Border patrols were usually carried out in teams of two or three, moving along fixed routes and checking traps at regular intervals.
This was enemy territory.
If Yuji wanted to kill an Amegakure shinobi, it had to be done in a single, decisive strike. He couldn't allow even the slightest chance for the target to signal for help.
"Also…"
Yuji hung upside down from a tree branch, chakra anchoring the soles of his feet to the bark.
Before his eyes, a nearly invisible white thread stretched around the trunk, thin as a strand of hair.
A trap.
If someone brushed against it carelessly, it would almost certainly trigger an alarm.
It was the same principle Sunagakure used in the desert. Familiarity with terrain made traps almost impossible for outsiders to detect.
Fortunately, Yuji wasn't completely blind to Amegakure's style. He understood their jungle warfare tactics well enough to anticipate the patterns.
His figure flickered and disappeared into the shadows.
Camouflage. Concealment. Erasing one's tracks.
These were fundamental skills drilled into every shinobi at the Academy.
Manpower alone couldn't cover an entire border. With the Second Great Ninja War draining both sides, neither Amegakure nor Sunagakure had the luxury of endless patrols.
So they relied on traps.
Lots of them.
And Amegakure's shinobi would know each one by heart.
As he moved deeper into the forest, Yuji found more.
Exploding tags carefully hidden against tree bark. Concealed spring mechanisms rigged to launch volleys of kunai. Tripwires positioned at ankle height in the undergrowth.
The layout was almost exactly what he had expected.
Even so, he moved cautiously.
One mistake would cost him everything.
Suddenly, his ears twitched.
'Footsteps.'
Yuji dropped silently into a dense cluster of bushes beneath a tree.
Moments later, an Amegakure shinobi appeared overhead, moving along the branches.
The man didn't notice Yuji. He was conducting a routine inspection of the trap system.
This kind of maintenance was something Yuji himself had done countless times on patrol.
After confirming everything was intact, the shinobi leapt away.
Yuji didn't move.
He wasn't certain whether others were nearby.
Patience was part of hunting.
After some time, Yuji had mapped out this section of forest in his mind.
This would be his hunting ground. Before striking, he needed to understand the terrain.
He shifted to another trap point and concealed himself once more in the shadows.
Sure enough, the same Amegakure shinobi returned.
Yuji leaned against the back of a tree, observing from the corner of his eye. He confirmed again that the man was alone.
Slowly, he tightened his grip on the scalpel.
Swoosh
The humid climate of Amegakure often rendered explosive tags damp and unreliable. They had to be replaced frequently.
The shinobi had just finished pressing a fresh tag into place when, a cold wave of killing intent swept toward him.
Years of battlefield instinct kicked in.
He immediately raised his weapon and pivoted, trying to evade while tracking the attacker's position.
But he misjudged.
The enemy was faster than expected.
Instead of closing in directly, the attacker vaulted over him in a clean arc, using the momentum of his upward movement to land behind him.
"A kid?" the Amegakure shinobi muttered in shock when he finally saw the attacker's face.
He felt no pain.
For a split second, he assumed the strike had missed.
"Sunagakure…"
His eyes fell to the forehead protector hanging around Yuji's neck. His expression hardened.
He began to reach for the signal device.
Then, his body froze, and pupils dilated.
The pain came a heartbeat too late. It bloomed in his neck.
Only then did the Amegakure shinobi realize his throat had been cleanly opened.
Even the smallest difference in distance had decided everything. From the moment Yuji leapt, he had already calculated the man's rising motion, the angle of his turn, the exact span of his reach.
The body slipped from the tree with a dull thud.
Yuji was already moving.
He caught the corpse before it hit the ground fully, dragged it into the bushes, and wiped away the traces, scuffed bark, displaced soil, the faint spray of blood.
Half an hour later, another Amegakure shinobi arrived.
He had come looking for his missing companion.
"Strange… where did he go?"
He followed the faint tracks through the forest until they vanished near the trap point. Frowning, he leapt onto a nearby tree trunk and scanned the surroundings.
There were no signs of battle.
If his comrade had encountered an enemy, there should have been noise.
He had heard nothing.
Just as confusion flickered across his face, a chill crept over the back of his neck. Above him, an upside-down face dropped silently from the canopy.
A few leaves drifted down with it.
To his senses, the presence had appeared out of nowhere.
Yuji's arm moved once.
The scalpel plunged cleanly into the base of the man's skull. The thin blade slipped in effortlessly.
The body went slack before a sound could escape.
Yuji flipped down, catching him before he collapsed, then concealed the second corpse as he had the first.
Two gone.
Yuji narrowed his eyes.
"The disappearance of two patrol members will draw attention," he thought. "The next ones won't be careless."
Under heightened vigilance, kills would be harder to secure. And the mission had a time limit. If a large-scale alarm spread through the enemy base, the situation would escalate quickly.
"I'll take what I can," Yuji murmured, disappearing into the trees once more.
He would need to vary his approach.
Elsewhere in the forest
Two Amegakure shinobi stood frozen in shock. Above them, two corpses hung from a thick branch.
Blood dripped steadily onto the earth below.
And seated calmly on the branch above the bodies was a boy.
He looked down at them with an indifferent gaze, as if already certain of their deaths.
"A Sunagakure puppeteer, quick, notify.."
One of them barely began to speak. The other had already reached for his signaling device.
Then..
Creak.
A strange sound cut through the air.
Two puppets streaked toward them, guided by nearly invisible chakra threads.
Wooden limbs twisted mid-flight.
With a subtle flick of Sasori's fingers, the puppets transformed. Spiked wooden racks unfolded on either side.
Clap.
Like two crushing walls, they slammed together.
The two Amegakure shinobi were caught between them, impaled in an instant.
Sasori's expression did not change.
With another twitch of his fingers, the puppets withdrew and reassembled.
Unlike Yuji, he made no effort to conceal the scene.
He left the bodies hanging. And turned away without looking back.