.
On the third day, the Hidden Stone army crossed through the Land of Waterfalls and arrived in the Land of Frost.
Then, they launched an amphibious assault from the Land of Frost. On the fourth day, they officially set foot on the soil of the Land of Lightning!
This marching speed could only be described as striking like lightning. If the Hidden Cloud received the intel too late, or if they underestimated the Stone's marching speed, they wouldn't have time to set up many of their defenses.
As for choosing to travel by sea, that was simply the only viable option. If they had chosen a land route to invade the Land of Lightning, it wouldn't be an invasion; it would devolve into a three-way meat grinder.
Because taking a land route would force the Stone to pass through the Land of Sound. And right now, the frontlines between Konoha and the Cloud were deeply entrenched and heavily contested within the Land of Sound.
The Stone's objective was to strike the Cloud's soft underbelly, not to get bogged down in a three-way war where everyone was beating each other's brains out.
Almost simultaneously, the Hidden Cloud and Jiraiya received the same piece of intel—intel so absurd it sounded fake, yet was entirely real: Ten thousand Hidden Stone ninjas had already invaded the Land of Lightning!
Jiraiya was absolutely dumbfounded. Wait, this wasn't right. Who in their right mind would have guessed the stakes would be so high? This, this... Sage of Six Paths, please protect Hagoromo.
Sharing a name has to count for something, right?
However, regardless of the situation, Konoha had to stick to the established strategy and begin operations to facilitate the Stone's invasion!
And so, the Konoha frontlines launched an almost full-scale mobilization!
Back to Kamishiro. He stayed within his assigned squad, moving with the main army. However, after entering the Land of Lightning, the Hidden Stone encountered absolutely zero effective resistance.
After successfully crossing the sea, they rested and resupplied briefly on the coast before immediately resuming their march. Right now, they were practically steamrolling straight toward the Hidden Cloud Village.
Where was the Cloud's resistance? Why wasn't there any?
His original mission parameters were as follows:
If the Raikage was not among the Cloud's interception forces, it was highly likely they wouldn't be able to withstand the Stone's offensive. Once the tide of battle favored the invading Stone forces, he was to find an opportunity to disengage from the battlefield. The mission would end there.
If the Third Raikage actually took to the field, his mission became much simpler and far more direct: assassinate the Raikage.
So he was an assassin. A killer in the shadows. A true ninja. A genuine badass.
Even if the mission hadn't explicitly required it, he would have chosen assassination anyway. Clash head-on with the Raikage? Sorry, he wasn't a battle-crazed maniac. That thought genuinely hadn't crossed his mind.
Of course, assassinating the Raikage wasn't the end goal; it was just a means to an end. The core objective of the mission was to fundamentally tip the scales of this war.
Simply put, since the Stone wanted to invade the Land of Lightning and wipe out the Cloud's home base, then Konoha's goal was to make sure they could actually do it. Whether they succeeded in wiping them out or not was secondary; the primary goal was to ensure they reached the Hidden Cloud Village.
Just imagine thousands upon thousands of Hidden Stone ninjas surging into the Hidden Cloud Village... Regardless of the outcome, would the Cloud have any capacity left to continue fighting the wider war?
But now that the Hidden Stone was playing for such impossibly high stakes, he honestly figured that events were no longer going to unfold according to Konoha's initial predictions.
Plans never keep up with changes. Fine, he should just start figuring out his escape route.
But Kamishiro was yet again wrong. Dead wrong.
Four hours later, the main body of the Hidden Stone army clashed with the Hidden Cloud's interception force.
It was a force. Although it consisted of exactly one person, looking back on the aftermath, calling him an entire military force was entirely accurate.
The lightning bolt scar across his chest, the Lightning tattoo on his right shoulder, the stable, completely impenetrable Lightning Style Chakra Mode, and the volatile, crackling electricity surging around him—no descriptions were needed.
The vanguard ninjas instantly recognized this man's identity.
The Third Raikage, A.
Because the Hidden Stone's marching formation was stretched too thin, a bottom-feeder like Yoshida naturally wasn't assigned to the vanguard combat units. He was stationed near the rear. So even though he heard the commotion up ahead, Kamishiro couldn't get a clear read on the situation.
But the intel quickly filtered back through the ranks.
Enemy encountered ahead.
There is one, and exactly one, enemy.
It is the Third Raikage.
The Hidden Stone ninjas were ecstatic. Wasn't this just the Raikage hand-delivering his own head?
Kamishiro on the other hand was completely baffled. Was this a joke? What happened to the main army? The elite strike force? The Raikage was out here completely solo? A 1-vs-10,000 match? Even the Third Hokage wouldn't have the sheer audacity to pull a stunt like this, right?
He probably wouldn't have to lift a finger to complete his mission. The Raikage was going to get focus-fired and instantly deleted, right?
It had to be said, Kamishiro Hagoromo's understanding of the creature known as a ninja was still incredibly shallow.
The sounds of combat continually rolled back toward him. Very quickly, the excitement among the Stone ninjas evaporated, because they realized things weren't that simple.
The enemy was nowhere near as easy to deal with as they had imagined.
This was going to be a bloodbath!
Once the Hidden Stone's combat formations fully deployed and spread out, he finally caught sight of the surrounded Third Raikage.
Or rather, the Third Raikage who had actively charged straight into the center of the enemy formation.
And the carpet of dismembered corpses beneath his feet.
The Raikage moved with blinding speed, his actions brutal, kicking up a massive storm of dust and debris around him.
He seemed to only use two techniques: the Ultimate Shield—the Lightning Style Chakra Mode, and the Ultimate Spear—the Hell Stab.
Yet every single Hidden Stone ninja that swarmed him was practically insta-killed.
Kamishiro Hagoromo watched, utterly dumbfounded.
The Third Raikage looked like a muscle-bound brute...
But at this exact moment, he could only be described with poetry:
His steps skimm'd the waves, and his fists shook the earth!
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