Inside Mistrain City, Arau—the Minister of the Ame Anbu—was feeling a surge of predatory excitement. He had set his sights on capturing or killing Nawaki to secure a greater seat of power within the Hidden Rain's hierarchy, and it seemed his gamble was paying off.
He had just received word: a four-man squad led by a Chunin had gone missing.
The target was definitely operating in the vicinity of Mistrain City. He had come to the right place.
"Lord Arau."
Just as he was preparing to mobilize his elite Anbu units for a large-scale dragnet, an operative wearing an abstract "Rain" mask flickered into existence before him.
"What is it?" Arau asked, his voice laced with irritation. Glory was practically within his grasp; he didn't appreciate the interruption.
"Lord Hanzo has issued a high-priority order. You are to abandon all current tasks and lead the entire Anbu force back to the village immediately."
Hiss.
Arau, who had expected some trivial administrative matter, sucked in a sharp breath of cold air. The temperature in the room seemed to drop as he absorbed the gravity of the command.
"What happened?!"
Knowing Hanzo's temper, he didn't dare ignore the order, but a part of him was screaming in protest. Nawaki was right there—he could almost reach out and snatch the boy. He wanted to know what kind of emergency could make Hanzo this tense. Perhaps he could squeeze out just enough time to finish the job.
"Orochimaru led the Konoha forces in a surprise raid on the Suna base. The camp was overrun in a single night. Casualties are catastrophic. Suna has been broken."
The Anbu messenger, usually a pillar of cold indifference, was visibly shaken. His voice trembled with a trace of terror.
"Suna has been completely driven out of the Land of Rain."
Hiss! Hiss hiss hiss!
The atmosphere in the room turned from cold to scorched in an instant. Beside Arau, the other ninja present were all gasping like fish out of water, the air leaving their lungs as the shock hit them.
As some of the few surviving elites of the Hidden Rain, they understood exactly what this news meant.
"Order all units to cease the hunt for Nawaki Senju immediately!" Arau, showing why he was the head of the Anbu, was the first to regain his composure. He barked orders to the room. "Have everyone pull back and hole up inside Mistrain City!"
"Lord Arau?!" Akimae, the Commander of the Mistrain City Garrison, stood frozen in shock. He looked at Arau with a mix of confusion and indignation. "Are we really just going to throw away this opportunity?"
"You moron!"
Arau, fueled by his own boiling frustration and disappointment, delivered a brutal kick that sent Akimae flying. The commander was pinned against the wall like a human poster.
"An opportunity? You want to give Konoha an 'opportunity' to wage a war of total annihilation out of pure rage?!"
Having vented his fury, Arau didn't spare a second glance for the unconscious Akimae. He vanished in a swirl of movement, followed closely by the Anbu messenger, as they raced back toward the Hidden Rain Village.
"Commander! Commander!"
The other squad leaders, who had been silent as tombstone, finally rushed to Akimae's side, carefully "peeling" their boss off the cracked wall.
Regret.
Hanzo of the Salamander couldn't even count how many times that feeling had bubbled up in his chest over the last few hours.
His Anbu scouts had reported the movements of Suna and Konoha long ago. But out of his habitual caution, he had assumed Orochimaru was merely posturing—bluffing to intimidate Suna while trying to bait the Hidden Rain.
He never imagined the man would actually have the gall to leave his own base defenseless, marching his entire Jonin force and eighty percent of his troops through the night to strike a Suna camp that had been stripped of its elite protection.
Orochimaru had read Hanzo's paranoia like an open book. He had pushed all his chips into the center of the table and gone "All-In."
And Hanzo? He had lost his nerve. He was too afraid to even test Orochimaru's hand, choosing to fold instead. Now, Orochimaru had swept the pot, kicked Suna off the table entirely, and emerged as the ultimate winner.
It left Hanzo and the Hidden Rain in an incredibly vulnerable, reactive position.
Of course, as the "God" of the Hidden Rain, Hanzo would never admit he had made a mistake. After all, how could a god be wrong?
"Damn it... it's all because of those idiots under me," he thought bitterly. "If they had been more insistent, I would have at least made a move to spook Orochimaru and keep him in check. But the moment I barked at them, they all tucked their tails and ran. Do they really think I'd have executed them just for standing their ground?!"
In Hanzo's mind, the fault lay squarely with his "incompetent" Jonin, and with those "Spirit Breakers" in Suna who were stupid enough to leave their base empty just to chase after Tsunade. Because of their blunders, he was the one suffering the consequences.
No matter how much he cursed his subordinates or Suna's idiocy, it did nothing to resolve the crisis. Hanzo turned his piercing, judgmental gaze back toward the dozen or so Ame Jonin gathered in the hall.
"You are all aware of the situation. Now, speak up. How do we respond to this?"
But the Jonin, who usually didn't dare speak even on trivial matters, were even more terrified now that the very survival of the village was at stake. They stood in stony silence.
"Hmph! Arau, you first."
Watching his men try to play ostrich, Hanzo let out a low growl and began pointing fingers. Unfortunately for Arau—who had been the last to arrive and was therefore the most visible—he was the first victim.
Arau, still catching his breath from his sprint back to the village, felt a wave of misery wash over him as the "God's" gaze locked on him. He could hear the barely suppressed rage in Hanzo's voice and knew he couldn't stay silent. He scrambled for ideas, using filler words to buy himself heartbeats of time.
"Lord Hanzo... I think... uh, I believe... that is to say, I suspect... cough."
As Hanzo's face grew darker and the threat of an explosion loomed—while his political rivals in the room began to smirk in anticipation of his failure—Arau gritted his teeth and took a leap into the unknown.
"I believe that beyond simply making peace with Konoha... we should consider an alliance."
The room went deathly quiet. After a brief, stunned silence, the hall exploded into a cacophony of protest.
"An alliance?!" "Arau, have you lost your mind?" "We've sacrificed so much! What would an alliance with the Leaf even mean for our fallen?" "We'd become a target for Suna and Iwa immediately!"
"SILENCE! QUIET!"
The proposal was so unpopular that even Hanzo had to shout twice before the room settled.
"Arau," Hanzo said, his voice surprisingly calm. "Explain yourself. What is your logic?"
To the shock of every other Jonin in the room, Hanzo actually sounded interested.
Arau, who had immediately regretted the words the moment they left his mouth, felt his eyes light up. Is there a path forward after all?