Upon hearing Hakushi's words, the face beneath the other's mask furrowed slightly, but said nothing and lowered the sealing hands.
She wanted to see what option Hakushi mentioned that was better than the 'Hidden Mist Jutsu'.
On this vast ocean, her Hidden Mist Jutsu was already the most efficient support technique for affecting the enemy's field of vision on a large scale.
Nevertheless, she did not underestimate Hakushi because of this.
As a Konoha Renegade Ninja, reaching a cooperation agreement with Yagura already meant their strength was recognized by him.
Although she could not understand why Yagura would cooperate with a renegade ninja, as long as it didn't harm Hidden Mist, Konoha's renegade ninja would be Konoha's own headache.
"How many?"
A dense swarm of black dots appeared on the distant horizon. Ruri took down the Flame Circle Fan from her back and asked Hakushi.
"A standard force of five hundred, with around twenty Jonin. Hidden Cloud really went to great lengths to gain Suikazan Fuguki's support."
Twenty Jonin might not be too many, but not too few either. If they were all wiped out here, it wouldn't damage Hidden Cloud too deeply, but it would certainly be a pain for a while.
Originally, for this coup, Hakushi only needed to stand by and watch. He wasn't interested in involving himself in Hidden Mist's internal political struggles, and Yagura wouldn't let him intervene either.
It's not about distrust, but a matter of principle.
He could ally with a renegade ninja, but he wouldn't cross Hidden Mist's bottom line. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a win-win cooperation but a complete betrayal of the village.
However, Suikazan Fuguki secretly reached an agreement with Hidden Cloud, agreeing to join forces with them after securing the position of Fourth Mizukage to attack Konoha together.
The five hundred ninja from Hidden Cloud entered the Land of Water not under the guise of attacking Hidden Mist, but as allies of the Fourth Mizukage Suikazan Fuguki, to suppress dissent for him from the outside.
Purely as a violent suppression.
On the surface, it was a similar approach to Hakushi's alliance with Yagura, but the two had completely different baseline standards.
Hakushi hadn't anticipated that even after Water Dragon God destroyed a Hidden Cloud squad infiltrating the Land of Water, Hidden Cloud Village would still involve itself in the chaos of the Hidden Mist coup under such an unclear situation, which was somewhat surprising to Hakushi.
If five hundred Hidden Cloud ninja were allowed to support Suikazan Fuguki, the pressure on Yagura would increase significantly.
After all, Yagura had to deal not only with the Blood Mist Faction but also the conservative faction led by the Third Mizukage.
Allowing Hidden Cloud to intervene might lead to Yagura's coup action ending in failure.
This was not an ideal outcome for Hakushi.
As long as Yagura secured the position of Fourth Mizukage, his animosity towards the Daimyo and noble class of the Land of Water would make him a solid ally of the Land of Demons, establishing a shared destiny community between the Land of Demons and Hidden Mist.
Most importantly, Hidden Mist remained the 'eyes' infiltrated into the Five Great Nations' system, distracting the larger ninja villages like Konoha.
Therefore, utilizing external forces to deal with the Hidden Cloud units aiding Suikazan Fuguki was the task Yagura assigned to Hakushi.
There weren't too many high-tiered ninjas he could spare after dealing with the Third Mizukage and the Blood Mist Faction on his end.
——In the distance, across the ocean, without any ships, the five hundred Hidden Cloud ninja squad quickly sprinted from the nearest island.
In non-combat situations, ninja can run continuously without rest for twenty-four hours. With the marching speed of Hidden Cloud ninja, they could reach Hidden Mist Village in another hour.
Piercing through the thin white mist, the sky was somewhat overcast but fairly clear. Using the information provided by Suikazan Fuguki, their advance was smooth, and they would be in Hidden Mist in another hour.
The humid wind brushed against their cheeks, suddenly changing the look of the calm sea and sky.
"!?"
The swiftly advancing Hidden Cloud force showed expressions of surprise and confusion on every face.
Looking up at the sky, which had been relatively bright, was immediately covered with dark, oppressive clouds.
Then came the black mist, silently spreading across the sea around them, enveloping the five-hundred-strong force in mere seconds at an exaggerated speed.
In the overcast sky, within the black mist on the sea, faint flickers of lightning danced.
The ninja responsible for perception lost their sense, and it was impossible to discern direction with the naked eye.
For those familiar with this scene, some Hidden Cloud ninja suddenly remembered encountering something similar years ago during a battle with a certain ninja.
"It's the Byakugan! It's Konoha Renegade Ninja Hyuga Ayane! She caused this!"
Previously, Hidden Cloud used strategy to target, forming a three-thousand-ninja squadron, together with the Two-tailed Jinchuriki, to launch an assault on Konoha Renegade Ninja Hyuga Ayane.
However, the result of that battle was Hyuga Ayane escaping unscathed. Somehow, she created massive lightning clouds that enveloped the Hidden Cloud three-thousand-ninja brigade, and by the time the clouds cleared, she had already vanished.
And now the lightning clouds before them were identical to those from that incident.
Hence, the Hidden Cloud ninja who experienced that strike battle all realized what was happening.
Hearing the name 'Hyuga Ayane', the leading Hidden Cloud Jonin knew they were in trouble.
She was a tremendously dangerous S-Class Renegade Ninja from Konoha, who, using pure taijutsu, overpowered even their mighty Fourth Raikage on the Hidden Rock battlefield.