Once Koubachi fell, the fate of the few remaining Kamizuru survivors—and indeed, the future of the entire clan—was effectively sealed.
The moment their matriarch went down, Kagebachi and the four remaining Chunin lost their resolve. They detonated every remaining bee in a desperate frenzy, releasing a thick, toxic mist to cover their retreat.
Unfortunately for them, Hatani—who was still fuming over having another "elite mob" stolen—had no intention of letting this final opportunity slip away.
With a wave of his hand, a violent gale dispersed the poisonous smoke instantly. Under the relentless pursuit of two high-speed specialists like Sakumo Hatake and Hatani, Kagebachi—already a jittery mess from Sakumo's previous strikes—lasted only two more passes before the White Fang pierced his heart. As for the remaining Chunin, seeing that escape was impossible and fearing capture, they chose to take their own lives to follow their leaders into the afterlife.
The Kamizuru clan was, for all intents and purposes, a thing of the past.
Wiping out two Iwa squads without a single casualty felt perfectly natural to Sakumo and the Namikaze brothers; after their previous battles, they had a solid grasp of each other's capabilities.
However, for the newly joined Nonou Yakushi, the experience was a series of shocks.
She had expected the legendary White Fang to be powerful, but the sheer combat prowess of Minato and Hatani—two Chunin barely thirteen or fourteen years old—vastly exceeded her expectations. While she still didn't know Danzo's true motive for having her monitor Hatani, her internal anxiety regarding the mission had lessened significantly.
After collecting the bodies, meticulously looting any useful items, and sealing the spoils into scrolls, the team abandoned the rest of the patrol and headed straight back to the main camp.
The appearance of the Kamizuru meant that Iwagakure had likely deployed numerous scouting parties to gather intel and sow chaos. This had to be reported immediately. Furthermore, the corpses held immense strategic value.
Konoha's strength was comprehensive (excluding that specific department). The Intelligence Division could extract a wealth of information from corpses—sometimes even reading the lingering memories in a brain that hadn't completely shut down. This would be invaluable for gauging Iwa's next move.
Hatani, however, cared little for the politics of intel. His mind was entirely submerged in the System.
Though Sakumo and Minato had successive "stolen" the two big boss kills—leaving him with a measly 197-gold payout for a lone Chunin—he had made a killing on the small fries. Both enemy squads had been insect users.
Even though the bees were only worth 1 gold coin each, he had mowed down over a thousand of them. If he were back in his previous world, he probably would have been a top target for animal rights activists.
By the end of the skirmish, he had racked up over 1,500 gold. His total was now approaching 4,000—enough to meet the requirement to unlock Juggernaut.
However, Hatani was a man of his word. Since he had already used the Blade of Alacrity to secure Sakumo's promise for kenjutsu instruction, he suppressed the urge to unlock a new hero and turned his gaze toward the item shop.
Today's events had been a wake-up call. As skirmishes with Iwa became more frequent, a full-scale war was imminent. Unlocking Juggernaut wasn't urgent; his priority was buying a few survival items from the System.
When it came to survival items in Dota, the classic trio was Eul's Scepter of Divinity, the Force Staff, and the Ghost Scepter.
But reality wasn't a game. He wasn't entirely sure how effective these items would be in the hands of a ninja.
Take the Eul's Scepter (commonly known as the "Cyclone"). In-game, it could toss yourself or an enemy into the air for 2.5 seconds, providing invulnerability while airborne. But in the real world, being spun in the air might just make you a stationary target for a prepared attack. As for enemies, many could break out of a gale using Body Flicker, Substitution, or—in the case of human tanks like the Raikage—sheer physical strength. At a steep price of 2,725 gold, he didn't want to gamble on whether "game logic" would hold up in reality.
The Force Staff (the "Push-stick") felt even more lackluster. Unlike the Blink Dagger, the push had a visible trajectory. Given what he'd observed of shinobi combat over the last twelve years, he felt a "push" was probably inferior to a high-level Body Flicker. For a ninja like Sakumo or Minato, a Push-stick was just a toy. At 2,200 gold, it wasn't cheap enough to ignore the drawbacks.
So, after ruling those out, his eyes landed on the Ghost Scepter (the "Green Staff").
This item allowed the user to enter a "Ghost Form," becoming immune to all physical attacks but taking 40% extra magic damage.
At first glance, it seemed to contradict his Windrun ability, but that wasn't the case. It all came down to the definition of damage.
In a game, almost all ninjutsu would be considered magic damage. If that were true here, the Ghost Scepter wouldn't just be useless—it would be a death trap.
But in the real world, aside from Fire and Lightning, he viewed Wind, Earth, and Water as primarily physical in nature. This was especially true for Iwa's Earth Style. Their favorite attacks—Earth Flow Spears, Stone Pillar Spears, Bedrock Coffin—relied on the sharpness of stone or the crushing weight of mass.
His Windrun mode couldn't block a giant boulder, but the Ghost Scepter would allow him to perfectly ignore such physical manifestations.
The only issue was explaining it. Explaining a Blink Dagger as a variation of the Flying Raijin was one thing, but no known ninjutsu achieved the effect of a Ghost Scepter. If he were caught using it, even Hiruzen Sarutobi would be intensely curious. At that point, caught between the gaze of the Hokage and Danzo, he might just end up as a default test subject for Orochimaru's experiments.
While Hatani was lost in his tactical dilemma, Team Sakumo reached the outskirts of the main camp.
To their surprise, the camp—which had been relatively calm when they left—was now a hive of activity. The noise of a massive crowd reached them from a distance.
If Sakumo hadn't had absolute faith in Hiruzen's leadership, he might have feared the camp had been breached. Even so, the four of them were dying to know what had happened during the few hours they were gone.
As Hatani and Minato stepped into the camp, their eyes landed on a familiar back in the distance. Their faces instantly lit up with surprise and joy.
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