Konoha's Enemy

"Konoha's moving pretty fast. It's only been a few days, and they've already sent in spies."

Uchiha An finished his treatment for the day, grinned, and leaped down from the High Tower, heading toward the direction Pain had pointed out.

There was nothing Uchiha An loved more than killing Konoha shinobi. He could play that game all day.

Rain continued to patter from the sky. Everyone on the streets wore rain capes and broad-brimmed hats, their faces hidden in the shadows beneath the brims as they mingled with the crowds. They were indeed hard to spot.

But unfortunately, the Land of Rain didn't rely on eyes to catch spies!

Under the Rain Tiger At Will Technique, no one could sneak in undetected.

Uchiha An strode straight toward his target: a man dressed like a merchant who had entered the village with a trading caravan. But the Chakra signature on his body had given him away completely.

Uchiha An came to a stop in front of the caravan, pointed at the man with one hand, and called out:

"Hey, you. Yes, you—I mean you."

"You're busted. Come with me!"

The spy's pupils suddenly contracted. Still refusing to give up, he forced a laugh and held out a bag of money, ingratiating himself as he said:

"We just arrived in the village and haven't started trading yet. Maybe once we're done..."

"No need to wait!" Uchiha An cut him off, waving a hand. "You're a Konoha shinobi. Do you think I can't tell?"

"Be smart and surrender quietly. Otherwise, I don't mind killing you right here and taking your head in as proof."

With his identity exposed on the spot, the shinobi's expression changed. He flicked his hand, and several pellets struck the ground. They went off with a bang, sending up a thick cloud of smoke.

But before he could use it to escape, a gust of wind rushed toward him, and a heavy kick slammed into his right knee.

Crack! His right leg snapped. The broken shinbone pierced his skin, gleaming a ghastly white.

Like a felled cedar, the shinobi pitched forward helplessly.

"Ah..." He had barely managed half a scream when a hand reached out, clamped his chin, and dislocated his jaw.

An flicked his fingertips, and a poison sac no bigger than a fingernail flew out along with one of the man's molars.

An casually yanked the poison fang from his mouth, too.

The man still refused to give up. He plunged both hands into his pouch, but before he could pull out his Shuriken and short blades, a pair of large hands seized his shoulders. A slight twist, and both arms were dislocated as well.

The movements flowed like water, as if he were dismantling a finely crafted puppet.

Uchiha An seemed to know the man's fighting style even better than he did himself. Everything went as if they'd rehearsed it countless times, each move executed to perfection.

After taking the spy down with ease, Uchiha An grabbed him by the back of his collar and tossed him to a Rain shinobi standing by the roadside.

"Hey, take him to the High Tower and hand him over to the people there for questioning. I've got another shift to get to."

"Yes, sir." The Rain shinobi hurriedly stood at attention, saluted, and took the spy.

"Hey, keep an eye on him. Don't let the guy kill himself. A dead man can still give us information, but a live one is worth more."

"Understood. Leave it to me!"

After handing the man over, Uchiha An sprang onto the rooftops and became a blur, racing off in another direction.

Unlike the original story, where Jiraiya had ventured in alone, this time Konoha had sent a sizable number of people, and they had infiltrated by several different routes.

Once inside, each of them had used their own methods.

Some had snuck into people's homes and replaced ordinary villagers. Some had transformed themselves into local shinobi. Others had stayed out of sight and sent their ninja beasts roaming around. And some had brazenly entered the village as shinobi escorting trading caravans.

Uchiha An had easily subdued the first few groups and sent them off with other shinobi for interrogation. The shinobi openly traveling with the caravans, however, were a bit of a problem.

By the current conventions of the Ninja World, even if two countries went to war, shinobi escorting trading caravans on missions were not to be attacked.

After all, every country needed shinobi to take on missions and earn money. If they all started killing one another indiscriminately, the economy would collapse.

The usual practice was for the caravan to hire shinobi from one country to escort it to the border, where shinobi from another country would take over for the rest of the journey.

But that practice usually applied only to the Five Great Shinobi Countries. Small countries like the Land of Rain weren't considered when arranging such handovers.

So if Konoha took a mission to escort a caravan to the Land of Earth, they would escort it all the way to the Land of Earth's border, where shinobi from that country would take over. They wouldn't turn back as soon as they reached the Land of Rain.

That unspoken rule was exactly why the shinobi escorting caravans dared to show themselves openly in the Land of Rain.

Usually, people like that were kept under close surveillance until they left the country.

Whether they could get the intelligence they wanted depended on who was more skilled.

If they managed to fool the Rain shinobi keeping watch and slip out unnoticed, then gather the intelligence they were after, they won.

But if they slipped up and got caught, they had to face the consequences and be secretly dealt with.

That was the usual arrangement. But when someone unreasonable like Uchiha An was involved, they were out of luck.

Uchiha An didn't care about unspoken rules, and he cared even less about whether the Land of Rain's economy collapsed.

What did the Land of Rain's economy have to do with Uchiha An?

A war was about to break out. Who knew what the Ninja World would look like afterward? Who cared about your economy!

"Hey, you there—the Konoha shinobi. Come with me!"

Faced with Uchiha An's blatant hostility, the Konoha shinobi looked completely bewildered.

"You—you can't do that. It's against the rules."

"The rules?" Uchiha An sneered. "From today on, we make the rules of the Ninja World!"

He didn't bother arguing. In a flash, he appeared beside the shinobi and kicked him.

If he took out the man's mobility first, everything else would be simple.

But to Uchiha An's surprise, the shinobi suddenly leaped backward, dodging the attack.

"Hey, you've got some moves!" Uchiha An's eyes lit up. For the first time, he looked genuinely interested. "I wasn't even using my full strength, but an ordinary shinobi couldn't have dodged that."

"With reflexes like those, you're at least an elite Jōnin."

"But I don't recognize that face. Don't tell me you're one of Danzo's dogs?"

"Haha... Whatever your background, now that you're here, you're not leaving!"

Uchiha An laughed, drew a short blade, and charged in to fight him hand-to-hand.

Treating Nagato had taken a lot out of him, but he could still use Susanoo. However, they were inside Amegakure, with too many houses around. He couldn't risk causing widespread damage, so he couldn't fight at full force.

So if he could solve the problem with taijutsu, he would avoid using Ninjutsu.

The shinobi across from him didn't use Ninjutsu either, for reasons of his own. Instead, he turned and ran toward the edge of the village.

Was he trying to lure me out?

The thought flashed through Uchiha An's mind, then he dismissed it.

It didn't matter!

He couldn't go all out in the village anyway. A big fight outside was exactly what he wanted.

He followed the shinobi, not hurrying to catch up, just trailing him at an easy pace.

The two of them left Amegakure, one ahead of the other, and reached an open patch of ground. At last, the shinobi stopped.

Uchiha An stopped too, landing not far in front of him. He looked around and sneered.

"Hey, call out all your reinforcements!"

"Let's see what kind of people you've brought!"

Sure enough, before he'd finished speaking, two figures sprang out of the nearby woods with a rustle, joining the first shinobi to surround Uchiha An from three sides.

Uchiha An looked around.

Oh-ho, familiar faces.