The Yugakure forces were led by a familiar face. It was Takeshita Tokuhei leading a group of 24 Yugakure ninjas. Some of his subordinates were the same ones who had cooperated with Renjiro's squad on an elimination 4 years ago.
Tokuhei looked at Fujin. Though Fujin and his teammates had made an impact back then, Tokuhei hadn't thought much of it. After all, several geniuses appeared every year. However, the ones that made it to the top were very few. Most would either die or not have the dedication to keep training to become a fearsome ninja.
Of course, that was until he saw Fujin's bounty poster with an insane bounty and the speculation of him being the Spectral Swordsman! It was a name even he wouldn't want to face on the battlefield. When Iwagakure updated Fujin's information in the Bingo book, Tokuhei was left stunned. He never anticipated that the Spectral Swordsman would be so young and someone with whom he had cooperated earlier.
While the ninjas from the major villages weren't too intimidated by the Spectral Swordsman, the situation was completely opposite for the minor villages neighboring the Land of Fire where Fujin was highly active. The sheer amount of people he killed during his time in Anbu made them very fearful of him despite him not being very active in recent times.
Tokuhei thought, 'From a newly promoted Chunin to an Elite Jounin in merely 4 years… Thankfully we aren't on opposite sides.'
He said politely, "Suzuki Fujin, it's good to see you again."
Fujin looked at Tokuhei. Unknown to Tokuhei, Fujin had worked several times with him while he was an Anbu. It is just that Tokuhei wasn't aware that it was Fujin. He nodded and said, "It is good to see you once again as well. Unfortunately, the occasion isn't a joyous one."
On hearing it, the expression on every Yugakure ninja's face became grim. They were informed of the information the Konoha ninjas sent to the Daimyo. Among their group were a few ninjas who were offended by Fujin's words in the meeting room and a few who had inspected this spot earlier and not discovered any hideout. Through his actions, Fujin had proven his words true, making them feel ashamed and guilty.
This loss was a significant one for the Land of Hot Water. Losing so many civilians in one blow would cause a lot of chaos and panic in the country. Their economy would suffer as well as trading would slow down and tourism would come to a halt temporarily. As a result, the country would be in for a hard time for a few months at the very least.
Fujin looked at the cave and said, "There are many seals in the cave. Fortunately, they don't trigger automatically. You guys can recover the corpses. That said, I'm not sure what the seals do. So, avoid damaging the cave and accidentally triggering any seals."
Tokuhei nodded. He had no intention of arguing with Fujin. He instructed his men to collect and store the dead bodies properly.
While the Yugakure ninjas were cleaning up, Yamanaka Ken asked Fujin, "The mission seems to be over, captain. Should we stay or return to Konoha?"
Fujin thought for a few seconds and answered, "Let's accompany them back to Yugakure. It'll be in our path anyways."
Fujin's teammates nodded. Fujin thought, 'Collecting all the bodies and returning will need some time. If Yugakure gets news of Hidan's movements, I'll have an excuse to find and hunt him.'
Though Fujin knew that the chances of getting what he wanted were very low, he didn't want to give up on it considering that there wasn't much danger in doing so. Apart from losing some time, he wouldn't lose anything else.
While the Yugakure ninjas were storing the bodies, a new development happened elsewhere. Close to the border between the Land of Hot Water and the Land of Frost, eight Kumo ninjas stood.
C complained, "Where are those guys? They were supposed to meet us several hours ago. If we delay any further, then our mission will be a failure."
Darui calmed him down and said, "Relax. They should have a good reason to be late. Besides, we can't guarantee that we would be able to take him down with just the 8 of us. We need a SealMaster to be able to pin him down and avoid his traps. Without him, our chances of succeeding will drop hard."
C said, "I know. But if we wait any longer, he might leave and return to Konoha. We had to wait for months for him to leave his village. Fortunately, he left it twice in a row! Who knows how long he will stay holed up in Konoha like a turtle once again?"
Darui sighed. He knew that time was running out as well. However, he didn't want to take any meaningless risks and waited patiently. Suddenly, C's eyes widened. He said in a serious tone, "Follow me quickly."
C flickered right away. The remaining 7 Kumo ninjas followed him immediately. After flickering a few times, C arrived in front of an injured Kumo ninja. The Kumo ninja was covered in blood and had several injuries on his body. Soon, others arrived as well.
C immediately began healing the injured ninja while Darui asked, "Who attacked you? And where are the rest?"
The injured ninja was in a state of shock. Though C healed him, his mental state didn't recover. The injured ninja looked at Darui and said, "They are dead! All died! He is a monster!"
Panic and fear could be heard in his voice. His entire body was shivering. The eight Kumo ninjas were surprised to see his state. Everyone could see his horror. In addition, the fact that 7 Kumo ninjas died to just one person surprised them. After all, none of them were weak. Every one of them was a Jounin or a Special Jounin.
Darui asked, "Who is a monster?"
The injured Kumo ninja said, "He was a rogue ninja from Yugakure. He is Imm…"
Suddenly, the injured Kumo ninja coughed and vomited blood. He clutched his chest as if he was trying to hold his heart. A second later, he lost his life and dropped dead!
The Kumo ninjas were all shocked! Darui asked hurriedly, "C, what happened? How did he die?"
C had a grim expression. He was healing the injured ninja when he suddenly collapsed. He answered, "I don't know. Though he was injured, his condition wasn't critical. Seeing him hold his heart, I guess he might have suffered a heart attack. We will need to take him back to the village to inspect him."
One of the other ninjas said, "We can take him back to the village later, but we need to first get them justice. Which bastard dared to kill Kumo ninjas? Since when did Yugakure have such a strong rogue ninja?"
Samui said, "I read some reports from the Land of Hot Water recently. Apparently, one of their ninjas killed 18 other ninjas and several civilians before going rogue. I believe his name was Hidan. It might be him."
Darui thought about Samui's information. He asked, "C, do you detect anyone nearby?"
C shook his head and replied, "My chakra field has been activated for some time. I didn't detect anyone else."
Darui said, "Then our only choice is to trail his steps and find out what exactly happened. Then we can hunt that rogue ninja."
Samui asked, "But what about our mission?"
Darui sighed and said, "We can't risk taking on Suzuki Fujin without a SealMaster. It'll make it very difficult to kill him as he is speculated to be a Grandmaster. If we fail once, then he will forever be on guard and Konoha might take some retaliatory measures."
Everyone agreed with Darui's reasoning. They stored the dead body properly and began tracing his steps back.
A couple of dozen kilometers away from Darui, a burst of loud laughter could be heard in the snow-covered forest. Several diagrams made from blood could be seen on the ground. In addition, there were a few corpses and a lot of blood from the dead ninjas.
Hidan thought, 'I have offered my first sacrifices to Lord Jashin. Even that ninja who managed to run away. I want to know what his expression was when he died even after managing to escape.'
The thought made Hidan laugh once again. He thought, 'Still, this isn't enough. I need to sacrifice more people to Lord Jashin!'
Hidan grabbed his weapons and continued his aimless journey. Around the same time, a messenger bird reached Tokuhei from Yugakure. His eyes widened on reading the message. Fujin noticed that and asked, "What is it?"
Tokuhei informed, "To find the missing people, we had our ninjas spread out all over the country. Some even cooperated with the patrol camps of neighbouring countries along our borders.
A couple of our ninjas were searching inside the Land of Frost while cooperating with the ninjas of Shimogakure. They found Hidan. He was engaged in a battle with Kumogakure ninjas and was winning. They left immediately and sent back a message."
