If the cicada thought it was safe, it had never met the mantis.
And if the mantis believed it was alone—
It had never noticed the hawk in the shadows.
"Our mission isn't protection."
Hoshishita Shu's voice was calm as he spoke while moving through the forest behind Tsunade's squad, his team keeping tight formation.
"It's contingency."
"If the Sky Ninja makes a move, we strike."
He raised a finger.
"Second—if they don't make a move…"
He lowered that finger slowly.
"We intercept them on the return route."
Inuzuka Ryo's breath caught. Aburame Hiiichi's gaze sharpened.
"So either way…" Aburame said quietly, understanding immediately, "the Sky Ninja who came this time must die."
Shu's tone didn't change.
"Exactly."
"Remember it."
"This is Root's rule. Root's style."
"We eliminate anyone who threatens the village."
"Those the ANBU can't kill…"
"Root kills."
A chill ran up Sarutobi Atsushi's spine.
Not fear—something worse.
A kind of awe.
So this is what it means to be Root.
Up ahead, moving with the ease of veterans, Jiraiya suddenly glanced back.
He leaned slightly toward Orochimaru on his right.
"You saw them too, didn't you?"
Orochimaru's expression didn't shift. "ANBU, most likely. Insurance."
Tsunade turned her head, brows knitting.
"You think the Sky Ninja would dare attack us?"
Jiraiya's voice dropped.
"They stole sealing-technique documents."
"They obtained border defense routes."
"There's nothing they won't do."
He exhaled.
"Either way—stay sharp."
Tsunade and Orochimaru both nodded.
And the two squads continued—one ahead, one behind—until midday, when they crossed the Fire Country border into the Land of Hot Water.
At two in the afternoon, they reached a broad stretch of open grassland.
The Sky Ninja were already waiting.
Five of them.
One bound tightly with rope.
Tsunade took one look and clicked her tongue, disgusted.
"As expected—half-hearted."
Orochimaru's reply was smooth and flat.
"Predictable."
Jiraiya stepped forward, rolling his shoulders.
"You two don't you dare choke now."
Orochimaru smiled faintly. "With Tsunade here, you won't die."
Jiraiya immediately shot him a rude gesture behind his back.
Across from them, a Sky Ninja shoved the bound figure forward, voice sharp.
"This is the one you wanted."
But his eyes—
His eyes were smiling.
Not friendly.
Not amused.
Something uglier.
He gave the prisoner a hard push.
One step.
Two.
Three.
The prisoner reached striking distance—
And the rope snapped.
The "prisoner" surged forward like a spring-loaded weapon, lunging straight for Jiraiya.
"Jiraiya—!"
Tsunade's warning came a fraction too late.
Orochimaru's hands were already moving.
Jiraiya's feet kicked off the ground, body jerking backward, hands forming signs—
But they were too close.
Too tight.
And smoke suddenly curled from the attacker's body.
Tsunade's eyes widened.
"Explosive tags—!"
"Clone—!"
The word barely left Jiraiya's mouth—
BOOOOM!
Firelight erupted. Smoke swallowed the entire space where Jiraiya had stood.
"Jiraiya!"
Tsunade's anger detonated.
She lunged forward.
"Bastards—die!"
The ground cracked beneath her heel.
Her kick carved a crater.
But the Sky Ninja leader sprang backward, avoiding the strike cleanly, sneering.
"The one who dies is you!"
He flicked his gaze over them, voice turning cruelly playful.
"No—wrong."
"We'll leave one alive."
"As a hostage."
Before the last syllable landed, three more Sky Ninja rushed forward, hand seals already completed.
Wind roared.
Flames spat.
Shuriken screamed through the air.
Tsunade snapped her hands down—
A stone wall surged up from the earth, absorbing the assault as sparks and heat burst across its surface.
Behind her, the smoke began to thin.
A figure stumbled out, hair scorched, clothes torn, face blackened with soot—
But alive.
"Tsunade… I'm fine…"
Jiraiya grinned through the grime.
"Good thing I just finished developing a new technique…"
"Otherwise, I'd really have died there."
In the instant of impact, he'd unleashed Needle Jizō—hardening his hair into a dense protective barrier that absorbed most of the blast.
Orochimaru didn't relax.
"Don't celebrate yet."
His eyes slid to both sides.
More Sky Ninja were already moving in.
Two squads from the left.
Two from the right.
Twenty enemies closing their net.
And the rear—
Orochimaru's gaze narrowed slightly.
"The forest behind us likely hides more."
The only good news was that they'd left an "ANBU" squad covering their back route.
But in that very forest—
Behind four hidden Sky Ninja—
A true predator watched silently.
Hoshishita Shu heard the explosion from the grassland and lifted two fingers.
A single hand sign.
Move.
Sarutobi Atsushi launched first.
Kunoichi-piercing precision—three explosive-tagged kunai flashed out.
The Sky Ninja barely reacted before the detonations ripped the undergrowth apart.
In the chaos, four figures burst from concealment.
"Inuzuka—go!"
Ryo and his summon, Blackball, shot forward like a living drill.
"Fang Over Fang!"
They slammed into one Sky Ninja with crushing rotation.
At the same time, Aburame Hiiichi's insects spilled out like ink and swallowed another target whole.
And Shu—
Shu was already gone.
In the same moment he leapt, his body split into three.
Two shadow clones.
One original.
The Sky Ninja squad leader raised his blade—
He blocked a single strike—
And then his body fell apart.
Not cut.
Not slashed.
Severed.
Three clean sections dropping from the air.
Before Ryo finished his kill, Shu's clones had already crossed to the next target.
A single blade line flashed.
A throat opened.
Blood sprayed.
The second Sky Ninja collapsed.
The third tried to retreat—
But he didn't even get a full step.
Shu's blade carved through him at the shoulder and rib, forcing him down.
Aburame's insects tightened.
In under five seconds—
All four Sky Ninja were dead.
The clones dispersed.
Shu didn't slow.
He burst from the forest with Atsushi, Ryo, and Hiiichi right behind him.
The grassland had become chaos.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru were already fully engaged—too close, too tangled for wide-area ninjutsu.
Shu's eyes swept once—
Then locked.
Tsunade.
He moved.
Hands lifted.
Shuriken spun into his grip.
He exhaled sharply—
Wind chakra clung to the blades.
Two shuriken launched in succession, each spinning like a massive windmill.
They shrieked through the air straight toward a Sky Ninja harassing Tsunade.
The Sky Ninja abandoned Tsunade immediately and sprang into motion, blade flashing.
He threaded his sword through the open center of the first shuriken—
Then snapped his blade up to meet the second.
CLANG!
Metal screamed.
Both shuriken ricocheted away.
He landed—
And found two Hoshishita Shus on him from both sides.
A knife in one hand, a sword in the other—he managed to block both clone strikes, grinding steel against steel—
But he never looked up.
The real Shu dropped from above.
Wind chakra sharpened the edge into a whisper-thin guillotine.
One clean cut—
The enemy's skull opened.
His head split down the middle and collapsed in two halves.
Two of Shu's clones exploded into smoke at the same time—hit by a sudden volley of shuriken from another Sky Ninja.
Shu seized the corpse he'd just killed and yanked it up as a shield.
A kunai buried itself in dead flesh instead of his throat.
He ripped his blade free—
The ground under his feet burst as chakra flared.
He crossed the distance like lightning.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Blades collided at high speed, sparks flying in a storm.
Shu's foot snapped out—
A brutal kick launched the enemy backward—
And his sword followed like a thrown spear.
THUNK.
The blade punched through the Sky Ninja's chest.
Before the man even hit the ground, Shu was already there—hand gripping the hilt, driving him like a pinned insect.
He slammed that impaled body into another Sky Ninja, crashing them together.
Then Shu released the sword—
And vanished.
A step.
A blur.
He appeared behind them.
His right hand bloomed with spiraling chakra.
A compact sphere, violently rotating—
Rasengan.
"…"
No announcement.
No mercy.
He drove it into the target's back.
BOOOOM!
The Sky Ninja was blasted into the earth, a crater blooming outward.
His clothing shredded into scraps.
A spiraling wound pattern marked his flesh—
But the real destruction was inside.
Spine pulverized.
Organs ruptured.
The body lay still.
Dead beyond doubt.
And as dust rose from the crater, Shu lifted his gaze back to the battlefield—
Already searching for the next throat to cut.
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