After Naruto received the challenge, two clouds of gold dust flew out of Kusagakure.
One carried Naruto's real body and Uchiha Hikari, while the other carried Naruto's Wood Clone and Hashirama, taking a route through the Land of Rivers.
The Land of Rivers, a small country wedged between the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Rain, had complex terrain and a rather unusual political landscape.
It had no independent shinobi village or armed forces of its own, and usually relied on hiring ninja from the neighboring great nations for national security and mission commissions.
These were primarily ninja from Sunagakure, Amegakure, and Konoha.
This made the factions within the Land of Rivers a tangled web, with information circulating frequently, but it also meant its defenses were relatively loose, lacking a unified will to resist.
What many people did not know was that Amegakure was no longer a united front. Instead, it had split into two sharply distinct factions:
One was the "Smoke Faction," made up of followers who had served under Hanzo of the Salamander.
They specialized in smoke, poison gas, and toxic mist tactics combined with Water Release and Wind Release.
Because they worked with poison year-round, they all wore respirators and had strong resistance to conventional toxins. They could even fight freely in toxic mist.
The Smoke Faction's ninjutsu system was better suited to positional defense, poisoning, and wars of attrition under a "demigod"-like leader such as Hanzo of the Salamander.
The other was the "Rain Faction," which swore allegiance to Pain, Amegakure's current de facto ruler.
Most of their ninjutsu involved rainwater.
Their signature attire included umbrellas or conical hats.
Rainy conditions significantly enhanced their combat strength, because torrential rain could not only conceal their movements and the signs of their ninjutsu