Lightning War! The Advancing Hidden Rain!

Another month passed in the blink of an eye.

At the entrance to Amegakure, three thousand Rain Shinobi had assembled and stood ready. Not a single one was a Genin; all of them were elite shinobi at Chunin level or above.

"We depart now. Half will follow me to the Rain-Wind Border, while the other half will follow Heiji and Kamuda to the Rain-Fire Border. Launch the surprise attack precisely at eight o'clock on the evening of September 18. Make sure to eliminate every single one of their border guards!" Hanzō appeared before everyone in a Body Flicker and shouted his orders.

He then turned to Heiji and Kamuda, who stood behind him, and said, "Tell everyone not to conserve Chakra. They can recover after eliminating all the Konoha Ninja. Do not let any information leak out. Contact each other through the salamanders whenever there is any progress!"

"Rest assured, sir!" Heiji and Kamuda, Hanzō of the Salamander's right- and left-hand men, answered loudly.

"Dismissed!" At Hanzō's command, the mass of elite Rain Shinobi swiftly departed in two different directions.

Near the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire, Kamuda and Heiji had already made their preparations, with fifteen hundred Rain Shinobi behind them.

Meanwhile, Konoha's border defense forces had no idea that danger was about to descend upon them. The only orders sent from the village were for them to maintain the status quo.

As the current leader of the shinobi world and the victor of the First Great Shinobi War, Konoha interpreted Hanzō's recent actions as nothing more than a display of military might.

Although the clouds of war already hung heavily over the shinobi world, and Konoha had prepared to go to war with the other major shinobi villages at any time while reinforcing defenses along the borders of the major nations, they had never imagined that Amegakure, a tiny insignificant nation, would dare to be the first to tug at Konoha's tiger whiskers and become the first shinobi village to strike.

When the clock reached eight, three signal flares shot into the sky, and Amegakure's shinobi launched their surprise attack on the Land of Fire's border defense forces right on schedule.

"Water Release: Water Surge Wave!"

Over a hundred Chunin-level Rain Shinobi formed hand seals together, creating a terrifying body of water. Violent Chakra fluctuations filled the entire Rain-Fire Border.

"Not good, enemy attack!" Konoha finally realized something was wrong. The shinobi on duty quickly shouted a warning and prepared to send a signal that they had come under attack.

But it was already too late. The Rain Shinobi's next wave of attacks followed immediately.

"Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"

This was an A-rank Water Release jointly unleashed by all of the Rain Shinobi's Jonin. Water Release ninjutsu possessed one crucial characteristic: its power could increase along with the volume of water.

With the Water Surge Wave having laid the groundwork, combined with the joint casting of numerous Jonin, the A-rank Great Waterfall Technique erupted with power far beyond that of an ordinary S-rank ninjutsu.

Towering waves surged across the Rain-Fire Border at tremendous speed, racing toward the Konoha Ninja and creating a scene on land comparable to a tsunami.

The densely packed Rain Shinobi followed closely behind the waves they had created, rapidly running across the water as they advanced into the Land of Fire.

The Konoha defense forces stationed along the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain, under the tactical guidance of Konoha's two Wolong and Fengchu, had practically no defenses against Amegakure's surprise attack.

Under Amegakure's near-saturation strike, they were completely wiped out. The Konoha border defense forces on the Rain-Fire Border were swept away in a single wave by the Rain Shinobi.

"Chunin, sweep the battlefield immediately! Sensor Ninja, increase the range of your senses. Make absolutely sure not a single fish slips through the net!" Kamuda ordered loudly. "Everyone else, recover your Chakra at once. I'll contact Lord Hanzō for further instructions."

"Summoning Technique!"

Kamuda formed hand seals and summoned a small salamander. He quickly wrote the situation on a scroll and placed it in the salamander's mouth.

Not long afterward, Kamuda sensed a disturbance in the contract. He once again used the Summoning Technique to summon the salamander and retrieved a scroll from its mouth.

After opening the scroll, Kamuda rapidly read through Hanzō's orders, then called over Heiji, who was meditating nearby to recover his Chakra.

"Lord Hanzō's latest orders are for the troops to split into two groups. You and I will each lead one group and swiftly occupy every town in the Land of Fire near our border!" Kamuda said as he handed the scroll to Heiji.

After taking the scroll and confirming its contents, Heiji said to Kamuda, "Very well. We'll begin in five minutes. Let them recover a little more Chakra first."

The border of the Land of Wind faced the same situation as the Land of Fire. Although Third Kazekage Iron Sand had raised his guard and strengthened the border defenses due to Hanzō's previous actions, Hanzō had personally taken action on this front. Sunagakure's border defense forces were completely annihilated by the Rain Shinobi in just twenty minutes.

On September 19 of Mist Hidden Year 34, every town along the Land of Wind's and Land of Fire's borders facing the Land of Rain had fallen. Less than a day had passed since the surprise attack began at eight o'clock on the evening of the 18th.

Through his actions and success, Hanzō taught the entire shinobi world a lesson called blitzkrieg.