Kill Them All, and No One Will Know We Infiltrated

A few days later, at noon.

A four-man squad raced along the border of the Land of Fang.

For Nawaki, a Chunin, forced marches were no easy task. On top of that, he had been slacking off for the past six months, and his Nintaijutsu training had fallen far behind. After just a few days of forced marching, he was utterly exhausted.

Fortunately, Sakuya had spoken with him a few nights earlier and had looked after him during the march these past few days. Nawaki was all the more grateful to him.

Perhaps because he had treated Nawaki so considerately, Tsunade's resentment toward Sakuya had eased a little.

Her attitude was still rather cold, though.

If this were a dating sim, her affection score would be around negative thirty-five.

By dusk, they stopped at the edge of a cliff.

Below it lay a dilapidated, desolate harbor.

At a glance, broken doors lay toppled across the ground, houses had collapsed into ruins, and the walls were covered in the marks of blades and fire. Many buildings had burned down, leaving only charred frames standing in the wind. The exposed walls were crisscrossed with cracks and scorch marks, a testament to the ferocity of the surprise attack.

"This is Konoha's harbor. We're here. Let's get ready."

Looking at the ruined harbor, Orochimaru spoke.

Their mission was to eliminate the rogue ninja and reclaim the harbor. But now, the place had nearly been burned to the ground. Even rebuilding it would take some time, so the rogue ninja had likely chosen not to station themselves here for that very reason.

Sakuya glanced west of the harbor and spotted a village in the distance. A faint wisp of smoke rose above it.

"The Third Hokage said the sugar refinery is near the harbor. It should be over there, right?"

He pointed west.

"About ten miles from here. Unless something unexpected happened, that's the place."

Orochimaru nodded. "The intelligence says that after attacking the harbor, those rogue ninja set up camp in the sugar refinery. By now, it's probably..."

He shook his head.

"Then this should be simple."

Three tomoe slowly spun in Sakuya's eyes. "We've been careful to cover our tracks the whole way here, so those rogue ninja probably have no idea we're coming."

He looked at Orochimaru and Tsunade. "That means all we have to do is attack under cover of darkness and wipe them out without breaking a sweat."

"A surprise attack, huh... Heh."

At that, Orochimaru's lips curled into a slight smile. "Not a bad idea, but I think we should split up."

"So no one who senses something is wrong can escape under cover of night?"

Tsunade understood what Orochimaru meant.

"Exactly."

Orochimaru nodded. "It's a sugar refinery in a village, after all. There are roads leading in every direction. We'll have to move fast, and we should capture a few prisoners to interrogate later and find out who they are."

"Leave that to me."

Sakuya agreed with Orochimaru's plan.

Uchiha with three tomoe were naturally skilled in genjutsu, and genjutsu was the best way to interrogate prisoners.

That was one of the reasons he had been assigned to this mission.

"Nawaki and I will take one group. Tsunade, you and Sakuya will take the other. We'll attack from the east and west and try to wipe them all out."

Orochimaru quickly divided the squad.

"Wait, shouldn't Nawaki and I be in the same group?"

Tsunade glanced at Sakuya.

"Tsunade, you need to remember that I'm the team leader on this mission."

Orochimaru reminded her of his position.

His choice of teams actually made perfect sense. Sakuya was a powerful Uchiha with three tomoe, but unfortunately, he had no way to heal himself. Having Tsunade, their medic, with him would make up for that weakness to some extent. And with her by his side, Sakuya could unleash his Fire Style without worrying about an enemy sneaking up behind him.

As for Orochimaru, he had chakra in all five nature types and knew a bit of every kind of ninjutsu. A civilian-born prodigy, he was practically Konoha's all-rounder of the era. He was better suited to taking Nawaki, his student, under his wing. During the battle, he could teach him according to his abilities and help him learn from the experience, all while keeping him safe. It was a fair and sensible arrangement.

Tsunade understood the reasoning too. She was unhappy about it, but still agreed.

"Let's move."

Orochimaru glanced at the night sky. "We'll wipe out every rogue ninja in the sugar refinery within two hours."

Orochimaru and Nawaki headed west, while Sakuya and Tsunade took the east.

They had agreed to strike at the same time, as night fell.

They would surround the rogue ninja who had appeared out of nowhere, like two slices of bread closing in on a piece of cheese.

Standing in the woods beside the east side of the sugar refinery, Tsunade tied her blond hair back. As she took a mask from her sleeve, she glanced at Sakuya and saw that he wasn't doing anything. Her brow furrowed.

"What are you standing around for?"

"What are you doing?"

Sakuya gave her a puzzled look.

"Getting ready for the surprise attack."

?

The question mark wasn't because he had a problem. It was because she did.

"Let me ask you something."

Sakuya sighed. "What's our mission this time?"

"To clear out the rogue ninja."

"Then why are you wearing a mask?"

Sakuya asked, "To hide your identity?"

"I..."

Tsunade froze.

"We're not sneaking in this time. We're here to openly clear out the rogue ninja. We're supposed to show everyone how furious Konoha is about the attack on the harbor. What's the point of hiding our identities?"

Sakuya rolled his eyes at her. "You idiot."

"No, we still need to wear masks!"

Trying to save face, Tsunade stubbornly insisted, "Aren't we launching a surprise attack? Of course we need to hide our identities and sneak in..."

"There are only a few dozen rogue ninja. If we make a big enough commotion, we can draw some of the fire away from Orochimaru and Nawaki."

Sakuya rolled his eyes at her again. He leapt forward and formed Hand Seals.

Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger!

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

With searing heat, a massive fireball burst from Sakuya's mouth and slammed into the wall of a building on the west side of the Sugar-Making Village. The surging flames instantly burned a huge hole through the wooden wall. Amid the flying sparks, more than a dozen Shuriken flashed with silver light, precisely slicing the throats of several rogue ninja inside who stared back in alarm.

Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Flower Nail Crimson!

"Enemy attack!"

"Someone, come quickly!"

"We're under attack!"

The rogue ninja's screams lasted only a moment before the searing flames swallowed them whole.

Along with the screams and the groaning of the burning buildings, rogue ninja began pouring out from inside the village, like monsters spawning in a game.

Watching them, Sakuya glanced back. Tsunade stared at him, her eyes wide, while her gaze was reflected in his crimson eyes.

"Besides, even if we go along with your idea, there's no need to wear masks. If we kill them all, no one will know we infiltrated the place, will they?"