Border of the Land of Lightning.
The group of ninjas moved forward silently. The eyes of the squad leader, Dato, were cold as he stared straight ahead, towards the Land of Fire. He was accompanied by two ninjas, one jonin, and an elite chunin.
The chunin was responsible for reconnaissance and detection, being a sensor. The main fighting force is the Dato and the second jonin.
This time, their mission was to go to the Land of Fire and destroy one of Konoha's strongholds, in the city closest to the border. And if possible, steal some of the Leaf's secret data. For Kumogakure, this was a great opportunity to annoy Konoha once again. And for Dato, it was a chance to avenge his brother Date.
Dato was absolutely furious when he learned that his younger brother was killed by Naoki of Konoha when they were there with the delegation. Even though his younger brother underestimated his enemy and was too arrogant, this Naoki actually dared to kill him. As an older brother, he must take revenge.
But now that there is a superficial peace between the villages, he has no chance to avenge his brother. This mission was his chance to somehow spite Konoha.
"Let's speed up!", thinking about this, Dato ordered his two subordinates.
"Dato-sama, we have reached the border of the Land of Lightning. The situation here is complicated, and there is thick fog ahead. Please allow me to check the route first," the sensor shinobi said.
"Hmph! This is our country's border. Who would dare attack us here?! Even the newly formed organization "Empire" would never dare to invade here," Dato snorted.
However, being an elite jonin, he was no fool, and allowed his men to explore the area. After all, this damn "Empire" had been acting too brazen lately, constantly recruiting missing-nin into their ranks. Their strength was growing rapidly, and they had become a hidden danger to the ninja world.
The chunin sensor gathered chakra and closed his eyes to scan the surroundings. Suddenly, he frowned, opened his eyes, and said cautiously, "I sensed a powerful source of chakra less than a kilometer ahead of us, and it's heading this way!"
"Powerful chakra? Who could it be?" Dato's face tensed.
The Jonin next to him said, "Should we come and take a look?"
After all, this is the border of the Land of Lightning, and a powerful ninja has appeared out of nowhere. As the shinobi of Kumogakure, they are also responsible for border security, and they have a duty to check this.
"Okay!" All three looked at each other and quickly moved in the direction the sensor pointed.
After a few moments, the three finally saw the source of this powerful chakra. The man was wearing a shinobi vest, a Konoha forehead protector on his head, and a sword was strapped to his back. His face was hard to see clearly in the thick fog.
But of course, it was Naoki who came here to carry out a mission!
The mission given to him by the Third contained only one proposal: kill these three Hidden Cloud Village shinobi!
There is no doubt that Konoha's spies in Kumo knew about the team being sent to the Land of Fire to destroy one of their strongholds. As for Kumo, they did not know that Hiruzen had sent Naoki to stop them.
Konoha Intelligence vs. Kumo Intelligence… 1:0!
There was only one small thing left to do, namely the battle that would determine the final victory in this short confrontation between the Hidden Leaf Village and the Hidden Cloud Village.
The Third had originally wanted to send more men with Naoki, but since there really weren't any more experienced jonin in the village, adding a couple of chunin to his group would be nothing more than a hindrance. What was important here was a surprise attack and a quick victory. Therefore, it made the most sense for Naoki to go on the mission alone.
"Shinobi of Konoha!"
At this time, shock was frozen on the faces of Dato and the other two Kumo ninja. They were planning to secretly destroy Konoha's stronghold, but were stopped at the border of the Land of Lightning. It was already quite obvious what this meant.
"It looks like our mission has been discovered!" the jonin next to Dato sighed.
"Then let's kill this guy first!" Dato snorted coldly, immediately drawing his katana and striking Naoki in the blink of an eye!