Preparing to Close the Net

Satoshi Ri, sprinting at full speed, was startled. Instinctively, he grabbed a kunai from his ninja tool pouch and knocked aside the incoming trident kunai.

Clang!

Seeing the kunai he had deflected, Satoshi Ri's pupils contracted. A custom-made kunai he had never seen before?

This kind of custom kunai, used by the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, should never have existed in this era.

But Satoshi Ri was given no time to think. A black shadow suddenly appeared before him.

The next instant, a searing pain as though his internal organs had been displaced erupted from his abdomen.

His body then plummeted downward, snapping who knew how many branches along the way.

After crashing to the ground, Satoshi Ri coughed up another mouthful of blood. His eyes were filled with disbelief. "Th-this technique is..."

It was even faster than what he had seen three days ago during the ambush on the Uchiha.

There was no mistake. It was that person's technique!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several more of those unfamiliar custom trident kunai came flying down from above.

Yet they did not strike Satoshi Ri. Instead, they embedded themselves in the grass, tree trunks, and other spots around him.

Whoosh!

A black shadow appeared on a branch seven or eight meters above and in front of Satoshi Ri.

Seeing that familiar spiral mask, Satoshi Ri gritted his teeth and climbed to his feet. "Th-this is... Kite, what do you mean by this?!"

He had wondered how the intelligence could possibly have leaked to the Hagoromo Clan so quickly. But in light of the current situation, everything made sense.

Yet the one thing Satoshi Ri could not understand was what this man stood to gain from it.

Wasn't he from the Four Clans of the northwest?

Wasn't he their ally?

Could it be that he was actually working for the Hagoromo Clan?

But then why had he not helped when the Hagoromo Clan had lost so much fighting strength just now?

There were simply too many questions. Satoshi Ri felt like his head was about to explode.

"Hehehe."

Izuna merely let out two inexplicable chuckles. He did not gather Chakra in his throat, so the voice that came out was his own.

The next instant, he vanished from the tree trunk and appeared on the grass behind Satoshi Ri's right side, where another trident Flying Thunder God Kunai was embedded.

Whoosh!

He grabbed the kunai stuck in the ground and hurled it at Satoshi Ri.

Having seen this technique for the second time, Satoshi Ri, a Quasi-Kage level fighter, was not foolish enough to fall for it repeatedly.

He immediately leaped into the air, escaping the Flying Thunder God Kunai's attack path.

"Not a bad choice."

Izuna's first move had been evaded, but his expression showed not the slightest displeasure.

He suddenly vanished again.

Satoshi Ri's pupils shrank sharply in midair as his gaze locked onto the kunai embedded throughout the grass below.

Where would he appear from?

"Where are you looking?"

Yet a voice like the tolling bell of hell came from higher up, directly behind his head.

"How is that possible...?!"

Satoshi Ri twisted around in midair in shock.

Before he could finish speaking, he saw a palm-sized azure sphere in Izuna's right hand. Blade-like wind blades swirled around the Chakra sphere as it was already pressed against his chest.

Wind Release: Rasengan!

"Arghhhhh!!"

The agonizing, twisting pain in his heart made Satoshi Ri scream, and his body began spinning through the air.

Until Izuna drove him down, smashing him heavily into the ground for a second time.

Rumble~~~

More than ten seconds after the two landed, the dust gradually dispersed.

Izuna rose from Satoshi Ri's body. The man lying on the ground now had a large, twisted hole in the region of his heart.

"Is it so difficult to leave a Flying Thunder God Kunai atop a tree before coming down?"

Using his own voice, Izuna mocked Satoshi Ri's corpse. "As the first person to die to Flying Thunder God Second Stage, you should feel honored."

At the inn station that had long since been reduced to ruins, Masashige Hagoromo stared at the twenty-one corpses of the Sarutobi and Shimura clans lying on the ground, his face deathly still.

The dozen or so remaining Hagoromo jonin said nothing in the face of such a clan head.

It was no wonder Masashige Hagoromo was like this.

He had never imagined that the Hagoromo Clan's losses in this operation would be so severe.

Not only had he lost his trusted aide, Naoyasu Hagoromo, but of the fifty clan jonin he had brought with him, only a third remained!

Even if they took down the Uchiha, it would still be a bitter victory. For the next several years, the Hagoromo Clan would be unable to wage war again.

Just then, Izuna, clad in a black robe, descended from the sky and tossed out Satoshi Ri's corpse.

No, it could not be called a corpse. It was merely a head.

The round wound caused by the Rasengan was simply too conspicuous, and Izuna had no desire to leave behind any trouble.

So he had simply severed the head, incinerated the body with Fire Release, and brought back only the head.

"Satoshi Ri..."

Seeing Satoshi Ri's head thrown onto the ground, the Hagoromo Clan members were naturally startled at first, before turning their attention to Izuna.

"Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Kite."

Masashige Hagoromo forcibly suppressed his anger and did not question why the other party had not acted from the very beginning.

Otherwise, perhaps far fewer of his own men would have died.

"Twenty jonin lost—forget the Sarutobi and Shimura clans, even the likes of the Uchiha and Senju Clan would find that hard to bear."

Izuna switched back to his hoarse voice. "Heh. In that case, Furukawa and Keizo's positions are hanging by a thread as well."

As he spoke, Izuna turned to Masashige Hagoromo. "Our cooperation is over. I doubt we will meet again."

"That would be a real pity. Once Mr. Kite takes control of those two clans, I hope the Hagoromo Clan can form an alliance with the Nobles."

The Hagoromo Clan had now suffered a great loss in strength. Rather than offend the other party, Masashige Hagoromo wanted to win him over.

"I am not from those two clans. Do not misunderstand!"

Izuna's voice suddenly rose in sharp denial, but to Masashige Hagoromo and the others, it only sounded like a guilty conscience.

After saying that, Izuna vanished in a flash with the Flying Thunder God. Masashige Hagoromo, meanwhile, took it as proof that he had exposed the man's identity and that he had fled out of guilt.

"Clan Head, what do we do now..."

A Hagoromo jonin asked.

"Take care of our clansmen's bodies. I'll return to the camp first. If those bastards from the Four Clans discover us, trouble may break out."

"Yes!"

"Although we have temporarily removed this hidden danger, it is not time to rest yet. The Uchiha are currently suffering from a food shortage as well. Once we return, we will gather all our forces and attack Stone City, then wipe out those Four Clans."

At this point, Masashige Hagoromo's tone took on a hint of lofty ambition. "Then, if we join forces with the Sarutobi and Shimura clans under Kite's control, the Hagoromo Clan will become the third greatest clan of the Warring States, rivaling the Hyuga Clan."

"Yes!!"

The remaining dozen or so Hagoromo jonin were fired up by Masashige Hagoromo's words, believing that this sacrifice had been worthwhile.

Little did they know that the true hunter was already preparing to draw in the net.