“Aaargh!” “Enemy attack!!” “Enemies!
Get up!
We’re under attack!!” The explosions in the residential area instantly shattered the night’s silence, followed by a chorus of screams, shouts of panic, and blaring alarms.
Even the dullest Kirigakure ninja in town had to realize what was happening by now!
A flood of ninjas burst out of the nearby buildings.
“Who is it?
Who’s there?!” Woken from his sleep with a foul mood, one ninja shouted furiously and charged straight into the inferno.
Within moments, he uttered a brief shriek and withered into a mummified corpse, which Pakura casually tossed aside.
“Execute the plan!” Pakura’s group had also prepared a meticulous plan, believing it to be foolproof—even their trap just now had been crafted with extreme precision.
Yet a moment later, a sudden roar of explosions from several hundred meters away caught them completely off guard!
Far away at the docks, Tomoe couldn’t see the exact situation in town due to the distance, nor did he know about the unexpected turn of events.
Seeing the towering flames of the explosion, he subconsciously assumed the two Uchiha in his squad had begun their assault.
Naturally following the plan, he detonated all the Explosive Tags set around the ships, instantly setting all four three-masted sailing vessels at the berths ablaze!
One ship was blown cleanly in two; its snapped mast collapsed to the side, crushing the connected wooden boardwalk and completely severing any hope of salvage!
As for the other three ships, guards were posted nearby, so Tomoe hadn’t dared to sneak aboard to plant tags.
The remotely thrown Explosive Tags failed to destroy the ships outright, but the resulting fires quickly swallowed the sails and rigging!
Seeing this, the few remaining Kirigakure guards surged with murderous intent.
Drawing their shinobi tools and weaving hand seals, they immediately gave chase to the intruder in the water!
Thus, following the violent explosions, roaring water dragons and massive waves rose from the sea.
Standing amidst the crumbling ruins of the town, gazing at the churned-up waters in the distance, Sunagakure’s Pakura was left utterly dumbfounded.
“What’s going on?
Is someone else attacking this place at the same time?” What she didn’t know was that just two seconds ago, Inaba Hyuga had harbored the exact same thought.
Both sides believed they possessed a flawless plan.
Both had successfully infiltrated the town early on, executing the first half perfectly.
But when two perfect plans collided through sheer coincidence, the result was utter chaos.
Both sides were completely bewildered.
At the same time, both of their plans were thrown into disarray.
First and foremost, Inaba Hyuga and the Uchiha duo were accidentally exposed!
Moments ago, in order to quickly stop Shisui and Kou from rushing into the rigged room, Inaba Hyuga had used the Body Flicker Jutsu to streak across the sky above the town.
Conspicuous against the night sky, he was swiftly spotted by the startled Kirigakure ninja.
“Over there!
Catch them!!” By now, a crowd of Kirigakure ninja was rapidly closing in.
Inaba Hyuga acted decisively, rapidly weaving hand seals.
“Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!” Completing the seals in less than a second, a violent teal gale erupted from the ground!
The intense wind pressure blew away the thick smoke and pushed down the raging flames— Instantly exposing Pakura’s group and their puppets in the ruins right under the clear moonlight!
“There are more over there!
They’re Sunagakure puppet masters!
Kill them!!” With their positions exposed, Kirigakure had no intention of letting them go either.
This sudden turn caught Pakura completely off guard.
She glared at Inaba Hyuga in the distance, dragged her thumb across her neck in a throat-slitting gesture, and spat fiercely on the ground.
But Inaba Hyuga was entirely unmoved.
In a mess like this, it was every man for himself.
Even if he guessed the Sunagakure group might share the same goal, he wouldn’t hesitate to throw them under the bus when needed.
Besides, Sunagakure and Konoha were still enemies at this point in time, so calling it a betrayal was a stretch anyway.
“Let me!” After using Wind Style to spotlight the enemies for Kirigakure, Inaba Hyuga grabbed Shisui Uchiha and prepared to make a quick retreat.
But just as he moved, a dense rain of Senbon launched from a puppet flew straight at them!
*Clang!
Clang!
Clang!* Inaba Hyuga had thrown away his short sword earlier, but this time Shisui Uchiha drew his kunai in time, parrying all the thrown projectiles.
“Trying to run?
It won’t be that easy!
Stay and enjoy the party with us, Konoha brats!” The one blocking them was none other than the puppet master accompanying Pakura.
Both sides shared a startlingly unified goal: each wanted the other to stay behind and stall Kirigakure’s main force so they could escape first.
Everyone wanted to use the other side as a meat shield, and nobody wanted to be the scapegoat!
Thus, both groups were forced to fend off the surrounding Kirigakure ninja while constantly seizing every opportunity to throw low blows and backstab their temporary “allies.” “Damn it!
Sunagakure scumbags, I’ll tear you apart!!” Kou Uchiha, short-tempered to begin with, was already seeing red.
Luckily, Inaba Hyuga held him back in time.
“Stay calm!
Believe in Anko and Rinfu!” He was reminding Kou Uchiha that they still had teammates—don’t panic, it wasn’t a desperate situation yet.
In a battle of wits like this, losing one’s head was the quickest way to fall.
The three of them leaped rapidly between buildings.
By now, Inaba Hyuga had retrieved his short sword.
Leaping down from a high ledge, he executed a downward slash enveloped in vivid blue lightning, neatly executing a Kirigakure ninja.
Yet a moment later, the click of a spring mechanism sounded near his feet, and a tricky poisoned needle flew out from his blind spot.
Fortunately, the flawless Byakugan had no blind spots.
Sensing the needle, he leaned back and turned sideways in the nick of time, narrowly dodging the blow.
Kirigakure ninja rarely specialized in traps and poison; without a doubt, this was another trick from the Sunagakure puppet master.
“Fuck!” Having just urged his teammate to stay calm, he now felt like cursing up a storm himself.
This chaotic clash of wits and brawn was truly infuriating!
All they could do now was trust that things were going smoothly on Anko and Rinfu Gekko’s end.
Trust first, and keep trusting!
In reality, however, Anko and Rinfu Gekko weren’t faring much better.
Once the situation derailed, the entire port town devolved into complete pandemonium!
The sheer scale of the chaos made infiltrating the area agonizingly difficult.
The little snake on Anko’s shoulder was hissing non-stop, driving her crazy with annoyance.
There was no choice—there was simply too much intelligence to convey amidst such chaos.
Unable to stand it any longer, Anko yanked the little snake off her shoulder, tied it into a knot, and tossed it into her tool pouch.
The snake felt deeply hurt—before the mission started, *you* were the one who told us to pass on any intel immediately, and now after just a few sentences, you get annoyed?
Fortunately, with Rinfu Gekko clearing the path, though their journey was rocky, they managed to proceed without major incident.
But just as they were about to sneak all the way to the shipwrights’ quarters, disaster struck!
*BOOM!* “Watch out!” Rinfu Gekko pulled Anko back just in time.
Right ahead of them, another battle had broken out ahead of schedule—at a time and place completely beyond their expectations!