Water steam

Six days had passed since the onset of the attack, and things were turning out worse than anyone in Kirigakure had expected. At this rate, in a matter of a few days, perhaps less than a week, the Five Great Villages would go from existing to just four.

It seemed as if the attackers were intimately familiar with their territory, knowing where and what their strengths were; they couldn't even successfully ambush half the time. And it was their specialty, in their own home!

Sunagakure and Kumogakure were challenging adversaries. The new Mist Swordsmen couldn't even effectively hold the line for more than a day before deserting, severely wounded, to escape or die. The swords they wielded were all claimed and sealed by the enemy, leaving only Samehada with the renegade ninja Kisame.

But the worst part was that everything was systematically closing in around them, leaving no room for escape to leave behind "seeds" for later revenge.

Did that sound like a cultivation novel? It seemed like it to me...

While a substantial number of ninja from both villages were slowly occupying and securing territories, making it clear they had come to stay, several major problems emerged.

For starters, Seimeigakure seemed to have joined the alliance and the attack by sending their people, but unlike the large number from Suna and Kumo, they only had four individuals on the battlefield.

Four individuals who wreaked more havoc than the combined forces of the two armies. And it seemed like they were taking their time!

The first to be identified was a survivor of the Kaguya clan, eliminating every person with a Kirigakure headband in his path, regardless of whether they were a genin or a jonin. Mei had no doubt he was on a revenge streak for his fallen clan (as crazy as they were), and it seemed his Kekkei Genkai had mutated to give him a different type of bones, with golden hues that resonated in metallic clashes each time he faced a weapon well-made enough not to break under his strength.

Indeed, he was responsible for getting at least two of the Mist Swords by snatching them from their current wielders and ensuring they couldn't reclaim them in the future. After that, none of the sensors sent to monitor his movements returned to report.

It was undoubtedly strange and aroused everyone's confusion because the Kaguya clan was not precisely known for their detection abilities. It was almost as if someone were whispering in his ear all the information, but that was impossible.

Then came Pakura of Scorch Release, who acted with surprising decisiveness against everyone involved in the plan to kill her when Rasa sent her to die years ago. It was surprising because she made sure to collect interest, which had not been her practice in the past.

As for how on earth she knew who was involved, that was something they couldn't afford to investigate in this situation, as they were more focused on preventing the advance towards Kirigakure.

Although that didn't stop many people from pointing fingers at each other, and rumors spread, generating even more internal problems. Some even appeared dead the next morning, causing cracks in the already delicate trust, suspecting moles and hidden assassins in the village.

In any case, Pakura focused entirely on cleaning up the responsible ones, who coincidentally had their complexes outside the village for greater privacy and discretion when they claimed or bought the nearby territories as their own.

The Hozuki clan evaporated, along with the Komori, Mizumori, Kiriya, and Koku clans.

(Don't go crazy trying to look them up; I made up all of them except the Hozuki clan.)

The few who survived were elderly civilians who knew nothing about it and didn't realize what had happened until much later. They had no strength for revenge, had no contact with the knowledge to pass down their legacies, and their deaths were simply a matter of time. Biologically, they couldn't increase the clan's numbers even if they wanted to.

The fact that Pakura looted every place, going so far as to tear up the floor tiles and take wooden fences, left them even more disoriented, not knowing how to react to their sudden poverty.

They also managed to discover the culprit behind the poisonings: the renegade ninja from Konoha, former disciple of the renegade Sannin Orochimaru, who joined Seimeigakure at an unknown time after the kidnapping of her former master, Anko Mitarashi.

What she was doing wasn't very different from scorched earth tactics, and they still didn't understand how she had the courage to use these poisons. Worse yet, it seemed that the Sunagakure ninjas were supplied with some poison from Anko herself, causing even more significant casualties due to the strange effects with various activation windows.

If they really wanted to stay and claim the territories, what was the point of poisoning freshwater sources and other vital resource points?

But as frustrating as it was, Anko was as determined as Pakura, and although she rarely faced the Kirigakure ninjas she encountered, preferring to flee to avoid wasting time, she left behind a trail of poison that meant even if they fought to recover the lost ground, it would be worth nothing until many years later when the poison diluted. In other words, even if they wanted to fight, they would get nothing to fill their hands and replenish losses, resulting in morale getting worse and worse.

Losing ground discouraged them, but regaining it didn't improve anything!

There was even a risk of being poisoned when successfully reclaiming it; it happened several times.

Some were so agitated and nervous that they even reported seeing several Kumogakure ninjas with Byakugan during the attacks, a complete pair of them.

It was ridiculous!

Alright, that would explain how they could maneuver so precisely and why their ambushes failed especially against those from Kumo. But everyone knew that the only Byakugan outside of Konoha belonged to the jonin Ao.

And it was only one eye! That's how difficult it was to get the Byakugan.

The Hyuga clan had even gone so far as to enslave their branch family to ensure that their dojutsu couldn't be stolen so easily.

Now you're telling me there are dozens of Kumogakure ninjas with Byakugan?

A too superficial genjutsu, that's what it is...

That's what the Mizukage, the Council, and everyone else repeated to themselves. Because if that were really the case, where did all the Byakugan they had come from?

More importantly, how were they going to face Kumogakure if their troops couldn't perform silent assassination due to the Byakugan restriction?

That wasn't even the worst part.

To Mei's complete frustration, the man who won Ameyuri's heart and took her away had appeared during the scarce occasions when they were about to turn the tables, managing an effective counterattack.

Enel seemed to be able to predict where and when it was necessary, and somehow, he almost seemed to know the Flying Thunder God Technique by appearing in different parts of the map despite their distances and reappearing elsewhere afterward.

And as Kirigakure felt the noose tightening around its neck, some murky ideas began to emerge...