"Captain, he's almost caught up!"
Near the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers, a group of ninja in Konoha Anbu uniforms raced toward Konoha.
They looked utterly battered, almost all of them bearing wounds of varying depths.
Had they not all been wearing masks, their slightly frightened expressions might have been visible.
They were in trouble now, because they were being hunted by a puppet-wielding fellow who looked like a monster and seemed impervious to blades!
It was hard to imagine a group of Anbu being hunted by a single person.
Especially since their group did not consist solely of Anbu; there were Root members among them as well.
Captain Kusunoki's expression darkened at those words.
He was the captain of the Third Battalion, and half a month ago, he had received a mission.
He had been ordered to lead a team to the border between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Wind to meet the returning Root members and cover their retreat.
Anbu and Root were two distinctly separate departments, and Root's existence was one of Konoha's most closely guarded secrets.
But as an Anbu member, he naturally knew something about Root, and for certain special reasons, he knew much more than most.
Thus, without any hesitation, he had immediately set out with the Third, Fifth, and Seventh Squads under his command, which had no missions at the time.
After waiting for several days, however, they had finally met the Root members, and they had also had to face Sunagakure's pursuit unit.
After a fierce battle, at the cost of more than six Anbu and five of the mere eight remaining Root members, they had finally escaped with their lives.
Yet that escape was only what they believed had happened.
Because they