"Samo, we've been in the Land of Fire for days now, yet we haven't encountered any decent resistance, much less any Konoha ninja."
"Jin Mao, stop complaining. Konoha is the strongest ninja village. If we really run into Konoha's ninja, it's hard to say who'll win."
"How could that be? Kumogakure's ninja are the strongest among the five great villages. I can't wait to face Konoha's ninja."
Inside a ninja camp within the Land of Fire, two Kumogakure ninja were chatting about trivial matters.
After waiting for quite a while without receiving a reply from his companion, the ninja named Jin Mao cautiously called out, "Samo?"
But there was still no response.
So he turned to look at the companion behind him, only to find him sitting blankly in place, frozen in a single position without moving at all.
"Samo, what exactly is wrong with you?"
Jin Mao stepped forward, trying to snap his companion out of his daze, but then he saw a thin red line appear across his companion's neck.
That red line continued to lengthen and spread until a massive, irreparable wound opened across his companion's neck.
"Splurt!"
Blood sprayed from the wound in his companion's neck, splashing directly across Jin Mao's face.
Samo's head slid down along the clean cut and landed by his own feet.
Only then did he realize that his companion had been decapitated and killed.
"Enemy attack! There's an ene—"
Before Jin Mao could finish speaking, he discovered that he could no longer make a sound.
When Jin Mao tentatively reached for his own neck, all he saw was the bright red blood on his hand.
Then Jin Mao's field of vision rapidly dropped until his own heels came into view.
Only then did he see the emptiness where his neck should